Now, the rest of the story
Immigrant Place had its flag replaced but in order to honor the effort of Erving Severino, the Queen City Disabled American Veterans and the firefighters, I chose not to contaminate the story on page 10 by mentioning the politicians that were there.
On that story you can read the ending but the participation of the mayor’s office and his entourage that follows him to all of these events, clapping and cheering as if he had done anything to deserve it but here are the details of what happened there.
As usual, the mayor and the basement dweller at City Hall who is supposed to work for the veterans took to the microphone like heroes. Then came the city councilors. Ana Levy told me that she personally asked the mayor at the District A neighborhood meeting last month about replacing the flag and he agreed to it.
Then came the kicker. Councilor Estela Reyes said, “Abelito and I have been working on this for a year.” According to Mr. Severino, he appealed to her a long time ago and several months later when he asked again, she told him that she was working on it. How much work is involved in raising a flag?
The most puzzling part is, what does flag raising has to do with economic development? Why was Abelito Vargas involved? He probably is not too busy if he is tackling those matters although we now know that nobody was doing anything.
Bunch of phonies!
Speaking of fakes…
I am confused with the behavior of today’s women. In 1974 I wrote a small booklet entitled “What the Equal Rights Amendment can do for You” and sold a few copies through an ad placed in El Mundo newspaper. I gave away the rest.
That was being debated at the State House and it passed in 1975. I wanted to have the personal satisfaction of having put my two cents worth on an issue I felt very strongly about. But those were different times!
What we are seeing lately is that a women’s accusation can destroy careers, marriages and reputations without ever going before a judge. While I realize that those accusations are based on truth because it was part of a male culture of disrespect towards females, I believe they deserve to be confronted through a different method. Too many innocent people have been getting hurt as a result of such swift action from employers and the media.
Many of those allegations came after 20, 30 years or more when it was widely known that in Hollywood, the way to advance in movies was through a “casting couch.” We used to hear stories of secretaries sleeping with the boss in order to get ahead in the company or just keep their jobs. Years later they may be some of those in the news.
Then, the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements were born. It was made up by “victims” looking for justice after years of keeping their secret. They were supposed to be the defenders of all women but what do we find? Politics and hipocrisy.
