Posted by Glenn Ribotsky on June 06, 2005 at 22:21:47:
In Reply to: Re: Perhaps I did not notice this before-- posted by Fred Rigolini on June 06, 2005 at 18:37:39:
Gentlemen--
I could certainly get into a point by point refutation of the assertions that the race has been wonderfully organized/administered over the years--which would include much archival material from this very forum and website, as well as articles from the Advance (even a couple from Jack Minogue), but that would probably be beyond the scope of this space. And, given the tone of what you posted, an appeal to actual logic and documentation would likely have little effect, anyway (a problem common in the past that I see is still in evidence).
What is indisputable is that the race has had its troubles, that these troubles have contributed to a considerable fall-off in participation over the last 15 years (check the race stats), and that these troubles have not only been mostly of the race committee's own making. (I include often having very meager refreshments--on a traditionally hot day--in that; considering the political connections and money behind the race, there seems little excuse there.)
I further assert that many of these problems were of the sort that would take very little effort and no money to fix, but the race commmittee, for whatever stubborn reasons, resisted making the effort until recently, and then only under a certain amount of political pressure (and I helped bring some of that through the local and state Democratic party, so I know of whence I speak).
And yet, recently many of these problems had been addressed, and in this space, and others, I gave the race the credit due.
What I was discussing in this most recent post is part of a larger issue, and not specific only to the Pepper Martin Race--but the face remains it could well impact this race specificically, and, again, for no good reason, as the language in question could easily be altered to prevent potential problems, and certainly without sacrificing any aspect of the race--the language is currently such that one has to wonder who it might potentially be aimed at, and how legal that might be. And YES, in Staten Island, PRECISELY because of responses like the one here, one starts off with the presumption that the language might be used for reasons that I thought, in a civilized society, we should all be beyond--to exclude people for reasons that have nothing to do with racing.
I wonder with responses like this if some respondents might be tempted to lobby Rich Re to put similar language on this website, to prevent postings by people disagreed with or disliked.
I challenge you to speak to the issue, and not to the messenger. (I wonder if the same responses would have occurred had someone else written about the issue.)