This article appeared in the Townsman, February 26 edition
It is fascinating to discover how words and their meaning are susceptible to the same forces of evolution, per Charles Darwin, that apply to creatures. Mr. Darwin, whose 200th birthday was recently celebrated, you will recall, announced the discovery that a slit-eyed, forked-tongued lizard that ambled the earth 200 hundred million years ago, after a series of genetic adaptations that took millennia to accomplish, eventually came to produce a specimen like, well like councilman Chris Collins, for instance, an example I choose only because his prominence helps make the point so lucidly. The same evolutionary principle applies to words.
Take the word ‘magnanimity’, which we now use to describe ‘great generosity or noble-spiritedness.’ It comes from the compound of ‘magna,’ which we remember from our study of the Magna Carta means ‘great’ (the more subtle student realizes the compound, ‘Charlesmagne’ as ‘Charles the Great’) and ‘anima,’ which in ancient times meant ‘soul’ or ‘spirit.’ So to be magnanimous once described possession of a ‘great soul of spirit.’
In our ancient and brutal past the word ‘magnanimous’ had a different connotation. For instance, in Machiavelli’s, “The Prince,” the author, who otherwise expresses a deep admiration for Cesare Borgia, nevertheless takes him to task for not immediately putting to the sword all his enemies when given the opportunity, and concludes with his opinion that such failure was due to Mr. Borgia’s “lack of magnanimity.”
Like all the ancient virtues, we have watered magnanimity down so much that now only acts of generosity and warm-heartedness are considered its examples. Exceptions to this may include fat checks from Bernie Madoff and the Committee For Woodstock’s Future.
Diluted or not, let’s explore the magnanimity of councilman Chris Collins, for he has made no attempt to make it inconspicuous.
Collins is now in his fourth year in office. Like a sirocco, the wind that emanates from North Africa, his term has raised howls and whirls, and yet when the dust settles the landscape somehow looks fairly unmolested. For all his fury in attacking zoning amendments and comprehensive plans, the only documents left in his wake of diminished gusts are marked DRAFT. This is a subtle form of magnanimity, rather like the person who will not smile lest we be disturbed by her sorry teeth. When you see the latest DRAFT of the wetland and watercourse amendment to the zoning law (this coming March 10) you will know exactly what I mean.
Magnanimous Collins, along with fellow board members Jay Wenk and Liz Simonson, stood among those who predicted the End Of Woodstock resulting from the KTD monastery expansion, which is now near completion. This passion, however, did not prevent him from being one of the first people to bound onto Andy Lee Field to hear His Holiness, the Dalai Lama’s teaching on compassion. The experience apparently so touched our representative that the Town’s record book is graced with the following resolution:
The intended purpose of the resolution, which had been mangled during the tumult of amendments made after its introduction, some of you may recall, was to urge the government of China to accept an autonomous Tibet, this authored by a man who disdained the expansion of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in his own town. So you see, Collins’ magnanimity is such to compass the globe.
Collins, with the same cohort mentioned above, railed against the deal that resulted in a cell tower, execrating the morons that authorized it and even conspiring with litigants against the Town to try and stop it, and yet with breath-taking magnanimity he made not a squeak in court while the attorney for the Town defended the same deal before a state supreme court judge. For fear that one accuses me of hagiography I should mention that his cohort was equally silent.
This same, extraordinary heart now defends those opposed to the RUPCO proposal to build 53 units of senior and affordable housing in Woodstock. Let me correct this; Collins has opposed the project right from the beginning, but only recently has he unsheathed and brandished the sword, which he thinks will do unto RUPCO what Cesare Borgia failed to do unto his enemies. According to press reports, Collins, presumably with the help of his cohort, thinks he has the power to scuttle the project with the Town’s refusal to extend it water and sewer service.
As loathsome as people are who require senior and affordable housing, indeed we find out every day more and more how loathsome and despicable, they are a life form, however lowly, which even Darwin would concur in need of water and sanitation in order to thrive. So Collins’ sword may be truly potent, a potency perhaps inversely proportional to our expectation when considering his record of conquest thus far.
We are left with one question; why wait? As we speak RUPCO is spending oodles of cash on experts to satisfy the environmental questions posed by the Woodstock planning board, and the people that Collins has promised to protect are spending oodles on attorneys to find sand and/or deficiency in the said experts’ ointment. If Chris Collins truly believes that the board has the power to stop RUPCO with one, magnanimous thrust he should come to the next town board meeting with a resolution, perhaps reprising some of his Tibetan resolution language, something like,
The world wonders, does he have, or does he lack such magnanimity? Lawyers, experts, SAGE, RUPCO, the planning board and taxpayers are waiting to find out.
It is fascinating to discover how words and their meaning are susceptible to the same forces of evolution, per Charles Darwin, that apply to creatures. Mr. Darwin, whose 200th birthday was recently celebrated, you will recall, announced the discovery that a slit-eyed, forked-tongued lizard that ambled the earth 200 hundred million years ago, after a series of genetic adaptations that took millennia to accomplish, eventually came to produce a specimen like, well like councilman Chris Collins, for instance, an example I choose only because his prominence helps make the point so lucidly. The same evolutionary principle applies to words.
