Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Joann Ariola | Councilwoman Representing District 32 Speaks on Invitation for Mamdani to March in Columbus Day Parade
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The organizers of the Columbus Day Parade have invited Mayor
- 0:06Speaker 1: Mamdani to the parade. This can't be real.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Wait a second.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Didn't Mamdani, just a couple of weeks ago, and it
- 0:16Speaker 1: wasn't an accident, he did it on purpose. Didn't he
- 0:19Speaker 1: leave Little Italy and Arthur Avenue, two great Italian strongholds,
- 0:26Speaker 1: off his nonsensical... Immigration Enclave map. Isn't he the same
- 0:31Speaker 1: guy that walked past a Christopher Columbus statue and gave
- 0:36Speaker 1: it the finger? Oh, yeah, that's him. So then why
- 0:40Speaker 1: in a million years would the organizers of this parade
- 0:45Speaker 1: invite him? If I hear one more time, he's the mayor.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Is he God? I mean, everything is about he's the mayor.
- 0:52Speaker 1: He should be there 9-11. He's the mayor. He should
- 0:55Speaker 1: be at the parade. He's the mayor.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Who cares?
- 0:58Speaker 1: Who cares what his title is? He has offended the
- 1:03Speaker 1: Italian people who I love desperately. I've wanted to be
- 1:07Speaker 1: Italian most of my life before October the 7th. He
- 1:10Speaker 1: has offended them time and time again. Who cares what
- 1:14Speaker 1: his job is? He's not obligated to be anywhere. He
- 1:20Speaker 1: shouldn't be rewarded to celebrate the day with the great
- 1:23Speaker 1: Italian heritage. Why would you do it? So I called
- 1:27Speaker 1: my buddy Angelo Vivalo, who's an amazing guy. He has
- 1:30Speaker 1: nothing to do with this decision. Because people have said
- 1:33Speaker 1: to me, what about your buddy Angelo? He didn't make
- 1:35Speaker 1: this decision. He's not part of that group. He fights
- 1:40Speaker 1: every day to make sure the Italians... Get the deserved
- 1:44Speaker 1: respect that they deserve. And the Columbus statue stays where
- 1:47Speaker 1: it is. Those types of things. He's not organizing parades.
- 1:52Speaker 1: So don't blame Angelo Vivalo. He's innocent. But my God.
- 1:57Speaker 1: So I talked to Phyllis Insarello right away. She works
- 2:00Speaker 1: alongside our counselor, Lady Lewis. Joanne Areola. Happens to be Italian.
- 2:05Speaker 1: Right there in Howard Beach. Not what it used to be. Sorry.
- 2:09Speaker 1: But still one of the better Italian neighborhoods left in
- 2:12Speaker 1: New York. So here's Joanne to join me right now. Joanne,
- 2:15Speaker 1: good morning. How are you?
- 2:17Speaker 2: It's great to be here, Sid.
- 2:18Speaker 3: How are you?
- 2:19Speaker 2: And honestly, I can't stop laughing about your birthday wish
- 2:23Speaker 2: to Springsteen. Honestly. And you mentioned Phyllis, and she's a
- 2:28Speaker 2: big believer in that. She said, never wish them death, Joanne.
- 2:31Speaker 2: Wish them diarrhea.
- 2:32Speaker 1: Yeah, diarrhea. Never death. Yeah, never death. And people started
- 2:35Speaker 1: texting my phone, what are you doing playing Bruce? And,
- 2:38Speaker 1: of course, I knew the whole time me and Lou
- 2:40Speaker 1: were just going to savage the guy at the opportunity.
- 2:43Speaker 1: And he's turned out to be a very, very bad guy,
- 2:45Speaker 1: like Mom Donnie, you know. I don't know, Joanne. I
- 2:48Speaker 1: love President Trump. I hated every second of Monday. And
- 2:52Speaker 1: there's a good chance he's probably angry with me because–
- 2:55Speaker 1: It's been in about a thousand blogs. Mr. Maga, Mr.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Radio host Maga, mad at Trump. And I was mad.
- 3:03Speaker 1: I mean, I love him. Doesn't mean I don't think
- 3:05Speaker 1: he was brilliant yesterday at the UN. Doesn't mean I
- 3:07Speaker 1: don't think he's the best president of my lifetime, maybe ever.
- 3:10Speaker 1: But what I witnessed Monday at Gracie Mansion was downright gross.
- 3:15Speaker 1: What do you think?
- 3:17Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't believe it. I was very disappointed in
- 3:20Speaker 2: the president. I really was. I was hoping that it
- 3:23Speaker 2: was some type of hoax. Unfortunately, it wasn't. But I
- 3:28Speaker 2: watched the.
