“Spirit of Thomas Paine” Award Dinner – Dick Morris is Keynote Speaker

Dick Morris receives “In the Spirit of Thomas Paine” Award

Tonight the Thomas Paine Cottage Museum and the Huguenot and New Rochelle Historical Association had their annual dinner at the VIP Country Club on Davenport Road. It was a well attended and beautiful event. Dick Morris mingled with the crowd and posed for photographs. The Director of Thomas Paine Cottage, John R. Wright, hosted the event with his committee.

The selection of Dick Morris as an award recipient created a controversy that even reached Ethiopia! Here is an article, originally published in the UK Guardian, in the Ethiopian Review.

Dick Morris was awarded the “In the Spirit of Thomas Paine” award to the attentive crowd. Trinity St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Metro Med, and Sydelle & Norman Herzberg each received the “Community Leadership Award”.

It turns out that Dick Morris was born in New Rochelle and lived here until he was three, when his parents moved to New York City. And his grandfather was a Huguenot.

Morris spoke about the evolution of communication in politics. He said Paine elevated the pamphlet as a form of political communication. The invention of the printing press allowed for wider communication. Paine’s pamphlets were easy to read, short and compelling, Morris said, and a new form of political communication, something like today’s tv ads.

Lincoln perfected the political speech and presidential letter, Morris said. Roosevelt used the radio and his fireside chats to reach people. Kennedy, with his good looks and articulate way of speaking, used television to reach the electorate. Morris said that Paine was in his “pantheon of heroes” and appreciated how “a pamphlet could be used to set a country free”. The pamphlets were effective tools to rally a cause and develop a consensus.

He spoke of how the British and colonists battled in Boston, New York, New Jersey and how the Hessians pushed Washington to Philadelphia. The Colonists were down to 3000-4000 troops and the British had 40,000 soldiers, including British and Hessians. It was winter and times were rough.

Paine wrote “These are times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.” This helped to rally the troops. Morris credited Paine’s pamphlets as important to the success of the Revolutionary War as French aid and French troops, because they formed a public consensus which is a very powerful phenomenon.

According to Morris, Paine felt that as long as the war continued, the colonists were winning and that back home in Britain the thought of a war continuing would not sit well with the British parliament and general population.

Dick Morris — Speaks about Current Events

Morris said he was honored to accept the award and considered Paine a role model. Then he compared the Revolutionary War times to today and said we are in the midst of a time when we are being asked to surrender things that make the United States unique, our personal liberties. He spoke of how the Obama administration has taken the United States to have 1/3 of the economy controlled by the government in 2008 to 45% now. The government is continuing to more towards taking more control. People at the tables began to buzz in disagreement, but Morris continued.

Morris warned about the government take over of health care. He said that in Canada there is an 8 months wait to be treated for colon cancer and that 42% of the colon cancer patients die in Canada, compared to 33% here in the United States.

He said that the recession ended in June 2009, but the policies of the government now have created a new normal where people are afraid that the government will tax them out of business, that if they fail on future taxes, the government will take away their businesses. He said that there is triple the amount of money in circulation, but nobody is spending it. People have reduced their personal debt and are not purchasing things.

Morris said that the US still has more manufacturing than China and that our machinery and manufacturing techniques allow for 50% fewer workers, while being more productive. When speaking about the taxes on energy, he said “Tax on coal? Are you kidding me?”

He summed it up by saying that the series of policies and reforms of the current administration have paralyzed the economy and pessimism is the “bodyguard of liberalism”.

Dr. Jacoby receives the Community Leadership Award

Dick Morris introduced the next award recipient Dr. Jacoby from Metro Med, saying that the doctor had ministered to his father and other family members. Dr. Jacoby has a Harvard medical degree, and to his credit, Morris said, he could be making much more money in private practice on Park Avenue than in running a Medicaid practice in New Rochelle. Dr. Jacoby’s daughter presented the award to her father after giving a very personal and touching speech. The Metro Med center has been in the Arnold Constable building since the early 1980s and has served 300,000 people, Dr. Jacoby said.

Trinity St. Paul Church receives the Community Leadership Award

The pastor from Trinity St. Paul Church, Rev. Robert E. Gahler, accepted his award. His church, in the center of town on Hugeunot and Division, has been in operation since 1688 and was established by French Protestants fleeing religious persecution. Today’s church building was built in 1863 and serves 500 meals a week from their soup kitchen. The church still has an original end table from the 1688 parish which was the first altar of the parish.

He values the history of the building and of the parish. He said they still highly value religious liberties and “live out those early ideals, goals and aims our forbearers gave to us”. The French Protestants left France in the middle of the night, and were not even allowed to leave. People arrived on the doorstep of the church in New Rochelle and were accepted, just as they are today.

The Pastor mentioned their Thanksgiving service at St. Paul, where people of all religions, including Buddhists and Muslins, pray together. Finally he said that his church was “99% African American and that when Barack Obama was inaugurated the parishioners were delirious with joy”. The VIP Country Club crowded cheered for the Obama reference.

Sydelle & Norman Herzberg receives the Community Leadership Award

The last award recipients were a lovely couple, Sydelle & Norman Herzberg, who have volunteered in the community for over 30 years. Sydelle spoke about how the Thomas Paine Cottage was originally on Paine Avenue and was moved to its present site more than 100 years ago. She mentioned that the Historical Association has been in existence since the 1800s. She spoke about how just two years ago the association had completed their capital improvements on the property.

The cottage had been sided with wood shingles, which were not historically accurate. Now the house is white, as it had been during Thomas Paine’s time. Also, now there is a historically accurate wood roof. Sydelle Herzberg credited Amy Paulin with getting the grant money to pay for a large portion of the improvements. Sydelle Herzberg spoke about how removing the roof and the siding led to the need for other repairs, but the association was able to achieve their goals and hopes that more people will visit the cottage to learn about local history and Thomas Paine.

Auction and guests

An auction of donated prizes was used to generate profits for the cottage. In attendance were Superintendent Organisciak, Linda Kelly, Susan Kettner, George Latimer, and Deidre Polow.