Sometimes you have to scratch your head and wonder if the lunatics have taken over the asylum.
That after Mayoral Candidates Scott Stringer, Dianne Morales, Andrew Yang and Maya Wiley; and Brooklyn Borough President candidates Jo Anne Simon and Antonio Reynoso reportedly pulled out of a 2021 candidate debate moderated by respected NY1 journalist Errol Louis over a Tweet about Chinese food.
The brouhaha started when Lori Maslow, a Marine Park Democratic female District Leader Tweeted out the following screenshot, which has since been deleted:
It didn’t take but two shakes of a lamb’s tail for the borough’s progressive police to jump over themselves with outrage. This woman’s tweet was racist, It was xenophobic. This lifelong Brooklynite needed to be banned from ever holding a party position ever again – elected or unelected.
Democratic Party County Chair and Assemblywoman Rodneyese Bichotte distanced herself from the tweet, called it racist, but noted that Maslow was duly elected to the unpaid seat and she didn’t believe it right in going against the will of the voters.
Maslow apologized for her poor choice of words and the hurt she caused to the Chinese-American community. She said she planned to go through Racial Justice training to correct her mistake.
Racial justice training! Hmph, that sounds like a pretty steep step to me. But to the progressive police it rang phony as dimestore jewelry. This woman needed to be tarred, feathered and thrown off the Coney Island Parachute Jump without a parachute.
Eight of the borough’s more progressive Democratic District leaders floated a petition calling for a boycott of the debate if Maslow was not forced to resign because Bichotte and the County’s Democratic Party was sponsoring it.
And that’s when the aforementioned candidates vowed to join or consider joining the boycott unless Maslow was forced to resign.
Now, it would seem to me that the most important thing a candidate running for a major office in this city would want to do it is get their plan out on how to steer us through this very real current crisis.
And part of their message should be to pull together with understanding and compassion. That love conquers hate. That them without sin should cast the first stone.
But that’s me.
Either way, I fully intend to tune into the webinar debate and encourage readers to do the same. It’s slated for 6 p.m., this Sunday, Jan. 31. To register click here.
Editor’s Note: After this column was posted, Maslow resigned.
