Ed Koch Commentary

Recently I conducted a seminar for twelve interns a few years out of college who were sent to me by a foundation that placed them with private firms and public agencies for work experience. 

The group asked me what was my greatest concern.  I told them that I feared for America's

future.  I said I do not believe our children are willing to fight and die to defend American ideals and that consequently we might lose the war against Western civilization being waged by international Islamic terrorists.

   I said that Americans love life and respect religious freedom.  Islamist terrorists, on the other hand, long to die as religious martyrs while forcibly converting the infidel, primarily Christians, Jews and Hindus.

   I repeated what Bernard Lewis, the great historian and specialist on Islam, had told me, that forced conversion or death could be averted if Christians and Jews recognized the supremacy of Islam and paid tribute, while followers of other religions did not have that option.

   I was surprised at the opposition of many in the room to my statements.  Two young women identified themselves as Muslims.  They vigorously disputed my statements.  I asked them to check with Islamic scholars and continue e-mail discussions with me on the subject.  They said they would.  If I hear from them, I'll let you know what they say.

At the end of the hour, I asked the group to demonstrate by a show of hands who agreed with me and who agreed with those who do not think Islamic terrorism is the great danger to the world that I had  described.  It  was shocking to me that the interns split evenly, 6 to 6.  Now I fear more than ever for America's future. 

 

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   Over the Thanksgiving holidays I went to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to visit close fiends.  While I was there I went to see  Dr. Alan Friedman of Duke University , a renowned brain and spine surgeon who had examined me many months ago for my  spinal stenosis.  At that  time, Dr. Friedman prescribed hydrotherapy, which I took at Rusk Institute at New York University Hospital.  After examining me on this visit, he said that I had made dramatic progress and if I continued with stretching exercises at home every morning for the rest of my life, I could keep the condition under control, be free of pain, as I currently am, and would not need spinal surgery.  Hallelujah!

 

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   My host in Chapel Hill, who is a gynecological surgeon and mathematician and has a brilliant mind, made some thoughtful suggestions on how to deal with the current economic crisis.  He proposes that we deal with the housing crisis that is at the heart of the financial crisis by allowing foreigners to buy foreclosed houses in the U.S. in high price ranges, live in the homes for at least five years for which they would secure from the U.S. government 30 year resident work-permitted visas.  My own proposal is to allow judges in bankruptcy to redraw the conditions of a mortgage, allowing reductions in principal and interest, and extending the term.

 

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   I urge President-elect Obama to rethink his commitment to send our troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.  The Iraqis have now decided to require that we leave Iraq as early as June 2010 if a scheduled referendum wins for that position and in any event, no later than December 2011, to which we have agreed. Afghanistan undoubtedly will, if it can, seek a similar ending of our presence in their country. Afghanistan has a peacock president who recently urged the return of the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, former President of Afghanistan, under amnesty.  The president's own brother, according to The New York Times, is suspected of being the head of a drug ring with $100 million annually being funneled to the Taliban.  Should American soldiers be required to die to defend a corrupt Afghan regime?  Rather than increasing our presence in Afghanistan, we should be winding it down.

 

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   Everyone is advising President-elect Obama on what he should do as soon as he takes office.  I have two suggestions.  One, as a result of the price of gas declining from a high of over $4 per gallon to a low of less than $2 per gallon, the American public may be going back to SUV gas guzzlers and losing interest in developing alternative energy resources.  I believe this is the time to impose a $1 per gallon gas tax which would annually raise a hundred billion dollars.

   My second suggestion is that half of that tax revenue -- $50 billion annually -- be used to fund a Manhattan Project.  The original Manhattan Project, which developed the nuclear bomb, cost $21 billion in today’s dollars.  We should use the gas tax revenue to sign long-term contracts to allow battery operated cars and other alternative fuels to compete with available lower priced oil and gasoline.

  I propose that the balance of the gas tax revenue -- $50 billion annually -- should also be used to fund whatever medical programs are needed for returning American soldiers, as well as a G.I. program at least equal to that provided to World War II veterans – of which I am one -- which made it possible for so many vets, myself included, to go to college – in my case, law school -- purchase homes and train for new jobs.  We owe it to our vets.

   Edward I. Koch is the former Mayor of the City of New York

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Comments

I agree with Koch when he says:

Everyone is advising President-elect Obama on what he should do as soon as he takes office. I have two suggestions. One, as a result of the price of gas declining from a high of over $4 per gallon to a low of less than $2 per gallon, the American public may be going back to SUV gas guzzlers and losing interest in developing alternative energy resources. I believe this is the time to impose a $1 per gallon gas tax which would annually raise a hundred billion dollars.

My second suggestion is that half of that tax revenue -- $50 billion annually -- be used to fund a Manhattan Project. The original Manhattan Project, which developed the nuclear bomb, cost $21 billion in today’s dollars. We should use the gas tax revenue to sign long-term contracts to allow battery operated cars and other alternative fuels to compete with available lower priced oil and gasoline.

