Templeton loses a complex and dedicated citizen
By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gbarnes@telegram.com
gbarnes@telegram.com
There are some people who will question my sanity when I write this. Some will be furious, but I will say it anyway.
Pauly Cosentino was a good and dedicated citizen.
He was a bit unruly. He did not worry much about keeping town officials happy. He was annoying to some and spoke his mind, always, even when the entire room was against him. He could be a handful to deal with, but I liked him.
Paul H. Cosentino of Templeton, junk yard owner, Marine, former trucker and garage owner, father, grandfather, town official and citizen died this week after suffering a long time from cancer. He suffered, but I can only imagine the cancer suffered more as it tried to kill him. No disease, no person came out of a battle with Pauly feeling victorious. Pauly, 77, was tough, determined, and he was not a quitter. He perfectly fit Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' words written to his dying father, "Do not go gently into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Pauly Cosentino was a good and dedicated citizen.
He was a bit unruly. He did not worry much about keeping town officials happy. He was annoying to some and spoke his mind, always, even when the entire room was against him. He could be a handful to deal with, but I liked him.
Paul H. Cosentino of Templeton, junk yard owner, Marine, former trucker and garage owner, father, grandfather, town official and citizen died this week after suffering a long time from cancer. He suffered, but I can only imagine the cancer suffered more as it tried to kill him. No disease, no person came out of a battle with Pauly feeling victorious. Pauly, 77, was tough, determined, and he was not a quitter. He perfectly fit Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' words written to his dying father, "Do not go gently into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
To many, Pauly was a rabble-rouser who ran Pauly's Templeton Watch, a politically charged blog that touched on just about every issue to surface in Templeton in the past few years. At the time of his death, the blog was closing in on 1 million page views. Not bad for a small-town blog.
Pauly, and people who thought like him, regularly expressed their views on the blog at www.templetonwatch.blogspot.com. Even people who angrily disagreed with him found themselves reading the blog.
To me Pauly was much more than his politics. He was someone who helped many people, giving some jobs when he really didn't have jobs available. He was a generous man who worked hard all his life. Those were just some of his good attributes. I knew all the unruly stuff about him, too, but at his base, he was a generous and good citizen.
I looked forward to seeing Pauly every time I visited his junk yard, whether it was to get rid of scrap or to interview him for a story. I also knew the visits would not always be simple. Sometimes we would just have a friendly conversation. Other times he would blister my ears over something I wrote or some bit of politics going on in the town or state.
I still enjoyed the visits. I knew I would not always agree with him on issues. I also knew he was a Marine and, like all Marines, had the ability to believe absolutely in what he was saying and argue the issue endlessly.
Even when I held the exact opposite opinion from Pauly, I also knew he believed passionately in what he was saying. That is all anyone should ask of a citizen. He was a truth teller, not a yes man.
I probably mentioned that Pauly was unruly. He was. Sometimes he got in trouble being overly dramatic in truth telling. Once he was banned from Town Hall meetings. Another time, to get the attention of the FBI when he wanted it to investigate the town, he asked what he had to do to get the bureau's attention, "Threaten to shoot someone like Gabrielle Giffords?"
At the time it was pretty amazing to me that he was not arrested. Gabrielle Giffords, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona, was shot on Jan. 8, 2011, in an attack that left her critically injured and prematurely ended her political career. Pauly made the comment a little over a year later.
I knew Pauly was just trying to be heard. To the FBI's credit, the agents in the office did not overreact. He was not arrested or banned from Town Hall. Local police kept an eye on him, patting him down at the next meeting, but that was all.
I don't agree with people being over the top to make a point, but I respect someone who believes passionately about issues in his or her hometown. He had his enemies. He was not always nice, but he always had the best interests of Templeton in mind. You can't ask for more than that.
Contact George Barnes at george.barnes@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @georgebarnesTG
Banning Pauly from town hall was one way Echo Hill tried to get Pauly to shut up. It did not work, for his friends showed up to stand by his side. "What do you want me to do? Go Postal !!" got the attention of a lot of people, but that is exactly what he wanted. I attended my first Selectman's meeting in years in response to the newspaper article, saying Pauly was going to be banned from any town office. Oh no you don't, was my thought that night and I was not alone. Paul went to every channel he could find to get his investigation done. He pulled every string there was to pull because he believed in "justice for all" and that was how you were supposed to do things the right way. Our Senator failed him, bending to political pressure from K&P and others that did not want any investigation done. The problems Templeton had were bigger than over paying the Conservation Agent, but what Paul discovered was the tip of the iceberg. Paul was loyal to his friends and that loyalty was returned. He was my knight in shinning armor. Bev.
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