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Munafo 's school budget vote
founded in fundamentalism
- EG
F^
•JE:
CORNER
By Paul Gauvin
pgauvin@barnstablepatriot.com
Four men seated at a picnic table are arguing
vehemently about the local school budget. Finally,
one man blurts out that to settle the argument, they
should have a vote. All agree, and it turns out be
a three to one. "See?" says one of three to the lone
dissenter, "You're wrong."
But the lone voter plods on. "I'm right ,"he insists
"and toprove it Til ask God who iscorrect."He looks
up to the heavens and asks "God,who isright?" The
clouds separate and a booming voice exclaims, "You
are!" and the clouds close once again.
"I told you," says the lone voter. "God says I'm
right. "
To ivhich one of the three voters says: "So what!
It's still three to two. "
* * *
Therein he the travailsofTown Councilor James
Munafo of Hyannis, an elected official convinced
he is right but as often finding himself on the
lonesome side of the town council vote.
Hislatest minority vote was apuzzler -the only
councilor to vote againstthe school budget, which
is not such a strange thing in itself, particularly
where he is concerned. The reasons behind the
vote are an oblique matter.
A press report noted that Munafo balked at
explaining his nay vote when asked to do so by
Councilor Tom Rugo. But, Munafo said in an
interview last week, that wasn't the case. "It was
getting late but I was ready to start explaining
it when Councilor (Richard ) Barry stepped up
and objected . I was ready. I could talk about it
all day."
Which, nearing 11p.m., is a good enough reason
for Barry 's objection.
To understand Munafo 's opposition to the
public school budget , one must first "try"to un-
derstand Munafo .a devout Christian to the point
that he and his wife began to home-school their
four children after the 4th Grade because they
had issues with the public curriculum,particularly
teachings the Munafosbelieved were not "family
friendly and outside the scope of our faith."
What does that mean? "We can't answer what
marriage was or what it is now," he says. Mean-
ing? The issue of gay marriage. There are other
fundamental issues too, such as evolution. "We
thought our children would be better taught
through church and family,"he says. The children
were home-schooled until "we were fortunate
enough to get them in the New Testament Chris-
tian School in Cedarville."Of his two eldest , a son,
is at Mass. Maritime Academy and a daughter at
Cape Cod Community College.
"You see they are public schools. We're more
concerned with the (more formative) early child-
hood education. " His wife stayed home to school
their children while Munafo worked several jobs
to keep the family afloat financially.
"Do you consider yourself out of the main-
stream?" he is asked.
"Oh, big time,"is his candid reply. But it'shard
to tell these days, given President Bush's elec-
tion base of conservative Christians whether it
is Munafo who is out of the mainstream , or the
rest of us as the battle for the minds and hearts
of the masses rages. "Look at the standards of
50 years ago and I'd be in the mainstream ," he
professes.
Munafo 's pronouncements take on a mission-
ary's zeal when it comes to the fundamental s of
public finance and philosophy, his values heavily
influenced by religion versus "people who can
have a philosophy but no religion."
During the interview, the councilor couched
some of his beliefs in vague terminology such
as "family values." But with coaxing he'll admit
to some so-called politically incorrect observa-
tions, such as the state "taking away the mental
institution leaving us now with a slew of home-
less issues."
To compress many minutes of discourse into
space this column can accommodate , Munafo 's
reasons for voting against the school budget en-
compass roughly theseviews: Current curriculum
does not meet his ideas of what education should
be; the municipality should be more a rugged
individual and not take money from the state so
it can control its own educational destiny; teach-
ers and school systems need not be criticized
because education is a parent's responsibility
and, in the final analysis, Munafo will not vote a
school budget until its fiscal and philosophical
outlooks match his.
But even as he may feel God is on his side, the
vote, for the foreseeable future , will still be 12-2.
BY ELLEN C. CHAHEY
columnist(a)barnstablepatnot.com
D
oes anyone remember the con-
scientious objectors? They are
patriots too.
