Columnist Jamala Rogers
There’s a term coined by the late Theodore Roosevelt that is often confused as being a negative thing. The “bully pulpit” is the use of a position to bring issues to the forefront that normally might sit on a back burner. President Roosevelt referred to the presidency as his bully pulpit. We have a current mayor who has perverted the meaning of bully pulpit and who has become a bully in the pit.
Mayor Francis G. Slay has attempted to make this city a fiefdom, or as some have more defiantly described, a plantation. Under the Slay administration, St. Louis has become a place void of vision and optimism. It is a place now rife with corruption and nepotism. The Pay2Play game has been taken to new heights. The Slay regime, while attempting to repress dissenting voices and opposing views, is also clogging the critical arteries that feed a genuine democracy.
Bullying is the modus operandi of Slay and his henchmen. Developers have been bullied out of bids. City employees have been bullied into silence. Candidates have been bullied out of running for designated offices. Potential contributors have been bullied out of not giving to candidates that Slay saw as opponents. Slay is the bully in the pit.
What Slay stands for is really difficult to determine because he often speaks out of both sides of his mouth.
Whether he is a right-to-lifer or pro-choicer depends on whom he’s chummying up to at a given moment. Slay collaborated with the former police chief in manipulating crime rates so that the duo appeared to be crime fighters when they were really crime hiders. Slay claims to champion public schools when he has exacted major blows to our district. Slay hobnobs with billionaire Rex Sinquefield, a public school hater (he once told state Senator Maida Coleman he didn’t care about the kids in public schools) who also hates on President Obama, the president Slay claims to support.
Slay may seem like a ball of contradictions, but in essence he’s just a consummate opportunist.
Slay’s contempt for the African-American community is typified by how he treats its leaders who stand up for us. Slay called Chief Sherman George out via the media instead of delivering his ultimatum to George’s face. He is scared to publicly debate mayoral candidate Irene J. Smith.
That’s what bullies do. When the playing field is level, they can’t hang.
Under the pathetic leadership of Francis Slay, St. Louis has held several dubious titles, from Most Segregated to Most Dangerous. The city’s growth has been hampered by Slay’s gangsta style. The city is dying a painfully slow death and we have to unequivocally conclude that Slay can’t resuscitate it. He thought that being a quiet tyrant and hiding behind rabid tyrants would hide his incompetence. Team Slay is unable to hide all of their failures.
We have a choice on March 3 to vote in a new mayor. Irene J. Smith has promised to make this a City for All. Just as we kicked the greedy, corrupt, indignant and divisive regime out of the White House and called for accountability, hope, fairness and progress, we must do the same locally.
Let’s turn the page on plantation politics and colonial rule. The decision is easy and the work will be hard, but we can make March 4 in St. Louis feel like November 5 in America.