Binghamton’s socialist mayor, Matthew Ryan, has hired a new Director of Community Relations. You may remember this new position was hotly debated by City Council in August during budget hearings. It seems the Democrat-controlled council (Ryan’s own party) did not see the need to pad Ryan’s ranks with yet another Citizen Action clone for an additional $30,000 while imposing a budget that raises taxes 7.76%. But like a petulant child, Ryan doesn’t accept sage advice nor does he play well with others. So the search began, and ended with a hard-core leftist/socialist by the name of Andrew Block. It’s kind of amusing to read the press release on the City’s website. It’s chocked full of euphemisms. According to the release, Ryan gushes, “Andrew is a sharp, young professional that fits really well with my administrative team,” and “He shares the progressive values…that ground this administration.” And what might those “progressive values” be? (Just an aside: When you see “progressive values” coming from leftists, it’s double-talk that really means anti-family, anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-95% of the average Binghamtonian’s values).

In the search for progressive values, let’s take a look at Mr. Block’s most recent job, working as a Senior Research Associate for the African American Policy Forum (AAPF). According to their website, “The AAPF seeks to build bridges between academic, activist and policy-making sectors in order to advance a more inclusive and robust public discourse on the challenge of achieving equity within and across diverse communities.” The site is full of such erudite puffery that is essentially meaningless, unless you know how to decode it. In spending time reviewing the site, it seems to me that affirmative action–that is, the preferential treatment of people based on criteria like race or gender or class–is their main objective. They vilify people like Ward Connerly, an African American who has crusaded in California and other places for an end to such practices.

I don’t know Mr. Block personally, but if his values line up with his previous boss, which I expect they do, perhaps we can get just a inkling of what “progressive values” mean to the socialists/leftists that increasingly inhabit our local government. There is a poem titled “Respect” on the AAPF website, written by Kimberle Crenshaw, Executive Director of the AAPF. Here’s just a few lines:

It wasn’t the Declaration of Independence,
the Constitution,
or the Stars and Stripes that gave birth to America.
It was the Black vagina that laid the golden egg,
or rather, the chattel slave.

Very poignant, don’t you think? The AAPF’s view is that America was and still is racist to its core. That our great country was built not by God-fearing men and women who yearned for freedom from tyranny and the right to live and let live. No! Our country was an early version of Wal-Mart–an economic machine built on the backs of slaves. America’s posterity and greatness has come not from our moral fiber and faith, but from the output of the downtrodden and oppressed. And it hasn’t changed in over 200 years! These smarter-than-us leftists aim to “fix” it by using our system of legal justice, by inserting themselves into positions of influence in government, and by using the mainstream media to manufacture opinion. This is who Matt Ryan is, this is who Andrew Block is, this is who Citizen Action is. And frankly, I’m tired of it. Their opinions do not represent me in any way, shape or form. They are radically left–a sneeze away from Communism if you ask me. They want to use government to socially engineer their version of a utopian society. Stop taking my taxes and giving it to people who won’t work! Stop legislating your twisted “morality” and forcing it on me! Wake up Binghamton, and vote Matt Ryan and the Citizen Action gang out of office

Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments.

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