Hate on MLK Day

So GA returned today from a chilly graveside service in Queens for my 96 year-old (Great) Aunt, in the thoughtful mood such passings evoke.

Heading back to Hoboken, the notion we are 48 years past the day MLK spoke of his dream- civil rights through peaceful and dignified means, makes one realize how far we've come.  Because in Hoboken 2012 the 'rights' we're debating are those of bar owners and the St. Patrick's Parade Committee to host their event and a beer-soaked bacchanal on Saturday vs. the rights of residents to safety and a parade on Wednesday.

So that's how far we've come as a society.  And how far we've fallen.

Locking horns over a day on the calender. 

Such is the debate we're having here.  A long, long way from MLK beseeching a nation to come to its senses:

In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. 

That's the only way.  

Unfortunately, NOT the way that the St. Patrick's Parade Committee chose.

Nope, they took a big gulp from the "cup of bitterness"...

We chose not to go to court and not to continue to negotiate over the heavy-handedness of one person. The idea of marching in a parade, in the dark, on a week night, is as insulting as it is unreasonable. While we remain devoted to our heritage, we love our city too much to lower ourselves to the level of those who speak from a place of ignorance and ethnic/religious intolerance. 

...and pulled the 'bigot' card from the bottom of the deck.  Citing  (ethnic/ religious)"intolerance" of "one (Jewish) person" with the LIE that this nasty Jew was forcing them to "march in the dark" (the parade committee was free to pick the time).

Not exactly the "high plane of dignity" MLK spoke about.

But if the St. Patrick's Parade Committee fired the opening salvo, it's been taken to the bottom of the swamp in the anti-Semitic rantings of political operative Lane Bajardi.  

Bajadi posts  as 'prosbus' on Patch; it's one of many screen names he uses.   While GA mainly ignores the dreck that pours from him like a broken sewage pipe, his anti-Semitism can't be.

Of course, such filth is evidence of Zimmer's political strength   Her handling of Hurricane Irene was top-notch, she (and the Hospital Authority) saved our hospital, she reduced property taxes by 10%- the most in Hudson County, she got the F.B.I into Hoboken and turned over our City's data banks for the first-ever serious attempt to clean up City Hall.. and the list goes on.

That's why Bajardi needs to use the Dirty Jew strategy.  He's got nothing else.

So he's peddling  hate and prejudice.  He and his buddies are saying the (Jewish) mayor and her allies are anti-Christian, anti-Irish, anti-Italian, anti- (name your ethnicity).

 Of course, the people to whom this argument appeals to weren't voting for Zimmer anyway.  But the tactic needs to be repudiated.

So, see for yourself.  The Face of Hate.  In his own words.