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| The Mayors |
Norfolk
Mayor Paul Fraim approves a property tax hike of four cents and
everyone applauds his vision and his leadership.
Portsmouth
Mayor Kenny Wright approves a property tax hike of three cents and
people are screaming for him to be recalled from office.
Mayor
Fraim is a political veteran; Mayor Wright is a political neophyte
who needs to grasp the reality of his decisions and take responsibility for them.
Mayor
Wright is catering to the majority of Portsmouth who acts like they
are still a minority. (Portsmouth: 54 percent black; 42
percent white. Census Bureau, 2013)
Fraim
has a wicked sense of who owes him a favor; Wright, whose city is
teetering on the brink of disaster, believes wicked forces are out to
get him.
Fraim
gives Norfolkians a sense of pride in a city whose image he has
vastly improved; Wright, on the other hand, can't find the image he
wants to convey.
Fraim
delivers – most of the time.
Wright
feints and retreats. (But you can find him on Facebook.)
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| Find the Truth |
Fraim
is responsive to most of the people.
Wright
is responsive to “my people.”
The
top politicians are salesmen, pitch men and promoters.
Ronald
Reagan sold us...Ronald Reagan...welfare Moms...and tear down that
wall Mr Gorbuchev. Bill Clinton sold us ...Bill Clinton, the
definition of sex and that he never played the sax (while having
sex?) in bed.
Mayor
Fraim is a salesman.
Mayor
Wright is not.
Why
the recall? Where's the misconduct? The corruption? The crime? There
is none, or at least that anyone knows.
Now
if Mayor Wright bites a child, molests a dog, steals money from the
city or sends the homeless to the crematorium alive, or even puts on
them a container ship bound for China, he might be in trouble.
Just
because you disagree with his decision doesn't mean you are right. It
just means you don't like his decision.
Bob
Marcus, owner of Bob's Gun Shop in Norfolk, says the conflict is
about color – “green, most of it leaving our pockets, most of us
watching our property values decline, having to leave town to buy a
new car or a decent suit of clothes."
But
Mr Marcus...where's your business? In Portsmouth? No, Norfolk.
Mr
Marcus ought to shut down his business in Norfolk, sell his
properties he owns across from his gun shop and invest in Portsmouth.
His
taxes and investment might help Portsmouth; it would also show that a
local business owner is willing to invest in the future of
Portsmouth. (Further information about Mr Marcus' campaign donations can
be found at the Virginia Public Access Project.)
City
Council Member, Mark Whitaker says “some people have a problem
funding a predominantly black school district.”
Whitaker
and his “some people” should listen to the minority voices in
Portsmouth instead of blaming and attacking detractors and deflecting
attention from the real problems.
Who's
in charge? Who runs the city? Who decides if the school board gets an
increase in their budget? Who decides if city workers get raises? Who
decides if the police department is running amok and should be
curbed.
You
have three black city council members and a black mayor; the black
majority controls city council, not the white minority of three white
city council members, one of whom is a white woman.
That
begs the questions: where are the black women leaders? And why aren't
there more women on city council?
Or
is this now the “tyranny” of the black male majority?
Malcolm
X, in his speeches and writings, slammed the “tyranny of the white
majority.”
My,
my, times have changed, haven't they?
Tough
being in charge, isn't it?