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Thread: If only Banko were so eloquent about HUD & Bflo!

  1. #1
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    If only Banko were so eloquent about HUD & Bflo!

    Stephen Banko has been the virtually invisible Manager of the Bflo HUD Office as Bflo has achieved its shameful national ranking of second poorest & second emptiest US city.

    Meanwhile he has been an eloquent anti-war spokesman, taking postions that I heartily support. (See his newest statement below about his peace activist friend John Granville).

    In contrast to such eloquence, Banko has always been highly ambivalent about Bflo, resisting moving into Bflo from Hamburg when he became chief-of-staff as Masiello was elected. And Banko apparently moved from South Bflo to West Seneca last year.

    Banko is paid very well to implement HUD's mission of "Housing & Urban Development" . . . as the Bflo, ever poorer, smaller & more blighted, has dramatically gone the other way.

    Because of Bflo's deep poverty, HUD pours more per capita funding into Bflo than almost any other city. But how much it pours annually ($150 million?), or the cost-benefit of such massive funding is 'top secret'.

    If Byron Brown's new top appointee Donna Brown is to have any success addressing Bflo's poverty & blight . . . Stephen Banko will need to become as eloquent about reforming HUD's failed housing & poverty policies . . . as he is eloquent about US war-mongering.

    It is his job!


    MY VIEW: A warrior for peace in a time rife with war STEPHEN BANKO

    http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/m...ry/250584.html
    MY VIEW

    A warrior for peace in a time rife with warUpdated: 01/13/08 8:59 AM


    Last year, I gave a speech that ended with this sentence: “Rather than lead a million men to war, I would rather die alone, for peace.”

    No matter how noble that rhetoric might have been, it pales in comparison to the brief, shining life of John Granville. Rather than talk about it, he did it. He died alone, for peace.

    As a Fulbright scholar, Granville could have written his own ticket to success. Instead of finding success in financial gain, he used his abundant talent to work for others and for peace.

    After Sept. 11, 2001, a lot of people — good and dedicated people — took up arms. A few, like Granville, took heart. They didn’t just talk the talk of patriotism. They walked the walk. They walked it on the dusty back roads and cow paths of the Third World.

    Those like Granville see the suffering and try to end it. They see the poverty and try to cure it. They see the good in people and they try

    to nurture it. When the John Granvilles of the world do so, they show the world another face of America. They show a face of compassion and kindness and commitment to a better world. We don’t have enough John Granvilles and when we lose one, we lose too much.

    John F. Kennedy, a World War II hero himself, once wrote to a fellow Navy veteran: “War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”

    Granville was no objector, conscientious or otherwise. He saw the world as it was and was too caring to let it stay that way. He would be embarrassed if we said, “he tried to save the world.” He would be honored if we remember him as trying to save a small piece of it. He fought a war without glory, and his only weapon was love beyond reward. He did not prowl the battlements of a fortress. He did not man a gun turret. He did not seek to destroy. Yet, in the truest sense, he was a warrior: a warrior for peace who lived with quiet dignity to serve conscience and his fellow man.

    It must be the courage of America and thus, the strength of the world, that the essence of our patriotism is not nationalism, but rather humanity.

    I look forward to the day when men and women like Granville will be the truest heroes of our final victory. They will be the ones who know that the spirit of peace is brave compromise and the character of negotiation is the value system of the world community.

    When I killed for my country, I was embroidered with ribbons and medals. When Granville lived for it, he went unrecognized, unadorned. He will get no Purple Heart for his honor and his courage. We won’t see any memorials erected to honor him. We don’t yet see valor outside the confines of war and bloodshed. But Granville will forever rank among the bravest people I’ve known.

    Because he was so good, so decent, so compassionate, it would be easy to hate those who killed him. Because he did much for many in return for so little, it would be easy to focus on revenge. No matter how easy it would be, though, it would be wrong. Worse, it would ignore the life of peace and mercy that was the essence of his service. Someone has to be brave enough, selfless enough, to break the cycle of violence that is epidemic in our world. Granville was that someone. He made a difference in our lives by making a difference in the world.

    We best honor him and our country when we honor what he stood for and died for, as a warrior for peace in a time rife with war.

    Stephen Banko, a Vietnam veteran from Buffalo, is a longtime friend of the Granville family.

  2. #2
    Unregistered bigpoppapuff's Avatar
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    steve's piece on granville was touching.....a hero honoring a hero...

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