Published: April 17, 2008 04:09 pm            

CHRISTY: The day the music died

Don McLean’s 1971 hit song “American Pie” was one man’s portrayal of change — change from the lightheartedness of the 1950s to the dark and serious issues faced in the 1960s. It’s a song that grabbed America’s attention when it was first published and continues to do so today.

I’m left wondering whether the “music” has died on our state government. Albany has fallen into such a state of rot its hard to contemplate how it could have gotten this way, and equally hard to imagine how it can ever recover.

Trust me, I love our country and our state so much it is incredibly painful to even consider the word “rot” and “government” in the same sentence. I’ve selected the word rot with extreme caution and only after careful consideration.

Whenever I travel I’m proud to tell people I’m a New Yorker. There’s something profound and different about our specific characteristics. We’re brash, harsh and opinionated, but we’re also caring and intelligent. The older I get the more I’m proud to declare to everyone I meet that I’m from New York.

We’ve been inundated with the news that Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, failed the truth-test and has become a modern day icon of hypocrisy. His failings took some of the attention away from the State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, a republican, who is under FBI investigation for funneling state taxpayer money to friends. And Gov. David Patterson, a Democrat, is apparently taking the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain and admitting to violating most the rules they contained.

But worst of all might be the allegations of corruption inside the New York State Police, a once-proud institution that should be expected to be devoid of politics.

Politicians are held in such low esteem by the public that hypocrisy, money mismanagement or drug/sex scandals seem to shock no one anymore. But when a populace loses trust in its police or judicial system, it is in serious jeopardy of losing complete faith in the institution of government altogether.

On March 31, the New York Post ran a story that began “The scandal-scarred State Police is suspected of harboring a renegade unit that for years has secretly compiled personal information on top New York officials.” One lawmaker confided that he was pulled over by the State Police for an alleged traffic violation and “before he even got the rest of the way home, it was leaked to the press and his name showed up on a blog.” Another source has told the paper that “There are so many tips it’s going to take quite a while to sort them all out.”

And all the while 4,000 excellent men and women of the State Police will work under a cloud, tainted by something completely unrelated to law enforcement.

The problem seems to stem from political favors done by Gov. George Pataki, who took an obscure $50,000 per year state police investigator — who by the way was a neighbor of his — and promoted him up through the ranks to create a political power player and operative for dirty tricks. The political operative in question, Daniel Wiese, retired from the State Police in 2003 at a salary of $120,000 and was appointed to the New York Power Authority at a salary/pension cost to taxpayers of $225,000 per year.

There isn’t enough space here to recount the entire scenario, but Google this story or go to the New York Post Web site and search the issue for yourself. What we do need to think about here is whether this sort of dirty tricks tactics were ever utilized locally.

Most recently, international boxing sensation Baby Joe Mesi was publicized in a bar fight late at night. This despite no evidence of ever being in this situation before in his entire life. Could it be that he had just announced he wanted to run for the State Senate? Last year, Bob LaBarbera was pulled over for a traffic violation despite never having any history of such behavior. Coincidentally, he was also running for office and considered a serious threat to the establishment.

Many of us are hooked on history and the HBO series about John Adams, which is running right now, is riveting. Our model of government is the greatest gift the world has ever been given. The freedoms it provides individuals is unrivaled. But I can’t help but hear “American Pie” and consider we have somehow transcended the innocence and entered the darker period of our time.

Tom Christy is the founder of FAIR Government, a non-political and non-editorial educational foundation dealing with local government issues. HYPERLINK "http://www.fair-government.org" www.fair-government.org. He encourages communication and can be reach via email at aim1986@mac.com

        

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