As hundreds gathered Wednesday evening in front of City Hall Annex in response to the shooting death of 14-year-old Justin Thompson, Mayor Bill Finch echoes one of his political heroes.
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Mayor Finch, At Rally Against Violence, Invokes Bobby Kennedy’s ‘Ripple Of Hope’
PATHETIC, this mayor is so out of touch, just watch and listen to him again, PATHETIC.
Mayor Finch made a good speech under difficult circumstances.
Ron Mackey gave a borderline racist speech on this blog on July 4, 2010. It was pathetic.
I encourage Ron Mackey to revisit his own words and respond on these pages.
*** Time for tough community action, no? ***
Pee-yew! Did yahooy write that speech? Blech.
Local Eyes, please be my guest and post what I wrote, but that doesn’t change anything about Mayor Finch’s speech being “PATHETIC.”
Keep digging–you’ll get to China eventually. Moreover, Bobby Kennedy made Ron Mackey’s life better and I can use specific acts of legislation and tax dollars to prove it.
The better speech that night was by the 23-year-old college student from the East Side who just by her presence offered hope for the kids of that neighborhood.
Ms. Cooper knocked it out of the park at the public hearing at the City Council Chamber as well!!!
If anyone that night was playing to the crowd it was Bill Finch. Not only was his speech “pathetic,” he is “pathetic.” Please try to find some proof otherwise.
Letter in today’s CT Post made a far better point than those comments expressed in this video … Why is a 14 year old out at 1:00 a.m?
Obviously there is no way he deserved what happened but it seems all too often when I read about these terrible situations, quite frequently I ask myself, “where were the parents?”
Isn’t it a parent’s job to keep their children out of harm’s way?
Part & parcel with this tragedy and also seemingly never mentioned by politicians, clergy, when I read in the CT Post of specific people in dire financial need (I forget the name of the column), all too often it is a single-mother household and judging by the brief description, rather poorly educated.
Why aren’t politicians, clergy, community leaders aggressively saying to the community that raising children successfully requires a mother and father … And getting pregnant without marriage particularly when young & uneducated almost always results in a financially destitute, challenged family, relying on society to carry their burden?
Too many children, in way too many urban environments have the deck stacked against them because of this poorly educated, single-parent phenomenon.
Young girls should not be getting pregnant while still essentially kids … And young men deserve all the shame society can heap on them for not shouldering their responsibilities.
Enough with quoting a Kennedy … Lame. Who’s Mayor Finch think he is, Congressman Larson?
Finch was doing his best Rev. Jim Baker televangelical act and he must have been on some Ripple. It must have been the afterglow of him taking Holy Communion the other morning at a funeral. When is the last time you made your Easter Duty, Bill? What a Counterfeit Bill!
A real Ozzie and Harriet moment by FBD!
Here is another solution. Bridgeport needs a curfew. If you are under a certain age and are out after 11:00 in the evening you get picked up and placed in Juvie for the evening. Parent or parents must come in the morning and take the kid home. Three strikes and you’re out and go to a special school and live at the school. We have stricter laws for roaming dogs than we have for kids and irresponsible parent(s). We don’t need to erect any more shrines. We have a beautiful one at St. Margaret’s on Park Avenue.
Local Eyes, you make this accusation about me by saying, “Ron Mackey gave a borderline racist speech on this blog on July 4, 2010. It was pathetic,” and you also said, “I encourage Ron Mackey to revisit his own words and respond on these pages,” but you give NO proof.
Then you write, “Bobby Kennedy made Ron Mackey’s life better and I can use specific acts of legislation and tax dollars to prove it,” what???
Local Eyes, I stand by what I write and I don’t hide, I give my name so you and everybody else knows it’s me.
I will say it again, PATHETIC, this mayor is so out of touch, just watch and listen to him again, PATHETIC.
I was curious about this too Ron, so I went and looked it up, here is your post:
Ron Mackey // Jul 4, 2010 at 7:34 pm
As America celebrates another 4th of July I would like to leave a little history. The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III, and by asserting certain natural rights, including a right of revolution. But what about the slaves? Here is what Frederick Douglass had to say on July 4, 1852.
Frederick Douglass – July 4, 1852
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.
Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.
*** Many truths in American history can be a hard pill to swallow, no? However only by knowing & understanding our country’s past history can we move forward towards a better future! *** KEEP HOPE ALIVE! ***
burman, and what is the problem with that post?
Ron,
Perhaps some OIB readers are unfamiliar with reading historical materials, including manuscripts, speeches, etc. in terms of the context of the times?
The people of Haiti had revolted against their French colonial masters nearly 50 years before. Abolition was the concept of the day in Great Britain and yet slavery had a firm hold on the US at this time (1852). Douglass was using a ‘compare and contrast’ argument to his audience. Is there a problem in doing that? Burman and LE, what are you seeing more than this? Perhaps you would like to go back to the meaning of PATHETIC? Time will tell.
Ron, sometimes people who have never lived or had a history of slavery in their families cannot relate, their argument becomes well you are free now well someone called me a derogatory name. They try to match up themselves or someone who voluntarily came to this country to someone who was chained in a hull of ship stacked like cordwood and then treated like less than a stray dog and who was told to believe they were not capable of being anything more than a commodity to be auctioned like a barnyard animal at their master’s whim, separated from family as soon as they could preform their slave task. Ron, even we who can in our minds envision that pain cannot say we know that pain and terror your forefathers experienced.
Ron, in Fredrick Douglass’ lifetime and beyond their was no reason to celebrate Freedom on Independence Day, and until the day people do not even notice the color of a person’s skin there will always be those who judge others by the very color of their skin and not the humanity we all share.
