Reader feedback 3.2.05

NO CRISIS

$1.4 trillion dollars.

            This amount
of money has now been saved in the Social Security Trust Fund to pay benefits
to future retirees. More money is paid into the Trust Fund every year, and it
is growing. The money is held in the form of government bonds which pay
interest at an average rate of 6 percent per year.

            At some
future date, the amount of money that the Social Security Administration pays
out in benefits may exceed the amount that it collects from the Social Security
tax on employees and employers. At that point, the money in the Trust Fund will
be used to make up the difference.

            According
to one well-publicized estimate made by the trustees of the Social Security
Trust Fund, Social Security will be able to continue paying full benefits for
the next 37 years before the fund is exhausted. After that, the trustees
project, the Social Security tax will continue to be collected and benefits
will continue to be paid, but at an estimated rate of 73 percent of full
benefits.

            These basic
facts disprove the theory promoted by President Bush that the Social Security
System is in a financial crisis that demands immediate attention.

            The
trustees’ forecast is based on assumptions regarding the changes in a host of
variables over the next 37 years. An increase in life expectancy causes Social
Security to pay out more in benefits. An increase in wages enables the Fund to
collect more money. An increase in the rate of inflation increases the payout.
Can the forecasters predict with certainty the changes in these variables (and
many others) over the next 37 years? Neither the trustees nor President Bush
has a crystal ball.

            In fact,
according to an unpublicized estimate made by the trustees, the Fund will never run out of money and the crisis
will never happen at all if the increase in life expectancy is a little less,
if the rate of inflation is a little less, and if the increase in wages is a
little greater, over the next 37 years.

            The Social
Security system is not in crisis now, and it may never be. There is no
emergency that must be dealt with immediately. If it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it!

            Paul Van Ness, Rochester

CHANGING PITTSFORD

In the article “Growing, Growing…
Gone?” (on Pittsford’s rural character, February 16),
developer Chuck Ryan states: “People always use the term, ‘Well, we’re
going to change the character of the neighborhood.’ That’s true. We are. We’re
going to change it for the better.”

            How is
raping the land, irrevocably destroying wildland that
is already in short supply to further expand an already glutted market (in spite of widespread protest from local citizens)
in order to see your business profit, a change for the better?

            If Ryan’s
intent were to truly change a neighborhood for the better, he could set his
sights on abandoned, crumbling, and uglified urban
and suburban areas, instead of seeking to destroy unspoiled lands abutting one
of our most lovely natural spaces.

            Cindy Gilchrist, Springwater

BAND BOX JAZZ

In reading Ron Netsky’s “Jazz
Italian Style” (February 9), I felt compelled to set the record straight
about an event that two contributors to the article mistakenly identified. Both
Chris Melito and Gap Mangione
referred to going to an establishment on State Street
across from Kodak in 1956 to listen to Clifford Brown’s Quintet including Sonny
Rollins and Max Roach.

            The
accurate name of the establishment was the Band Box, and it was owned and
operated by my father, Lou Noce. My father was a
theatrical agent before he opened the Band Box in 1955, and in addition to
Clifford Brown performing there just months before Brown was tragically killed
in a car accident, my father booked Erroll Gardner,
Teddy Wilson, Hampton Hawes, Mel Torme, and scores of
contemporary jazz performers.

            I have
memories of being at the Band Box as a young boy on Sunday afternoons listening
to jam sessions, and remember the sign above the door which read “The Band
Box, Where Great Jazz Is a Tradition.”

            Thanks,
Ron, for a trip down memory lane.

            Charles T. Noce,
Pittsford

ITALIANS’ JAZZ

Thank you and Ron Netsky for the
wonderful article calling attention to the Italian-American Jazz tradition in Rochester
(“Jazz Italian Style,” February 9).

            I have been
involved with Italian-American cultural activities for over a dozen years. As a
third-generation Italian American, I’ve always been perplexed by the
Italian-American willingness to celebrate the Italian cultural roots of DaVinci, Machiavelli, and Puccini while ignoring the
historic contributions of Italian-American icons such as filmmaker Frank Capra,
statesman Vito Marcantonio, and composer Harry Warren
(born Salvatore Guaragna).

            Five years
ago, I created a radio program at Jazz 90.1 titled “The Sunday Music Festa” to celebrate the Italian-American legacy in
song. I wanted the program to focus not on Italian folk songs or operatic
classics like “O Sole Mio” or “Non Ti ScordardiMe” but on the
Italian-American contributions to popular music and jazz. I knew of the vast
contributions made to American popular song by Italian-American musicians and
was anxious to shine a spotlight on these talented artists. Rochester
has had a great tradition of Italian radio programs since the 1930s but none
covered the Italian-American contributions to America’s
music.

            In addition
to local and regional artists like Gap and Chuck Mangione,
the Vitale Brothers, Mike Melito, Dino Losito and Gus Mancuso, the Festa
features music by jazz legends like Joe Venuti, Buddy
DeFranco, Vince Guaraldi,
and Flip Phillips (Joseph Filipelli). We celebrate
pop legends like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, and
Connie Francis as well. Listeners call in every week to tell
me how much they enjoy the music and, of course, many of them are not
Italian American.

            While there
were indeed cultural factors that contributed to the heavy participation of
groups such as African Americans, Italian Americans, and Jewish Americans to
the popular music of our country, in the end the beauty of music is that it
thrives without racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice. Music is indeed the
unifying language of humanity.

            Otto W. Bruno Jr., Irondequoit (Bruno hosts “The Sunday Music Festa” on WGMC radio, noon to 3 p.m.
Sundays.)

WRITING TO CITY

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This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2005.