During World War II, one of my
mother 's cousins, a son of immigrants,
chose the "CO" option. His service to
the country was to eat experimental
low- and high-calorie diets. My mother,
a daughter of immigrants , told me
about Ted showing up once in a while
either scrawny or fat for our country.
He wound up marrying the dietician
who designed his diets.
In our college years, I met the man
who is now my husband. There was a
war going on then , too , and for the last
time in recent history, there was a draft ,
based upon birth dates. He - we - drew
number five.
Canada? Jail? CO status?
Again, it was about living in and lov-
ing the United States and also hating
war. After reading some heartfelt let-
ters from journalism professors , one of
whom was a military officer and one of
whom wrote a column for a conserva-
tive newspaper , a draft board agreed
that we as a nation were respecting
a conscientious objector , not a draft
dodger.
Once the CO status was granted , the
deal was that he - we - for two years
could not accept any job that would ad-
vance his career. Because he did not as-
pire to work for a hospital , he accepted
a job offer to do his alternative service
at Children 's Hospital in Boston. We
discovered later that a top executive
there had been a conscientious objec-
tor during another war.
My husband did so well in his as-
signments at Children 's that he stayed
for 15 years, during which he helped
manage programs for children who
were physically ill and for those with
learning problems. He helped to set up
a developmental screening program
for children in one of Boston's poorest
neighborhoods. While many others in
the city were enjoying a few days off
during the blizzard of 1978. he joined
his colleagues to help the hospital and
its little patients.
The President at the time announced
an end to the draft something like two
weeks before my husband' s CO status
would have ended anyway. With a sense
of humor, on the last day of his service
I bought a remnant of red carpet and
rolled it down the hallway of the apart-
ment where we lived then. But we both
knew that as he walked it , he could
walk proudly.
When my husband and I die, we will
not be entitled to plots in a national
cemetery or flag logos in our obituar-
ies. We fly the flag, though , and we love
the United States of America , where
my family is so new that my father 's
parents never even learned to speak
English.
We live in violent times. I personally
have had to fight to defend myself, and
I'd do it again.
Yet there 's another task for us. Re-
member the conscientious objectors.
The Rev. Ellen C Chahey is Minister of Spiritual Care
at Federated Church ot Hyannis.
INOTHER
WJDS
LETTERS
Council's law violates
homeowners1
rights
The Barnst able Town Council
has attacked our homes.
Last Thursday night the
Barnstable Town Council passed
a new law that will control
how many people can live in
our homes. I find this new law,
which will give them the power
to fine us $300 a day, intrusive
and unconstitutional. In terms
of how many per bedroom , the
rule states: two for the first two
4
bedrooms and one for the third ,
fourt h, fifth , etc. Do the math:
in a three-bedroom home , five
is the limit now.
In a time of economic hard-
ship, many adult children need
to remain or return home to
make ends meet. According to
this new law, larger families no
longer have the right to have all
of their adult children , parents,
siblings or other loved ones stay
with them in a time of need
because this is now against the
law.
We've all been reading about
how difficult it is for young
adults to make it here on Cape
Cod and how we have a problem
with them moving off Cape. It
seems to me that this is not a
concern of our Town Councilors
who are now makingit alaw that
a number of our children must
leave the Cape as they will not
be allowed to live at home any
longer.
The reasoning for this new law
was to address a few instances of
overcrowding problems, namely
inHyannis.One examplereferred
to a rental that had 27 people liv-
ing in it. Town Councilor Harold
Tobey saidthat there was no way
that something like this could
be stopped without this new
law. I disagree with this. The fire
department could have come
in and declared it a fire safety
situation. The department of
publichealth could have comein
as well. The police can certainly
deal with disturbing the peace
CONTINUED ON PAGE A:14
Letters to the editor I
The Barnst able Patriot welcomes let-
ters to the editor. Please keep them brief
and either type or print them neatly.
Include name , address and telephone
number. Anonymous letters will not be
published , but names will be withheld
upon request. We reserve the right to
edit all submissions.
THE BARNSTABLE PATRIOT
P.O. BOX 1208. HYANNIS. MA 02601
COMMENTARY
By Rick Prebrey
www.haconcape.org
"I never saw a40BI didn't like,"the head of
a town housing committee told me today.