I propose that the balance of the gas tax revenue -- $50 billion annually -- should also be used to fund whatever medical programs are needed for returning American soldiers, as well as a G.I. program at least equal to that provided to World War II veterans – of which I am one -- which made it possible for so many vets, myself included, to go to college – in my case, law school -- purchase homes and train for new jobs. We owe it to our vets.

Until people can afford new energy efficient cars, the majority of the population is stuck with leases and loans on SUVs which they have no choice but to keep. When the economy gets better, people will opt for better vehicles.

In the meantime, it helps no one to raise the fees on gasoline. They are stuck with these vehicles and don't need yet another burden during a time when they can't pay bills. It will cause more stress, reduce travel and their ability to drive to eat and shop. If gas becomes an issue they will never leave the house and spend any money to keep the economy going.

How can you tax gas in yonkers when the tax payer doesn't know who is useing it? If amiclown can't control how much gas is being used how the hell does this crew have a shot at the hundreds of millions they are given? Well the proof is they don't have a clue!

He's wrong on where the $1 should go. It should be used to pay down the deficit and the deficit only, no projects, no schemes, no programs, just the deficit that's all.

Hey Ed, stay away from those interns they're nothing but trouble. Just ask your friend Bill.

DID A LITTLE RESEARCH; NATIONWIDE COP TO FIREMAN RATIO 3 COPS TO 1 FIREMAN

CITY OF YONKERS RATIO
1.44 COPS TO 1 FIREMAN

CITY OF YONKERS 200.000 (LEGAL RESIDENTS MOST LIKELY 225K) SHOULD HAVE 1 COP PER 2,200 PERSONS THE CITY HAS 1 COP PER 3,300.

THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH COP OT. YOU ARE RUNNING A CITY WITH 600 WHEN YOU SHOULD HAVE 900. YOU SHOULD HAVE 300 FIREMAN AND YOU HAVE 430. YOU DO THE MATH.

Where did you get your figures? Please supply further info or zip it.

You can get any figures you want, just city hall...Sorry, it all depends on whos asking, it changes with the wind

your right we should have 900 cops instead of 600. does that mean I will see 12 cops eating breakfast at 10:00Am in the Raceway Diner instead of the 8 I saw today?

Who cares what Ed koch has to say? Seriously.

Yonkers has more than 1 or 10 things to do to make it "its highest & best" use all around. Yonkers Real Estate is rediculous! So crazy in its Proximity to & from the most centralized & affluent city in the US.

Yonkers can get you anywhere in 20 minutes...highways & roads allow good access north, south East & West. Airports and bridges are within miles.

Yonkers needs to look at itselfe on a global scale...it has to see the world on NYC(the world) is on our door step & it either comes with pleasure & or it steam rolls you and moves on to the next best thing.

A shitty place to do business & live is common place all over the world. There are more slums than Scarsdales. White Plains is in total control of the county in all its grandiuer(yea ok) Its built itself out...where else can it go except their own Ghettos.

Its a do or dont world, we see that. Yonkers has never held its own water...Can it really carry its own ever? In its current form, definitly not. Its "shit show" mentality & ever endearing stream of poor leaders at a time when the requirements of our leaders should read like a job posting...Something to the effect of

Position Available: Leader. A job defined by instituting a willful structure of attitude not be discounted ever but to be exemplified throughout by all throughout in the entire structural system. Job title Not important, Strong Mayor rule, Seeking GeneralS with single minded focus on making all of Yonkers its best.

Yonkers is diced up like a pizza pie, its factional and almost CLAN like, my study of the place is it has one foot in the past and on the present with no intention to really move ONE of the feet to put it on the future. We struggle along becasue of bickering, infighting, obstructionsit fighting progressives and vices versa.

Yonkers has politics dating 400 yrs and the last 50 have been nothing to repeat really.
What do we do from here. We take it on the chin AS a city for a few years but we need to resolve to remove the pariah and work in better business people, advocates, legal minds, & liberal minds. Dems & repubs whatever but new IDEAS please. Im tired of this place the way it is!

Here's a start.

Get rid of this useless Mayor.

Term limits for all including county and no term more than 2 years. If you can't do it in 2 years, you can't do it at all.

Get rid of all of the taxbreaks for the wealthy, and make them pay up.

Must get rid of all wasters in City Haul, there are a lot of them.

Make the government work for all the people of Yonkers and not the way it does right now which is solely for developers and large businesses.

Property taxes must be paid by all and no breaks for the friends and family club. End all PILOT's, Abatements, and misc. exemptions.

if murtagh got the endorsement of
ed koch , murtagh would of won.

Rush Limbaugh had something rather funny to say about Yonkers. He said that "heaven forbid those Wall Street guys may have to sell their homes in the Hamptons and move to Yonkers" (and he didn't mean it in a good way either) :-).

How is Ed Koch related to that big orange cop in the third?

heaven forbid those Wall Street guys may have to sell their homes in the Hamptons and move to Yonkers"

Thats priceless. Whats even funnier is that it really is so derogitory toward Yonkers that I kinda like it & at thesame time Im embarrassed

http://risingtimes.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/the-unholy-alliance-colety-cavallo-and-zherka/

koch is a great man