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PAT BUCHANAN News & Opinion the astonishing achievements of that most maligned of statesmen in the 20th century. And as this writer was at Nixon’s side for more than eight years before that August day in 1974, let me recount a few. When Nixon took the oath in January 1969, more than 500,000 U.S. soldiers were in Vietnam or on the way, and U.S. casualties were running at 200 to 300 American dead every week. Liberalism’s best and brightest had marched us into an Asian war they could not win or end. Yet by the end of Nixon’s first term, all U.S. forces and POWs were home or on the way, and every provincial capital was in Saigon’s hands. Nixon had promised to end the war with honor. He had done so. Moreover, he had negotiated with Moscow the greatest arms control treaty since the Washington Naval Agreement of 1921-22: SALT I, setting limits on long-range ballistic missiles, and the ABM Treaty. Nixon had gone to China and brought that enormous nation, then in the madness of its Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, out of its angry isolation. He would rescue Israel in the Yom Kippur War at her moment of maximum peril, with a massive U.S. airlift and warning to the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev not to intervene as Moscow appeared about to do. At that war’s end, Nixon would pull Egypt out of the Soviet Bloc into America’s orbit, where Anwar Sadat would later negotiate a peace with Menachem Begin. Golda Meir called Richard Nixon the best friend Israel ever had. Though he took office with both houses of Congress against him and the media loathing him, Nixon ended the draft as he had promised, created the successful all-volunteer Army, and extended the vote to all 18-, 19- and 20-year-old Americans. When he took office, only 10 percent of Southern schools were desegregated. When Nixon left, the figure was 70 percent. During Nixon’s first term, 12 Americans, beginning with Neil Armstrong, walked on the moon. No American has ever done so since. Nixon remade the Supreme Court, naming four justices in his first term, including a new Chief Justice, Warren Burger, who replaced Earl Warren, and future Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Nixon increased Social Security benefits to seniors and indexed them against inflation, as he had promised in 1966. Scores of millions of retired and elderly Americans today enjoy a far greater economic security because of Richard Nixon. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, OSHA, and the Cancer Institute, of which he was especially proud. During the first 25 years of the Cold War, America bore almost alone TIMES, THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2014 • 4 COPYRIGHT 2014 RIDGEWOOD TIMES PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO., INC. Since 1908 Published Every Thursday By RIDGEWOOD TIMES PRINTING & PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. General Publication Office: P.O. Box 863299 Ridgewood, N.Y. 11386-0299 60-71 Woodbine St., Ridgewood, N.Y. 11385 Periodicals Postage Paid At Flushing, N.Y. (USPS 465-940) TELEPHONE: 1-718-821-7500-7501-7502-7503 FAX: 1-718-456-0120 Or E-MAIL: info@timesnewsweekly.com Or info@ridgewoodtimes.com WEB SITE: www.timesnewsweekly.com ON TWITTER @timesnewsweekly SUBSCRIPTION: $25 Per Year By Mail / $30 Outside Queens & Brooklyn Allow 2-3 Weeks For New Subscriptions. Postmaster Send Address Corrections To: RIDGEWOOD TIMES PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO., INC. P.O. BOX 863299, RIDGEWOOD, N.Y. 11386-0299 Periodicals Postage Paid At Flushing, N.Y. USPS-465-940 Photo Submissions And Requests Photographs submitted to the Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times should be in electronic high resolution (300dpi) JPEG (.jpg) or TIFF (.tif) formats. Sharp and clear non-Polaroid photo prints in color or black and white are also acceptable. Photographs submitted will become the property of this newspaper, with the exception of photos or other materials sent for use by The Old Timer and photos which are part of paid announcements. We welcome the submission of unsolicited photos or related materials for consideration of publication, but we cannot guarantee their use. The return of such photos or materials, except in cases as noted above, is not possible. We regret that we are unable to accommodate requests for photos taken by photographers working on assignment for the Times Newsweekly/Ridgewood Times. MAUREEN E. WALTHERS.........................Publisher & Editor JOHN T. WALTHERS..................................Publisher Emeritus ROBERT POZARYCKI...................................Managing Editor JOSE VARGAS...............................Production/Sales Manager DEBORAH CUSICK.................................Classified Manager MARLENE RUIZ...........................Assist. Classified Manager TIMES NEWSWEEKLY Is Listed With The Standard Rate & Data And Is A Member Of The New York Press Association Reaching The Queens Homes Of Ridgewood, Glendale, Liberty Park, Maspeth, Middle Village, So. Elmhurst, Woodside, Sunnyside, Astoria, Long Island City, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Richmond Hill, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Woodhaven, Elmhurst, And Kew Gardens. Reaching The Brooklyn Homes Of Ridgewood, Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East Williamsburg And Williamsburg. COMPOSITION RESPONSIBILITY: Accuracy in receiving ads over the telephone cannot be guaranteed. This newspaper is responsible for only one incorrect insertion and only for that portion of the ad in which the error appears. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to make sure copy does not contravene the Consumer Protection Law or any other requirement. Nixon Before Watergate It has been a summer of remembrance. The centennial of the Great War that began with the Guns of August 1914. The 75th anniversary of the Danzig crisis that led to Hitler’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. The 70th anniversary of D-Day. In America, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And this week marks the 40th anniversary of the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Once again, aging liberals will walk the children through the tale of that triumph of American democracy when they helped to save our republic from the greatest menace to the Constitution in all of history. Missing from the retelling will be -SEE BUCHANAN ON PG. 28- EDITORIAL The next big constitutional dilemma could be brewing in classrooms across New York City. With the city expanding its universal prekindergarten (UPK) program and public school space stretched thin, the Department of Education is turning to more private and religious schools for additional classroom space. In previous years, many religious schools converted their regular pre-k classes to UPK in order to receive city funds. But that came with a spiritual cost, as the DOE prohibits religious instruction in UPK classrooms. Even so, DOE regulations allow for religious schools to teach certain aspects of their faith in a purely cultural context. As outlined in a New York Times report Tuesday, Aug. 5, “the city’s guidelines say that religious texts may be taught if they are ‘presented objectively as part of a secular program of instruction.’ Learning about one’s culture is permitted, city officials say, but religious instruction is not.” For instance, the report continues, a school may not hold a mock Seder for Passover since it is considered a ritual, but teachers may educate students on certain “social/historical educational elements” of the Seder. Additionally, religious symbols—such as the Cross, the Star of David or the Star and Crescent—may not be displayed in UPK classrooms. (The symbols, however, may remain on certain objects depending on their size.) The city DOE has a number of means to restrict religion in these classrooms, including having inspectors regularly visit schools and ensure the UPK classes remain secular. Any classes deemed to be too religious are subject to a “corrective action plan,” and the school may lose its UPK rights altogether. But that doesn’t seem to be good enough for the New York Civil Liberties Union. Its executive director, Donna Lieberman, was quoted in the New York Times report as stating the system is “ripe for overstepping.” “You plan to tell a 4-year-old that Jesus, Moses or Muhammad is only in their books as a folk hero, and not as a religious leader? That’s kind of a ‘give me a break,’” said Lieberman. While the city is happy to expand its secular UPK into religious institutions, it bars religious groups from using its public school space for worship services and other activities not held during school time. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld this decision in an April ruling on a lawsuit filed by a Bronx church that had previously used a public school for weekend services. The argument is rooted in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... .” The amendment, like others in the Bill of Rights, is vaguely written, leading to various interpretations and arguments from all sides. In our view, the placement of UPK programs in religious schools is a good thing for the city. The arrangement meets a mutual need: the city for classroom space, the religious schools for funding to keep going. Because the city provides UPK funding to both secular and various religious schools, it could be said that the city isn’t endorsing any faith whatsoever. But the DOE’s restrictions on religious education in those environments could also be considered a prohibition of that school’s right of free religious exercise. Let’s hope (and pray) someone can fix this conflict of conscience before the courts intervene. Letters To The Editor Traffic Ave. Needs Some TLC, Too Dear Editor: Further to your July 24 editorial about the garbage mess on Fresh Pond Road, that is not the only area that is suffering from neglect and filthy conditions. I took pictures last week on Traffic Avenue on the east side between Woodbine Street and Palmetto Street. These pictures show the head high weeds in the tree pits and along the buildings, along with a lot of garbage and debris in the weeds. The weeds attract and retain any loose garbage and debris and encourage dumping. There is all sort of stuff in these tree pits, including a traffic sign that should be in front of 66-15 Traffic Ave. that has been lying in these weeds for at least a year. This condition happens every year and I have been trying to get it cleaned up for many years. Three years ago the Sanitation Department sent crews in, including a six or seven person crew, and it took them three days to clean it up. All this mess could be avoided if someone—Sanitation Department or property owners/tenants—would apply some weed killer a couple times a years. It seems the ideal solution—a couple of hours of labor and a couple hundred dollars—and no mess and no three-day cleanup for the Sanitation Department. What the pictures don’t show are the formerly healthy 25 foot high red maples that are dying because ailanthus trees have sprung up in the tree pits with them and are strangling -SEE LETTERS ON PG. 28- Times Newsweekly Established In 1908 As Ridgewood Times Join The 104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol Volunteers Needed from Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village & Ridgewood ©Times Newsweekly 2014 – GCOP 718-497-1500 NEXT MEETING: will be held in the UNITED TALMUDICAL SEMINARY 74-10 88th Street, Glendale Thurs., Aug 14, 2014 at 8:00 pm All It Takes For Evil To Thrive Is For Good Men & Women To Do Nothing


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