TO NOTE THE PASSING OF MARIO CUOMO

   I remember Mario Cuomo, former Governor of New York State and Italian-American son from Queens, with pride. As Governor, he upheld the liberal ideal in New York through the Reagan era, a more conservative time in the greater country. Notably, although he worked with the Republicans in New York State government, Governor Mario Cuomo resisted the death penalty on a repeated basis, often suffering politically for it, as well. At the time, the left in New York criticized him for an increasing prison population, but appreciated the resistance to the death penalty. After Governor Cuomo lost his position after his third term to the Republican, George Pataki, the death penalty was re-instated in New York. The penalty was never used, however, before the New York State Court of Appeals struck it down a few years later. It has never been re-instated since, although the federal death penalty does have jurisdiction over New York, currently.
   Also, I feel proud of Mario Cuomo for his accomplishments in the City of New York as an Italian-American, born in Queens, who became a successful attorney on his way into politics. My own Italian-American grandfather, Rocco Piraino, became an attorney in Brooklyn and the courts of Manhattan some years before Mario Cuomo did in New York City, as well. On my father's side, my grandfather's family, Frank Patti, owned a shop in Little Italy in Manhattan. Then, he married my English and Scottish grandmother, Ruth Hillier, also in Queens, New York. My father, John Patti, grew up in Brooklyn, attended City College in Manhattan of the City University of New York (CUNY), and became a civilian engineer for the United States Air Force at Rome Air Base in Rome, New York, in Oneida County. I became an activist on the left, a poet, an alternative journalist, and a fallen man--homeless and a psychiatric survivor--but never losing hope. For all of the accomplishments in my family, none of us became the Governor of New York who also carried the torch for the Democratic left nationally during the height of the Reagan Era. Mario Cuomo did.
   Thus, it is with pride that I note the passing of Mario Cuomo, former Governor of New York State and New York City local kid made good.
   A good obituary for Mario Cuomo, died Thursday, January 1, 2015, can be found in The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC), published in the paper on January 2.

--Nicholas Patti
Charlotte, NC

Letter to Editor Published

I published a letter to the editor in last Friday's Charlotte Observer (7/18/2014, Charlotte, NC). In the letter, I comment on the new, NC state voter laws, and specifically, on the photo ID provision. The link follows:

Letter to Editor

POEM: World Cup

World Cup

I

loved watching
 
the
United States
 
World
Cup team
 
play
soccer.
 
Their
game
 
was
unique:
 
they
usually
 
did
not care
 
about
possession
 
in
the midfield,
 
so
they were

usually
on the
 
defensive.
Then
 
they
would
 
flip
the

tables

and
 
advance
to
 
offense
on the
 
fast
break
 
down
the field
 
to
the
 
net.
They
 
were
the
 
fastest
players
 
in
the
 
world,
and
 
they
had
 
the
best goalkeeper
 
anywhere.
Other
 
teams,
the haughty
 
Europeans,
for
 
example,
would
 
just
sit there
 
and
dominate
 
possession
in
 
the
midfield
 
forever,
feeling
 
superior,
but
 
wholly
unable
 
to
break
 
through
with
 
a
goal.
 
That
is why

it
was
 
so
heartbreaking

to

see
 
the
U.S. team
 
lose
in

extra
time
 
to
Belgium.
 
Just
devastating.
 
Now,
I have
 
to
watch
 
them
all play

not
haughty football,
 
but
what
 
I
would call
 
arrogant
soccer.
 
No
more
 
Team
USA

to

shock
 
the
world
 
with
their
 
goals
and
 
their
wins

as
the
 
great
underdog
 
triumphs.
No
 
more.
Now
 
it’s
just

arrogant
soccer,
 
all
tournament
 
long.


—Nicholas Patti

POEM: Tea at 36,000 Feet

 

Tea at 36,000 Feet 

The
fold-down tray table
 
on
this

trans-continental
flight
 
from
Charlotte, NC,
 
to
Salt Lake City, UT,
 
is
full.
 
