Look What the Wind Blew In! - UPDATED

Yikes! What happened to Perry Belefiore?

Perry, honey... GA's worried about you.

Have you been drinking that Fructis by Garnier instead of washing your god-like, fluffy silver mane with it?

Honey, your letter in this week's Hoboken Reporter puts the BLOW in bloviation... I haven't seen burst of gas like that since that pipeline exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.

Look out everybody!  Here he comes!

Now GA heard about your bit of theater at the last Board of Education meeting... and I gotta tell you I thought it was cool. 

Very sixties.

GA is all about the oppressed little guy trying to free himself from beneath the crushing, authoritarian thumb of The Man. 

We think alike; your letter invoked the 60's mistrust of government then compared your experience at the BoE to the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Fluffy-haired One, you got the sixties angle right, but that's an odd analogy (and I'm being polite).  If we are massacre-shopping, I would have picked the one at Kent State instead.

Because that night you stood up to The Man, Rose Markle, heroically, without concern for life or limb, like those protesters did to the National Guard at Kent State, Ohio.  Remember that still photo of the  young man standing opposite a line of gunmen with riffles aimed straight at him?

Just like you, at the podium that night up against the ladies of the School Board.  So courageous.

Yep those students were protesting the American invasion of Cambodia while you demanded your right to pass wind for 3 more minutes. 

Make Love, Not War.  Blow Gas,Three More.

You ARE a child of the sixties, Perry- you've even got that hippy hair.

Well, I'm thankful that The Man (Rose) didn't have you removed.  Instead you were assisted by another Freedom-fighter Nick Calicchio. 

And in the end The Man (Rose) only gave you ONE more minute... but surely your fate was better than those 4 murdered at Kent State.  In your analogy, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the 7 were killed were mob associates- in the backdrop of the Chicago gang wars during Prohibition.

Come to think of it... maybe Perry's analogy to gangsters WAS more appropriate than mine to noble peace-warriors... 

Well, once the HR posts Perry's letter  you can read his flowery dissent against The Man yourself.

I've gotta warn you, he uses a lot of big, high-falutin' words: 'fait accompli', exemplar, etc., mixed in with craven partisan political ones: cronies, First Husband, Zimmer's board members, etc.

It's kind of confusing... like being served Campbell's Soup at a fine French restaurant.

But that's why I like Perry- he's a Hoboken original.  

I just hope he gets well soon.




(Updated, 2/27  6:15 am)
Here's a taste of the Belefiore letter which was not online when I posted yesterday.

Warning:  GA recommends you coat your face in kevlar or any type of safety shield prior to reading this for protection from the blast (of hot gas).

Of course, I spoke. Trying to convey how the elected unilaterally extending their time in office was a major concern, I spoke of our representative form of government, which allows the elected to make decisions in the name of the people for a prescribed period and how this contract between the elected and the governed cannot be amended, to extend time in office, without consent from both parties. Midway through I was told my time had elapsed and threatened with arrest if I continued to speak. Debate on these consequential issues stymied, the threat of removal by uniformed police indicates not the lofty stated goal of increased voter participation but a tyrannical board obsessed with abject self-preservation.

I recognized a fait accompli and the affront to the democratic process was exemplar. Zimmer’s board members will tell you other districts enacted similar resolutions, or how not voting on the budget isn’t important. Left unsaid is how recent similar effort to extend the terms of Mayor Zimmer and her council cronies was rebuked by the people.

I don’t want to conflate the people’s right to set the course of term limits through referendum with the operations of the district. Our goal should be to provide the best education. However, the tumultuous 1960s imparted a healthy suspicion of government leaving indelible denying any governing body more than the will of the people freely gives. The will of the people was never considered at the board’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Peter P. Belfiore

Wow!