RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,219
(philadelphia, pt. 2)
I don't usually agree with those
who take down statues, remove
memorials, etc. My thinking is
more in line with 'don't be an
asshole, and instead just go and
learn history; see what's behind
the monuments - time and place,
social scene at the time, etc. Quit
re-thinking the past' But, now and
of course, in the Emersonian and
Whitmanian sense of things, I
contradict myself, and cede
that consistency is but the
hobgoblin of little minds., of
which I wish to possess, also,
little. So, in the middle of
downtown Philadelphia, some
few years ago, I was verily
happified by the removal of the
statue of Mayor Frank Rizzo.
I watched the dismantling gleefully,
and with glee too! With the small,
attendant crowd, I cheered as well.
Apparently, black people disliked
Rizzo quite well - or is that 'very
much?' [You must also note the I
wrote 'apparently, black people...'
Had I wrote 'apparently black
people (with the comma) that
ascendant sentence would have
taken on far-other connotations.
Or do I mean to say 'would have
denoted other things?]. Alas the
language of English drives on
with its hard bargain.
-
Those in the crowd were energetic
and fervid in their entreaties. 'Put
the rope around his balls, the Guido
fucking idiot!' Others were cheering
with lust (lustily cheering?). I never
had liked the statue anyway - the
pugnacious little man in a beleaguered
suit of dress clothes never looked right
to me anyway - thrusting too farly
forward, as if embodying the impetuosity
of ignorance. He was an ignominious
Mayor, by all reckoning. Although
not then an ignoramus one? He , in
turn, represented nothing - no era
of historiocity, no great battle of plan
or strategy. Not any big achievement.
He was no more than a Philadelphian
representation of the usual illogic
Italian-American ethos of ethnic
slobocity - pasta on Sundays, and
religiously at 2pm, with all the trims
and adjuncts of prime eating : the
appetizers, salads, dis dishes, wines,
and desserts that endlessly lead up
to Italian swank-pastry and espresso
desserts. Whilst those paisans in
attendance uttered niceties and
flirtatious banter about Aurelia's
nicely forming buttocks or breasts,
the unfortunateness of Aldo having
had to be whacked on Thursday last
in the alley by Market Street and then
his dead-man's body driven to the
Swede swamps outside Atlantic City
for dispersal (disposal?) in segments.
-
I was glad to see the statue go, and
had never liked it, nor its proudly
placed location at the fringe of City
Hall - way past the time of his
being Mayor. It all seemed to keep
his presence current, as if a downtown
Atlanta Robert E. Lee statue was in
festive operation right next to the
City Hall of Atlanta. Rizzo was a rat;
a perfect accompaniment to Ratzo
Rizzo of 'Midnight Cowboy' movie
fame. A supplement to uselessness,
evil, rawness, violence and hatred.
Surely the sort of man Americans
of all stripes still respect. He detested
everything normal about urban city
living : hating, in each its turn, blacks,
jews, gays, refuseniks, punks, gangs,
and interest-group rabble. Any interest
group except his anyway. The man was
a dead-point pistolero, head-smacking,
police-veteran well-armed psycho.
Have I then here mentioned how glad
I was when that statute went. (It was
hoisted from its pedestal, set afire,
clothed in flames, dragged through
the streets by three hoodlum cars, and
dumped in South Philly, where there
was also a praise-Frank-Rizzo forever
mural in some insipid and dank
Italian neighborhood not far from
those two famed Philly-Cheesesteak
feuding sandwich places. Gino's
and some other one. Order one
with 'Rizzo Topping' someday
and see what you get. It's covered
in blood.
-
I always said I liked Philadelphia
because it was a so-much-more
version of New York City, with
a layered coating of gentility -
manners, wealth, poise, and
proper comportment. Now, of
course, these years later I know that
too not to be true. The Department
of Deportment there in City Hall,
just beneath the grandly-topped
lid of William Penn, has really
no Comportment at all.
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