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Hypocrisy

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

Recently, the following letter appeared in the Buffalo News’ “Everybody’s Column”:

“As a graduate of Lafayette High School, I must comment on The News story discussing Board of Education plans for closing it, and the editorial urging action “without worrying about . . . history.”

Buffalo didn’t worry about history when the Larkin Building was torn down. Albright-Knox didn’t worry when it sold priceless art treasures. The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. isn’t worrying, subsuming one of two great nexuses of American immigration (the other is Ellis Island), and burying the Canal District under a Bass Pro-inspired project.

Lafayette is Buffalo’s oldest public high school still in its original (nationally historic) building, the educational font for hundreds of local and nationally known professionals: Judge Joseph Mattina, architect Gordon Bunshaft, The News’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Bruce Shanks and many others.

It has been renovated and refurbished, with energy-efficient windows and a new library and cupola. Its Steinway piano was rebuilt, and its carillon reactivated; both with funds from the city’s most active public school alumni association. We raised more than $30,000 at the 100th Anniversary celebration, attended by graduates from the years 1931 through 2001.

The board should keep Lafayette open, and encourage West Side families to view it as the great community asset that it is, and to send their children there.

Angela Bongiovanni Coniglio

Amherst”

My first inclination was to write my own damn letter to the Buffalo News, but I realized that I would not be able to use the language nessecary to convey my true feelings about Angela’s comments.

Read the signature– ANGELA LIVES IN FUCKING AMHERST.  Angela, like so many other scared folk, left the City of Buffalo screaming for the suburbs, and now has the audacity to suggest that “West Side Families” should send their kids to Lafayette.  Now, in Angela’s defense, maybe she doesn’t have kids.  Maybe she can’t have kids for all I know.  Maybe she moved to Amherst because she inherited a house.  I don’t know.  What I do know is Angela has no right getting up on her soapbox criticizing the city for considering closing Lafayette High School.

Personally, I agree with Angela– closing Lafayette would be a huge mistake.  As a resident of the West Side, I see Lafayette as tradition, an institution, and as an architecture buff, I agree, it’s a beautiful building.  Kids are bussed in from all over the city to attend Lafayette, and from what I can tell, the staff there are trying to fight the good fight.  But this woman sits in her home in the suburbs and suggests that West Side families should send their kids there in hopes of… what?  Changing the demographic of the student body? Making it more like it was when she attended classes?  If she does have children (and again, I don’t know the answer to that), where do they go to school?

I’m sure Angela has Buffalo’s and Lafayette High School’s best interest at heart.  But she ran.  She’s part of the problem.

I bought something on Craigslist recently.  The woman I spoke to was very nice.  She lived in Amherst.   She even offered to deliver the item.

“Where do you live?” she asked.

“In the city, on the West Side,” I replied.

Silence. Then, “Maybe you should come pick it up.”

The City of Buffalo is in the state that it is because people left.  People got scared and ran away.  And people are too scared to even set foot within it’s boundaries.

Angela, thank you for being an active alumnus and donating to the building’s renovation, but if you are so concerned about Lafayette High School, move back to the West Side.  Buy one of those nice homes in the Elmwood Village. Become part of the community, instead of sending letters to the Buffalo News.


‘Tis the Season….

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

When I was a kid, Christmas seemed like such a magical time of year.  Everyone seemed happy, people were buying me expensive toys (I think I got the entire Kenner Star Wars collection spread out over a few years between Christmas and birthdays) and I got a lot of time off from school.  Not bad, huh?  All because this guy named Jesus was apparently born that time of year.

As I got older, Christmas seemed to be becoming less and less about goodwill toward men, happiness, Jesus and all that I had been raised to believe it was about.  It started to be more about retail, money, buying things at discounts and showing people you cared about them by showering them with money and material things!  Family members that all but ignore each other year round were coming together, putting on a fake smile and pretending to actually care about each other for one day.

During the Holiday season you also see people being – drum roll – kind to strangers.  The homeless make out pretty well, as do the people we encounter on a professional basis.  Your doorman, your mailman, the guy who sells you your newspaper every morning all get tips above and beyond what they’d normally get year round.  We spend all year taking these people for granted but on the Holidays we pretend we care about them and their families just because it makes us feel better to do so.  Where’s all of that good will toward our fellow man the rest of the year?

Which brings me to the events of this year’s Black Friday.  Yes, the day after Thanksgiving when the greedy masses of Americans invade retail chains all across the country.   Heavily discounted merchandise inspires people to line up in front of stores as early as 2am, waiting for the gates to open and the race for cheap electronics and toys to commence.

This year, at a Long Island Wal-Mart a mass of people filled with the Holiday spirit broke down the doors and a stampede into the store killed a young employee by the name of Jdimytai Damour, who was just there to do his job.  He was instructed to let the crazed holiday shoppers in once the store opened, but they couldn’t wait for that.  They had to get IN.  They had to get their discounted Xbox and Playstation accessiories.  They had to break the doors down and trample this poor man to death.  In their efforts to give their family a Merry (and heavily discounted) Christmas, they deprived this man and his family of theirs.

The customers rushed into the store, trampling him not even giving any thought to the people around them, or the condition of this poor man who took his last breaths on the floor next to the pop machines.  They needed to get their discount TVs!  They needed the discount Malibu Barbie Dream House!  It didn’t matter that they had to kill a man in the process.

Is this what the Holidays are?  Christmas is now a holiday dedicated to greed and materialism.  It’s the season where we prove over and over again just what a shallow, materialistic culture we truly are.

I don’t know how you plan on spending this Holiday season, but I know where I’ll be.  On my couch, away from the insanity, watching bad horror films and knowing that what’s happening outside my front door is much worse than what I’m seeing on my TV screen.

