Cheektowaga Town Endorsement
by Katrinna Martin-Bordeaux
Last night was the Cheektowaga endorsement meeting. The meeting started at 7:30pm. The democratic committee in Cheektowaga voted to endorse the town supervisor, highway superintendent, common council, and clerk.
This meeting last until nearly 1am. This is the longest time that I have ever attended an endorsement meeting. Upon my initial arrival some people were receptive, others rolled their eye’s, and I could hear them whisper “Frank Max.” I questioned the validity of the documentation provided for committee member resignation. Some were emailed by others, no signature on the documentation and some documentation(scrap paper) didn’t state what the person was resigning, just simply “I resign”, and it wasn’t even addressed to the committee, so there is no way to know the intent of the individual. As I made my point, some young man walked by and stated “Frank isn’t going to win anyway.” I didn’t respond, but I was thinking “what is Frank running for?” The next person to go there was Diane Benczkowski, she stated directly to me “this is how Frank did it, he set the presidence.” My response “I don’t care, there’s a new sheriff in town.”(sarcasm, but this likely set it off) What is the purpose of new leadership if you follow the “presidence” of those you criticize and despise?
And as they “conspired”,(talking sh@$ amongst each other), somehow the “Charlie Brown Crew” decided to have some rude young man come to me and demand I get off the platform where counting the same ballot took place for over 2 hours. I stood on the platform because my feet were killing me, standing on the hardwood floor beneath my feet for over 3 hours at this time. I stood on the stage for carpet, trying to put cushion between my shoes and the ground. I stood on the platform for 30 minutes with 2 election inspector counting and 2 doing nothing, they didn’t say a word. I can live with a polite young man saying “excuse me miss, my name is John, and I’m not sure if you are aware, but we can’t stand on the platform during the count.” But nooo, they had to send the cocky young man that thought I would actually let him speak to me as if he has some type of authority, furthermore he was disrespectful.
I asked him to talk to an election inspector that let me stand on the carpeted platform for 30 minutes. He did so and the election inspector thought he was going to condone this young man’s behavior and pull the same disrespectful tone, comments and demeanor. Mind you it’s almost midnight, and he is just standing there, rather than counting ballots for the other 2 ballot boxes not opened or counted, and it’s almost midnight. I got off the platform and went directly to the election inspector and repeated to him that he wasn’t going to disrespect me like that once again.
But what really bothered this crew is that a black woman was standing on that platform and in their mind they felt as if I thought I had some type of privilege or authority. No, l just have flat feet, and I said that I would watch the count, and a count for hours is unusual, so I thought they would realize physical discomfort, rather than authoritarianism and privilege. I really don’t care who gets the town endorsement, the ones that work the hardest and or have the resources are in this race, if that is their choice.
I congratulate all endorsed candidates for their achievement.
But please stop putting a battery in the back of these young people. Because you don’t teach them social injustice issues, politics, tolerance, cultural awareness and diversity. You don’t teach them that you cannot disrespect a black woman (not this one) “in a room full of older likely prejudice white people” and not get a reaction, (thank you for that line Mr. Myers Sr).
Is this a democratic committee? Really?
So pissed off was I, that I left there saying I’m going to primary the county executive.
Martin is a Democratic Party official, zone chair of West Cheektowaga, and Managing Editor of the bullet.
