THE SENIOR MEN'S CLUB OF NEW CANAAN
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of March 15, 2002
President Lee Hindenach opened the business meeting at 10:02 on a cool, gray morning with 115 members present. Total membership is 500, and the waiting list is up to 47.
Membership Concerns: Marv Newman is at Waveny, recuperating from hip surgery. Former member Max Sidey's wife has died. Rod Keagy asked our best wishes for Rollie Swanson,
whose last meeting is today. Rollie is moving to Longmeadow, MA after 18 years in SMC. We wish him Godspeed, and a tranquil landing at journey's end.
Activities: Bowling today will finish in time to watch the Uconn game. Bridge as ever. 4F's this month at the Red Barn in Westport. Golf is tentatively scheduled to begin in late May at NCCC, with a possible warm up at Oak Hills in Norwalk in late April. Paddle as usual, and the Racquetball snowbirds are returning. Trailblazers have available a schedule for the year. There are two outings per month, a level walk each second Wednesday with a more three-dimensional hike every fourth Wednesday. Friends are welcome to both.
Couth. Bob Wosahla has room for the Washington trip in April. The Bronx Zoo is on for May 14th, with lunch at Mario's on Arthur Avenue. And June 12th we voyage to the Goodspeed
Opera House, with lunch at Gelston House. The theater trip to see "Oklahoma" is now October, allowing for a visit to West Point in November for a game with Air Force and other festivities.
Announcements: Bob Shafter asked us to vote in today's referendum. Lee announced again the LWV seminar Monday at 10:00. Dick Bond advised that BHC, our water utility, will implement a drought contingency plan. The first phase of it will be voluntary, seeking a 15% reduction in usage. Charlie Morris reminded us of the annual meeting and anniversary celebration, wives invited, May 3rd at the New Canaan Country Club. Invitations will be in the mail next week.
Resident Humorist: John Berg, who apparently previews his humor at home, confided that Mrs. Berg was sick of dumb blonde jokes and had encouraged John to build a repertoire of "dumb man" jokes. He told six of them, one liners, with which the membership identified, nervously.
SPEAKER
Speaker: VP Bert Liebelt introduced our Darien neighbor John Simon, since 1995 the president of the CT Civil Liberties Union; he was accompanied by Teresa Younger, executive director of the CCLU. John spoke about civil liberties and national security. He acknowledged the need for heightened security now but said it did not have to impinge on our rights. However, the freedoms of our Constitution, which make the US the best place on earth to live, are now and constantly under siege. John finds the administration, particularly Mr. Ashcroft, to be dangerously anti-libertarian. Restraints on civil liberties, such as detentions, are advertised as "temporary", but they tend to endure and multiply, as witness the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII.
John also quoted a NY Times article deploring military tribunals as an "end run around the Constitution". Finally, he expressed concern with the surveillance aspects of the anti-terrorism directive of last October, which he found ripe for abuse. In closing he asked that we question our government's actions. He favors more security, but open security, and he is concerned that the terrorists' actions will force restrictions on our own essential freedoms.
Peter Schurman - Assistant Secretary