Page 241 - Demo

Off the Record by Jon CinerYou Had To Be ThereIf you were in downtown Brooklyn last Saturday afternoon about 2 p.m. and were wondering what all the commotion was, rest assured, it was only our Governor dropping off a friend. Amid the whirr of sirens and flashing lights, the Governor%u2019s limousine, surrounded by a police escort, came to a screeching halt in front of the candidate%u2019s campaign office on Livingston Street. The Governor stepped out, with Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm%u2014presumably after a tour of Chisholm%u2019s Bed-Stuy district%u2014and gave her a good-bye hug. Chisholm then trotted off to Brooklyn Heights for whatever reason, while Carey returned to his limousine, the sirens starting up again and drove off. It all lasted about two minutes%u2014probably two minutes longer than several of the people stuck in traffic on the crowded street were willing to put up with. But onlookers got to gape at the celebrities, and Carey got to see is Brooklyn campaign office%u2014if not actually enter it. There isn%u2019t much inside it anyway, we hear.Forging LinksThe campaign office being opened inNorth Brooklyn Heights by Fred Richmond may see a bit more action. Especially after the election. Richmond%u2019s campaign started up an office on Henry Street across frm Cadman Plaza, which may serve as the seed for a new political club. Right now, the dominant club%u2014the only club%u2014in the Heights is the West Brooklyn Independent Democratic Club (WBID), which is now opposing Richmond with a passion, backing his primary opponent, Bernard Gifford. Unfortunately for WBID, the club could not get two of the major political figures it has supported with undying devotion in the past%u2014City Council President Carol Bellamy and Deputy Mayor Herman Badillo%u2014to also oppose Richmond. They both endorsed the Congressman. But Richmond apparently is seeking to build strength in the Heights, perhaps one of the weak links in his district.Lively Post MortAs a post-mortem to Democratic Park Slope Assemblyman Joe Ferris%u2019 Liberal Party debacle, it turns out not to be a debacle after all. Ferris had received the Liberal Party nomination, but his name appeared on Liberal petitions with a different address from the one on his Democratic Party petitions. A Liberal partyworker had botched it up apparently. But good news for Ferris. His Liberal petitions were ruled valid because an affadavit citing the wrong address had been filed before objections were sought against the petitions.The two-term Assemblyman is facing a %u2022 primary from Beatrice DeSapio, who is being backed by the Brooklyn county organization. DeSapio works for Speaker Steingut, and is now on leave of absence from her job%u2014after first being fired for running against an incumbent Assemblyman.Hot FlashAnd one hot news flash. Gloria Goldstein, one of the reform candidates for county-wide Civil Court judge was knocked off the ballot. Goldstein%u2019s voting address is in Queens%u2014she made no bones about hiding that%u2014and the Court ruled that although the seat is technically a state office, there must be so many judges for Brooklyn%u2014and from Brooklyn.That leaves Richard Goldman as the only true-blue Kings County Democratic Coalition (KCDC) reform candidate on the ballot. Lester Sacks has the KCDC nod, but he is also endorsed by the county organization. Louis Rosenthal, anotherCoping by Jody LinscotftThere are lots of things endemic to summer that only grow worse by August, most probably because by August we%u2019re so sick of everything that has to do with sun and surf and sidewalk that we think we would happily do with a lifetime in the Artie.By Labor Day one has scraped up a little nostalgia for the beach, and there is always the attempt to roust a bit of energy to bronze up a fading tan for one last round before the rays fade. And the effort to make it out to the beach or the lake, albeit half hearted, is made, if only in the name of winter storm and January thaw.But then there is one thing that annoys, if possible, only more, and this because there is no real relief in sight-only a sporadic hiatus-before it%u2019s in full swing again in spring.I don%u2019t know what men call it, but women call it street hassle. And if you think it was annoying in April, then understand that it%u2019s murderous in August.Street hassle is most simply defined as men interrupting women on the street. If you think it has to be loud or graphically offensive to count, you%u2019re: (a.) naive and (b.) probably a guilty male.I am thinking, for instarice, of my good friend Bill (the name is changed to protect the guilty) who didn%u2019t understand why I got so upset when, while driving down a Long Island highway with a pack of friends in the car (myself included), he honked at a couple of women walking along the road. Yeah, he was just being silly; yeah, he was parodying street hassle. Yeah, it all amounted to the same thing.And yeah, I could have killed him. Both for his own stupidity and the fact that he inflicted such insulting