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A Salute to Our Com m unity Boards %u25a0SNext \\yeek is Community Board week in New York City, by proclamation of the Mayor. But there isn%u2019t much celebrating going on in our area. Maybe it%u2019s because the members of local Community Board Two (Heights/Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill/Downtown) and Community Board Six (Slope/South Brooklyn) are too busy doing their work to take much notice of such doings any more. For more than a decade now, the members of these local boards have been proving that citizen input in the processes of goverment not only can be responsible but can, in fact, make government more effective for all our neighborhoods.What may be more significant about the arrival of another marking of Community Board week is the shifted public view of these local volunteer bodies by the Mayor and others who serve the public full time in government.When these boards officially became part of the process by which zoning and land use issues reach their ultimate resolution at the NYC Board of Estimate, most City officials were against the idea. The notion of local public hearings on these issues in the community which will be most affected was not a popular one among City officials, who liked to push community reaction to a moment after they had made their own decisions. Dire predictions they made then of serious consequences for the conduct of municipal business have proven unfounded in practice. While some may not have fullyaccepted the serious input these boards make in the process of government, no one ignores them any morpWe supported the City Charter revision in 1975 that empowered these boards and created the opportunity they provide for the input of community residents into decisionmaking on issues that affect them. The experience of years proves that the voters were right about the concept. We%u2019re glad to join our Mayor in a 1986 salute to our local Community Boards and the volunteer citizens who work hard to organize and conduct their business. We look forward to the continued responsible participation of Community Boards in the affairs of City government over the years ahead.They%u2019ve Forgotten A bout the C onstitutionAs if there weren%u2019t enough to be upset about in the Reagan Administration%u2019s arms dealing for the benefit of Iran, we%u2019ve had that indiscretion one-upped this week with the news that it wasn%u2019t only one unfriendly party that benefited, but two. It is ironic that on the eve of the 200th anniversary of the adoption of our Constitution, the administration that speaks so loudly about the sanctity of the document is the one that seems to have forgotten that we have a Congress to %u201cadvise and consent%u201d about decisions such as these. Secrecy, official ipis-statements (read lies) and deceit are out of place in the government our Constitution is founded upon.S o u n d 0 * tM useum Is GratefulI am writing to express my great pleasure in the manner in which The Phoenix wrote up the stories.of the Museum%u2019s architectural competition in the October 16 issue followed by the story of the winner on October 23. Your coverage was exemplary in every way and we at the Museum are very excited to see the care that had been taken in writing these stories.Liz Koch is a talented writer and we are very grateful for the emphasis you gave to this story. %u2014 Robert T. Buck, Director, Brooklyn Museum, Eastern Parkway.Theaters Need FixingI agree with Kaplan (Sound Off, Nov. 6, %u201cA Theatre No-Show%u2019%u2019) and with Zimmerman (Sound Off, Nov. 13, %u201cTheatre Needs Fix-Up%u2019%u2019). The Brooklyn Heights Cinema has been the cause of consumer complaints for years. The chairs are broken, screens are dirty, floors are sticky, but worst of all has been their look-away attitude toward cigarette and pot smoking in the theatre. %u2014 E. Hoffman, Clark Street.Preview ApplaudedOn behalf of Maverick Theatre & Film Company, I would like to thank you and The Phoenix for your new section on arts events (Phoenix Preview, Oct. 30). Because of thenature of arts in its need to attract an audience, organizations such as yours help tremendously.You may be aware that here at 152 Bergen Street, we receive two subscriptions to The Phoenix. Your newspaper is circulated among the artists of Maverick, Interborough Repertory, and David Vineberg, a graphic artist. We find The Phoenix covers Brownstone Brooklyn better than any other newspaper. This new section is just one more example of your fine coverage.Enclosed with this letter is a press release for our next event. Your publication is deeply appreciated. %u2014 Andrew Salgado, Executive Director, Maverick Theater & Film