After a moment's thought , I agreed.
I think it is a terrific law. The more time
goes by, the more I see the wisdom in it.
First , because towns deserve it for the pa-
thetically little they have done to make sure
all their citizens have had safe and decent
places to live for the 35 years since the law
was passed. No number of questionable 40B
proposals willever equal the shameful neglect
that those needing housing have suffered.
Second, because the deck is so overwhelm-
ingly stacked against the development of
housing that is affordable for the typical
household earning below the median income.
Almost all the state and federal housing
programs of the past 30 years have disap-
peared or been shrunken into irrelevancy.
There is a long list of programs that I knew
well that are gone. Thousands of potential
units have been lost on Cape Cod alone.
Zoning for multifamily rentals? "Hell no!"
Sewer systems? "I'mnot paying- and besides,
they will cause growth." {But haven 't we had
grow th anyway?)
Third , because the public will rarely lift
a finger to help or support the creation of
more than one unit at a time, yet will scream
bloody murder about any proposal that they
perceive has even the slightest effect on
them. No matter that dozens might for the
first time in their lives get a decent place
to live, it they fear the development might
affect their property values! I didn't think
that having a decent place to live was about
property values. Try living on the street and
investing in something else.
Fourth, most of those whining about 40B's
wouldn't recognize one if they saw it. There
are about 88 40B projects providing useful
housing for families and senior citizens on
the Cape , many of which were rental devel-
opments built more than 20 years ago. Do
you object to those? Can you name three?
Do you even know where they are?
Fifth , if I hear one more time how much
a 40B will hurt the environment or violate
zoning I may jump off the top floor of the
new Cape Cod Hospital addition. I'll say
it once more: The damage to the environ-
ment and the corruption of zoning done
by 40B is meaningless compared to what
non-affordable development has done. //
the Cape is being ruined , it is not from new
affordable homes. Less than 2 1/2 percent
of the residential housing on the Cape has
been developed using 40B and that doesn't
even consider the additional development
which has been commercial.
Sixth,other than payingthe lawyers to fight
against it, 40B doesn't cost anything. What
about kids in school, you say? 40B is not a
fertility program. There are no new kids as
a result of 40B. But, a healthy place to live
helps kids who are here stay healthy, helps
kids do better in school; helps kids become
better employees and be more likely to sup-
port themselves and others. Try getting rid
of 40B and then paying the additional costs
related to people having no place to live.
Seventh , how about fairness? Doesn't it
seem fair that in a great country like this
that everyone has a decent place to live?
Don't like the sound of that? How about
this: Doesn't it seem fair that a 35-year-old
couple who are both workingfull time should
be able to afford a decent home? Doesn't it
seem reasonable that an 80-year-old should
be able to rent an apartment that s/he can
afford for the last years of his/her life ?
Eighth , the Cape has a huge problem with
young people leaving because of high hous-
ing costs. We are losing our educated labor
force and the quality of many services is
already suffering.
Ninth, lots of the 40B proposal s you read
about inthe paper are no big deal. You should
listen to some of the complaints closely the
way I sometimes have to. Some neighbors
showed up to complain about one proposed
12-unit project , for those over 55 years old ,
because it might impact parking for the lo-
cal Cape League team's home games even
though the development isn't even on the same
street! If you keep track of the proposals ,
which sometimes seem to be objectionable
on some rational basis, most are dramatically
changed during the permitting process or
many never get built at all.
40B. although not perfect , has been a valu-
able tool for decades. Now is the time to see it
the way it really is and to use it creatively to
help solve our pressing housing problem.
Report s of the need to kill it are greatly-
exaggerated.
Rick Presbrey is the Executive Director ot Hous-
ing Assistance Corporation. He can be reached at
rpresbrey@haconcapecod.org.
Nine reasons to like
Chapter 40B
ACROSS TIME 6PLACE
n
RETROSPECTIVES FROM THE ARCHIVES
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reserve M m 508-394-6811
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