Wow, what an honor. I have never been given an award like this before. I have to say, I could not have made such an impact with out the help of my friend Carl Paladino. Carl helped me get all the information that is in the website noGItolls.com So Thank you Donn for putting me in for this, Thanks to the Editorial board and Thanks to Carl for the help.
The News salutes the contributions of six exceptional Western New Yorkers
Outstanding Citizens of 2008
THE STRENGTH OF ANY COMMUNITY LIES IN THE HEART, spirit and caring of individuals who live within it. Good communities have exceptionally good people who share deeply of themselves for the sake of others, and that sharing never should go unnoticed. Each year, this newspaper chooses a few members of the community who have made exceptional contributions to the common good, and honors them as Buffalo News Outstanding Citizens.
Communities don’t just move forward— they’re pushed by those who live and work in their neighborhoods, build bridges between those who have and those who don’t, fix problems and not only see opportunities but seize them. Some are leaders, others are quiet contributors. Not all get noticed, let alone honored.
But they do deserve honors. Communities would not prosper, might not survive, without them. They are behind the gains, incremental and dramatic, that shape the present into the future. They work in different ways but they have two things in common—they care, and they leave their communities better places for the sacrifices they have made and the labor they have done.
This issue of Viewpoints continues The News’ long tradition of honoring some of these community heroes as Outstanding Citizens. The long newsroom process of nominating candidates and selecting honorees this year singled out people whose contributions include peacemaking and progress-making in the complex challenge of hospital reform, agitating for consumer-benefiting reforms, running sports programs, standing up to the school system and taking on leadership roles in community development despite professional demands.
Here are this year’s Outstanding Citizens: State Supreme Court Justice John M. Curran, Rus Thompson, Jordan A. Levy, Michelle Stiles, Demeris Johnson and James Nowicki. They deserve this community’s gratitude.
RusThompson
Grand Island contractor Rus Thompson is the epitome of a citizen-activist. Rather than quietly accept an increase in tolls on the Grand Island Bridges—particularly after the recent removal of Thruway tolls in Buffalo— Thompson took to the streets.
After workdays spent replacing floors and slapping up drywall, the 52- year-old Thompson takes on the shadow government of the Thruway Authority.
He collected more than 8,000 signatures on an anti-toll petition, dropping off the forms at pizza places and convenience stores. He drove his pickup truck to Albany to personally take the case to legislators. He makes the anti-toll argument at public and media forums. He created an informational Web site, www.nogitolls.com . He used the Freedom of Information law to pry data out of the recesses of the Thruway Authority and helped to craft a bill to remove the tolls by transferring the road to the state Department of Transportation. Some people just sit back and take it. Thompson stands and fights.
It is a worthy battle, given that the each-way toll on the bridge has doubled— from 50 cents to a dollar— over just three years. Thompson, who talks in a sandpaper rasp and resembles a cleaned-up Nick Nolte, wants the Grand Island spur off of the mainline Thruway taken out of the Thruway Authority’s hands.
“Commuters are getting buried,” Thompson told The News. “These state authority [boards] are unelected and unaccountable.”
Although the tolls still remain, Thompson—committed to the cause —fights on.
—Donn Esmonde
via Outstanding Citizens of 2008 : Opinion : The Buffalo News.
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