The Scott Sisters As Political Fanfare

Please read my piece on The Root (www.theroot.com) at: http://www.theroot.com/views/scott-sisters-freed

Political Snow Blowing

New Yorkers, let’s not become part of the nation of whiners or of “wussies”, as Pennsylvania’s governor calls we 21^st century all or nothng at all, give it to me instantly Americans. Yes, Mayor Bloomberg over promised and under delivered. But who among New Yorkers, real New Yorkers, expected that with the wave of a wand this snow would disappear?

A Huffington Post whiner, FHTB, wrote: “Why do Mayors or Governors forget that snow removal is an absolute minimal requirement of cities during blizzards. ..excuses are never acceptable in such circumstances, no matter whether it is a holiday weekend or whether there are high winds, not enough equipment, or too many cars on the streets.” FHTB, you left out downsizing of the sanitation department over the last few years to meet budgetary demands. Whine. Whine. Whine.

But real New Yorkers understand reality. Heck, we can even get over the shellacking our Giants got in that historic loss a few weeks ago.

I am not heartless and, thus, feel for those who lost loved ones during the storm and its aftermath. But I also think of all those who, as evidenced in so many of our historic cemeteries, died in childbirth in the 1800s and all those who died during the flu epidemic in 1919 and all those who died of AIDS or AIDS-related complexes in the 1980s. Many of us believe that, as the Scripture says, “joy comes in the morning” after an extended night of sorrow. To everything there is a season. This is winter and often in the winter there is death.

This was a serious blizzard. Side streets are still not cleared. But many more of us should get off our butts and grab shovels rather than kvetching via the Internet or jumping in front of the cameras of television stations. This is what New Yorkers do: “We roll up our sleeves and fix it,” Mayor Bloomberg said Thursday. The “it” is deployment of equipment; use of personnel; communications with the public. This is no time for unions to say, “I told you so” regarding layoffs. The city – heck, the whole nation from bottom to top – has to learn to do more with less money from government.

Some elected officials have won (Jane Byrne, Chicago, 1980) or lost (Adrian Fenty, Washington, 2010) after badly-handled snow storms. Our own Mayor John Lindsay lost the GOP primary in 1969 because of snow removal and snow fatality issues; but he was ultimately re-elected. Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t have to worry about the politics of it all unless he plans to run for an unprecedented fourth term. Assuming he is not, he’s free to thoroughly investigate what went right and what went wrong during the blizzard of 2010 and to fix whatever was broken. As I see it, though, this was Mother Nature doing her thing -- and we are foolish to think we can control that.