Take the word ‘magnanimity’, which we now use to describe ‘great generosity or noble-spiritedness.’ It comes from the compound of ‘magna,’ which we remember from our study of the Magna Carta means ‘great’ (the more subtle student realizes the compound, ‘Charlesmagne’ as ‘Charles the Great’) and ‘anima,’ which in ancient times meant ‘soul’ or ‘spirit.’ So to be magnanimous once described possession of a ‘great soul of spirit.’
In our ancient and brutal past the word ‘magnanimous’ had a different connotation. For instance, in Machiavelli’s, “The Prince,” the author, who otherwise expresses a deep admiration for Cesare Borgia, nevertheless takes him to task for not immediately putting to the sword all his enemies when given the opportunity, and concludes with his opinion that such failure was due to Mr. Borgia’s “lack of magnanimity.”
Like all the ancient virtues, we have watered magnanimity down so much that now only acts of generosity and warm-heartedness are considered its examples. Exceptions to this may include fat checks from Bernie Madoff and the Committee For Woodstock’s Future.
Diluted or not, let’s explore the magnanimity of councilman Chris Collins, for he has made no attempt to make it inconspicuous.
Collins is now in his fourth year in office. Like a sirocco, the wind that emanates from North Africa, his term has raised howls and whirls, and yet when the dust settles the landscape somehow looks fairly unmolested. For all his fury in attacking zoning amendments and comprehensive plans, the only documents left in his wake of diminished gusts are marked DRAFT. This is a subtle form of magnanimity, rather like the person who will not smile lest we be disturbed by her sorry teeth. When you see the latest DRAFT of the wetland and watercourse amendment to the zoning law (this coming March 10) you will know exactly what I mean.
Magnanimous Collins, along with fellow board members Jay Wenk and Liz Simonson, stood among those who predicted the End Of Woodstock resulting from the KTD monastery expansion, which is now near completion. This passion, however, did not prevent him from being one of the first people to bound onto Andy Lee Field to hear His Holiness, the Dalai Lama’s teaching on compassion. The experience apparently so touched our representative that the Town’s record book is graced with the following resolution:
"Offered by Councilman Collins, seconded by Councilwoman Simonson:
"Whereas the Dalai Lama of Tibet has a bond of kinship with the town of Woodstock and has made a personal visit to our community and has solidified that bond of kinship, and;
"Whereas international media and rescue organizations and democracies worldwide have called this oppression cultural genocide, and;
"Whereas some of those protests have ended in violent and deadly clashes resulting in a high death toll, and;... " etc.
"Whereas the Dalai Lama of Tibet has a bond of kinship with the town of Woodstock and has made a personal visit to our community and has solidified that bond of kinship, and;
"Whereas international media and rescue organizations and democracies worldwide have called this oppression cultural genocide, and;
"Whereas some of those protests have ended in violent and deadly clashes resulting in a high death toll, and;... " etc.
The intended purpose of the resolution, which had been mangled during the tumult of amendments made after its introduction, some of you may recall, was to urge the government of China to accept an autonomous Tibet, this authored by a man who disdained the expansion of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in his own town. So you see, Collins’ magnanimity is such to compass the globe.
Collins, with the same cohort mentioned above, railed against the deal that resulted in a cell tower, execrating the morons that authorized it and even conspiring with litigants against the Town to try and stop it, and yet with breath-taking magnanimity he made not a squeak in court while the attorney for the Town defended the same deal before a state supreme court judge. For fear that one accuses me of hagiography I should mention that his cohort was equally silent.
This same, extraordinary heart now defends those opposed to the RUPCO proposal to build 53 units of senior and affordable housing in Woodstock. Let me correct this; Collins has opposed the project right from the beginning, but only recently has he unsheathed and brandished the sword, which he thinks will do unto RUPCO what Cesare Borgia failed to do unto his enemies. According to press reports, Collins, presumably with the help of his cohort, thinks he has the power to scuttle the project with the Town’s refusal to extend it water and sewer service.
As loathsome as people are who require senior and affordable housing, indeed we find out every day more and more how loathsome and despicable, they are a life form, however lowly, which even Darwin would concur in need of water and sanitation in order to thrive. So Collins’ sword may be truly potent, a potency perhaps inversely proportional to our expectation when considering his record of conquest thus far.
We are left with one question; why wait? As we speak RUPCO is spending oodles of cash on experts to satisfy the environmental questions posed by the Woodstock planning board, and the people that Collins has promised to protect are spending oodles on attorneys to find sand and/or deficiency in the said experts’ ointment. If Chris Collins truly believes that the board has the power to stop RUPCO with one, magnanimous thrust he should come to the next town board meeting with a resolution, perhaps reprising some of his Tibetan resolution language, something like,
"Whereas some of the protests over the RUPCO proposal have ended in violent and deadly clashes resulting in a high death toll, and... "
“Therefore be it Resolved that the town board of the Town of Woodstock shall not now or at any time in the future honor any request to extend municipal water or sewer service to the said RUPCO project.”
And then after some disquisition on the objectionable features of RUPCO get right to,
“Therefore be it Resolved that the town board of the Town of Woodstock shall not now or at any time in the future honor any request to extend municipal water or sewer service to the said RUPCO project.”
The world wonders, does he have, or does he lack such magnanimity? Lawyers, experts, SAGE, RUPCO, the planning board and taxpayers are waiting to find out.
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