By Don Glynn
Niagara Gazette
Column by Don Glynn —
Rick Lazio, a former Long Island congressman and lightweight GOP contender for governor, has obviously run out of issues to capture voter attention.
If Lazio stays with his campaign tactics, Carl Paladino, the Buffalo developer and Niagara Falls hotelier, will probably close the gap in the polls even more.
Should that happen, however, it still won’t make a difference. At the present rate, Andrew Cuomo is on the fast track to moving into the Executive Mansion in January.
Lazio’s latest campaign gambit is vociferous opposition to the plan for building a 13-story Muslim community center two blocks from ground zero. Such a proposal so close to the site of the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center, where nearly 3,000 persons died, is insensitive, Lazio contends.
That may be, but Lazio has crossed the line with his Web ad that features rescue workers at the scene on 9-11. In addition, in one of his TV commercials, he’s standing in front of the smoldering devastation and raising questions about the funding source for the mosque.
That’s a cheap shot and a blatant violation of the accepted code among New York politicians not to try to capitalize on those heart-wrenching scene from 9-11 in any campaign ads.
Lazio might be surprised to discover what a backlash he is causing.
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FLEEING FLOCK: The Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Scanlan, a retired priest who assists at St. Bernard’s Church, Youngstown, had a few extra words for the congregation after a recent Mass.
The monsignor noted that some people have a habit of leaving the church early, many times before the service is over and the final blessing given.
As he glanced toward the rear of the church — the exodus already under way — the priest added, “I hope they all don’t have flat tires.”
The rush from the pews is not, of course, confined to the church in Youngstown. For whatever reason, a similar scene unfolds virtually every weekend in countless Catholic churches.
The early departure times are wide ranging.
I saw a guy leave Mass one morning just before they took up the collection.
Some parishioners offer the lame excuse that they can’t sing so they take off as the closing hymn starts.
A favorite ploy is to escape just as people begin approaching the altar for communion. They’re easy to spot too, going the wrong way on a one-way aisle. (They probably have an early tee-time at the golf course.)
For the record, the offenders are in the minority but they’re still a pain in the pew.
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OFF THE PRESS: Often called a “forgotten conflict,” the War of 1812 is expected to come into sharper dimension with the bicentennial activities starting in 2012.
In a timely move for the celebration, Old Fort Niagara has released a new book, “Long Range Guns, Close Quarter Combat: The Third U.S. Artillery Regiment in the War of 1812” (Old Fort Niagara Association, 144 pages, paperback, $12.95), by Richard Barbuto deputy director of the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Bob Emerson, executive director of Old Fort Niagara, says the book focuses on a few hundred Americans who left their civilian lives and came together in a new organization. “They were transformed into skilled soldiers and, for about two years, marched across New York and into Canada to fight for their country.
This new organization was the U.S. Third Artillery Regiment and their story has never been told ... until now,” Emerson added.
Barbuto, a native of Dunkirk, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
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SIGN OF THE TIMES: In a Lockport tavern: “If you’re drinking to forget, please pay in advance.”
