Digging up 10-year-old dirt on a former resident!
by Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
A local newspaper in a one newspaper town has just lived up— or down—to the reputation that most people on the Eastside of Buffalo attribute to them. Somehow, this newspaper, whose name I refuse to utter, found out that former Buffalo Councilmember and New York State Senator, Antoine Thompson will be in Buffalo next week, attending a fundraiser to fund his election to the Maryland House of Delegates, which is similar to the NYS Assembly, and is a political position this writer believes that Mr. Thompson is more than qualified to run for, get elected and then to represent the people in the assembly district in Maryland.
Antoine Thonpson was elected and served two terms as Masten District Councilmember before he won the state senate seat to replace Byron Brown in the NYS Senate, representing the 63rd Senate District. This writer is absolutely firm in her belief that the voters elected the best and most productive councilmember they have ever had when they voted him into the Buffalo Common Council a few decades ago. Councilmember Thompson started the Masten District monthly breakfast and the community/ government meetings, created the Masten District Impact Team and was one the first elected officials, along with community activist and Councilmember-At-Large Beverly A. Gray, to host a weekly TV show on Buffalo’s Public Access TV. As Masten District Councilmember, Mr. Thompson developed a City Plan for Masten that would have greatly improved the Masten District, if his successors had continued to follow it.
Mr. Thompson was also the campaign manager for former Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown when Mr. Brown ran for the New York State Senate in 2001. And, so, here we are, this week, talking about at least ten-year-old IRS tax debt that, according to the old news story was paid off ten years ago! So, here we have the city of millions of dollars in the hole and #47 lying, cursing or grifting his way to a failed Donald Trump regime and nothing is heard from the local newspaper regarding the incompetent, inadequate and obnoxious group of individuals who are creating havoc while they ignore or misquote the Constitution.
Antoine Thompson is not a perfect politician ( no politician is) but he was partly defeated because he supported Gay Marriage at a junction in time when many of the black ministers and their congregation, in lockstep, voted for his opponent, who told them he was not in favor of gay marriages but was wooed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to vote for it, in the end. Accountability and forgiveness are indeed admirable virtues we all should follow. This writer believes that when a person steps up to admit and then repairs a wrong, we, as the Community, need to acknowledge, forgive and keep it moving.
If this writer is not mistaken, I believe it was Councilmember Antoine Thompson who coined the phrase: Masten on the Move! Whether I remember correctly or not, let the Eastside community show the world that the ‘Village’ knows and loves our former, beloved Masten District Councilmember and New York State Senator and we wish him and his bid to re-enter the political world nothing but the best!