Between the Bridges in Broad Channel
by
Peter J. Mahon
By now almost everyone is aware that our Mayor was late in arriving at the Flight 587 Memorial Service on Beach 116th Street in Rockaway.
Just before 9:16 am when a bell was to be tolled to commemorate the exact time of Flight 587's demise, the Mayor still hadn't arrived. When asked where the Mayor was, the stock reply was "He'll be here in a few minutes." As 9:16 am rapidly approached all of the Mayor's minions simply stood around looking clueless with their hands in their pockets.
Suddenly, Miriam Estrella, who lost family on Flight 587 back in 2001, rose from her seat and took charge of the situation. Ascending to the podium Ms. Estrella announced to the crowd "Sorry, our Mayor's not here but it is time that exactly 13 years ago our family members passed away and we will now toll the bell." Thankfully, the bell was tolled on time and the assembled mourners shared a moment of silence to reflect on the 265 lives lost when Flight 587 fell from the sky and exploded in Belle Harbor.
Shortly thereafter Mayor de Blasio arrived embarrassingly late at the ceremony on Beach 116th Street and at the conclusion of the memorial service, with no apology for his lateness, damage control on the part of Mayor's staff went into high gear.
The Mayor's spokeman, Marti Adams, explained that the Mayor decided to travel to Rockaway by police boat because that was the quickest means of transport but was delayed because of unexpected heavy fog. Really? Are you kidding me? Considering this is the same Mayor who killed our Rockaway Ferry service only 2 weeks ago, you really have to assume that he thinks little of rubbing salt in that wound! By the way. I guess nobody paid any attention to the Dense Fog Advisory for the morning of the Flight 587 Memorial service issued by the National Weather Service some 19 hours prior to the Mayor's boat trip. (Are we expected to believe that the Mayor's police launch was bereft of state of the art GPS and radar?) The Mayor's spokesman also conveniently forgot to mention that de Blasio was scheduled to leave Gracie Mansion via NYPD boat at 8 am for the ceremony but instead left 35 minutes late.
Realizing that the boat and heavy fog excuse wasn't gaining any traction, the Mayor then stated that he was late because he had a really rough night, couldn't sleep and was feeling off-kilter. What a bunch of malarkey! All that was missing from Bill's "woe is me" statement was Linda Ronstadt standing beside him singing Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me!
A few days after the Flight 587 memorial, when asked by the media about his continual lateness, rather than apologizing and attempt to place this embarrassing matter behind him, Mayor Bill took the course of a true politician - never retreat...never retract...never admit a mistake - and simply dismissed the issue of his constant tardiness as "inside baseball."
This entire fiasco could have been avoided if only he had the common sense to take a pittance of time at the conclusion of the memorial service to address those in attendance and offer a sincere apology for his inability to arrive at that solemn gathering on time, recognized and expressed his gratitude to Ms. Estrella for rising to the occasion and salvaging the timeliness of the event and expressed regret for his insensitivity in utilizing maritime transport to travel to the event after having terminated our Rockaway Ferry just 2 weeks earlier, this incident could have been a one day story.
Bill de Blasio's lack of common sense and ensuing insensitivity to those he serves can only lead us to believe that our career civil servant Mayor is quite comfortable believing that his time is more valuable than ours.
This character flaw only serves to paint our Mayor as a very uncivil servant!
Broad Channel - why would anyone want to live anywhere else!
Contact information: email: rtbetweenthebridges@gmail.com or text/call: 347-226-1293.
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