RSS 2.0 FeedJune 10, 2011, Weekly editorial
The adult in the room
The adult in the room
“The adult in the room.” That is how the League of Women Voters was described by Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink (D), featured speaker along with Legislator Denise Ford (R), at the League’s recent convention. He also called it “the voice of conscience” and a “good government advocate.”
The League has been one of the leading groups challenging Nassau County’s new redistricting plan, which both legislators are also on record as not supporting. Legislator Wink styled his Republican counterpart as “a profile in courage” for not voting for the new map along with her Republican colleagues.
In his remarks, he misspoke and coined a new word, “transparity,” when meaning to talk about “transparency” in the process of creating the maps.
The need for transparency is the reason the League called for a bipartisan commission, meeting over several months in public, to draw the new map based on population shifts, and allowing for minorities to have proportional representation and not see their voices drowned out by being spread out in several districts.
So how would you define “transparity” if you suddenly saw it on a vocabulary test? “Trans” means “through,” as in to see through. “Parity” means “equal clout.” So, would a good definition be a combination of transparency and equality or fairness?
That is what we all need to work for, if only because next time, the shoe could be on the other foot, as the saying goes.
So when are you going on vacation?
Monday, August 1, is the date set for a referendum on a bond issued to pay for a new coliseum. Legislator Wayne Wink says choosing to hold a referendum on a separate date from the regular elections will cost $2 million extra, so add that to the $400 million bond vote. He also complains there are “too many open questions to hold a vote” on what he claims will mean a 4% tax increase to the average homeowner.
At least the voters are being asked if they want to pay for a new coliseum, which one hopes will also revitalize the area and bring in more tax revenue.
