Effective immediately, Gatemouth has indefinitely suspended operations. This is a direct result of the efforts of persons who made complaints manifesting a desire to see this organization cease and desist. Because I am not without my obligations to others, they have successfully attained their goals.
These complaints did not come from right wing defenders of Joe Bruno, Marty Golden, Serph Maltese and Charlie Gargano. Nor did they come from regular Democratic politicians like Joe Crowley or Carl Andrews. Also not heard from were legislative leaders like Sheldon Silver and Malcolm Smith, nor were the extended families (political or otherwise) of Alan Hevesi or Andrew Cuomo. These, and many others of their kinds, all had manifold reasons to complain, but none did (at least not in a manner designed to compel the current result). Still, I suspect, at least some of them will not be displeased.
These complaints did not even emanate from bitter, but essentially non-ideological, insurgents like John O’Hara or FUSTB, or their friends, such as they are. Even poxes upon the body political, like either wing of the Independence Party, or any of the multitudes of electeds who whored for them, were conspicuous in their absence.
The folks who did complain all are people who profess to be of liberal mind and claim to support civil rights and liberties; except, apparently, when such liberties are exercised in their general direction.
Lesson: Opponents can be tolerated, but heretics are to be exterminated with extreme prejudice. As I said little over a week ago, "’Free’ speech is a misnomer; it always has a cost.”
My heart is heavy. Outside of my non-traditional family life and my collection of vinyl LPs, there is nothing which affords me more fulfillment than writing this column; in fact given the vices age has forced me to forgo, I’m hard pressed to think of anything else, beyond those things already enumerated, which even brings more than a passing smile to my gloomy countenance. In a long work-life spent joylessly laboring at jobs for which I could offer nothing more than flashes of inspiration within seas of journeyman-like competence (when I could manage even that), while receiving in exchange insufficient paychecks and but fleeting moments of joy, I had finally found something for which my skills seemed matched. I shall miss it, and I shall miss most of you.
I would like to say more, but feel constrained not to, having already deleted the best lines to mask both the intensity of my feelings and the identity of those so utterly convinced of their own purity that they float as they gloat.
I would advise the victors to happily rest upon their laurels and hold their tongues. You are not the only ones capable of naming names.
(I can still be reached at Gatemouthnyc@hotmail.com)