O Senator, My Senator

My take on Hillary Clinton:

I was ultimately surprised by the selection of Senator Clinton to maybe the top cabinet post in Obama's new administration. I was even more surprised by the awful roll-out they had for her, where everyone new about it two weeks ahead of time. But since whatever Hillary Clinton does will probably not have a huge impact, we should all be paying attention to something much more important: Who New York's next Senator is.


I believe that upstate NY will not truly receive the attention it needs from its US Senators (god knows Schumer didn't do much for us, and Clinton even less) until someone who HAS upstate NY in their best interests is either appointed to or wins a seat.

Some folk say Byron Brown, current Mayor of Buffalo -- I say: "You're kidding, right?" Brown's tenure in Buffalo has been a disaster, with the Mayor having been caught politicizng things that shouldn't be politicized (the latest is hiring is city hall goons to knock off Harvey Garret from the WSNHS's board).

And contrary to popular belief, knocking down a bunch of shitty houses doesn't qualify you as a reformer. It just makes you someone who knocks down shitty houses.

Maybe it's the social worker in me, but until Buffalo does something to address the ROOT of the problem -- the fact that too much of this city is in deep poverty, or functionally illiterate, or unemployed -- until these things are taken on, it won't matter how many empty vacant lots occupy spots where drug deals used to take place in abandoned houses. It won't matter.

And Byron Brown hasn't done that. Therefore, he should have no place legislating on behalf of our great state, let alone governing our city.

Ideally, Brian Higgins, a true champion of Buffalo and WNY, would receive the appointment to Clinton's Senate seat. But it probably won't happen.