{ title: 'Patent trader. (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) 1956-current, December 02, 1972, Page 6, Image 6', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83008557/1972-12-02/ed-1/seq-6/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83008557/1972-12-02/ed-1/seq-6.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83008557/1972-12-02/ed-1/seq-6/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn83008557/1972-12-02/ed-1/seq-6/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
Image provided by: Chappaqua Library
6 - PATENT TRADER Saturday, Dec. 2, 1972 Comment and opinion Green space gone to grid Victor Salvatore Plans for a nine-house subdivision on a 37-acre tract at the Hook Road and Can- titoe Street in Bedford Village were sub mitted this week to Bedford Planning Board. Specifications conform to local zoning — house lots will be from two to four acres — and approval is virtually a formality. Outside of the fact that the de velopment is near the famous Bedford Oak, there is nothing remarkable about the whole procedure. In fact, it is the ordinariness of the transaction that impels us to comment. Here, again, a large tract is to be broken up into smaller ones. Here, again, a part of the open green space residents think of as their heritage will disappear. It is the large estates in upper West chester towns like Bedford that gives these communities their semi-rural char acter. They are not public land, to be sure, but they provide vistas over rolling country that everyone can enjoy For how long? Great estates belong to an earlier time; a time when the help to keep them manicured was plentiful and cheap, and the tax burden on acreage was relatively light. When the owners die or move away, few heirs can afford to keep the home stead intact And some of those who keep the old houses decide, or are compelled, to sell off most of the land. Gradually, most of the large green spaces will be transformed, like the Whitman property near Bedford Oak, into suburban homesites, ample, attrac tive settings, to be sure, but far from the concept of open country 5$. There is a way to save some of the \\'openess. It is thT6ugli _ cTustering, or con servation zoning, or any of a number of terms that mean building more houses on some land to leave other land unencum bered. For some reason, though,, many suburban property owners still regard large lot zoning as sacrosanct, and the governments that reflect their wishes leave developers no choice but to slice up land into a grid. We suspect that most of these zoning fetishists have not thought what their towns will be like when all the big estates are carved -up -and- theFe are-no-vistas- over rolling country left Those who put their trust in the endurance of this kind of rural atmosphere are leaning on a frail reed Mind-set against methadone Mt. Kisco's methadone clinic will be ready to receive clients in January, its sponsors hope. But they see the need for considerable public relations effort to overcome a \dope fiend mind-set\ in the community. It is ironic that prejudice of this kind should impede the progress of drug ad dicts toward rehabilitation. In actuality, heroin users who have seized the chance to switch to methadone maintenance ought to be among the last to carry a \dope fiend\ label. These are the people who have recognized the harm done them by dependence on a substance so expen sive that its slaves are almost compelled to steal. They are the ones who have rejected the drifter's life in favor of a pro gram and a purpose. The days of our bombs This week's bombing in Vietnam has been about as usual, with one trifling ex ception : a few of our 500-pounders fell on South Vietnamese civilians classified as friends, killing 19 and wounding another 29. The score in bombing days since the election is now 25. An addict on methadone maintenance needs only a daily dose, taken orally, to be capable of holding a job and living a normal life. Unfortunately, many poten tial employers fail to differentiate be tween one kind of addiction and another, the fact that an applicant is \on drugs\ is enough for them. It is all part of an old and tiresome story. The prejudice against methadone- users differs little from the kind that makes former prison inmates seek jobs in vain. In both cases the effect is circular- the offender who wants to go straight is denied the opportunity and reverts to stealing, the addict who took to drugs out of hopelessness, who musters his resources for a new try, is told, in ef fect, that he was right originally — there really is no hope for him. Life in this time of whirling change presents many risks for all citizens There is the risk of being assaulted or burglarized by persons living outside the system There is also some element of risk in trusting one of these outsiders to come inside If society is unwilling to accept the risk of trust, it had better be prepared for more danger from those who are prevented by the refusal from becoming good citizens An id ea gaining credence One reliable hint that the \time\ of an idea has come is its adoption