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| Zohran Mamdani: The New “America’s Mayor” |
The other post was a photo Curmie had never seen before, or at least had long forgotten. What was pictured
wasn’t from September 11, but from a full ten days later. It shows an impromptu gathering on the
pitcher’s mound of Shea Stadium, where the New York Mets had just defeated the
Atlanta Braves 3-2 after a come-from-behind two-run homer in the 8th inning by
Mike Piazza. The game was the first sporting event to be
held in New York since the attack, and was significant for that reason. That the home team prevailed over their
arch-rival in such a dramatic fashion was indeed a beacon of hope for a city
that was reeling.
But there was something special about that meeting on the
mound. It wasn’t just the Mets who were
celebrating. A lot of the Braves players
were there, too. And they weren’t just
congratulating their opponents with a nod or even a handshake. Star pitcher Tom Glavine is shown in the
photo linked above hugging Mets reliever John Franco. Even in defeat, they needed that game, that
moment, that monodigital salute to those who would attack us, nearly as much as
New Yorkers did. Curmie has a couple of friends
who are die-hard Braves fans. They didn’t
want to lose, but just this once, they were fine with the outcome, and the fact
that the game even happened made the day a win for them.
All of us who are old enough to remember that particular
9/11 will remember where we were when we heard the horrible news—each of the
four terrible events of the day. But,
like the hope that remained in Pandora’s box after the evil had escaped, there was
a feeling of resolve, a sense of shared purpose to an extent that Curmie had never
seen before. From Canadians opening
their homes to terrified strangers, to the entire crew of a German destroyer flying an American flag and declaring solidarity, to playing the Star Spangled Banner at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (King Charles repeated the tribute this morning, by the way), to countless other manifestations of
condolence and support from around the globe, it became very clear very fact
that people and governments worldwide were aghast at what had happened and
determined to help us get back on our feet as a nation.
Here in the States, as Curmie wrote on his Facebook page last year, “If anything good came out of that nightmare, it is that, for a
brief interval, we were Americans first and everything else--religion, race,
political orientation, etc.--was secondary.”
We even granted Rudy Giuliani the unofficial title of “America’s Mayor” for
what seemed at the time, at least, to be his adept handling of the aftermath of
the attack. He had overwhelming support from
New Yorkers, was named Person of the Year by Time magazine, and even got
an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
Unfortunately for Giuliani’s political ambitions, however,
George W. Bush was in his first term and ran for re-election in 2004. That meant it was 2008 before Giuliani could
seek the presidency. He was the favorite
to get the Republican nomination when he declared his candidacy early in 2007. He’d been a leading figure in the GOP, after
all, and had been a key supporter of Bush’s campaign. By this time, though, there were questions about
a series of extra-marital affairs, conflicts of interest and other scandals. More importantly, perhaps, some of the luster
had worn off his response to 9/11.
It was reported that a fair number of things for which Giuliani had taken credit were actually performed by someone else. More significantly, shortly after his candidacy was announced, the International Association of Fire Fighters declared that Giuliani’s actions in the recovery operation:
meant that firefighters and citizens who perished would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever, with no closure for families, or be removed like so much garbage and deposited at the Fresh Kills landfill…. Hundreds remained entombed in Ground Zero when Giuliani gave up on them…. What Giuliani showed is a disgraceful lack of respect for the fallen and those brothers still searching for them.
Moreover, EPA chief (and former Republican governor of New
Jersey) Christine Todd Whitman asserted that her efforts to get Ground Zero workers to wear respirators and
haz-mat suits were blocked by Giuliani, who (and this part is Curmie’s reading
of the situation) seemed more interested in making things look normal than in
getting them to be normal. She
even suggested that illnesses killing first responders could be attributed, at
least in part, to the city’s actions (or lack thereof).
After that 2008 presidential campaign collapsed in a series
of 3rd, 4th, and 5th place finishes in primaries and caucuses, Giuliani has
become increasingly irrelevant. He still
makes headlines occasionally—sometimes for yet another scandal in his personal
life, sometimes for his sycophancy to Dear Leader, sometimes for his alleged
criminality, sometimes for some rather misapplied hair dye, sometimes for… well,
what the hell was that Four Seasons Landscaping business all about, anyway?
