Enough fog already. Bring on the sun!
I've been keeping busy working on the Barbaro for Congress campaign. Yesterday, I spent a good part of the day preparing a fund-raising letter to my personal contacts. Today I'll accompany Frank on appearances in Staten Island and Brooklyn. First we head to the Boardwalk in South Beach. Why we're going there, I don't know: who's gonna be on a foggy beach on a weekday? But that's what the campaign has lined up for him. Then, on to a public school to meet parents who are picking up their kids.
It's a big borough and quite an interesting place.
The other night I attended a meeting of organizers at the campaign office on Richmond Terrace. I have to say, being a veteran of many years of movement work, that this campaign is very exciting. There were about 20 people at the meeting; overwhelmingly from the labor movement. That's natural, given Frank's strong ties to labor. He was head of the Labor Committee in the state assembly and worked closely with the union movement securing many pieces of legislation that benefited New York working people. The UFT (teachers) are supporting Frank in a big way and that's great: a lot of muscle there. Also attending were representatives of the transit workers, AFSCME (state employees), legal aid workers, etc.
I also met my old friend, Larry Moskowitz, who I knew from the 70's. He's comes to the campaign from the Working Families party and will be the campaign manager for Frank's campaign. He's a very capable guy with lots of experience. People were quite spirited and ready to get to work. But there was also a quiet realism, knowing that we're up a powerful and well-funded Republican machine. Fosella, the incumbent, will work from the top down with lots of dollars, flooding the TV, postering the district with his signs and saturating the area with his name and image. Our job is to work from the bottom up creating a groundswell of support from rank and file Staten Islanders and Brooklynites. That means using voter registration, targeting natural allies in the African-American and Latino communities, hitting the organized working class. Staten Island has the highest density of registered Democrats, yet tends to vote Republican in these local races. That's a puzzle because it also has the highest amount of union members of any borough and is overwhelmingly working class. If anyone can break through that contradiction it's a guy like Frank Barbaro. I'm happy to be part of this effort and I'll keep you all posted on how it's proceeding. Now off to the beach.
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Well, it didn't happen. The campaigning, that is. I was about to leave and I thought to myself, "let me call Frank, to make sure he waits for me." Sure enough, nobody had informed him I was coming. On top of that he was sick and not leaving home at all today. End of story. Instead of campaigning, Stacey and I headed downtown (Brooklyn) to check out the purchase of some customized baseball caps for her women's group (they're going to the Mideast in June ... more on that in another BLOG).
Came home, mowed the lawn - which was much overdue only after a week and a half. The rain makes things grow so fast. Talk about tall grass -- the grass next door at my parents' ex-house (which was just sold to new owners several weeks ago) is as high as an elephant's eye. The new couple haven't done a thing yet in terms of construction (or whatever their plans are) and the grass is a-growin'. It was bothering me so I cut it down - part of it anyway. Don't want to attract varmints and pests. The house is starting to look haunted and squirrels are making their way inside the eves. Very discomforting to come home and see the house that I grew up in, sitting there, empty, uninhabited and deteriorating.
Nature reclaims what man abandons --
the old Weinstein household at 220 West End Avenue.
Overgrown and uninhabited.
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