Marion Barry has passed away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

Why don't you let the people EOTR speak for themselves??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry helped improve some people's lives, but he also cemented the idea that cities run by African-Americans are corrupt, graft-riddled, and mismanaged to the point of incompetence. DC has decades of corruption to work through in its current councilmembers (and new Mayor - Barry supported the already tainted Bowser). It's a legacy who's time has gone. Thankfully.

What a lot of f**king nerve when corrupt, graft-riddled whites have pilfered and raped Wall Street, banks, mortgage loans, etc, for decades and that's the tip of the iceberg.

Only a small minded person would surmise that Barry epitomized African American political representation nationwide as indept and incompetent. Total and utter bullshit.

Agreed. I'm always amazed that a single representative of a minority epitomizes a stereotype whereas a member of the majority is only an aberrant example.

So, Marion Barry established that AA politicians are corrupt, graft-riddled, incompetent scheisters, but Bob McDonald is misunderstood and stupid, but not criminal and was not representative of white politicians at all.

La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme chose.

Racial double standards are never acceptable and the first PP above should be ashamed to be propagating such bigoted stereotypes. Barry may have been corrupt, may have been many things, but representative of his race? That's an unfair generalization to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

[Anonymous]

He did a lot for the city.

That he had personal human failings makes me admire his public service even more.

There is no one in this world who is above personal failures and weaknesses (except the Dalai Lama) anymore - thanks to all the ways we can record and track people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He did a lot for the city.

That he had personal human failings makes me admire his public service even more.

There is no one in this world who is above personal failures and weaknesses (except the Dalai Lama) anymore - thanks to all the ways we can record and track people.

I would put the alcohol abuse, the driving accidents, the weirdness and the womanizing in the category of "personal human failings." I woukd put the rest of the conduct in the more serious public malfeasance category, Including the tax evasion, corruption and wanton mismanagement. The crack abuse is closer to this category because he did it while he was the city's chief executive while DC was experiencing a crack epidemic and associated violent crime. His latter day public racism added to the embarrassment he brought to DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

I remember when he was mayor and DC had something like 6 working snow plows. Things got so bad that we finally got the federal control board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

And it is those poor he represented who are the ones who are going to fill the Verizon Center for the memorial service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

And it is those poor he represented who are the ones who are going to fill the Verizon Center for the memorial service.

When you think of it, aside from bloating the DC government's employee rolls (which had dire fiscal consequences), what did Barry really do for poor people or his Ward 8 constituents? Other wards are booming with new economic development but not W8. The schools in his ward are the worst in the city. When new small businesses opened in his ward. Barry called them "dirty Asian businesses." Maybe enough voters liked Barry's stick it to the Man shtick, but a lot of folks saw through the rhetoric to the glaring lack of tangible results.

[Anonymous]

A very well written assessment of Barry:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opinions-are-local/wp/2014/11/23/the-death-of-marion-barry/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry helped improve some people's lives, but he also cemented the idea that cities run by African-Americans are corrupt, graft-riddled, and mismanaged to the point of incompetence. DC has decades of corruption to work through in its current councilmembers (and new Mayor - Barry supported the already tainted Bowser). It's a legacy who's time has gone. Thankfully.

What a lot of f**king nerve when corrupt, graft-riddled whites have pilfered and raped Wall Street, banks, mortgage loans, etc, for decades and that's the tip of the iceberg.

Only a small minded person would surmise that Barry epitomized African American political representation nationwide as indept and incompetent. Total and utter bullshit.

Agreed. I'm always amazed that a single representative of a minority epitomizes a stereotype whereas a member of the majority is only an aberrant example.

So, Marion Barry established that AA politicians are corrupt, graft-riddled, incompetent scheisters, but Bob McDonald is misunderstood and stupid, but not criminal and was not representative of white politicians at all.

La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme chose.

Racial double standards are never acceptable and the first PP above should be ashamed to be propagating such bigoted stereotypes. Barry may have been corrupt, may have been many things, but representative of his race? That's an unfair generalization to make.

Barry wasn't corrupt. He was never accused of corruption. Believe me if the USA could have prosecuted him on corruption, they would have. Barry's demons were women followed by drug addiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

And it is those poor he represented who are the ones who are going to fill the Verizon Center for the memorial service.

I love that the funeral will be at the Verizon Center. That is perfect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

I remember when he was mayor and DC had something like 6 working snow plows. Things got so bad that we finally got the federal control board.

You do realize that he had a VERY active political career AFTER he was mayor....right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

I remember when he was mayor and DC had something like 6 working snow plows. Things got so bad that we finally got the federal control board.

You do realize that he had a VERY active political career AFTER he was mayor....right?

I'm painfully aware of it. But in recent years, Barry's ability to screw up DC was pretty limited to just his fiefdom, er, ward. He had become pretty inconsequential and not even that newsworthy, except for his continuing tax evasion, steering city contracts to a girlfriend (which earned him a Council censure and loss of his committee chairmanship) and regular racist rants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
PP here. Exactly I'm a 31yo AA male, who is a native and a Ward 8 resident. Perhaps I need to take my ass to Worldstar HipHop where I belong, huh?

No. What you need to do is tell all of your neighbors to start posting here. We are in desperate need of perspective. I would love to have more input from EotR.

And the tell all your neighbors to vote for a new Councilmember who is ethical. transparent and will work hard to achieve real results for the ward -- versus another demagogue who spouts feel-good rants that only feed the grievances of some but nothing else.

That doesn't only work for ward 8 and includes west of the river.

Barry was a master politician and this is urban politics 101. He represented the poorest ward and he realized that sometimes his best weapon against the well monied folks WOTR was his soapbox. He KNEW that whatever he said would be news and he sometimes used that to get attention for him and his ward. I live in W4 and I have good friends who live EOTR and I would have loved to see a little of that "soapbox" in my CM - now the honorable mayor. But then again, she had a bankroll backing her so she could afford to say very little.

And it is those poor he represented who are the ones who are going to fill the Verizon Center for the memorial service.

I am not poor, far from it. I will go to the Wilson Building to sign the book. I will not go to the Verizon Center because I hate crowds and would never go to the Verizon Center. However, my abscense will not be because I am not poor.