foolishness while I was in the car. Bill, who is in fact not a blatantly sexist man, professed amazement at my reaction. Or overreaction, as he would have it. He and I never reached a meeting of the minds on this one.The point is, a honk isn%u2019t an obscenity, but it is an evasion. Old Bill likes to argue that if women took to honking at him in the streets, he%u2019d be delighted. I suspect that in fact the novelty would wear off quickly and he%u2019d soon be a foot-loose killer. The point lacks a certain element of relevance at any rate, since women are not likely to start honking at Bill.Honking, of course, is the least of it. The clicking and clashing and whistling andmurmuring and clapping and groaning and so on and so on is, ultimately, beyond infuriating. It%u2019s incredibly boring. For behind every motion or gesture or muttering, I fear, lurks some glimmer of hope-call it an assum ption-that the perpetrator has some right to perpetrate. In the same way, say, as a friend offers a greeting: on the basis-or right-of friendship. Somewhere in there these men must think themselves unique, or handsome, or talented, or sexy.Well, I%u2019m here to say it ain%u2019t so. If they were, they wouldn%u2019t have to reduce themselves to stares (etc. etc.). I shall even go so far as to propose that there is a general curve-ratio here:The more prone a man is to hassling, (and this is just a rule of thumb, mind you) the more likely he is to be: (a.)ugly (b.)stupid (c.)talentless (d.)generally all-around repulsive. Now I hate to fight fire with fire, but it%u2019s about time someone said it. You guys are losers.Sadly enough, along with the mad desire 'to believe otherwise, rests within those jerky bosoms a companion suspicion that they are pretty awful. Proof of the soggy pudding, as any woman can tell you, is inSound Off Feedback from Readersorganization candidate, seems to be plastering every lamppost in Brooklyn with posters in what must be an expensive effort to land one of the three Brooklyn vacancies. Goldstein also had three-color posters saturated around the borough, but apparently all for nought.For the RecordIn a startling accusation, the New York Fire Protection Coalition accused BernardGifford, challenger to Fred Richmond in Brooklyn%u2019s 14th Congressional District, of bearing responsibility %u201cfor the burning down of neighborhoods in parts of the 14th C.D.%u201d The Coalition threw their support to Richmond, claiming Gifford called for massive cuts in fire service.... Meanwhile, the Gifford people asked Federal observers to monitor voting violations in the district, citing Richmond%u2019s prior involvement with ejection irregularities... Look at the Governor%u2019s race shows Hugh Careygaining the support of Teamsters Local 237 with 125,000 members. The local said %u201cCarey is the man who kept the city and state out of bankruptcy...his opponent, Mary anne Krupsak, said in Rochester, she would rehabilitate housing and small businesses in urban neighborhoods and cut redlining,crime and high property taxes..the rare response to one of those catcalls or other offers: the perpetrator is invariably shocked and stands dumbfounded.As well he should.One hesitates to recommend this course of action since one never knows how stawlwart these inflated egos are, in the end. Lord knows he may take a flick of the head as a genuine return offer, and contrary to popular belief, there is a wrath like that of a woman scorned. A perfunctorily scorned man (in my limited experience) shows a wrath more akin to insanity.Take, for instance, a woman walking down the street who (if we accept him at his word) the advancing perpetrator finds beautiful, charming, sexy, elegant. Suppose that woman neglects to answer his greeting in kind; suppose she says, in the form she%u2019d like to put it, %u201c buzz off.%u201d I%u2019ll lay ten to one that the perpetrator will suddenly find that woman ugly, stupid, and a useless bitch.But then again, men are so hopelessly fickle.Two Fine LeadersAlthough I do not live in Harvey Strelzin%u2019s district, I%u2019ve been familiar with his statesmanship and leadership in the Assembly. Whenever many of us interested in State legislation ask Harvey for information, he always comes forward with pertinent facts.It would be to the disadvantage of people interested in good government to lose him. I wish I could vote for him. Fortunately I can and will vote for another statesman with fine leadership qualities, i.e. Congressman Fred Richmond. Evelyn S. Brand, Joralemon StreetMyopia & McCarthyRichmond supporters have often exhibited an extraordinary political and moral vision, characterized best as a combination of myopia and McCarthyism. But now, a new phenomenon is being demonstrated - reverse deja vul Jesse A Pavis, in a recent %u201c Sound Off%u201d (Aug. 10), critized me for %u201c recent attacks on Congressman Fred Richmond by Tenzer... in PHOENIX %u2018Sound Off pages.%u201d Further, he said to %u201c attack the character of the man (Richmond),%u201d as Tenzer has done, %u201c is a form of yellow journalism.