From the Times Ledger:An open letter to the City Council:
I had written to my city councilman, Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone), about my family’s experience at the AMC Bay Terrace movie theater that was doing a trial run of the law which is to go into effect next March.
I thought it only fair to address each of you with respect to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s revision of the city health law to prohibit the sale of larger-than-l6-ounce sweetened sodas. Although my granduncle, Mario J. Cariello, was the Queens borough president from 1963-69, I have never thought it necessary to write to a public official until now.
I need to know from each of you how you could sit by while a tyrannical mayor promulgated a law that restricts the most basic of the personal freedoms of your constituents: their personal diet. I can no longer go on like my apathetic, sleepwalking fellow citizens who I see reading about the soda ban in the local papers and plodding on like everything is okay.
Everything is not okay. Our founding fathers fought for the freedoms your chamber watched get taken away from the citizens of New York City at the suggestion of a mayor and the rubber stamp of eight members of the city Department of Health. All of this was done without any semblance of a democratic process. In so doing, they restricted my ability, as a 5-foot-7, 165-pound person, to purchase a large Coke Classic to share with my family.
It goes on and on.
Now my point in posting this excerpt is not that this chap is wrong, but that this apparently lifelong resident of Queens "never thought it necessary to write to a public official until now." So he didn't give much of a care about term limits being extended, had no opinion on any of the many development projects being proposed in his own backyard, didn't mind being left buried in snow for 2 weeks, etc., but only found the gumption to rip the City Council a new one when his ability to purchase an oversized beverage at a movie theater was limited.
This, my friends, is the problem with the people who live in Queens.
16 comments:
Amen, Crappy, Amen.
can't you just buy two sodas, like the rest of the fatties do ?
How come you haven't written any public letters concerning overdevelopment (a real menace) instead of writing on the subject of abrogating your great American freedom to overeat or over drink?
Bloomberg is a TYRANT for sure, and has NO BUSINESS regulating our diets! He's mayor not the surgeon general!
Tell him to stop the over development of NYC until our crumbling infrastructure can be improved.
By the way...the doofus you wrote to...Dan Halloran... supports over development.
Your letter is already in his waste basket.
Smart of you to mention it on Queens crap though.
"Crappy" gets results, while Halloran is probably too busy diddling one of his interns.
The letter was well-written and speaks for the "silent" majority of NYers. Instead of bashing the author, Crappy should continue to bash those elected officials to continue to turn a blind eye to the tyranny of this mayor...
Yeah, this letter cracked me up, too, but was also saddening that this issue is the 1st to get his hackles up. My God, what about the really important freedoms our soldiers and citizens have fought and died for---like your 2nd Amendment rights, which Bloomie has hog-tied & hopes yet to eliminate altogether?! This is your Constitution, not just a dietary choice! Wake up,mister!
Is it any surprise that the author is related to a former Queens borough president?
"Well written" letters can't be banked as cash.
Money and votes are the only real things that count!
I've written COUNTLESS well composed letters that didn't accomplish diddly squat.
Nobody's bashing nobody...just commenting on the false hopes raised by writing letters not backed by action!
Was Mario J. Cariello one of those shady beeps that have permeated Queens politics, or one of the few relatively honest ones?
Being related to a very former borough president gets you the same bus ride we all get from our politicians...that is if you've got the fare.
Bashing the writer of the letter makes no sense. Especially after a blog about "damned if you do, damned if you don't". This is the final straw for THIS individual. Overdevelopement doesn't infringe on something so personal as our diet. This person finally had their own PERSONAL affect from the mayor and has a personal reason to be upset.
The mayor and city council's extension of term limits against what the people voted for, the use of your tax money to go toward subsidizing luxury development while you are denied basic services like snow removal after a storm are definitely as personal as your diet. Perhaps you are one of the brainless Queens idiots that thinks these things are fantastic.
And the letter writer was not "bashed." It was merely pointed out that there are a lot worse things than not being able to order a soda in the size you want.
"Our founding fathers fought for the freedoms" to have tax money go toward needed services, to make sure your votes counted and that land taken away is for a public purpose. We have had many infringements on these during the Bloomberg years and before, yet the thing that upsets people is soda?
Anon No. 8:
He was BP from 1963 to 1968 and then became a Judge. Draw your own conclusions.
If Bloomberg made it illegal to sell 20 ounce sodas, then drink two fisted. Buy two 10 ounce cups!
JEEEEEZ....
talk about mole hill problems when mountainous ones loom on NYC's horizon!
LOL! This will not erode our Constitutional rights.
I am the author of the letter and certainly appreciate your comments, some of which are well intentioned. However, I presume all of you wrote against the third term and the adults in playgrounds ban and all other infringements on our liberty. Obviously, your letters and sentiments were not heeded. And yes, it was the infringement on my right to choose what I eat that finally drove me to write a letter. And yes, I agree with all of you that the overdevelopment of the outer boroughs is criminal. So wyhen is the revolution going to start?
Billy Cariello
why criticize a person for standing up for what's right? I know the purpose of this site is to complain about how much Queens sucks and complain about whatever is happening within a 5 block radius of your house, but why bust this guys balls just cause he loves a big soda and the freedom to buy one?
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