America is Ready.

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

It is just starting to fully sink in now.
Over the course of this election I watched, read and absorbed everything I could. Watched polls come in. Read the bloggers and journalists from both sides. Listened to people when they talked. Heard the hate and the praise. The hope and the fear. I was afraid. I was excited.
From my seat at my desk my eyes were assaulted with everything from hope so pure it made my heart ache to hatred so vile it made be clench my teeth until it hurt.
At first it seemed unlikely but over time things started looking better, more hopeful, but even then I didn’t feel content. As the polls came in for the primary run I got excited but still I felt that this wasn’t a sure thing.
Then the primary was won. I couldn’t believe it.
And I still couldn’t relax.
People screamed that he couldn’t win Hillary supporters. He couldn’t win whites. He couldn’t win Hispanics. I bit my nails.
More polls and more panic. It looked too good. Pundits talked about the Bradley effect. I didn’t buy it.
It looked close. Could we squeak by? Obama picked Biden. I loved the pick. It was perfect. But there was no southerner on the ticket. Shit. Can he grab any southern voters at all?
McCain picked Palin. Everyone with a working brain saw that pick for what it was. McCain got a small bump from the pick at first then she started to talk. Every time she opened he mouth pure bullshit fell out. I couldn’t help but laugh at her. She personally lost McCain any chance at stealing a majority of independent votes and any of the so-called Reagan Democrats. She spit hate and anger, played to the fear. She hyped up the idiots with her moronic words. But she failed. She successfully solidified the extremist fools into the main McCain support base instead of leaving them out on the fringe.
It looked bad for McCain.

Election day was stressful for me. My polling place is very close to my house and I could have voted at anytime but I waited. My wife was at work and I wanted to go as a family. So I waited. I bit my nails. I watched the news. I saw the lines. I read the stories of people crying tears of joy on the way out of their polling place. I read stories of voter caging. I was still worried.
Finally we went and voted. No wait at all. Went in, pulled levers, went out. We stopped by the Obama office after voting and it was packed. It was loud. It was full of energy. I was still worried.
Back to my couch to have a few beers and try to relax as I prepared for what I thought would be a long long night.

The numbers started creeping in as I sat there drinking my beer and chewing my lip. I stepped outside to make a few phone calls and noticed something strange. Silence. I live in a college neighborhood within throwing distance from a main road. No voices. No traffic sounds. Nothing. I have never heard it this quiet here.
OH, PA, VA, IA went blue. I screamed. More results came in. Some red, some blue. Around 10:30PM eastern my brain clicked in. Math. If CA, WA, HI went blue it was over, that was 270. We had it. My wife warned me that it was still to early to celebrate. My phone lit up with texts. Kelly was analyzing, Phil was worried.

11:00PM
The left cost goes blue! Holy shit! It is over! I’m still a bit worried though. Is this really it? It is only 11PM. No shenanigans?
A very classy concession from McCain. No speech from Palin thankfully. That is when it his me. Relief. It is over.
Another trip outside. It is now a different place. I can hear the shouts from the Obama office all the way over here. I’m smiling. I’m laughing. I’m happy. I am actually happy.
I watch people show up for the victory speech in Chicago. A massive sea of people. I don’t ever think I have ever seen that many people in one place. All the faces happy. Many of them crying. All of them united no matter their race or creed. It was amazing. The camera panned over and I saw Jesse Jackson. He was crying. It nearly killed me.

After it was over, after everyone was gone or asleep, I cried.

Seven Years Ago Today.

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

It was seven years ago today that George W. Bush received a memo entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”. This memo would be ignored. Bush was content to dick around his ranch and discuss golf. I don’t think there is one moment that highlights the gross incompetence of this administration better.

Thoughts on Ethnicity

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

I’m going to ask you a question. Before you answer it, I want you to read the rest of this blog while thinking about it.

The question is this: What is your ethnicity?

It might seem like a simple enough question. I bet an answer popped into your head as soon as you finsihed reading it. It may be the correct answer. However, I want you to think about it for a moment.

What defines ethnicity? Is it the color of your skin? Is it where you live? Is it what language you speak? Is it where your ancestors are from? Is it something else?

It could be any of those. I guess it is really up to the individual to define the term for his or herself. I’ve been thinking about this question since I was involved in a discussion yesterday evening about this very topic.

My great-grandparents came over to the United States from Poland. They continued to speak the language when they arrived, and had children who spoke Polish. But those children also learned English which became their primary language.

As time went on, and generations were born to my family, the use of Polish diminished as did the Polish customs that the family had brought with them from their homeland. Soon, my generation was born any trace of the “old country” was all but gone. I suppose you can say that the family was “Americanized.”

So, here’s my second question: Am I Polish? Am I Polish-American? Or am I just American?

At what point does “American” become an ethnicity?

Those who come from Italy are italian. Those from France are French. Germans come from Germany. But, who are the people that come from America? Why do we put our ancestors’ ethnicities in front of “American” when we say who we are?

If I were to move to Italy and become a citizen, would I be considered American-Italian? Or Polish-Italian?

Where do we draw the line?

If I were to go back to Poland I would realize just how Polish I’m not. The same for an African-American who’s never been to Africa (not to mention that Africa’s aa continent, not a country so I’ve never understood the term African-American as it seems to apply to all blacks. Not every black person in America has roots in Africa.) How about an Asian American who’s never left the continental United States? Are they of the American ethnicity? Keep in mind, I’m talking ethnicity and not race.

It’s a good question to ask yourself, and I’m curious to hear opinions on this.

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