Company.I%u2019m not sure who is in charge of traffic lights in Brooklyn, but I hope whoever it is reads your paper and sees this letter. When I drive up First or Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, or Northern Boulevard in Queens, I can travel for as many as 40 blocks at a stretch without encountering a red light. The lights are timed in order to keep traffic flowing at a normal and efficient pace.Brooklyn, it seems, is another story. Fourth Avenue is possibly the worst in terms of traffic flow. People, myself included sometimes, drive like maniacs just to make ten blocks before every single light, from 94th to Atlantic turns red simultaneously. Once I made 12 blocks but I had to drive like Mario Andretti. This defeats the purpose of traffic lights, which exist in order to bring orderfrom chaos. I don%u2019t understand why the traffic lights in Queens and Manhattan can function with normal common sense, yet the ones in Brooklyn have to act as if they were in the dark ages. We all belong to the same city, don%u2019t we.Other examples of traffic light idiocy that drive me wild are the five minute naps I take driving from Cobble Hill to Park Slope down Union Street. As soon as the light turns green on Third Avenue it turns red on Fourth, with similar results all the way to Seventh.This all might be a bit more bearable, but every time I buy a radio for my car, someone seems to want it more than I do and they helpBY REV. DONALD W. McKINNEYAs well all come to address our own aging, perhaps the fundamental requirement is recognition of what in our own lives is truly independent of our years. What is it within us that affords us the strength and wit for the demands of any age or set of circumstances? It is, of course, the ever indefinable but indispensable thing called %u201cspirit,%u201d which is the essence of our personhood.themselves to it. Perhaps we should leave a duplicate copy of our car keys with some public agency, and when someone wishes to help themselves to the radio, they can request the key. At least then we wouldn%u2019t have to replace our windows as well. %u2014 M.Gouvea, Bond Street.I f You \\ e Got SomethingTo Say About LocalIssues, Sound O ffHere in Our Space.George Santayana once wrote: %u201cNothing is inherently young except spirit.%u201d While I do question the appropriateness of identifying the spirit as %u201cyoung,%u201d Santayana is right surely in identifying the spirit as the one enduring quality in us over which the years have no claim. The spirit is unaffected by physical change or bodily deterioration, needing only the mind to sense its presence.It is the spirit that provides us with all kinds of strength that are finally far more important than muscular prowess or physical dexterity. Without a spirit charged with love of life a young person can have far less essential energy and enthusiasm than the most aged of us whose spirit is still strong. All of us have seen this and known it to be true. But it must be far more consciously acknowledged and affirmed. The spirit, of course, is what religion most especially celebrates. It is the spirit we would nurture in our devotions. It is the spirit we should have renewed in our fellowship, in the beauty of this Sanctuary and in the words and songs of our worship.Although each of us at whatever age is unique, the spirit that is within all of us, at every age, is that which most finely binds us as a community. It is what enables us to transcend the years that so obviously do and will always divide us.The spirit that shines in those of our community of faith we have honored today in our Clara Barton Sisterhood Awards is the most precious of life%u2019s gifts. When it can and does shine so finely over so many years, we have the truest proof of life%u2019s permanence. As the ancient prophet proclaimed: %u201cthe grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the spirit endureth forever.%u201dYou may or may not choose, as I do, to identify or name that spirit as the spirit of God, but its presence is within us, finally, is what can and does make life a wonderful adventure %u2014 at all ages.Donald W. McKinney is minister of theFirst Unitarian Church in BrooklynHeights and these paragraphs were part ofa Nov. 9 sermon titled %u201cGrowing Old%u201d andOTawu M il, V U U V U a V / I O ltt UNUL M i l lSisterhood Awards, honoring women whohave come to their 80th year. Honoredwere RoseLee Nemir Audi, Laura K. Eads,Bernice B. Hudson, Rowena Nash Pyle,Elizabeth Young and Eva Striker Zeigel.S ig n o f t h e 'fiM E SThe entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. (Phoenix/Kirk Photo)(fo M M U N IT Y p O R U M views of readersYou Are A s Young A s Your Spirit FeelsPape 34, THE PHOENIX, November 27,1986