I'm sure you are asking yourself what that picture has to do with this post, I'll get to that eventually.
About a two years ago I sat at an MDC meeting as the Commissioners debated the re-appointment of MDC Chairman William diBella. DiBella had been under Federal investigation and had been found guilty of numerous civil charges and ordered to pay more than $791,000 in fines as the result of Federal charges of Fraud. At that hearing, MDC Commissioner Kevin Deneen made a very passionate presentation in opposition to DiBella's re-appointment.
Commissioner Deneen, a Windsor Attorney and someone I have known since childhood, asked how he would explain the MDC Commission's actions to his children. I'm paraphrasing here but Deneen asked how do you explain to a child that it is not ok to steal, when they ask essentially isn't that what Mr. Dibella did?
I was driving in downtown Hartford this past week and I came by the old YMCA and the Memorial Arch when I saw the sign shown in the above picture on the front of the building that houses Blackeyed Sally's and the Pig's Eye Pub. Now I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought the sign was totally in-appropriate for not only downtown Hartford, but for any public area.
What's next, will the Holiday Inn Express next door put up a sign "Bring Your Whore's Here- Special Discount Rates" ? In light of the City of Hartford apparently finding bumper stickers critical of President Obama unacceptable, what stand will they take on this?
The more I thought about it though, I wonder what messages we are sending to our young children. I think that most people would agree that raising a child anywhere these days is a difficult task, but in urban areas the task is even more challenging. Many children in Hartford do not have the benefit of a strong male, (called a father in most areas)to guide them. On top of that many have a single mother working 2 or three jobs to make ends meet.
Now add to that what some consider a failed education system that graduates 3 out of 10 students from the Hartford School system. Throw in the pressure of drugs, gangs, gun violence and crime. Not a great recipe for success.
Now throw in the example society sets. Kevin Deneen was right, how do you explain a William diBella to your kids? How do you explain a Mayor that has been arrested twice already to your kids? How do you explain to your kids the Police Chief and Superintendent of Schools standing by the Mayor after he's been arrested? How do you explain to your kids the reason to obey the law when a so called "community leader" drives her Yellow Hummer for almost a year unregistered?
And how do you explain to your kids what is socially acceptable as far as language to use? It must be difficult to explain to a kid why not to use a word when they point to a building and see the same word in three foot high letters. "Mommy, why is it OK for them to say it?"
And we wonder why we have the problems we do. Mr. Mayor, please do your job and let the owners of Pig's Eye Pub know this is not the example we want to set for our kids.
Am I over re-acting? Let me know. And by the way, that sign runs the entire length of the patio at Pig's Eye, it is probably 12 feet long by about four feet high
1 comment:
You have a problem with the word "ass"?
You should explain to your kids that the sign is intended for adults 21 years or older responsible enough to drink. If you have children and they respect you, then it shouldn't be a problem for them to understand and not say the word "ass".
However, your editorial wasn't intended to promote business in downtown. Like all the news reported by local stations about downtown night-life it focuses on the negatives.
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