The moral of Cory Booker’s Wazn Miller story

“It’s easier to build a healthy child than to fix a broken man”
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Cory Booker tells the tale of Wazn Miller’s murder as a set up to an important insight the mayor says his father shared with him in the aftermath of the incident—that the elder Booker, born in 1936 to a Black single mother, in poverty in a segregated community, had a better future than Black men born in 1996 (or 2006 depending on where and when the younger Booker told the story) have before them.

The news out of Newark of 10 murders in 10 days is a testament to the truth of that insight.  The recent news of violence in Asbury Park, Camden, Trenton, Chicago and Detroit further attests to the fact that young Black men today are more likely to end up dead or in jail than they are to become IBM executives residing in Harrington Park  and, if they know their sons, witness them graduate from the most prestigious universities in the world, become mayor of a major U.S. city or serve in the United States Senate.

Cory Booker heard that insight from his father in 2004, before he became mayor.

Yet the well intentioned policies that Booker pursued in leading the city have failed.  They failed in Newark, as they have failed in Asbury Park, Camden, Trenton, Chicago and Detroit.  Young Black men are more likely to end up dead or in jail today than they were when Booker, and his father, were growing up.  The progress in racial equality that Booker’s father’s generation fought for, and Booker’s generation reaped the benefits of, has been replaced by a not so great society of despair.

As Booker says in his speeches, we’ve made a great deal of progress towards racial equality, that his father’s generation fought for, yet we’ve got so much further to go.  To the young Black men, and their families, in Newark, Asbury Park, Camden, Trenton, Chicago and Detroit, there is no where to go but failing schools, gangs, guns, death or jail.

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Cory Booker is a good story teller

In the video below of Cory Booker addressing the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy in 2010, the mayor recounts how his father’s stories get better (or worse, depending on the point of the story) the more often he told them.

Good story telling to make a point, or move an audience or teach a lesson, either in a conference room, college graduation, church or family dinner table, is a trait Booker apparently inherited from his father.

At the 14 minute mark of the video, Booker tells the story of “the lowest point” of his life. Wazn Miller’s murder in 2004.

In the version of the story told at ACS, Miller doesn’t die in Booker’s arms.

Booker gave basically the same talk at NYU Law in October of 2010. In that version, Booker was present when Miller died.  He starts the Miller story at the 6:30 mark and speaks of the death at the 8 minute mark.

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Seaside boardwalk fire is still smoldering; no cause determined yet

Seaside boardwalk fire is still smoldering; no cause determined yet (via NJ.com)

By Lisa Rose and Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger OCEAN COUNTY — The flames along the Seaside boardwalk appear to be out. But some of the burnt businesses are still smoldering – and the smell of burning wood still hangs heavy along the shore, mixed…

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Governor Christie On Seaside Fire

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Booker Administration Denies Stonewalling For Cory, Another OPRA Request Apparently Ignored

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A spokesman for the Booker administration in Newark is denying reports that the city is stonewalling the response to OPRA requests, according to a report on PolitickerNJ.

The City of Newark has been sued by The National Review and the Lonegan for Senate campaign for failing to comply with Open Public Records Act requests.  NR is seeking police reports from a shooting incident during which the victim died in Booker’s arms, according to numerous stories the mayor has told over time.  The Lonegan campaign is seeking Booker’s expense and reimbursement reports from the city during his tenure as mayor.

According to PolitickerNJ, City spokesperson James Allen disputed NR’s claim, saying that the city promised to provide the police reports by September 13.

John Ginty, the Lonegan campaign’s attorney, told MMM that since filing his suit, the city has promised to comply and provide the requested documents, also on September 13.

However, NR and Lonegan are apparently not the only information seekers being thwarted.

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Along the Shore, rebuilding 9/11 memorials for memory’s sake

Along the Shore, rebuilding 9/11 memorials for memory’s sake (via NJ.com)

The lonely, distinct notes of taps were absent from the Union Beach 9/11 ceremony Wednesday morning. So was the 21-gun salute that once echoed over the Raritan Bay. Instead of the uniformed color guard, the solemn members of American Legion Post 321…

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County this weekend—September 13-15, 2013

SPONSORED BY SEASTREAK

By Greg Kelly

 Saturday, Sept. 14

• Manasquan Fall Arts & Crafts Fair – MORE INFO

• Irish Festival at the Jersey Shore (Sea Girt) – MORE INFO

• Tri-State Theatre Festival (Spring Lake) – MORE INFO

• Colts Neck Rock Fest – MORE INFO

• Ocean Ave Mile (Long Branch) – MORE INFO

• Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea (Ocean Grove) – MORE INFO

• Fall Crafters’ Market at Allaire Village – MORE INFO

• Apple Fest at Delicious Orchards (Colts Neck) – MORE INFO

• College Football: Monmouth U. vs. Lehigh (WLB) – MORE INFO

• College Football: Army vs. Stanford via Seastreak Ferry (Highlands) – MORE INFO

• NY Mets vs. Marlins via Seastreak Ferry (Highlands) – MORE INFO

• The Dixie Swim Club at First Ave. Playhouse (Atlantic Highlands) – MORE INFO

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FEMA OK’s $1.6 million to Sea Girt for Superstorm Sandy Repairs

FREEHOLD, N.J. – The Borough of Sea Girt in Monmouth County received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has awarded more than $1.6 million to help pay for costs that resulted from Superstorm Sandy, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) said today.

The grant will provide $1,616,817 in Federal funding to Sea Girt to pay for 90 percent of over $1,796,000 in repair costs incurred by Superstorm Sandy. 

Reconstruction will take shape in two phases, after the completion of preliminary work of removing about 6,666 cubic yards of sand by municipal workers, and demolition of the damaged boardwalk by Frank Lurch Demolition. Demolition includes the removal of damaged but intact piles, girders, stringers, plastic decking, railings, and light fixtures. Salvageable decking, light fixtures and railings will be turned over to the town to be reused in the first phase of reconstruction. Sea Girt has contracted with Wallace Contracting, Inc. to complete Phase I, which is 833 linear feet of boardwalk, reusing 896 salvaged deck boards, 320 salvaged timber stringers and 900 feet of salvaged railing. Boardwalk steps and one handicap ramp will be installed, construction includes replacing 50 new, timber piles, 38 new double girder timber pile caps, 360 new timber stringers, 1,030 new lengths of composite boardwalk decking, and 980 feet of new pipe handrail.

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More Booker Stonewalling

© Jim Urquhart / Reuters;

GOP U.S Senate nominee Steve Lonegan has sued the city of Newark for the release of Mayor Cory Booker’s expense records since he took office, because the city has failed to comply with the Lonegan campaign’s OPRA (Open Public Records Act) requests.

Newark activist Donna Jackson said that Newark’s government is hiding the real conditions in the city in an effort to give Booker political cover. “Booker’s national profile is killing us,” Jackson said.

Now, today we learn that Newark has also been stonewalling the National Review over public records.

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Here’s what the main players want in the standoff over Syria

Here’s what the main players want in the standoff over Syria (via GlobalPost)

Enlarge As diplomatic crises go, this one has had more twists and turns than a Wild Mouse. First there was the endless hand wringing over red lines turning pink and America losing its credibility in the world. When it seemed inevitable that US bombs…

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