King Bloomberg and My Unrepentant Contradictions

By Jose Vilson | November 3, 2009

King Bloomberg and My Unrepentant Contradictions

By Jose Vilson | November 3, 2009
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Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg

I’m living in a weird spot right now. I’m a die-hard Yankees fan who has a hard time supporting the construction of a stadium that, from within and without, stratified the rich and the poor and is supported by the one man who embraces that stratification like the millions of dollars he’s gained indirectly through the veins of this metropolis. I work for a school system that I can’t possibly supporting working from inside and outside it and simultaneously pay taxes to that very school system. I ride on a mass transit system that continually dupes its customers into thinking we’re getting more service for more money when we’re constantly seeing “construction” times with no workers and reroutes at random times with no specific beginnings or ends. I live in a city where people practically give an arm, a leg, and their first born children to live all the while spending just about that to remain in a city where a mayor spends $100 million dollars just to be re-elected. I breathe the air that blows in from a memorable disaster 8 years removed, thinking about another repressive regime led by another Yankee fan who supports a former president who made Yankee Stadium tell men and women not to bring any bags whatsoever for security reasons all the while not leaving us any more secure at all … unless you sit in the front row of the stadium, unless you don’t have to ride the subway (at least not for real), unless you don’t have to take your kid to public school, unless the buildings built and / or razed benefit you, unless you just gave more money to one of the few millionaires who’s actually gained money in a ridiculous recession. Not even those of you who voted for the glossy covers, the mailbox and voicemail stuffing, the pocket-lining, the condo-picking, the pretty commercials, the inaccurate slogans, and the belief in this faux safety won’t be protected.

And that’s OK. Because Bloomberg won his third term, against the peoples’ will. The “people” still voted for him. And today, I can continue calling him King …

Jose, who’s obviously confused …

PS – John C. Liu is the truth …


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