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by Judy LinscottI%u2019ve been a closet Miss America fan for years. The Miss America pageant is like Tub Spoiii<: and Rotarv. a piece of the American dream that endures time, social change and, for all I know, Second Comings. There's a stubborn, oblivious quality to it all that demands a certain admiration.Not the least of which is that, contrary to all dictates of good sense and taste, the pageant stuck with Atlantic City as it plummeted into the depths of seedy disrepair. And now the city rises in splendor once again--without so much as a blink on the part of the Miss America people. Kinda warms the cockles of your heart, all that faith.In fact, the Miss America number reeks of faith, including faith that millions will tune in annually to watch Bert Parks make a fool of himself. And millions, including myself, annually do just that. Every year the faith gets a little harder to take, on account of it all gets increasingly predictable, but then we Americans are a trifle over-infatuated with the known quantity. Surprises are so rare in this show that after awhile you start to get a little nasty and pray for a dropped baton or a botched cue, just for a break in the tedium.Maybe my attention span is getting shorter with age, but I didn%u2019t make it much past the talent show this year, partly because I was trying to read at the same time, and when the talent got too embarrassing I had to cover my cars, which made it difficult to turn pages. At any rate, the real fun was over by then, namely the big introduction: the familiar schmaltzy music, the panoramic view of downtownAtlantic City, pounding surf and seventeen million closcups of breathless hopefuls. From the outset, something seemed wrong with those closcups. Something was wrong: all these women had the samenose. All the noses were (God!) bulbous.Could this be? Turned out, as the camera panned into Bert for the final shot, that they all had Bert Parks%u2019 nose. Whew. Minus the nose problem, they all look like Miss Rheingold. Rember Miss Rheingold? I remember checking off votes for Miss Rheingold on little cardboard ballots in the grocery store when I was ten, and always voting for the blonde because she was the only distinguishable candidate in field of ten brunette look-alikes. Things haven%u2019t changed much since then.This was Bert Parks%u2019 25th year, a fact that only Bert Parks seemed to take interest in. The usual cheering sections were out in full force for obscure states like Idaho, which raised the same old annual question of why they would come out in full force from Idaho all the way to Atlantic City-although at least this year, you could imagine they came for a little roulette on the side. Two former Miss Americas, asusual, came on to host with Bert, and as usual they were awful. They puntuatc everything with metaphorical exclamation points and big grins.Nobody's paying much attention, until last year%u2019s Miss America gets to take herfinal run and be sung to, which is a lump-in-the-throat moment for everyone except the 52 contestants on stage, who presumably just want to get on with it already. For all the clean Gene stuff here, last year%u2019s Miss America is wearing a shimmery lamme number that one might say is a bit -ahem-risque. But never mind, Bert is booming his 25th %u201c Looook at huhhh...Miss Ameeeeerricccaaa...%u201d And so it goes.I began to lose track after awhile, particularly as we moved into the personal interview part, which is always embarrassing, and into the group tap and song numbers, which are always excruciating, the result of which was I never did find out who won.Until the papers reported it was Miss Mississippi, and as we all know by now, a born-again Christian who would never have walked the runway if God hadn%u2019t puttwo missing inches back on her leg in a revival meeting. At a press conference after the pageant, a lot of reporters tried (within bounds of good taste and bearing in mind, of course, it%u2019s Miss America we%u2019re pushing to the wall) to get her to retract a little, but she stuck by that version.Like you%u2019d expect, she%u2019s pretty and gracious and looks like she's been practicing that smile for years. I%u2019d like to say a lot of nasty, snide things, because personally I find the Miss America concept offensive. Personally, I imagine the Miss America people don%u2019t give a good damn what I think. Nor do those millions who tune in tearfully every year.Miss Mississippi, whose code name is Cheryl Prewitt, is no dumbbell, and God knows she%u2019ll get further at the piano than I ever will. At the age of 22 she%u2019s also a good sight richer than I%u2019ll ever be, not to mention that good conversation piece she has. She may not be full of surprises, but then I don%u2019t suppose anyone wants Miss America going around pulling punches in places like Toledo and Kansas City. Fair is fair, after all, and it%u2019s a lot of money she gets for minding her manners. Anyway, she%u2019s still young and I imagine she%u2019ll pick up a little assertiveness before too long. And if her looks and talent don%u2019t get her there, then that good old American faith will do it.I wouldn%u2019t mind genuinely believing I could add two inches in a revival meeting. I daresay it would add a whole new spring to my walk.Ah me. I still say she looks just like Miss Rheingold.The Miss America pageant is like the CubScouts and Rotary, a piece of the AmericanDream that endures time, social change andSecond Comings.Com m unity ForumtfDITORS%u2019S NOTE: John Esposito, amember of the Assembly from the 23rdDistrict in Queens, wrote this letter toAssemblyman Michael Pesce.1 would like to comment on the two articles attributed to you that appeared in the PHOFNIX issue of August 23 (The Yes Voter), relative to your %u201c Nay%u201d vote on my Assembly bill 6136. Your statement that the vote on my bill 6136, which was introduced to repeal the 1788 year old antiquated and never followed law of the Legislature requiring 100 per cent valuation on tax property, was strictly along party lines and the bill was strictly a public relations gimmick bv me is completely false.1 am enclosing the roll call of the members who vote %u201c Yea and Nay%u201d on my bill. You will find that five Democrats had the guts to vote for my bill knowing that was best for their constituents. You will also find if you examine the Legislative Index, that there is one Democratic Assemblyman from Queens County who also had the guts to be co-sponsor of my bill.Your other statement that the Hellerstein case was decided on the basis that it was a violation of the due process and equal protection provision of the U.S. Constitution is also a false statement.For your information, I am enclosing herein the Court of Appeals Decision in the Hcllerstein case and I commend to you that you should read it before you issue another statement attacking my Assembly bill 6136. You will note that at the beginning of the 1975 Court%u2019s Decision (37NY2d) on page 3 thereof, that Judge Wachtler, one of the four judges in the majority, stated very clearly that %u201c there was no claim of over valuation or unequal treatment in the assessment of Mrs. Hellerstein%u2019s property.