EDITORIAL
EVER UPWARD
HOW TO REACH US
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.12 COM | AUG. 27 - SEPT. 2, 2021
THE TRUE MEANING OF CLOSURE
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Governor Hochul has an excellent opportunity to mend fences and forge new alliances in state government.
Photo by Cindy Schultz/REUTERS
Governments in America traditionally change
hands in January; something extraordinary
must happen for such a changing of the guard
to occur in the other 11 months of a calendar
year.
That’s what occurred at the stroke of midnight
Monday, Aug. 23, in Albany, when scandal-scarred
Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned his post, and
Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul took the reins
as New York’s 57th (and first female) chief executive.
We’ve been at similar points before in New York
and American history.
We think of March 2008, when Governor Eliot
Spitzer resigned in disgrace amid a prostitution
scandal and Lieutenant Governor David Paterson
took control of New York. We think of August 1974,
when President Richard Nixon resigned after two
years of the Watergate scandal, and the unelected
Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the task of
leading a government humbled and hobbled by the
controversy.
And in August 2021, Hochul will assume office at
a truly extraordinary time in history. As if leading
the pandemic recovery work in progress wasn’t challenging
enough, New York got blasted with a tropical
storm over the weekend that prompted a federal
disaster declaration.
Such is the life of a New York governor, faced with
challenges that come at a second’s notice. We have no
doubt that Hochul is up to the task — and was ready
to go when Cuomo announced his resignation plans
back on Aug. 10 amid the sexual harassment scandal
that crippled his stewardship of the state.
Where does New York go from here? Look to the
state motto that Cuomo often mentions: Excelsior —
ever upward.
Governor Hochul has an excellent opportunity to
mend fences and forge new alliances in state government.
She seems to understand the challenges the state
faces with the pandemic: higher taxes and costs of living,
a crumbling infrastructure, a need for economic
reinvestment among long-ignored communities.
If Hochul pulls it off, New York and its residents
have much to gain. Political peace in Albany can
bring about tempered public policy and good works
that can boost our economy and standard of living.
Let’s hope she can lead us there.
As to the outgoing Cuomo, we thank him for his
11 years of service as governor. Even so, the investigations
into his conduct over the past 18 months
shouldn’t be swept aside with his departure from
office. New Yorkers deserve answers and accountability.
Often people speak to those who lost a loved one
about “closure.” What they are actually stating
is it’s time to get past the loss or that they
no longer wish to hear of the pain that is carried
by the survivor.
Closure is for others. It is a byword for letting the
past be in the past. If not forgotten, then something to
lock up and only occasionally thought about. The person
burdened by the death of a loved one has no idea
how to shut the door and walk away from the devastation
that death of another has brought to them.
Those so burdened can live a life that is current
or be cemented in the past. Those who are fortunate
do not come to closure, rather to acceptance. They acknowledge
the door will never open to the deceased
walking back in. Yet they do “accept” living with the
memories of the departed while knowing that they,
too, have a life to live.
On Saturday, Sept. 11, at 3 p.m., St. Michael’s Cemetery
will conduct a memorial service for the first
responders of the 9/11 attacks and to the many who
have lost a loved one to COVID-19.
St. Michael’s responded to the Sept. 11 attacks and
was there for so many of our community members,
helping them confront the awful toll taken by the
pandemic.
St. Michael’s is open to the public on Sept. 11, 2021.
An orchestra will play music that will represent the
memorial honoring and remembering all we have
lost.
Ed Horn,
Director of St. Michael’s Cemetery
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