| The Maltese/ Hevesi Affair Farewell to Democracy in Western Queens Joseph Tiraco |
| Voters of Western Queens were this week denied a choice for State Senator; that selection had been made for them behind closed doors. It was a bi-partisan tradeoff, one Democratic seat for one Republican seat. Nobody was hurt, at least, not politically. Adjacent senatorial districts comprising Western Queens are now represented by two men who elected themselves. |
| Like rival Renaissance mercenaries owing allegiance only to their next paycheck, and making gentleman's agreements not to fight too hard less someone get injured, the Republican and Democratic parties would have us believe that out of a population of half a million people, no one wanted the job of State Senator except these two men, who actually did the voter's a favor by allowing their names to appear on the ballot. |
| Queens County is being sliced and diced by billionaire real estate developers who look to wall street for financing; if there is one thing that turns investors off it is political uncertainty. And the natives here are restless as new retail policies ease the way for megastores to build in residential areas - Queens has 300,000 private homes (the last preserve of this endangered species) whose owners do not take kindly to tampering with their communities or property values. |
| New York City has the lowest rate of home ownership in the United States and the second lowest in the world. We are a city of renters rather than homeowners, factors that placed the Republican seat in jeopardy. The incumbent senator from Western Queens led the charge to repeal Rent Stabilization, and bears a responsibility for the influx of megastores into Queens; two substantial issues that an opponent could have used to unseat him. |
| The Republican seat is controlled by big business, big real estate interests, big landlords, and supports the Van Wyck Kennedy Access plan. To this crowd, the voters represent an unnecessary risk. On the other side of the isle, an important Democrat eyed another Western Queens state senatorial seat - recently vacated and not term limited - as a prize; though not for himself. |
| Lorenzo de Medici, in 1492 the richest man in the world, health failing and life ebbing, sent his second son, Giovanni, age 16, out into the world with pearls of wisdom committed to paper; an extraordinary man whose life was steeped in wealth, power, public service, and rare personal achievement. The letter is now considered the most interesting ever written. |
| Lorenzo, recklessly generous and exercising political muscle to secure a red hat for Giovanni, persuaded the college of cardinals to openly accept his son. On the occasion of Giovanni's departure for Rome as a sitting prince of the church, Lorenzo handed the callow youth written instructions. |
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. . . . The first thing that I would therefore suggest to you is, that you ought to be grateful to God, and continually to recollect that it is not through your merits, your prudence, or your solicitude, that this event has taken place, but through His favor . . . . Endeavor, therefore, to alleviate the burden of your early dignity by the regularity of your life, and by your perseverance in those studies which are suitable to your profession. . . . Silk and jewels are not suitable for persons in your station. . . . Let your food be plain, and take sufficient exercise. . . . Confide in others too little rather than too much. There is one rule which I would recommend to your attention in preference to all others: Rise early in the morning. This will not only contribute to your health, but will enable you to arrange and expedite the business of the day. . . . |
| I well know that as you are now to reside at Rome, that sink of all iniquity, the difficulty of conducting yourself by these admonitions will be increased. . . . you will probably meet with those who will particularly endeavor to corrupt and incite you to vice; because, as you may yourself perceive, your early attainment to so great a dignity is not observed without envy, and those who could not prevent your receiving that honor will secretly endeavor to diminish it, by inducing you to forfeit the good estimation of the public; thereby precipitating you into that gulf into which they have themselves fallen; in which attempt the consideration of your youth will give them a confidence of success. To these difficulties you ought to oppose yourself with great firmness as there is at present less virtue amongst your brethren of the collage. . . . all the Christian world would prosper if the cardinals were what they ought to be; because in such a case there would always be a good pope, upon which the tranquility of Christendom so materially depends. Endeavor then to render yourself such that if all the rest resembled you we might expect this universal blessing.... |
| Farewell. |
| A month latter, Lorenzo died. Giovanni followed his father’s instructions, at least, while the ideals of youth burned bright, and at age 37, he became Pope Leo X earning the appellative, “The Happy Pope.” Never has a son so throughly misunderstood his father. |
| A patriarch holding the stirrups to aid his son’s ascent is not unusual, however, democratic societies tend to limit the exercise of primal instincts in public policy, or we would now be ruled by President Washington the XVI, or some other relative of that venerable American. Washington himself set the standard by refusing a crown, denying his posterity political privilege. |
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But the deed is done; the people of Western Queens, their vote sacrificed to political artifice, can now only wish the young man well as he begins a new voyage. |
| Farewell. |