Our Friends in Montauk, Manhattan, and beyond:
As if he didn’t already have enough to do, we are going to ask President Obama to establish a new national observance, to be celebrated annually on June 6th, to be called “D-DAY WW2 REMEMBRANCE + INTERNATIONAL TOMATO PLANTING DAY.”
D-Day, of course, refers to the WW2 invasion of Normandy (France) by American, British, Canadian, and other allied forces, on 6-6-1944.
D-Day was the turning point in WW2, because the War couldn’t end until Hitler and his henchmen were unconditionally defeated. FDR rightly understood that America had to focus, first, on defeating Germany before we could defeat Japan, which had attacked Pearl Harbor on 12-7-1941, “a date which will live in infamy,” as President Roosevelt so famously put it.
The 2nd part of our proposed new national observance – INTERNATIONAL TOMATO PLANTING DAY – was inspired by the calendar and by the climate.
We want to make our new observance international (celebrated in the USA and Canada), so we had to pick a date when it would be warm enough, throughout the continental USA and southern Canada, to plant tomatoes outdoors.
We concluded that the obvious date for INTERNATIONAL TOMATO PLANTING DAY is June 6th, because there could be no better way to celebrate and commemorate our victory at Normandy, on 6-6-1944, than by the peaceful pursuit of planting tomatoes.
According to law, the President of the USA can declare national observances, which are days of commemoration which do not entail getting a day off from work; “holidays” are days when work is cancelled (e.g., New Year’s Day and President’s Day).
The reason why we care about tomato planting is that we are passionate about the CROTON TOMATO PROJECT, sponsored by our nonprofit, the 4 A BETTER WESTCHESTER + NYS ASSOCIATION, INC.; our slogan is TAKE BACK OUR FUTURE, NOW! (which is also our web address: www.TakeBackOurFutureNow.org.)
THE CROTON TOMATO PROJECT involves growing different varieties of tomatoes from seeds (sold by Park Seed Company, Burpee Seeds and Hart’s Seeds); we grow about 200 plants each year, some of which we keep for ourselves, and some of which we give away to individuals or organizations (such as the Food Bank for Westchester, which has 5 gardens for growing food and vegetables).
Last year, we started charging government officials $1/tomato plant (which covered our expenses for seeds, soil and supplies) because NYS is in the midst of a political earthquake, called the “Corridor of Corruption” scandal. FYI, the “corridor” is the NYS Thruway, which connects downstate with ALBANY, where the corruption – trading legislative favors for cash, jobs, and other favors – takes place.
Since we are lobbying Senators and Assembly-members for 2 bills (to name the new Tappan Zee Bridge the FRANKLIN AND ELEANOR ROOSEVELT BRIDGE, and to authorize the NY DMV to issue gift cards for vanity license plates), we decided that to protect ourselves, and the elected officials to whom we had previously given tomato plants for free, we would charge all government officials $1/plant. That way, it’s a business transaction, and not a gift, and therefore, legally, it couldn’t be a bribe.
You can never be too careful with this stuff, and the government officials to whom we sold plants were glad that we insisted that they pay the $1/plant fee by check, so there would be a written record of their payment.
Every1 who grew our tomato plants, including government officials, loved them! The orange skinned cherry tomato plants are prolific and easy to grow; the tomatoes are so delectably-delicious that people eat them right off the vine!
This year we hope to interest the “TODAY Show,” on NBC, which loves to celebrate such observances as “National Meatball Day,” in celebrating D-DAY WW2 OBSERVANCE + INTERNATIONAL TOMATO PLANTING DAY.
Besides, we could offer Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie (who host “TODAY”) 8 tomato plants, which they could grow in containers on the terraces at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, in midtown Manhattan, which is where the “TODAY Show” studio is located. They could have a “tomato cam” to show the plants’ progress, and once they start bearing fruit (the tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable), they could share the delectably-delicious tomatoes among the cast.
We would offer 8 plants because 8 is a lucky number for the Chinese: it connotes prosperity. The “TODAY Show,” which is struggling with ABC’s “Good Morning America” for dominance of the morning news shows, could use some good luck, some prosperity, and something new – the cast (with our help) would grow some of their own food!
Stay tuned; I shall let you know how this all turns out in the July issue of The Montauk Sun. It’s a long shot, but long shots sometimes win.
