Posted on 01/16/2002 6:27:33 AM PST by Clemenza
January 16, 2002 -- ‘We're taking down the old white guys," said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn's new beep, as he ordered a portrait of George Washington removed from his Borough Hall office.
The old white guys.
The old slave-owners, is what Markowitz means - though he lacks the courage to say so out loud.
So, 225 years after George Washington and his Continentals deftly evaded a vastly superior British army assembled on Brooklyn Heights - merely making the United States of America possible - this lightweight former backbencher from the state Senate banishes the old patriot once again.
The British were fighting a war.
What's Marty Markowitz's excuse?
He has none.
A reason, yes. It's to achieve some "diversity" in the hall.
But an excuse?
Not at all.
It's not hard to find an argument about which among America's founders was the greatest: They were thinkers; they were do-ers; they were individuals of vision and principle and integrity. They vested their lives and fortunes in the uniquely Western notion that the rule of law was superior to the rule of mere men.
Two-and-one-quarter centuries later, America - with all its faults and failures - vindicates their struggle.
George Washington likely was the greatest of them all.
First in war, first in peace and - yes - first in the hearts of his countrymen.
And that was the least of it.
For George Washington tasted power - first as general of the Continental Army, and then as the fledgling nation's first chief executive.
And he voluntarily gave it up - pre- cisely so that America would indeed become a nation of laws, and not men.
He could have had a third term for the asking; he did not ask.
And before that, in December of 1783, he could have taken permanent command of America simply by abetting an incipient revolt of recently demobilized Continental Army officers.
Unpaid for months, angry and without work or prospects, they proposed to take Congress hostage. By force of arms, they would achieve redress of their grievances.
In a barn in upstate Newburgh, Washington rose to address his officers.
No stemwinder, this speech.
Reaching for his spectacles, he paused and apologized:
"Gentlemen," he said, "you must forgive me. I have gone gray in your service, and now I find myself going blind."
And the revolt was over.
Never again need America fear its military.
Contrast that with the butchers and boodlers and bagmen who lead - if that's the correct term - the kleptocracies so admired by so many of those who will defend Markowitz this morning.
To hell with them.
An "old white guy"?
For shame, Marty Markowitz.
To paraphrase, "It's DINKINS time..."
1.) Robert Mugabe- Zimbawbe
2.) Marty Markowitz-Brooklyn,N.Y.
3.) Jesse Jackson- Underarock
4.) Al Sharpton- Underanotherrock
5.) Nelson Mandela- Uncderarockinafrica
Pleas continue the list for the sake of White people everywhere
This moron will do whatever he can get away with. If the people cared enough and raised enough hell he, being the coward he is, would fold like a cheap tent.
Another not very bright, crypto-Marxist hack American Jew. WHY are so many of my fellow American Jews Stalinist morons?
pabianice
Politically, Brooklyn's blacks are more "radical" (for lack of a better term) than those of Manhattan. There was much to-ing and fro-ing about Dinkins being a candy-ass from the Harlem clubhouse, at least before the Crown Heights riots.
Many of our ancestors carried the socialist intellectual virus when emigrating from Europe a century ago.
Many of our ancestors carried the socialist intellectual virus when emigrating from Europe a century ago.
And subsequently brought it down to South Florida, unfortunatly. Thankfully, the Cuban vote down here typically cancels out the left-wing senior citizen Jewish vote down here.
The interesting thing is, that other ethnic groups were on the political (if not the cultural left) when they first came here, but became more "moderate" (read: Mainstream Democrat) by the second generation. Many Polish Catholics (I am half-Polish) helped to elect Socialist Candidates in Milwaukee and Chicago, but moved to the moderate wing of the Dem party within 20 years.
My paisani, on the other hand, have always been swing voters (Wendell Wilkie received 40% of the Italian vote against Roosevelt in 1940), never truly swearing allegiance to either party.
This particular half-breed has lived most of his life in New York, but has the politics of an Idaho backwoodsman. A'int assimilation great!
I can remember going to elementary school in Valley Stream (right over the Queens line in Nassau) when we experienced an influx of kids who were fleeing places like Canarsie and other parts of South Brooklyn. The interesting thing about your borough is that the influx of yuppies into places like Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Williamsburgh has been exceeded by an outflow of lower middle class, largely Italian whites from places like Bensonhurst, Bergen Beach, Bay Ridge, etc., over the past decade. For better AND for worse, "old Brooklyn" is no more.
And I've heard the younger Jews are starting to break from their parents and grandparents on their votes as well which is good to hear.
It took LBJ in both sides of my family's case to start the break. Reagan did it for most of the rest of the family. Klinton solidified it among all but the most liberal with his backing for partial birth abortion, which is not popular among Irish.
I'll say it again. The worst people in this country are the white liberals.
Very true. But such shifts have been the norm for NYC since the industrial revolution.
look at this => NY Legislators pass bill (after midnight) to rob 4.5 billion and raise cigarette taxes to $1.50-pack
Bingo. According to the 2000 Census data, Brooklyn (Kings County, NY) is about 35% White, 35% black, 20% hispanic, and most of the remaining 10% are Asian.
Previous non-White %'s for Brooklyn:
as of 1990: 58%
as of 1980: 49%
as of 1970: 37%
as of 1960: between 20 and 25%
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