Clueless Boynton official slaves away in alternative universe
I don’t agree with most of Cindy Falco-DiCorrado’s political views.
For example, I don’t share the Boynton Beach official’s opinion that former President Barack Obama committed treason and should be executed.
“First of all, he’s not an American and he’s working for the Muslims,” Falco-DiCorrado explained to me. “He tried to destroy America.”
OK, she’s a couple of bubbles off plumb. But that’s not a reason for Falco-DiCorrado to be booted from her position as an advisory board member to the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.
After all, the Boynton CRA doesn’t have a say in organizing firing squads.
And I don’t think Falco-DiCorrado should be booted from the board for spreading misinformation on Facebook, which she does regularly.
It includes praising President Donald Trump for reversing an Obama policy by signing an executive order to prevent illegal immigrants from getting welfare, when in fact Trump didn’t sign any such order because it has always been illegal for undocumented immigrants to receive welfare, food stamps and Medicaid.
Same thing goes with this story she shared: “BREAKING: Roy Moore’s Accuser Arrested and Charged with Falsification.” That’s a fake news story from a website that calls itself, in fine print, “a whimsical playland of conservative satire.”
OK, so Falco-DiCorrado unwittingly feeds in the rightwing fever swamps. And she’s a little fuzzy on how public her Facebook musings have been.
“I thought all that stuff was just being sent to friends,” she said.
It can be pretty embarrassing when people who aren’t equally yearning to be misled drop into your alternative universe and pour a little cold water on your comfortable delusions.
But once again, this just makes her gullible, not disqualified for her public office, considering that the Boynton Beach CRA isn’t a body that deals with child molestation or federal safety-net programs.
There is one cul-de-sac of Falco-DiCorrado’s online political adventures that is relevant.
She sees the time of slavery as America’s golden period. At least that’s the way it seems.
She commented on a Yahoo News story about how Roy Moore had said the last time America was great was during the time of slavery.
Falco-DiCorrado responded: “Exactly!! A blessing from hardship and a unification of families ... yes it was hard but it helped people in the long run.”
This is more than a zany fantasy. It’s a gross misunderstanding of the history of about one-third of her city’s residents — residents who surely would see the slavery of their ancestors in a different light.
“It made the families stay closer together, working together and being together,” Falco-DiCorrado explained. “I didn’t mean it as a racist thing.”
First of all, slavery divided families, because each person was considered a piece of individual property, which led to families being split up, not united. And it is racist, by definition, to assume that a group of human beings subjected to dehumanizing involuntary labor and non-judicial punishment ought to be grateful to their oppressors for providing structure to their lives.
Whether Falco-DiCorrado meant it or not, this is more than offensive. It’s grotesque.
It’s like saying Jews ought to be grateful for the Holocaust because it made for some terrific movies, like “Schindler’s List,” “Sophie’s Choice” and “Life Is Beautiful.”
Or that Native Americans ought to be thankful for the slaughter brought by the Indian Removal
Act because it led to their casino licenses.
“Slavery is not good,” Falco-DiCorrado said. “But through any bad situation, good should come from it. We’re stuck in a negative.”
That would explain one of her other Facebook posts. She shared a post questioning whether racism exists in America anymore.
“If you agree that racism is no longer an actual threat in this country, but a strategy that the Democrats and Liberals use to secure black votes = SHARE!!” it says.
I suggested that instead of telling other white people that racism doesn’t exist anymore, she ought to talk to black people about it.
“I know that people feel that way, but I don’t,” she said.
“That’s because you’re a white woman,” I said.
“Even if I was black, I would feel this way,” she said.
“You’re white,” I said. “You don’t get to decide when you think racism is over.”
But she was clueless on the subject.
“Many people have incidents with police and it has nothing to do with the color of their skin,” she said.
OK, I give up.
How does somebody so untethered to reality get a title and a working microphone at a city meeting?