%u201d What colorJ -------n -------1 _ ----------------- %u20ac-------- o , U %u201e U n l r 4* UUWO JL avio lVilUVV ivi vw v *that never happen? While it may have been desirable, no such material was published by the phoenix, perhaps Pavis was thinking of something seen elsewhere, another time, another place.I hope Pavis and I have whet thepolitically prurient appetites of PHOENIX readers. Perhaps you would be interested in reading some of what was printed elsewhere. Some sample paragraphsi%u201c Richmond%u2019s abuse of power is a life-long habit which he cannot break. He has been found in violation of the law in a classic proxy manipulation case involving a small steel company in Follensbee, West Virginia, in 1954. His plan to dismantle assets, shut factories, fire workers, cause massive unemployment and depression to a small community, and reap a pile of money in the process, was halted by the finding of a Federal Court judge that Richmond had been involved in %u201c violation of the Security Exchange Act%u201d and that illegal %u201cinducements were present from the beginning.%u201d In 1977, Richmond was again personally accused in Federal Court with illegal financial shenanigans.%u201c To mention the %u2019incident,%u2019 Richmond himself made it a public issue when he published on open letter to the residents of the 14th Congressional District (why was the %u201c letter%u201d never sent to his constituents?). This %u201c incident%u201d lasted approximately one year and consisted of buying sexual favors from a child.%u201d%u201c Gifford is painted as a %u2018hawk%u2019U n A A iic A i l l %u00ab%u25a0%u00bb A n m %u00ab l a v ** JL %, W* VV1>and talented Moynihan. What hypocrisy! During 1970 and 1972, when there was a war going on and when Americans were being killed or being made either killers or exiles, we knew who the real hawks were - John Rooneywas one, Richard Nixon another. In 1972, Rooney (the Democratic congressman) was Nixon%u2019s running mate on the Conservative line, and Rooney refused to support or endorse George McGovern. Who was the campaign manager of this king of the war hawks in 1972? Who was the man who promoted the candidacy and supported the incumbency of the notorious, John Rooney over a five-year period ending only in 1974 when Rooney retired? Who? Fred Richmond.%u201dMatters related to Richmond%u2019s arrest this spring just won%u2019t go away. When he had the audacity to issue a press release in the form of a fake open letter, Richmond took the chance that people would comment. They do. The noted lawyer, psychiatrist, author, and founder of Odyssey House (a home for abused children), Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber has characterized Richmond%u2019s behavior as not that of a mature homosexual adult, but rather as the sickness named pedophilia. Dr. Densen-Gerber considers Richmond%u2019s activities with children %u201c a crime of power more than a sexual crime, occurring in persons who feel inadequate.%u201dRichmond supporters keep trying to tie Bernie Gifford to Richard Nixon because Bernie Gifford admires Pat Moynihan and vice versa. And in some way, Bernie isS l i p p O S C d t O b * %u00ae V %u00bb a v i/lr a n H a r p n i d t i r i t icahoots with Meade Esposito because of some sinister involvement with our Borough President, Howard Golden.Let%u2019s get the record straight. The dove of doves, that man whom Nixon swore to get rid of (and did!), that civil rights advocatepar excellence, the guy who ran for Senate against Pat Moynihan, that good and decent man Ramsey Clark is an open and hard working member of Bernie Gifford%u2019s campaign! And our candidate for Borough President, our Brooklyn fighter against Meade Esposite (whose organization is supporting Fred Richmond), our champion of the little guy and the Mitchell-Lamas and the elderly and the unemployed, our mensch Assemblyman Frank Barbaro, is an open and hard working member of Bernie Gifford%u2019s campaign. Would Ramsey Clark and Frank Barbaro support a member of the Nixon crowd, a hawk, an apologist for Meade Esposito? The question answers itself.Pavis ends his letter in support of Richmond, %u201can individual of high moral commitment,%u201d on a theological note. Surely the angels blush. Pavis preaches %u201che that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.%u201d He might have invoked %u201cto err is human, to forgive divine,%u201d or less favorably, %u201c an eye for an eye.%u201d No matter. The truth is that Western civilization has rejected the stone bit. Thank God! None of us are pure enough. So when we catch a murderer, we sinners find him guilty and punish him if he deserves it. And the mugger. And the rapist. And Bergman. And Nixon. And Goering.And the dope peddler. And the ar%u00abaini<;t And th e one who robs vour property, and the one who robs your body.We try to rehabilitate. We temper justice with mercy. We are a society of laws, not men. But we are not impotent in the face of evil.%u2014Ben Tenzer, Henry StreetSeptember 1,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 11