Pundits Turner, Rawls-Ivy, Ugly, and Ricks.
Is it democracy in action when labor-affiliated New Haveners work on political campaigns? Or pursuit of a narrow anti-democratic agenda?
That question has surfaced in some of the campaigns for this coming Wednesday’s Democratic primaries for Board of Alder positions.
And it surfaced in this week’s news round-up discussion on the Friday Pundits Panel on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program, comparing and contrasting today’s political operation to those of the Civil Rights Movement and late New Haven machine boss Arthur Barbieri’s Democratic Town Committee operation.
The pundit panelist — Inner City News Managing Editor Babz Rawls-Ivy, host of WNHH’s “LoveBabz” program, Independent reporter Markeshia Ricks, veteran radio journalist and WNHH host Michelle Turner, and Ugly Radio’s Joe Ugly — explored that question in depth.
Also on the program the panelists revisited the original 9/11 — including the 37 hours that a spouse was unaccounted for, and the attack’s impact on a once-in-a-decade competitive New Haven mayoral primary between John DeStefano and Martin Looney. Finally the panel spoke about the plight of New Haven’s 400-plus couch-surfing homeless teens and the hope behind a newly announced “Escape” teen drop-in center, complete with a church-run homeless-teen shelter called “the Situation.”
The program’s first segment covers 9/11. The labor/politics discussion begins at 23:24, the homeless-teen discussion at 43:00.nCLick on the sound file below to listen.
The NHI is in the hands of a person who once had a reputation of a courageous fighter for the little man. Now he, like others fear saying anything negative about the prowess of local 34 & 35.
He'll go over the waters edge to dissect those who can't fight back much or at all, but in a subverted way, he masterfully stops at the waters edge when it comes to the unions. And apparently, this comportment has now trickled down to his new baby, WNHH.
I marvel at the hypocrisy in those that know it, see it and have felt it, but are afraid to call it what it is for fear of a political challenge or other reprisals. These persons have no credibility in my view. They hurt the public's interest instead of helping it. Newspapers and radio personalities alike.
Government will never be good unless those who are in it are.
You didn't post my last comments when I talked about unions, but because I'm a glutton for punishment, I decided to return.