Page 20 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • May 16, 2012 hanger. Some members of Concerned Ridgewood Residents, an anti-Valley Hospital pressure group, threatened to dump their endorsement of Aronsohn – who voted with Killion and the other three council members against rezoning Ridgewood to accommodate the hospital – because they saw Aronsohn’s endorsement of Pucciarelli and Hauck as somewhat less hostile to the hospital. The group never actually pulled its endorsement of Aronsohn, though their other endorsed candidates were Killion and Mary Jane Shinozuka. Killion lost by 16 votes and Shinozuka came in fifth out of six. This proves, among other things, that pressure groups do not control Ridgewood politics if they act against common sense. If Aronsohn had showed up driving a backhoe or a cement truck, the negative endorsements might have made sense. They might even have worked. They were hot air, and not enough people paid attention to keep him and his running mates out of first, second, and third place. Russell Forenza, a man who sincerely loves Ridgewood and has a solid background in local finance and banking, stepped on a political land mine. He told the audience at Candidates Night that the Valley Hospital expansion, if approved by the neighbors, would be a good thing. He said he thought he could have it worked out in a year or 18 months. He was an honest man, but the neighbors did not approve of his opinion. He finished sixth out of six. Being suspected of just possibly leaning toward a Valley expansion did not cut it as a reason for a negative vote in Ridgewood. Honestly saying he favored expansion was the kiss of death. Killion observed, in his pithy and honest way, that the next stop for the Valley Hospital expansion bid was the court system, because he did not want the council to drag out any more talks when they had budget concerns and flooding to think about. His statement to that effect could well be the reason he almost won. The salary increase vote is what killed his chances. How does that all play on the world stage? During the same week Ridgewood held its non-partisan election, elections in France and in Greece upset “austerity” programs meant to stave off bankruptcy and save national credit. The politicians who had attempted to control debt by reducing social services and pensions were worked over pretty heavily by people who think they can go on creating do-little jobs and paying people for the rest of their lives for the work they did not do while working for the government. Those who think their way beyond the next government paycheck probably assume the United States or Germany will step in and keep bailing them out because of fear of communism or guilt about their own relative prosperity. I suspect this will not work. People in Germany, the world’s fourth economy, and Japan, the world’s third economy, are poised on the threshold of panic waiting for the U.S. economy to collapse like a house of cards and take them down, too. Fear of communism will not motivate any foolishness on their part. The Germans gave up conscription last year and the Japanese are now quietly and legally trading with China on a regular basis. Hostility has long since ebbed. A few weeks ago, my wife was phoning up Japan to find photos from the 1930s for the new book and surprised a guy at the agency archive. “You’re not Japanese!” she declared. “How do you know that?” he asked. “Your English is too good,” she said. “Okay, okay, I’m Chinese,” he acknowledged. He came through for us beautifully. There are a million ethnic Chinese and a million ethnic Koreans now living in Japan. The wars are long since over, and nobody needs the U.S. to straighten out their troubles anymore. Asians who can get their immigration ticket punched for Japan, Germany, or France want no part of the United States except to see the Grand Canyon and the redwood trees. We are becoming history in economic terms. Greece and France became history a long time ago. Britain and Germany are headed there fast. Nobody even wants to think about how much debt the United States has piled up with China because those hard-working people have no choice but to work harder than they should to stay competitive. Based on an excellent Chinese documentary “Last Train Home,” the Chinese young people are not happy with their lot in life, and the kids like the three girls who showed up to take photos at my son’s wedding are funny, likable kids. But they exist. The Ridgewood election posters have notices printed in Korean, English, and Spanish. The Ridgewood voters put Ridgewood politicians on notice that public spending has to be curtailed. Nobody wants to spend a buck to save two bucks down the road. They want to save the buck before the tax bill arrives. If people in Greece and France think Americans are going any deeper