I’d rather that my city serve as a snapshot of the zeitgeist for something (anything) positive and enriching, but sometimes we must play the hand we’re dealt, and so it goes that for a brief moment, New Albany has the national distinction of being home to a racist antique dealer.
New Albany’s famous! We’re a disaster area! Instead of Joe the Plumber, we have David the Racist!
Readers are forgiven for imagining that our designation as a disaster area owed to Hurricane Ike, not cultural proclivities.
As time permits today, I’ll post links to responses, or in this first instance, the full text. It is from Randy Smith, as posted at Open Salon, where comments for national consumption can be left.
Anyone for a community-wide petition of business owners opposing this human stain?
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Dear America, New Albany rejects racism
Bear with me, America. I am from New Albany, Indiana. So you can find this post, I’ll be using search terms within the body of this post. Here goes: racist, new albany, indiana, 9th district, david ward, racists, intolerance, obama, mccain, democrat, democrats, republican, republicans, election, chicago tribune, tribune, brenda ward, main street antiques, dan coffey, 202 east main street, 202 e. main st., antique, antiques, black.
Late, late, late on Saturday night, after returning from seeing Oliver Stone’s film “W.,” my wife and I sat down to watch Saturday Night Live (SNL). That’s the one with Sarah Palin, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Oliver Stone, Josh Brolin, and Adele. Amy Poehler was one beautiful mommy, wasn’t she.
Seconds before the show ended, I turned to my wife and said, “OK. I’m going to check to see if the world has ended.” Sure enough, for those of us in New Albany (we call ourselves New Albanians), it came pretty close.
I booted up, on battery, thinking I’d make short work of checking e-mail and news. Boy, was I wrong.
Having only one trivial e-mail in the previous six hours, I checked in to our city’s pre-eminent blog, NA Confidential, whose editors, Roger Baylor and Jeff Gillenwater, can be relied on to articulate the progressive view in New Albany, Indiana.
Jeff, then Roger, made sure their readers would know about the abomination that befouled our city on Saturday when the Chicago Tribune reported first-person electoral opinions from the 9th District of Indiana as part of an analysis of the surprising development that INDIANA, of all places, is a toss-up state for the 2008 presidential race.
Dewey DID narrowly defeat Truman for our electoral votes in 1948, but since then, Indiana’s electoral treasure has never been in doubt. LBJ took them in ’64, but the GOP has owned them.
Perhaps no longer. A certain gentleman, to wit, David Ward, an “antiques” dealer in New Albany, became this weekend’s “Joe the Plumber,” but perhaps to the deep consternation of Republicans, including incumbent Gov. Mitch Daniels, congressional candidate Mike Sodrel, and GOP standard-bearers John McCain and Sarah Heath Palin.
Indiana? Source of the “October surprise?”
It just may be.
As background, let me relate to you that the weekend conversation here has been whether Democrats here do in fact support the presidential candidate, Barack Obama. I, myself a Hillary Clinton supporter, wagered on Roger and Jeff’s blog that even our city council, consisting of 8 Democrats and 1 Republican, might not be able to muster a majority of votes for Obama-Biden.
The local Democratic Party chairman chided “us” as dilettantes sitting on our asses and blogging instead of pounding the pavement and making cold calls on behalf of our preferred candidate, and only obliquely addressed our dissatisfaction with the official Democratic Party establishment’s suspect and unenthusiastic support for Obama’s campaign for change.
D’oh! Who knew the Chicago Tribune was working the case?
Deep in this story, two New Albany dopes were captured for posterity. Slack-jawed mouthbreather Kenneth Hodge (me likee me guns) gets a pass. But thousands of us in New Albany will rise to reject the beliefs of a certain David Ward, identified as someone “who runs an antique shop with his wife in New Albany.”
The business address and phone number of Mr. Ward’s business is included here. May I suggest you consult 411.com and enter “David Ward” and “47150” should you wish to contact the man.
The business in question was spotlighted in our local newspaper a year ago after Mr. Ward and his wife, Brenda, took over management from New Albany’s senior Democratic city council member, Daniel J. (Dan) Coffey. Here’s the story from October of 2007, titled Q&A: Brenda Ward has a love for antiques.
I do not know Brenda, nor David. David’s antiquated views are not ours. But I do know New Albany.
Mr. Roget doesn’t have enough synonyms for “reject” to adequately express our disdain, disgust, repulsion, denial, or embarrassment at this portrayal of our city’s mindset.
For the record, here’s the offending (and offensive) passage from Saturday’s Chicago Tribune:
For others, like David Ward, who runs an antique shop with his wife in New Albany, the issue is race. Ward, a registered Democrat, said he will vote for McCain “mainly because he’s not black.”
New Albanians, in shock right now, will be back on Sunday with more articulate thoughts. I’ll link to local comment and respond as I can during the day.
In the interim, please know that New Albanians, and this practicioner of New Albanism (as for me and my house…) stand ready to persuade you that while the local embarrassment is undeniable, Mr. Ward DOES NOT represent New Albany.
