I have been thinking long and hard about the issue of a divided country and community. While considering this and all of its remifications on our nation and our community, it is proven inescapable to separate my own journey toward validating who I am and what I believe and stand for.

It has become easier now than before. The conventions have shown me the worst of civic responsibility. What is apparent over all matters is the overriding sense of self; entitlement, negativity, and a willingness to lay blame in every direction but one that takes you inward.

During breaks in the coverage, I saw Ken Burn's mammoth service to society on PBS called WAR. I saw Americans of every color, ethnic origin, demograpic background sacrificing life and limb for America. Worse, the horror of the concentration camps, the firebombings and, of course, the atomic bomb srikes on Japan.

You may know that September 20 is a special, albeit, not widely known day in the life of New Rochelle. During the morning and early afternoon, members of the real estate, investment community, potential commercial developers and others are scheduled to tour the City along with officials of the Westchester County Association and I would imagine, others on the City's Advisory Board and Council.

I have expressed concerns over the agenda as well as issues around communication, but frankly, I am a little tired of "expressing concern" and seeing it reinforced in comparable areas and venues on the national and state level.

So, let me be as open, optimistic, and hopeful as I can be that the experience is carefully developed to be honest, descriptive, and open to a strong partnership with the County, State and moreover, members of this community.

A major point is to show our visual strengths; cleerly that includes our transportation center, the surrounding areas that would support commercia growth and mostly, our largely fragmentally defined waterfront assets.

It looks like the Sound Shore Medical Center, specifically, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program will present a 4 hour workshop in concert with our local health club, Retrofit, on September 29 in the SSMC Auditorium located on Grover Johnson Place. The hours appear to be between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Some areas to be address and actually open to audience participation are (1) exercising, (b) healthy cooking, and (c) healthy eating.

More information will surely follow and Talk of the Sound will be one source of up to the minute information. I encourage you to reserve space once the full details are known and I trust the City will include this positive expression of Community Sponsoring on their communication links.

This is how things should generally work. What it does is put the question of large vs small government into play, but not so much in absolute terms, but in relative terms. The second proposal on the Armory is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse or at least not reworking the proposal to make it more community accessible.

Do you really think there still are free lunches in these unsettled times? No, that went out with good government and selfless politicians. You only need to be blitzerkrieged by Wolf or given the bumsrush by Rush to know otherwise.

A few evenings ago I was bathed in stardust listening to the majesty of Les Miserables. To the barricades they went and, when it was all said and done, good triumphed over evil, sacrifice trumped selfishness, and all was right with the world.

Then I turned the set off.

When I awoke it was the same old things. The order of business once again, was divisiveness and "breaking news" kept on its petty pace repeating over and over again, the social misery of the day. This one misspoke, off with his damn head, that one filed a suit for damages based on a physical similarity to Kim Kardashian, and while Barack and Mitt fiddled, the nation burned.