%u201d She argued only that the assessments are illegal because they were not made in accordance with the 306 Section of the Real Property Tax Law which states, %u201c All real property in each assessing unit shall be assessed at the full value thereof.%u201dNo where in the majority opinion do you find the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution being the basis for which the Hcllerstein case was dcciacu. As a mauci of fact, if you take the time and trouble to read the whole opinion to its end, you will sec that Judge Jones, who wrote the opinion for the three judges in the minority, at page 18, also shows that falsity of your asccrtion of the U.S.Constitutionbeing involved.You further claim in your article that the ultimate solution will be formulated over the next few years and most certainly not before the present deadline of January I, 1981 which will be undoubtedly extended. As a matter of fact, you and some other 49 Democrats on June 12, 1979, (just four days before the Assembly adjourned on June 16, 1979) introduced a Democratic bill to extend this mortorium until 1983. This is madness! This will continue the present illegal method of collecting taxes. The 1788 law requiring 100 per cent valuation has not been repealed by the Legislature for some four years after the Court Decisionand the City of New York is now forced to be faced with a new bankruptcy. The owners of large corporations and businesses have started some $2 billion worth of lawsuits to recover their illegal taxes paid to the city because the Legislature has done nothing about the Hcllerstein decision.I ask you Mike Pesce, Joe Ferris and all the other Democrats who voted against my hill: After some four years of study wasting our taxpaper dollars on foolish reports and commissions, where is your bill that will legalize our old assessing practice so that our homeowners and their residential tenants will not pay a pennymore?Democrats are saying I caused hysteria with my bill A6136. Yes, I am fighting to preserve what is left of every residential neighborhood in. our cities, towns and villages. I have introduced my bill which abolishes 100 percent valuation. Let the Democrats put in their bills (hat keep 100 percent plus whatever relief they arc going to give.In closing, I would like to point out that the best argument in supporting my bill to keep the pre 1975 assessing practices in place, is that the state Legislators for some 190 years, had the brains to know this and left the old system intact.Risking Brooklyn Bridge BikingBY JOHN BENFATTIIsn%u2019t it great to be able to go from Brooklyn to Manhattan without having to deal with traffic jams or congested subways, to get exercise and a view of one of the greatest skylines in the world, to watch the water traffic up and down the EasiRivcr or the sunset behind the Statue of Liberty?These pleasures are experienced daily by hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians as they commute to and from work. The bridge is also enjoyed by many tourists and by New Yorkers who just want to get away from it all.Of all the people who use the bridge, whether it be to catch that great view on film, to use the atmosphere of the bridge to express their feelings in writing or to enjoy a relaxing stroll with a loved one, I wonder how many are aware of the possibility of a not so pleasurable experience while crossing the bridge by foot or bicycle?This unpleasant experience usually takes the form of some young punk with a knife, a baseball bat or some other weapon used to force people to surrender their valuables - and in the case of the cyclist, his means of transportation. Although some of these incidents do get reported to the police, a great number of them do not because the people feel the situation is hopeless.The police department treats the bridge as a low priority because they ciaim tiiai all they can do on the bridge is preventJohn Benfatti, a Brooklyn Heightsresident is a boardmember of Transportation Alternatives.muggings and suicides. They say that there is not enough manpower to assign a patrol to the bridge on a regular basis; and aside from there being no permanent patrol, at this time none of the emergency phones, which are used to call the 84th orThe police departmentclaims all it can do onthe bridge is preventmuggings and suicides.the 5th precincts for help arc in working order.This leaves the people who choose to use the bridge in the position of having to protect themselves against a very real danger. There has been talk of forming a viuilante group on the bridge. Some people believe that the only way to put an end to the muggings is to deal with the muggers on their own level. Others have just given up and found other ways of getting to and from Manhattan. I have been advised by a patrolman to carry a gun or a knife myself -and there arc people who are doing just that! I personally don%u2019t feel that this solves the problem.All of these things upset me greatly and even though I have never been attacked, several of my friends have had their bikes stolen at knife point. Outraged at the reports of these repeated incidents and lack of protection, I have taken another measure to protect myself and fellow cyclists and hopefully to arouse some interest in the situation on the bridge.Rather than having to deal with people with knives, I%u2019ve decided to ride my bicycle across the roadway of (he bridge. I feel safer dealing with automobile traffic than having to deal with crime traffic. (I have informed the police department of this action and their attitude is non-commital.)In order to make crossing with the cars safer, I am presently organizing group crossings. I have announced that I will lead cyclists across the bridge daily at 8:30 A.M. and at 5:30 P.M. In using this means of protest against the lack of protection on the bridge, 1 realize that I am angering a number of motorists, but 1 do hope to achieve the goal of a safe bridge for everyone.As a member of the Board of Directors of Transportation Alternatives and Committee Chairperson for Touring, 1 am advising all people who use the bridge to form crossing groups to minluu/o thp Hanoors In addition, it would be very helpful if everyone interested in promoting bridge safely would write to their congressmen, the mayor and the police department, or contact me at 858-7281.September 27. 1979, The PHOENIX. Page 9