by Alex Lloyd Gross
OPINION OPNION OPINION OPINION
June 2020 thousands of people from out of town came to Philadelphia to protest for black lives matter and George Floyd. By the middle of the month, a rambunctious group of mostly out of towners converged in South Philadelphia. The wanted the statue of Christopher Columbus gone. Since Mayor Soda Tax will tear down statues he does not like, they thought they would win this battle. After all just a few weeks prior, in the middle of the night, like a coward, he ordered the Rizzo statue removed.
Kenney discovered that he did not have the authority to remove it so he put a wooden box around it, and the protesting yahoos were happy. Soon, they left town and went elsewhere to protest. It turns out that few people that advocated for the Columbus Statue to be removed were from around here. It also turned out that most of the people in South Philadelphia were deeply offended by what they call Kenny’s discrimination to their heritage. These are the people who see the statue every day and have no problem with it.
A lawsuit was filed and Mayor Soda Tax lost. Rather than dispatch a city crew to open the statue back up, ( he could have done it in the middle of the night, like they took down Rizzo), he decided to appeal, which only delays the inevitable, the unboxing of the statue. Mayor Soda Tax is making this a priority, when people are being shot and killed in the city.
How about taking the money for the lawyers and court fees and putting that towards something more productive. Here are some suggestions.
More Police. People are getting killed everyday. Put more jail cells in so that lower level criminals actually get punished instead of a slap on the wrist. Or you can get more training for police.
Fix up the schools. Fix the sports stadiums at schools so that kids can have a sense of school spirit. More text books and computers. Education through athletics. While the overpaid lawyers work on a statue that the majority of residents actually want in their neighborhood, you could take that money and hire school bus drivers, so kids can get to school.
More structured programs to keep kids busy so they are not causing trouble. This can be funded through the recreation department.
Why not put that money into fleet management to upkeep city vehicles. By taking care of an investment, it will last longer. The price of a new fire engine or trash truck is about that the city is spending on legal fees about a statue.
There are countless ideas on what to spend the money on, instead of wasting it making a few lawyers richer. Of course, those lawyers will disagree. They would be stupid not to . we cannot tear down every statue of someone that offends us. We cannot re write history. Columbus was not a nice man, but he was smart. If you want to cancel people who have offended someone,there will be very few people left. .
It’s time to stop wasting money and start spending it on the priorities of what city residents want. Not appeasing a small group of leftist tourists that only come into the city to protest when they are told to or paid to.