by partisans of widely divergent philosophy. The fact that de-criminahzation of marijuana use was supported this week by Consumers' Union and William Buckley of National Review points strongly to general agreement in the near future. Mr Buckley, of course, is an ultra- conservative, though more thoughtful and less doctrinaire than most. Con sumers' Union is not politically oriented but, like most organizations devoted to the interest of the little man against the big corporation, it must be accounted more liberal than otherwise. Both agreed that it was time to repeal what Mr Buckley called \Draconian\' laws pun ishing those caught with marijuana It is interesting that it was the con sumer organization that maintained its conviction that marijuana may be quite harmful, while Mr Buckley appeared convinced by various research reports that the drug is not as bad as it has been painted Despite its qualms, Consumers' Union felt that the present laws' price to the nation, in the criminalization and stig matizing of young people, was tod high for the potential benefit, Mr Buckley said repeal of the harsh laws would be a triumph to common sense We think both are right. Perhaps their concurrence will bring a little closer the repeal of measures whose principal ef fect is to bring the whole fabric of law into disrepute Changing the rules Perhaps we are being simplistic, but it seems to us that the assigned task of Congress is to make laws, and that of the President to execute them. (This is why he is called Chief Executive.) The President, to be sure, has a fair chance to block laws he does not admire. If he says no, it takes two thirds of both houses of Congress to insist. Once a law is passed, the President has said no and the Congress has in sisted, the law become part of the legal system the President is supposed to execute. And it seems to us that he is just as bound to honor laws he doesn't like as >s the ordinary citizen This is how a democratic system operates This week President Nixon ordered his environmental commissioner to commit only 40 per cent of the funds Congress allotted to water clean-up for this year, and only 50 per cent for next year. Instead of spending the $11 billion Congress authorized, the administration will spend $5 billion. The President, having said no and having been overridden, is now saying no again. The way we see it, he is breaking the law. \We've already used photos of the kids, the dogs and the house. I guess that leaves you and me for this year's card.\ Would-be believer C did not go to church this Thanksgiving, did not say a prayer He was thankful, but not believing in God, did not know whom to thank The air' The sky 9 The trees' Whom' C felt frustrated gratitude requires a recipient. Like many modem men on feast days, C. wanted to believe that the world was bigger than himself, that there was some superhuman wisdom ordering the apparent chaos, who gave C. his limitations and accepted C.'s apologies. But C did not know what attributes to assign to Him If he chose the Christian version, he would get involved in sticky problems like the Resurrection of the body and redemption from sin and the divinity of Christ. Eastern religions — from what he knew, which wasn't much — tampered with his individuality by bringing his soul around for a second go as a fieldmouse or Brahma bull, or by sucking it into an unindividuated supersoul C. did not want to give up any of his belief in his own freedom of self-de termination, though he did not want to give up the possibility of God either But even if he could settle on one God, C knew that his God existed only because he had chosen Him. He might have chosen some other God — all the possible Gods were equally unreal C coddled a lingering hope that the TRUE God would reveal himself in a sudden burst of illumi nation, that on his way to work one day the Al mighty would strike him blind and speechless with His radiance, as he did Paul on King's Highway to Damascus. But C knew instant con versions were rare, and those who experienced them, psychologically unbalanced. A sane man, C knew that he would have to come to his belief by a less spectacular route. But how' Any religion he chose was just one of many. Could he really become so closed minded that he could claim all other religions were untrue (something which the true believer must claim) And if he really believed in one God, wouldn't that make life more difficult, less pleasant? Could a true Christian, for instance, justify sleeping with a girl whom he hardly knew and didn't give a damn about, as C. was plan ning to do that night' Perhaps, all things consid ered, it was less troublesome having no belief than believing fervently C , like most educated people today, is a would-be believer in an age of non-belief He has no strong feeling about any religion. indeed he rather likes to go to church now and then, to bathe in the pretty music and elevate his soul (or whatever you call it) and make himself feel good. The church, on the whole, must be ad mitted a nicer context for weddings and funerals than civil courts and funeral