The job of our government is to protect us, not do something for us. Any power given to government to do good can also be used for mischief and evil.

Before government involved itself in our energy production, we had no black-or brownouts. Before its involvement in education, grade school children learned to read. Model cities created inner cities. The war on poverty caused financial and spiritual poverty.

Now, the whole nation is being impoverished by NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO, government programs that are transporting American jobs, technology and manufacturing overseas, mostly to hostile nations. Foreigners are being brought here under special visas to take our jobs.

All such socialist programs were, and are, outlawed in our Constitution by our founders to protect us from such abuse, but media propaganda and deceit lead us astray, while our representatives continually violate their oath of office by voting for these programs.

Will we get socialized medicine and prescription drug programs? Will government controlled global "free" trade be enhanced? Will the UN be given more control over American liberties?

This conspiratorial drive for a socialist world government must be stopped, the New World Order exposed, and our Constitution restored.

Save our republic.

Lawrence Burke

Roslyn, New York

Plimpton A Sad Loss

This has been a sad year in that we have lost many of the great ones, like Katherine Hepburn, Bob Hope, John Ritter, Johnny Cash and now a literary star; George Plimpton. Here was a man who had a zest for life and had no trepidation about anything he would try to do, he was an author, editor, plus an amateur athlete.

He was educated at Exeter, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge but it was said of him that he was not pretentious, and "he had every right to be," said writer Gay Talese, "He was the closest thing we had to a man of heritage, with old Yankee roots, but in this most egalitarian of cities, his friends included Jose Torres, governors, mayors, English royalty, publishers and junkies, failed poets…he was known as a man of letters also as a man you could approach, I was told."

Writers worldwide appreciated Plimpton for the Paris Review, the quarterly he helped found 50 years ago in 1953 and ran for decades. The magazine’s high reputation rested on two traditions: publishing the works of emerging authors, including Roth and Kerouac, and an unparalleled series of interviews in which Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and others discussed their craft as reported on CNN.

He was a native New Yorker, a diplomat’s son-and spoke [with] an upper class accent. But the people knew him better as an amiable underdog.

His best known work was, Paper Lion, a memoir of his tryout with the Detroit Lions in 1963, where he spoke of a time where he briefly played quarterback.

He seemed to know everyone: athletes, actors, musicians, statesmen. He had deep connections to the political world, dating back to childhood, when Adlai Stevenson, two-time presidential nominee, was a family friend and Jacqueline Kennedy was a debutante he would see at dances and Robert Kennedy was a classmate at Harvard. He boxed Archie Moore, pitched to Willy Mays and performed for the Clyde Beatty Cole Circus.

He truly had an illustrious career and had a picturesque way of describing his adventures. Much of his career served as a send up of Hemingway’s famous credo "Grace under fire." His is a voice that will be dearly missed, as an amateur writer, actor and poet. I feel a great loss has occurred in our literary community.

Sincerely yours,

Frederick R. Bedell Jr.

Little Neck

Open Letter To TA

A copy of the following letter was received by the Gazette.

Mr. Lawrence Reuter

President

Executive Office – 13th Floor

NYC Transit Authority

370 Jay Street

Brooklyn, NY 11201

Dear Mr. Reuter,

The Transit Authority is giving Astoria a bad name.

Over the past few years, Astoria has become an increasingly popular place to live due to our proximity to Manhattan, where most of our residents work.

New clubs, restaurants and cafes have opened, making the area a vibrant, dynamic part of the city. Co-ops and condominiums continue to be built in the hope of attracting people who would otherwise live in Manhattan but cannot afford to do so.

The Transit Authority however, is making it very difficult for people to justify living in our area. What should be a 20-minute commute turns into over an hour during off hours and on weekends. The recently proposed cuts in bus service will also worsen the situation.

There are many people who live in our area who do not own a car. There are also many people who work past 7 p.m. (who works until 5 p.m. these days?) and who work on weekends. The Transit Authority is making it very difficult for these people to get to and from work or play within a decent time frame.

We need more trains during the evenings, and better service on the weekends. We are going into a busy season now, and work on the tracks and in the tunnels should have already ceased. For example, during the weekend of September 13, it was very difficult for people to get to and from Astoria because there was no direct link available from Manhattan. Many of our residents had to take up to three trains to get home.

Mr. Reuter, you are giving our community a bad name and we are very concerned.

Sincerely,

Debbie Riga

Founder

Astoria Renaissance Committee