There
is still room,
 
however,
for
 
a
small
 
cup
of tea
 
in
the
 
front-
right section
 
of
the fold-down
 
table.
It is
 
premium
Bigelow,

100%

Ceylon
 
Tea,
served
 
in a
half-size,
 
Styrofoam,
Delta Airlines-brand,
 
Seattle’s Best
Coffee
 
cup.
The tea
 
was
delicious—
 
with
a little
 
creamer
and
 
a
little
 
sweetener—
and
 
the
flight
 
was
a little
 
choppy,
but
 
not bad.
Each
 
seat
was
 
full,
and
 
we
landed—
 
four
hours
 
later—
safely.
 
 
—Nicholas Patti

POEM: A Carolina Moon

A Carolina Moon
 
 
A
full moon
 
shines
brightly
 
in
the black
 
night
sky
 
outside
my

bedroom
window.
 
It
hangs high
 
over
a trove
 
of
trees
 
nearby
in this
 
apartment
complex.
 
No,
this is
 
not
a story
 
of
any
 
seedy
underbelly
 
of
life
 
in
the
 
working-
class,
 
in
the
 
New
South,
 
detailing
rogue
 
figures
and
 
outlaws
and
 
drugs
and
 
prostitution
and
 
all
that.
 
No,
this is

just
a
 
story
of
 
the
Carolina moon—
 
how
bright,
 
how
beautiful
 
above
the
 
darkened
trees.
 
It
is
 
hard
to
 
imagine
someone
 
escaping
this place—
 
a
slave

 

running
in the
 
underground
railroad
 
in
the
 
antebellum
South,
 
headed
North,
 
or
a
 
mass
migration

in
the
 
early
twentieth-
 
century,
away
 
from
old
 
Jim
Crow.
 
It
is
 
hard
to imagine,
 
even
if
 
entirely
understandable.
 
Why?
Simply
 
because
no
 
moon
shines
 
so
bright,
 
so
beautiful
 
in
the dark

night
sky
 
as
this
 
Carolina
moon
 
tonight.


—Nicholas Patti

Libraries, Culture, and Teacher Pay Raises Worth Paying For

Open letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC):


In response to "County Sends Sales Tax to Ballot" (June 18):

   As host city for Bank of America and Duke Energy, Charlotte sees some significant levels of capital flowing around town. So what does it mean to be poor, working class, and middle class here?

   Everyone—from the homeless to the 99% to the 1%—benefits from a better public library, for example. The book budget allows the library to stay current and relevant, establishing its basic value for the community. Expanded service to six days year-round means that Charlotte children have someplace positive and productive to go for an extra day each week—either with parents or when parents are away at work during the summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   All of us Charlotte and Mecklenburg residents deserve a better library, one more on the same scale as the highly concentrated wealth this city possesses.

   So the majority of Mecklenburg County Commissioners are asking the 99% to pay the bulk of it? It is not a perfect world. It is time for us all to step up, vote yes, and pay for what we need—and deserve.

 

—Nicholas Patti

 

 

POETRY IN NEW ANTHOLOGY

     Two new poems of mine have appeared in a new anthology, released in November, 2013, entitled The Best of the Final Friday Reading Series, 2012-2013. The collection is edited by Jonathan K. Rice and M. Scott Douglass, and published by Main Street Rag Publishing Company in Charlotte, NC. Their website is www.MainStreetRag.com.
     The book collects poems from the poetry open mic and featured reading at Vin Master in Charlotte, NC. I have two poems included. They are, "When Drowning," and "Ode to a Sunny, Back-lawn Terrace in Charlotte in November."
     An excerpt follows:

When drowning,
it is

important
to

tread
water.

...

    Check out my poems and this book full of good poetry. Go to Main Street Rag (above) and purchase/request your copy today!

--Nicholas Patti
   Charlotte, NC