homes. When he dies, C would like a few prayers to be mumbled over his casket — spiritual insurance God knows' C. does not disbelieve strongly enough to be buried an athiest. C's frustration — a problem for ail half hearted would-be believers — is that religion does not work very well as an occasional lozenge to ease metaphysical pain Face to face with the chasm of your own death or that of someone you love, you can not suddenly begin to believe and be satisfied, because you realize that God is not real but only a matter of convenience The soul, like the body, requires constant exercise to keep in a condition strong enough to endure the crucial tests when they come. You must make sacrifices to have strong faith you must pray, you must push away disbelief and doubts which the mind craves. You must acknowledge what ever God you choose, not just in troublous times, but every day. You must subject your own desires to those of your God Even then, there is no guarantee that you will believe, but the chances are greater The human mind is such an unsensible mechanism, the more times it hears something repeated ( e.g , Jesus Christ is risen), the greater its tendency to believe Last week, standing beside the coffin of a 23- year-old man, I wished I could believe that there was even the slightest reason to rejoice I wanted to think his death was something more than a crying shame For a little assistance I lifted my eyes to heaven, but all I saw was a grey sky threatening to rain on the coffin's pall of gold and orange flowers New Castle Town Board castigated for refusing to hear opinion on lihrary It has always been my view (apparently, after New Castle's Town Board meeting of November 28, a mistaken impression) that town board meetings were held not solely for the purpose of discussion among the councilmen and Supervisor Dr Donald W Miles, on behalf of the Friends of the Library, had obtained permission from the town board to present over 2,200 signatures on a petition asking the Town Board to reconsider its earlier decision This decision had been to deny the Library Board's request to purchase town owned land for a new library site More than 100 people were counted in the audience, and the large majority of them had come hoping to hear some discussion of this issue They were, however, peremptorily dismissed by being told by Supervisor Oettinger that this was not a public hearing, that the agenda was a long one and that the town board still had two \back room\ (his words) meetings to attend after their regular meeting Organizations were directed to file any statements with the Town Clerk When questioned by a private citizen if he might be heard, the answer was that the time for that was at a public meeting yet to be scheduled. When can a citizen not be heard at a public town meeting' When can an organization not be heard regardless of the length of the agenda' The regular meeting, incidentally, con cluded at 10:05 Strongly implied was that the Letters public hearing would be the time when the town board would announce the reasons for its decision I had always thought that the purpose of public hearings is to hear all points of view in order to arrive at a proper decision Some of the people who came to that town board meeting were hoping to be spokesmen for the 2,200 people who signed the petition Does this action suggest that the town board d) Does not care to hear or have heard a point of view differing from a position already taken', and (2) 2200 people who have asked for reversal of that decision can be ignored' The entire disposition of the issue is highhanded at best, and hardly democratic Rebecca S amber g, Chappaqua Library 'post mortem' won't do To the Editor- The New Castle Town Board has acted again to show its fear of having an open give-and-take with town residents This week the Friends of the Library presented to the board more than 2,000 citizen signatures in favor of the station plaza site for a new library An overflow crowd of residents had gath ered to. demonstrate their strong support. Many were eager to speak, to underscore the facts with their deep feel ings Supervisor Oettinger pleaded \a long agenda\ and ruled out any supporting personal or or ganizational statements. (The meeting, in fact, was less than two hours long.) Did he suggest a later occasion for a hearing' He did not. Instead he spoke of an eventual \information meet ing.\ Does he expect to ex change information before reaching a decision? Of course I 1 not He and his fellow board members do not intend to listen. Oettinger explained that the purpose of an information meeting would be to tell us ordi nary folks what the board has decided and why — after the fact. Maybe he hopes to come up with some convenient legalistic way of sidestepping the basic issue Then he can ignore the intensity of expressions about this seriously delayed project. One recalls the motto: \Don't confuse me with the facts. My mind is made up.