This Is our Village

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

THE STRAW MAN AND THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE


Poor Esther. She is having such a hard time getting Dave Israel to respond to her wild and irresponsible charges, she has created a fictitious Dave Israel on Olga’s blog and goes back and forth with this straw man, posing questions and answering them herself as if she were Dave. The straw man looks pretty bumbling, of course.

It’s almost theater until you realize it is the well-being of CV being discussed and the character of a man devoted to his country and now the Village. Then it’s not so funny.

I have just finished reading “Great Bridge” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough. It’s the story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, longest suspension bridge of its time in the mid-1800s, a bridge built so solidly it still stands and may stand for many more years to come, it is said. The chief engineer was Washington Roebling, a sterling man, meticulous, and the premier suspension bridge builder of his time. For 16 years he oversaw every detail of the work, even during years of debilitating illness.

For many of these years, however, the financing of the bridge––outside of Roebling’s purview–– was anything but sterling. This was during the era of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, and there were many who profited illegally from the bridge project. From time to time it served their interests to blame Roebling for things that were not at all his fault. They created a fictitious Roebling, a straw man, on more than one occasion, and tried to bring him down. Fortunately, they were unsuccessful.

A solid Brooklyn Bridge is what Dave Israel has been building here, I believe––a bridge that will benefit Brooklyn and Manhattan (Century Village) and bring her into the future which is already upon us. He is like Roebling, the Chief Engineer––and as with Roebling, unfortunately there are those who would discredit him, creating a straw man of their imagination to suit their own purposes. Don't let them bring him down. Reelect Dave as UCO president in March.

4 comments:

  1. You make excellent points Lanny. It is astounding the level of nonsense some VERY FEW people on the other blog are posting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Lanny,
    First thanks for the kind words.

    In his “Rhetoric,” Aristotle acknowledges that it would be better if we could make our case without either browbeating or flattering the audience; nothing should matter except “the bare facts.” Yet he laments, “other things affect the result considerably, owing to the defects of our hearers.”
    ....................
    Clearly, Aristotle fully grasped the concept of "The big lie".

    Only our unit owners will decide if this full court disinformation attack will work.

    Hope to see you all at the polls in March.


    Dave Israel

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dave Israel is incapable of bumbling. Look at his answer for Clarence 'NO,NO,NO', the problem origin, update and solution, complete clarity and common sense in 8 lines. (its in the middle of 16 other comments). Malcontents would probably turn it into a three year lawsuit! :-)

    ReplyDelete

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