Your Choice: Hard Decision 2008

What about a candidate is important to us? We cannot let the major news stations decide for us. We cannot not let base psychological appeal decide for us. We should not even let our parents decide for us. But considering these three things are the primary ways of consciously or unconsciously creating an opinion about one candidate or another, how do we get away from them in the first place?

The only way I know how to do so is to strip away all the “noise” surrounding me and get down to brass tacks: what do I want to get from the future president's actions for myself? What do I want this president to do for others? This is a question you must ask yourself: though they will try, no media source can answer this one for you.

Secondly, how to do we assess a candidate's probability of actually doing these things? We do not have much to go by considering almost every piece of information we receive is strategic propaganda. This includes all major candidates: Clinton, McCain, and Obama. As New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd commented, “Voters try to figure out who they trust to have life-and-death power over them, but there’s so much theatricality and artifice in campaigns you can get a false impression of who someone is.”

Please do not believe for a moment that you can choose a candidate based on their trustworthiness, because any politician that looks more trustworthy than the other is just a much better liar. Opponents of Bill Clinton called him “Slick Willy” for a reason. Or if you are thinking about giving your vote to whomever you fancy most, we need to have a talk about how you got into Fordham.

We could try voting for someone based on the issues they claim to care about, but history has shown us that presidents often go an entirely different way once in office (even Lincoln, who initially stood up for state's rights “to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively,” interfered with the issue of slavery on a federal level through the Civil War). In addition, all candidates have flip flopped on many of the issues important to voters, including Barack Obama, who voted for bills supporting the Iraq War such as the “Military Funding and Tax Cuts Amendment” in 2006.

We could attempt to choose a candidate based on party politics and the people that would surround them once he or she were in office (after all, it takes a village to make a presidency), but this method still amounts to quite a bit of guesswork: George W. Bush's first campaign in 2000 was funded by many fiscal conservatives that believed his term would echo his father's. Instead, W. increased non-military government spending at twice the speed of his predecessor.

Perhaps those with the most experience should be given preference. After all, politicians that have been in the media's radar screen for a while are known quantities. This process would lead a voter to one of two candidates: Hillary Clinton or John McCain. However, please consider the idea that all this experience has let these candidates become jaded and totally without the refreshing vision that Obama so glibly offers.

For purposes of efficiency, we could flip a coin, but that deprives us of our future right to complain about the president, since the method is probably just as productive as not voting at all.

I don't have all the answers (just yet). So I leave this question to you, dear Dímelo readers. We have some time to think about this – until November, really, since none of your absentee ballots being submitted in March will actually be counted (except for you, Ohio...stupid swing state...).

For the next issue, email us at dimelo_publication@yahoo.com and explain to us what your criteria is for choosing a candidate. We don't particularly care if you are voting for McCain, Obama, or Clinton right now, just how you came about (or are about to arrive at) your decision.

(1) Know Your New York: Stories from Columbus Circle

Know Your New York: Stories from Columbus Circle
By: Sarit Ofer-Moran

Whether you're a resident or a commuter, you've been through Columbus Circle a million times. Maybe you even took pictures of it your freshman year, psyched to finally make use of the camera you bought with half your graduation money. But have you ever taken the time to truly appreciate your surroundings?

One night, a coffee-induced reverie inspired me to search for more than the name of the guy in the middle of the circle, and what I found was pretty cool. I don't expect you to explore the World Wide Web for hints about Columbus Circle after buying some overpriced drink at Starbucks like I did, however. Instead, inside every issue of Dímelo will be another story about the history of Columbus Circle.

Let's start with...

THE UNSOLVED MYSTERY OF JOE COLOMBO: June 28, 1971: Columbus Circle was the site for the Second Annual Italian-American Civil Rights League Rally.

The FBI were dumbfounded that Joseph Colombo, the head of one of the "Five Families" - the most important Mafia Families in America, started an organization against the discrimination and harassment of the Italian American people. What they regarded as a joke quickly received an outpouring of support, even from people like the United States Attorney General, John Mitchell, and New York Governor, Nelson Rockefeller. The previous year, Frank Sinatra headlined at Madison Square Garden in a benefit for the League.

At the Second Annual Rally, five U.S. representatives as well as various entertainers were on stage. But the main act was Colombo. Fifty thousand people roared their approval as Joe Colombo approached the red, white, blue and green stage. The league had named Colombo Man of the Year, regardless of the fact that he had been sentenced to two and half years in jail earlier in the year.

All this publicity was troubling to more than just the FBI. Not only had Colombo gone on talk shows, he had been extremely forthcoming while on the stand in a trial about some nicknames and dollar amounts found in his employee's briefcase.

According to Colombo, the dollar amounts were donations to the Civil Rights League, and named the names of the "organization donors," many of which were also heads of Mafia Families. The mob bosses weren't too pleased that Colombo so freely gave out their names, no matter in what context. One especially concerned boss was Carl Gambino, and it is rumored that when Gambino approached Colombo with his concerns, Colombo literally spit in his face.

By 1971, Joe Colombo had amassed quite a few enemies. His public life had certainly cast an undesirable spotlight on the underbelly of New York City. But more than that, there were people who were hungry to take hold of Colombo's power themselves, and a good hit would get the job done. Despite Colombo being one of the most progressive Family heads in mob history, some people in the Family felt that he was self-centered, inexperienced, and indulgent. The Gallo brothers, especially "Crazy" Joey, were bitter about their comparatively smaller piece of the pie, and felt they deserved to be head of the Colombo Family.Joe Colombo was making his way toward the stage's podium as three shots rang out in the middle of Columbus Circle.

A street hustler named Jerome Johnson, disguised as a photojournalist, put three holes into Colombo's head. Immediately afterward, Johnson was gunned down by an "unidentified assailant." Though Colombo lived, he was effectively "made a vegetable," as he was comatose for the remaining seven years of his life. "Crazy" Joey was the police force's first suspect, as he was known to encourage the Mafia to fraternize with the black Harlem underworld, and Johnson was black. Another suspect was Carl Gambino, who had a connection to the assassin. However, no one has ever found any substantial proof, and on the record Jerome Johnson is a lone gunman.

Many people celebrated when Joe Colombo was incapacitated, and probably not least was "Crazy" Joey Gallo. During 1972, "Crazy" Joey gained power in the Mob, kept a lion in his basement to put a scare in deadbeats, acquired fame through a movie based on him (The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight), hung out with the Hollywood crowd, and was shot dead next to his Cadillac on Mulberry Street. You would have thought Joey would have learned from Joe Colombo: fame isn't good for business.