So Mr. Burman, please don’t let anyone tell you what your people have suffered should be forgotten because it happened long before, because it happens still today.
BEACON2,
You have that very humanity I look for in all people, but at times very difficult to find.
The Rumor Mill is rife with speculation:
The complete post was never published/Ron had his “peace” at the Mayor’s expense. Vulgarity is applauded here/Time will tell for those who wait. BEACON2 made a career out of it. If you want to discuss the joys of waiting, talk to him. I produce original research, I don’t have time for that.That’s what I love about this blog: you can be totally wrong and your opinion still ranks well among your peers.
*** STOP HATING THE PLAYERS INSTEAD OF THE GAME! ***
Let’s get back to the topic, “Mayor Finch, At Rally Against Violence, Invokes Bobby Kennedy’s ‘Ripple Of Hope’.”
Here are some things that were in the Connecticut Post. In recent months, the community here has mourned many lives cut short by shootings. But it was Thompson’s slaying that got them marching in the streets.
Rally participants joined their voices to sing gospel songs and prayed during the two-mile march from the East End Kitchen and Market to City Hall Annex across the river. Police escorted the group in cruisers and on foot.
“We need an urban agenda to address things for our children to do,” “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop; that’s what I was always told.”
“No more funerals!” they chanted. “More graduations!”
Once again it was former state Sen. Ernie Newton who organize the Rally and it Ernie Newton who knew the feeling of the community and he acted on that. Mayor Bill Finch was left behind following and trying to react. Mayor was tone deaf, he was not listening and feeling what was going on around him and that was demonstrated in his speech. The marchers were saying “No more funerals!” “More graduations!” Mayor Finch NEVER address that demand. This was not the first killing of a teenager since Finch has been mayor but it was the first time the people said enough is enough and the mayor gave them NOTHING. The mayor can’t talk about “More graduations” because he took those marchers’ right to elect who they want to be on the BOE away from them.
The mayor could not address an urban agenda Ernie Newton suggested because that’s not even in the mayor’s plan for Bridgeport.
I will say it again, PATHETIC, this mayor is so out of touch, just watch and listen to him again, PATHETIC.
So while sitting in the teacher’s lounge today, it was disclosed that a 5th grader (who, okay, has a bit of an attitude) was threatened with a gun while hanging outside of Old Mill Green Library on Boston Avenue a while ago. It was just a casual, “Don’t mess with me, girl,” kind of referent.
This is what our kids live with daily. What is the solution?
I don’t think I have all the answers but I have a few thoughts on the subject matter.
When you know you are losing 6 out of 10 kids to the streets and idleness, you must know things are wrong. For years politicians have talked the talk about education but have not walked the walk. We have a large segment of our school-age children being lost to the streets and nothing is being done. We are losing these kids in grammar school but still nothing is being done. Let’s do away with teacher tenure and let’s get rid of the teachers who are not performing and let’s reward the teachers who are performing.
Let’s strengthen the gun laws and increase the penalty for having a gun without a permit. In the case of juveniles caught with a gun, arrest them but also arrest the parent(s). The parents need to be held more responsible for the actions of their underage children.
Bridgeport desperately needs a newspaper willing to do an investigative piece on the gang violence in Bridgeport. This feud has been going back and forth for nearly 2 years. Mainly with gangs like the Staq Boys vs the East Side Boys. Many of these guys are starting off around the age of 13.
All of the back and forth violence has been swept under the rug and I guess it is very hard to cover up the death of a 14 year old.
We had teens get into a shootout with Police Officers returning fire on the Fairfield/Stratford Ave Bridge and that was silenced. There have been other teen deaths and countless other teens shot who have been patched up by Bridgeport Hospital.
There is a host of issues here, lack of involved parenting, lack of positive outlets for youth, a brewing culture of acceptance to this behavior and a lack of BPD resources and ability to solve crime. Not to mention the State’s lack of follow-through on prosecution.
The State Crime Taskforce needs to come clean house and at the same time, recreational centers and job programs need to open in the city.
Hey tc,
That was a low blow!
Blaming the death of a teenager on teacher tenure???
Mayor Mike would be proud of you.
And all of the anti-union Republicans would agree with the illogical conclusion of your argument.
But teacher tenure isn’t even in the top 5 problems with the Bridgeport schools system.
The remarks I made about tenure were made in the context we are losing kids in grammar school, it was not stated it was the reason this kid was murdered. We have pumped billions of dollars into school systems and to what avail? Republican, Democrat they are all responsible. The education system is geared towards college-bound students, the non-college-bound are forgotten. There are no courses in Bpt’s system that gets these kids ready for life after school.
Here is a question. How did kids who attend charter schools do so much better there than they did in city schools? If you don’t think tenure is a problem I think you are mistaken.
Why don’t the politicians donate their upcoming 15% raises to some quality after-school and evening recreation programs for teenagers in the East Side and East End? Many of these programs have been eliminated due to budget cuts.
That won’t happen … politicians don’t do anything but protect “their” job, benefits and perquisites. They show up when it’s convenient for them and take credit for others’ good works.
This city needs a bunch of controls the council members won’t or can’t do without Administrative OK.
Growing up in NYC in the ’50s and ’60s, it was required to have a dress code in schools, and gangs were outlawed. If you even belonged to a gang you went to juvenile detention. If you wore unacceptable clothing you were sent home to wear proper clothing. That included shoes not sneakers, pants not jeans, collared shirts not tee shirts. I know some will say with disadvantaged children this becomes a financial burden on those who buy the clothes, but there have to be rules and regulations people need to obey. Legislators make laws to control businesses so they “toe the line,” why not some level of laws that limit the anomic behavior that deteriorates social behavior and our society?