Mayor De Blasio was asked on Sunday as to why he skipped the Rockaway St. Patrick’s Day parade at the weekend (he had no other event on his schedule).
“My approach has been to embrace parades that are inclusive,” he said.
“That’s the standard we’re going to hold.”
He apologized the day after, saying he had mixed Rockaway up with a parade in Staten Island that was allegedly anti–gay.
His office sent out an email that said, “The mayor did not attend the Rockaways parade on Saturday due to scheduling conflicts. He didn’t attend the Staten Island parade on Sunday because its excludes groups.”
Sure one outer borough group of Paddies looks just like another, them and their silly parades.
But his office deliberately misled the public about why he didn’t make it to Rockaway by claiming scheduling conflicts.
The mayor, according to his own press office, had no public events on Saturday so what conflict?
Here is the schedule as sent to us last Saturday:
PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014, AND SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Mayor de Blasio is in New York City. There are no public events scheduled.
There we go. So what conflict could there have been? Getting his toenails clipped perhaps?
To the best of my knowledge that has never been an issue in the Rockaways community about gays marching whatsoever.
The Irish enclave has a lot more to worry about than gays in their small parade.
They have suffered enormously in recent years: lost record numbers of firefighter and cops on September 11 and then the battle against Sandy that left that community deeply depleted. Insurance claims have not been paid yet and many are living away from their homes for over a year now.
I was down there just last week and believe me nobody was discussing whether or not gays should be marching in their local parade. They were discussing at great length how to get back on their feet and the extraordinary outpouring they have received from all over America.
But you, Mister Mayor, have just tagged them, mistakenly, as bigots.
I’d suggest Mr. De Blasio that gays in their parade have nothing to do with their lives or any relevance whatever to them given what they have been through.
It is a community known worldwide for their extraordinary devotion to service and public safety proven by the fact that no community lost more on September 11.
So why drag them into the gays in the parade issue?
Why were you happy enough to walk in that parade last year and proclaim your pride in how they had endured Sandy and their massive contributions on September 11, 2001?
Yet a year later they are mixed up in insulting fashion with another parade?
Do you have anyone on your staff who can explain the Irish in New York to you?
It seems not, alas.
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