The merry month of May has come and almost gone. June beckons. Last week, Speaker of the House Jim Amann woke from his bed of pain, got up, shaved and showered, looked in the mirror, snarled and decided that he could not put off any longer harassing Governor Jodi Rell, So, while the sun peaked above the horizon and all was breathlessly still, he conceived a plan. Later he picked up the phone and called his confederate in the senate, President Pro Tem Don Williams. And together the two settled on a strategy: They would encourage their minions in the legislature to over-ride a gubernatorial veto. This was done. The next day, the journalistic world was all a'twitter. How did the two decide to veto this particular piece of legislation? Why did they so decide? Stories were filed; trees were wasted. And still, today, no can provide a convincing answer to these questions. The governor, naturally, was aggrieved. She said the two were bruits and ought not to have done it. Amann said the veto vindicated the constitution, which authorizes the majority party – hereinafter the Dems – to override gubernatorial vetoes. Some obscure professor was cited to the effect that the legislature, under the direction of Amann and Williams, was tinkering with the clockwork constitutional mechanism that separates legislative and executive powers. And then, mercifully, almost as soon as the fracas had begun, it was over; the legislature, the governor, chest thumping leaders at the capital, all went back to their scripts. And still, as May turns the corner towards June, the state is plummeting, relative to other states, in almost every measure of prosperity. Still, young students in Connecticut’s inner cities – the best minds of the future generation, who ought to have gone on to Yale, distinguishing themselves as scholars, doctors and lawyers – are shooting up the hoods. Still, Connecticut is last in the nation in economic growth, though there are signs the patient is not yet dead cold. Still, gas prices are too high. With a wave of their hand, Connecticut’s legislators could easily cut prices at the pump by cutting their take at the pump. Still… Oh, never mind… Let us give thanks, as May disappears and June waves a hearty hello, that the ladies and gents at the LOB have almost finished their work. There are only two slender weeks to go in the legislative session. Spending will not be cut, the money machine at the legislature will continue to suck up and eat out the prosperity of the people. Yet still --it’s almost over.
I am writing this for members of my family, and for others who may be interested. My twin sister Donna died a few hours ago of stage three lung cancer. The end came quickly and somewhat unexpectedly. She was preceded in death by Lisa Pesci, my brother’s daughter, a woman of great courage who died still full of years, and my sister’s husband Craig Tobey Senior, who left her at a young age with a great gift: her accomplished son, Craig Tobey Jr. My sister was a woman of great strength, persistence and humor. To the end, she loved life and those who loved her. Her son Craig, a mere sapling when his father died, has grown up strong and straight. There is no crookedness in him. Thanks to Donna’s persistence and his own native talents, he graduated from Yale, taught school in Japan, there married Miyuki, a blessing from God. They moved to California – when that state, I may add, was yet full of opportunity – and both began to carve a living for them...
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