\ On this library decision, which can have a long-term ef fect on the quality of life for my family and my fellow residents, I plead for something better than an explanation of the board's vote in a post mortem \information\ meeting. Olcutt Sanders, Chappaqua From riots to rip-offs The security chiefs of 58 leading eastern colleges put their heads together recently and came up with this inter esting consensus thievery and vandalism have replaced student militancy and confrontations as primary securi ty problems on today's campuses. 1 suppose that's some sort of progress. Certainly it is better than the mayhem of a few years back. But I hardly feel like applauding because guys on campus have stopped burning down buildings and turned, instead, to ripping off However, more and more, the evidence from the campus is of pragmatism, even nihilism, taking over The fiery exhortations of yesterday have been replaced by a sort of sullen. I-don't-give-a-damn quietude Most thinking people agree that age mellows The ac tive young mind doesn't learn overnight how to digest knowledge Kxpenence still has something to do with wisdom A wise Englishman once said that if his son wasn't a radical in college he would be disappointed, but if the son was still a radical in his thirties, he would disown him Perhaps radicals are not what you want on campus But if the young man has no zeal, no fire, what, then, is there left for age and experience to temper'* When college campuses were erupting in a series of seemingly endless, and sometimes tragic confrontations between wild-eyed student leaders and' conTused ad ministrations, many of us were quick to blame the facul ty for this deplorable state of affairs Leadership was lacking, we said I suppose we can now say that the faculties are again to blame, this time for not firing up the idealism of young people But this gets to be a little ridiculous With all my quibbles with college level teachers — and I have many, after watching them at close hand for seven years — the fact remains that the same types of faculties have been in residence on college campuses since I got my B A 25 years ago I can't buy the premise, therefore, that they have changed the prevalent student view twice in less than a decade It would seem, rather, that today's student pragmatism is more a product of the national climate We continue, as a nation, to believe — as clearly wit nessed by the results of the recent Presidential election — that our highest goal is to keep increasing the gross na tional product The more bucks, the better This has resulted in a burgeoning \middle class.\ Inotherwords, those who can be classified as \well off\ keep growing The fact that the number who are not well off. who have serious economic problems, also keeps growing does not bother us, as a nation, one whit. We have just committ ed ourselves to at least four more years of benign neglect of the poor. What is frightening is that this attitude seems to be catching on at the college level Youth is saying, perhaps a bit more crudely than their elders \I'll get mine, and the hell with those who are too stupid to get theirs \ The increase in thievery and vandalism on the college cam puses is just an indication of this crass materialism I am hopeful that sooner or later there will be a change of climate again on our college campuses Some bright spark will rekindle the youthful idealism that is so necessary to the moral health of this nation One has to believe this if he has any faith left at all in the long range survival of our democracy. But meanwhile, we are losing a generation's worth of leadership And our serious problems of poverty, racial injustice, pollution, and strangling cities, are not going away They are growing worse Can they remain un solved while we wait for a new. more inspired group of young people to come along and tackle them' Poet's Corner Perspective By ALDER ELLIS JR. From the curving beach. Whose sunned sand gleamed. My eyes could reach To where water seemed To be one with sky What was I— Seeking certainty In the unknowable plan- Drift from the sea, Dust from the land' PATENT TRADER Published Thur»day» and ^atunlavn .Serving upper Wetuhetter anil Putnam ( imnlirs. which included in ( oloniat timet the Eait Patent. Middle Patent ami Wvtt Patent I.ant! i,rants Mil NDKD HY ( AHI.I. Tl < KKIt JR . I't HI MIF K l «>'.2l %H ( nmbined with (.1 )1 NTRY (.KN'TI.KMA N an agricultural journal HH'NDFD IN by IITHKH Tl'I.Kr H Publi.hrr Atmtlant I'ubliaher Kdilor A «»ii>tant Editor Kditorial I'agr Kditor Town l.ifr Kditor Week Ahrad Kditor I'utnam Kditor Sport* Kditor Advertiting Manager Itrtail Advertising Manager, (.lauifird Mrmbrr Audit ilurrau of (.imitation Hcpretentrii Nationally by Mulligan & MacDonald. 420Lexington Ave.. New York. YY. PL Ho* 240. Mount (.hairman I'retidenl r rank V . Taylor David ( . Smionaon \ irlor s alvntore J r Kay Klzler \ irgtma r ranklin Barbara < oat» Molly Itli.. t.ordon Trayen Ronald J Mela neon !• ric (/oilier . H (.lairr Newman 0f •• MrJ .il'lu 'ffl'r 1 Vice I'mldenl anHeerrUry\!::\ L\ k K -Taylor Vice IVe.iden. in charge otUduv {^~:ZZZ7J !\Z«7uTk V ice I'reildenl •••••••• .•.jonn/.titan Vice I're.ident .'.'.• 1 v, d Mmoniiiii Comptroller V .,'f ,of *• Jr. • Richard L Warren it
