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 March 7, 1998 |
We can be confident that no able-minded individual here buys into
the shrill charge of "Racist!" that now floats over our Island,
fingers pointed ambiguously at every Islander who finds fault
with Jerry Blue's stewardship at RIOC. It's readily
recognizable, at this range, as a bankrupt defense of last
resort.
The real danger of it is that someone off-Island might, in the credulity of our accusatory times, put some stock in it. You know the syndrome: No matter how completely absurd the charge, no matter how baseless, no matter how confused it may be... no matter the facts, those resorting to such a stance can, in this sorry day and age, count on someone "out there" thinking "Well, I'm sure it's mostly poppycock, but where there's smoke, maybe there's a little fire..." Wrong. In this case... Where there's smoke, there's a smokescreen. 
Those schooled in the annals of demagoguery remember Senator Joe McCarthy standing before the cameras, holding up his grocery list, and claiming to have a list of 100-some communists in the State Department. McCarthy had the cunning, at least, to claim some specific number, rather than pointing wildly at the entire State Department. But, because he didn't specify names of the accused, every hard-working public servant at State came under suspicion. The country lived through a period of commie-panic that disrupted all rational debate. Every scoundrel with a dull ax to grind picked up the technique: "Commie!" "Red!" The nation was the worse for it. Roosevelt Island's amateur demagogues have so far done us the favor of indiscriminately hurling their cry of "Racist!" at everyone and anyone who opposes Jerome Blue's bonehead errors. Such a charge sticks to nobody because it is so patently absurd. But if they learn their lessons from Joe McCarthy, they'll soon start specifying organizations, just as McCarthy specified the State Department. Maybe they'll even hold up a sheet of paper at a RIOC meeting and shout, "Mr. Chairman, I have here a list of 17 racists at..." Well, you fill in the name of your favorite Island organization, and you have the idea. Will you come under suspicion? We might hope our local demagogues will learn the further lesson of the McCarthy era. Censured by the Senate, McCarthy died a discredited, broken shell of a man. His only legacy is his name, shorthanded into an "ism" for his demonic, failed tactic.
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