Most recently, in one last (we can hope it’s the last)
attempt to get his name in the papers, the one-time America’s Mayor goes
full-out Islamophobe and says he’s offended by the fact that current mayor Zohran Mamdani would do
his damned job and attend the commemorations. He launches into a despicable racist attack,
claiming that “They want to dominate us.… Mamdani is a clear—a clear—
supporter of that. All of the Muslims he supports are murderers.” If Rudy Giuliani ever deserved our respect or
even our empathy, those days are now long behind us. Whether he was always a bigoted asshole or not,
he sure as hell is now.
Curmie has often noted that one of the basic principles
taught in the Political Ideals class he took in college a little over a half
century ago is that, generally, conservatives tend to think in terms of
individuals and liberals think more in terms of group identities, often in demographic
terms. Liberals still think that way, sometimes
with reason, sometimes without. But
conservatives like Giuliani, Trump, Hegseth, et al., are more than ready
to characterize anyone who isn’t a straight white male Christian nationalist as
simply The Other and therefore unworthy of respect or even notice, irrespective
of what an individual person says or does.
Look, Gentle Reader… you can agree or disagree with Mayor
Mamdani’s politics are. Curmie generally
likes what he sees; you needn’t. But the
chances are you wouldn’t have found your way to this blog if you weren’t
perceptive enough to know that octogenarian demagogues would be just as loud in
denunciation had Mamdani decided not to attend: “See? He won’t even show respect to those who lost
their lives on 9/11!”
Mamdani’s response was, to be sure, a political gesture, but it also had substance: the release of 170,000 pages of documents suggesting that the Giuliani administration (and, indeed, all the subsequent ones) knowingly lied to the public about air quality concerns. One example, from the CNN article linked above:
an internal memo written by Associate Health Commissioner Kelly McKinney on October 6, 2001, warning that “air quality [for asbestos] at those locations is not yet suitable for reoccupancy,” came the same day that Giuliani publicly declared the air to be safe, the documents say.
Curmie isn’t going to read all 170,000 pages. You won’t, either, Gentle Reader, but someone
will. It may turn out that allegations
of a cover-up are unfounded, or that the evidence is sufficiently complex or
contradictory that judgment calls were reasonable at the time, even if they
look wrong with the benefit of hindsight.
If so, we’ll at least know.
One more thing: all but one living POTUS attended the
commemoration, willingly agreeing not to speak, lest the event become political
rather than a solemn remembrance. The
one who wasn’t there, of course, is the one who is pathologically unable to
allow literally any event or discussion to be about anything but himself, the
one whose fish stories about his own activities in the aftermath of 9/11 have now
reached great white shark territory. He
is best remembered for his unwillingness to remember.
We close, then, with Mayor Mamdani’s comments in a statement (not at the event per se, remember).
Here it is:
September 11th was a horrific act of terror, a day of immeasurable loss.
2,753 parents and children, husbands and wives, friends and colleagues.
2,753 universes gone in an instant, and in the years since, 1000s more have died from illnesses caused by the toxic air they breathed and the months they spent working on the pile.
We remember 9/11 as the darkest day in our city's history, but we also remember what so many New Yorkers did in that darkness.
We remember the 1000s upon 1000s of New Yorkers who lined up for hours to donate blood.
We remember the people who opened their homes to those who could not get home.
We remember the workers who carried their colleagues down hundreds of stairs, then turned around and went back up to find someone else who needed help.
25 years later, we have a sacred obligation to those who were stolen from us to care for one another as they cared for strangers, to live lives worthy of the sacrifices they made, and to build a city worthy of their courage, a city where we run toward one another.
That is how we remember.
Gentle Reader, as noted above, you can agree with Mamdani’s politics or not... or sort of. But this statement is what the sitting mayor of the nation’s greatest city is supposed to say on an occasion like this. He has picked up the title of America’s Mayor from the sputtering old man whose outrageous prejudice made him unworthy of the appellation. And that, at least, is unquestionably a good thing.
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