| Issue #32, November 3, 2006 |
Names, Names
Who’s the Democrat? Who’s the Republican? Surprised?
By Dan Rattiner
Anyone who thinks that the name a parent gives a child does not later on mold his or her behavior, has only to look at the case of two politicians in this county who are running for State office.
One of them is Treewolf West of Port Jefferson who is running for the State Assembly in this district. The other is Mike Comando of Southold, who is running for the State Senate, also from this district.
It would be nice to get these two together in the same room and hear them debate the latest issues. But that is not going to happen. If they both win, (the outcome was unknown at press time) they will be doing their debating in separate wings at opposite ends of the State Capitol building.
“We must preserve our forests and woodlands, protect our endangered birds and animals, unilaterally disarm, feed the hungry, help the poor, and reduce the military,” will ring out in senatorial tones from the State Senate.
“We must protect our country and fight those who would destroy our precious democracy. We must build the strongest military in the world. The power of the bomb is the only thing that these barbarian savages who would overturn our way of life understand,” will ring out in assemblatory tones from the State Assembly.
For this is America.
Mike Comando’s father was Biff Comando, the famous environmentalist who saved the tree frogs of northern California from the lumber interests in the 1960s. He named his son Mike to remind him of all the microphones he spoke on while standing in the cold protest lines in the Atlas Mountains just north of Eureka as they paralyzed the home building business for six weeks in 1970.
“Never forget,” was Biff’s motto.
Treewolf West’s father was General Fallingwater West, a half Cherokee who won the Medal of Honor and earned his fourth star at the Battle of the Hankung Reservoir in North Korea in 1951, when he rescued an entire battalion by shooting his way single-handedly into a cave guarded by more than 400 enemy soldiers and then leading the men to safety. He named his son Treewolf in memory of the American Tree Wolf sniper unit that massacred a whole entire division of Japs as they came ashore to reinforce the beleaguered Japanese army on Guadalcanal in 1944.
“Never forget,” was Fallingwater’s motto.
What? You say I’ve got this backwards?
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