David Paterson: Harlem’s Great Black And Proud Hope Felled And Racists Take New York
WHEN New York State Governor David Paterson walked into the waiting ambush, there were those who saw it coming and knew the bear trap had been laid by Paterson himself, writes AGW.
Strangely, he seemed to have forgotten or ignored the fact it was there.
The unrepentant Proudly Black and Fiercely Blind Paterson did not apologise for either his behaviour or his attempts to squirm away from the real and present danger which the New York Times had very clearly signalled was waiting in the wings.
The NY Times had made it obvious there was a majority opinion he was not the chosen one and should not press ahead with a candidature for re-election as Governor of New York State.
It was pointed out this week, in here, without journalists’ vigilant digging, goading and prodding, many of the freedoms you carelessly accept as a right, would not exist.
There is now no doubt New York’s finest News Room had the dirt signed sealed and delivered. Already written, proof-read and ready to publish.
Already praised in these columns, it was a classic media sting and will be recorded as among the greats. Just as in the UK the USA printed media has a habit of building up and then knocking down. It is a direct reflection of what happens everywhere in academic halls, politics, sporting and business empires
Some, like Former England Skipper John Terry and golfer Tiger Woods, bring it on themselves by displaying a gross arrogance and total disrespect for their family, friends, fans who make it possible to pay the fat salaries and the employers who struggle and even slide into bankruptcy by coughing up largely unearned, ridiculous salaries to sports stars.
Michael Schumacher, coming back for the ego trip…he doesn’t need the money
What makes Terry and others worth £200,000 a week? How do F1 Grand Prix drivers stop themselves giggling all day at the contracts they are given? What politician or banker can justify any salary at all let alone trading or expenses bonus? Woods’ sponsors have been showing him just exactly how they think of him.
New York Belch
New York seems a very long way away in distance and politics to what is going on in the sports grounds, mosques, churches, meeting halls and pubs around Britain and the rest of Europe but the fact is New York State is at the heart of the Western World. What goes on there eventually affects every corner of the known-world. It is the civic heartland for 300 million USA citizens and when New York belches, the tsunami-like halitosis eventually rolls into the head of the furthest Russian dacha’s stream.
Paterson was his own worst enemy according to many
That’s when I feel deeply sorry for both David Paterson and the huge improvement in the American way of life he represented. He sewed the seeds of his own destruction when he asked forgiveness for having taken coke and then broke the rules.
He dragged his, said to be very private, wife into the centre of things by saying he and his Michelle had both had affairs and had an open relationship. As was pointed out, that was their affair. It should have remained just that. Once Pandora’s Box is open there is no going back and open season was declared on he and Michelle.
Paterson was one of the last of the old school Black and Proud Harlem Democrats. He fought his way to the top by becoming first of all a senator and then Governor.
By all accounts he did a job that was more than adequate in parts and bit like the Curate’s egg was rotten in others. Tales of open marriages, sex, drugs and rolling the Governor’s Mansion staffers are not things which warm an electorate.
He became insular and dependent on his flawed aide David W. Johnson. He did what any friend or good employer would do. he stuck by his judgement of that individual and walked into the waiting trap. He may even have to quit his current tenure as Governor since the media wolf pack is still circling, indicating there is more.
It is a very long time since I visited New York or Harlem but I am told it has and is changing rapidly. It is no-longer the poor crime-ridden and violent place it once was and the Black population is dispersing as the old Black, Italian, Irish and Hispanic ghetto traditions of a bigoted and racist New York civic regime have broken down. The Harlem which nurtured and gave us David Paterson has gone for ever as have the big hitters who help raise one of theirs to power.
That is not a new thing and has being going on since Black soldiers returned from World War ll Europe having met and shared their lives with Whites, who far from despising them for the colour, accepted them warmly and joyously as comrades in the closure of a terrible period for the whole world.
Another Way
Harlem was not alone and there are/were similar Black ghettos throughout the USA. Those areas saw the birth of the Black Militants, often allied with Black Muslims…but very different in intent and direction. Some of that anger remains but Gov. Paterson and President Barack Obama are proof there is another and non-violent way.
David Paterson is a Democrat and the first Black Governor of New York State and the first Blind Governor ever in America.
He blew it. Big Time. He has single-handedly dealt a terrible, crushing, blow to Black American political aspirations and that has to be a subject for mourning in New York.
It should be mourned everywhere.
BNP activity
Elsewhere in New York and throughout the USA states there has recently been a series of meetings. The meetings are all-white and closed. It is claimed that at many of those meetings members of the British ultra right-wing BNP have been present. Some meetings have been halted by watchful police forces but at others BNP members have spoken to eager crowds and given their version of life, the universe and everything.
That scares me to half to death and Gov. David Paterson has not done any single one of us any favours.
Posted: 28th, February 2010 | In: Key Posts, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
