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Well, after taking a hiatus from this blog over the fall (travel, a cat that had leg surgery and the consequent rehab, the holidays), here I am once again and ready to rant. The problem is – where to start?
I guess I’ll begin by addressing some of the things that went on over the months that I wasn’t writing. Hurricane Sandy swept through, leaving me with nothing worse than the frame of my greenhouse being knocked over. Thankfully, since it’s a plastic cover type of kit greenhouse, it only took us a couple of hours to right the frame, secure it back in the ground and rescue the cover.
Sandy did leave one interesting thing in her wake – a surprising and welcome departure from the lockstep of the GOP just prior to the election. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie actually stood up to the party bosses and Fox News. Seems that he actually remembered who he was working for, and who gave him his job – the people of New Jersey. He was indefatigable, touring devastated areas all over the state, offering what aid and comfort he could. When asked in a Fox News interview if he thought that Mitt Romney was planning any relief events, Christie actually had the brass to say “don’t know, don’t care and oh by the way, President Obama has been great”. His reward for his unstinting dedication to his hurting residents, and giving props to the President? Sniping by the Romney campaign, who castigated Christie for not showing up at a Romney campaign event. While the Romney staffers seemed to feel that Christie didn’t have his priorities in order, I for one was highly impressed with the man – so much so that I began to think of him as a Republican that I could actually consider supporting as a presidential contender.
Alas, the romance for me was short-lived. Right after President Obama’s inauguration speech, Christie rejoined the lockstep brigade by denouncing the speech as a manifesto for a coming four years of “my way or the highway”. Really, Gov. Christie? As I recall, that’s how your party behaved during the last four years. Pity – I was really beginning to admire you.
Jim Trezise of Penn Yan has been the President of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation since 1985 and President of the International Riesling Foundation since 2011.