in hock because other people built the Parthenon or the Eiffel Tower, they are engaged in pleasant dreams. They are in for a shock when they wake up. What does last week’s non-partisan Ridgewood election have to do with elections around the world? More than you might think. Mayor Keith Killion, a Vietnam veteran, 30-year police force veteran, and former chief of detectives, is widely respected by the people who attend council meetings. He has made a number of good decisions, and one decision that many others opposed. He voted, with three other council members, to approve a 12 percent raise for the village manager, Ken Gabbert, at a time when layoffs of public employees, some of them even residents, were still fresh and painful. Killion had a logical reason for the vote. Gabbert had negotiated contracts which, in the long run, would save Ridgewood taxpayers a great deal of money, notably by insisting that police officers pay for a portion of their own pensions. Nobody wants to deny police officers their pensions. Police officers and firefighters are probably the only people in the public sector whose lives are at risk on the job. They deserve pensions, and the public deserves to have officers who can afford to retire in a reasonable amount of time instead of hanging on when they are past their prime. Conversely, state-mandated police pensions are an absolute crusher at tax time, and anything than can be done to make sure the police officers can retire without forcing taxpayers to sell their houses and move when the last kid graduates from high school is absolutely vital. On a logical basis, the decision in favor of the village manager’s raise may or may not have made sense, but it definitely did not play well at the public forum. At Candidates Night on April 30, Killion defended the logic of his decision while the other five candidates responded with answers ranging from leery negative comments to outright excoriation when asked if they would have done the same thing. Other issues were ancillary. Paul Aronsohn, the top vote-getter, essentially agreed with Killion on every issue except the 12 percent raise. Nobody on the bench wanted to federalize police forces with Bergen County. Everybody on the bench wanted to explore shared services with Glen Rock and Ho-Ho-Kus, and perhaps Allendale, Midland Park, Wyckoff, and Waldwick. Nobody on the bench wanted to pour concrete for rectangular pools at the lakelike Graydon Pool in Ridgewood. The group most strongly opposed to the concrete pools, Preserve Graydon Coalition, withdrew its previous endorsement for Aronsohn on what appears to be the suspicion that he now leaned that way – though he did not say anything at the meeting that suggested he wanted to overthrow the general consensus that Ridgewood cannot afford a $10 million concrete pool complex at this point in history. Neither of his endorsed fellow candidates, Albert Pucciarelli and Gwenn Hauck, left a cement mixer parked outside the Ridgewood Library. The negative endorsement flopped. Pucciarelli was the second highest vote-getter and Hauck, a relative unknown except in school and charitable work, beat Killion by 16 votes in a breathtaking cliff- Elections at home and around the world Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: The Washington Elm VFW Post 192 (Ho-Ho-KusRidgewood), Ho-Ho-Kus, is honored to continue the longstanding tradition of sponsoring in cooperation with the borough administration, fire department, police department, and others, the Memorial Day Parade and solemn observance in Ho-Ho-Kus on Monday, May 28, 2012. Everyone is invited to attend this solemn parade and ceremony. All veterans and all military personnel are asked to march wearing their respective uniforms. U.S. Memorial Flags will be given to all veterans and military personnel attending. Marchers, military and other vehicles will form up at Ardmore and Sheridan avenues at 10 a.m. and the parade will step off promptly at 10:30 a.m., proceeding south on Sheridan Avenue to the Town Green on Sycamore Avenue. At the Town Green, a solemn observance will be VFW to host Memorial Day events conducted to honor the servicemen and women who paid the ultimate price in all military actions to date and to honor all our troops presently serving around the globe. The main speaker scheduled this year is a retired Army Master Sergeant from the Iraq war and again there will be “Echo-Taps” with the caparisoned horse scheduled to be there. VFW Post 192 invites everyone to join us in showing continued support and honor for all military servicemen and women and their families! Any questions please contact Stanley A. Kober, parade chairman, at (201) 445-1121 or Don Alverson, parade cochair, at (201) 445-5314. May God continue to bless America! Stanley A. Kober, Commander, Washington Elm VFW Post 192 Ho-Ho-Kus-Ridgewood