- 3:28Speaker 3: Body language when they came back out and I saw
- 3:31Speaker 3: a president that was kind of smiling, peacockish. And I
- 3:35Speaker 3: saw Mamdani, who looked a little downtrodden, you know, the
- 3:39Speaker 3: signature smile gone. But while Mamdani was talking about Sunnyside Yards,
- 3:45Speaker 3: I didn't hear the president say he was giving them
- 3:46Speaker 3: any money for it. And all the president talked about
- 3:48Speaker 3: was the aesthetics of the mansion. But there were so
- 3:52Speaker 3: many things that they could have spoken about, the affordability
- 3:55Speaker 3: for taxpaying New Yorkers, the declining numbers in the NYPD.
- 4:00Speaker 2: And maybe they did.
- 4:01Speaker 3: I don't know. We're moving congestion pricing. President Trump was
- 4:04Speaker 3: still waiting for this.
- 4:05Speaker 2: The city of yes. you know, just, just.
- 4:07Speaker 3: Killing that entire program. So yes, I was disappointed, but again,
- 4:13Speaker 3: like you said, he is our president. I respect president Trump.
- 4:16Speaker 3: I'll never speak ill of president Trump, but I'm hoping
- 4:19Speaker 3: that he is playing chess and not checkers.
- 4:23Speaker 2: And he gave this guy the spanking that he needed
- 4:26Speaker 2: while he was in there. Nope.
- 4:27Speaker 1: Didn't happen. Didn't happen. No, it hasn't happened yet. Didn't
- 4:32Speaker 1: happen in Washington, D.C. Didn't happen in New York. There
- 4:35Speaker 1: has been no spankings. There's been no behind the scenes.
- 4:38Speaker 1: I'm Mr. Tough Guy. There's been none of it. It
- 4:41Speaker 1: is the most, I would say the most, the strangest
- 4:47Speaker 1: relationship since I've been doing political talk. 12 years. I've
- 4:51Speaker 1: never seen anything like this. So if you're on Twitter
- 4:54Speaker 1: today and you're saying what Joanne just said, I know
- 4:57Speaker 1: the facts. There were no spankings. There was no tough talk.
- 5:00Speaker 1: These two guys are walking around like a movie, like
- 5:04Speaker 1: a real bromance. And now we get this nonsense about
- 5:08Speaker 1: Mamdani being invited to the Columbus Day Parade. You tell me.
- 5:12Speaker 1: I don't care if he's the mayor. What does that mean?
- 5:15Speaker 1: You tell me what Mamdani has done, the way he's
- 5:18Speaker 1: treated the Italian people. Why would he be rewarded with
- 5:22Speaker 1: an invitation to that parade?
- 5:25Speaker 2: He should never have been invited to that parade.
- 5:28Speaker 1: Never.
- 5:28Speaker 3: Everything that Mayor Mamdani has done has been to disrespect
- 5:32Speaker 3: the Italian-American community. And that invitation should never have been issued.
- 5:38Speaker 3: But it's being further disrespected because he hasn't even responded.
- 5:42Speaker 3: He won't even give them a yes or a no.
- 5:44Speaker 3: So why leave ourselves.
- 5:46Speaker 2: Open to that?
- 5:46Speaker 3: The organizers of that parade really.
- 5:49Speaker 2: Should be ashamed of themselves. He should never be there.
- 5:51Speaker 1: You're right.
- 5:52Speaker 2: Mamdani, you know, he has been.
- 5:54Speaker 3: On the record strongly opposing the significance.
- 5:58Speaker 2: Of Christopher Columbus to Italian Americans. He doesn't view him
- 6:02Speaker 2: as someone who....
- 6:06Speaker 3: Represents the Italian American community. He doesn't even think that
- 6:09Speaker 3: he discovered America. All he says is he does colonism,
- 6:14Speaker 3: violence against the indigenous people, accuses him of horrible crimes. And,
- 6:20Speaker 3: you know, on social media, you're right. He did give
- 6:23Speaker 3: him the finger and it said, and he wrote in
- 6:25Speaker 3: the caption, take it down. He did omit the Italian
- 6:29Speaker 3: communities from the immigrant map. But I will tell you
- 6:32Speaker 3: by that one act, Our Italian focus grew exponentially because
- 6:37Speaker 3: we wrote a letter immediately with dozens of Italian groups
- 6:44Speaker 3: who stood with us saying that Little Italy and other
- 6:48Speaker 3: Italian enclaves, like you mentioned, Arthur Avenue, and right here
- 6:51Speaker 3: in Howard Beach, and what about over in Brooklyn and
- 6:54Speaker 3: in Staten.
- 6:54Speaker 2: Island, should also be on that map.
- 6:56Speaker 3: And it wasn't because we are insignificant to him.
- 7:00Speaker 1: That's right. And, you know, he calls out Christopher Columbus
- 7:04Speaker 1: for doing all these things, but not Hamas. I mean,
- 7:07Speaker 1: you know, we've got we've got five Republicans. Out of
- 7:11Speaker 1: 51 on the city council. And three of you five,
- 7:15Speaker 1: I believe, are Italian. You, Vicky, and Frank. Ina's not.
- 7:18Speaker 1: I don't think David Carr is.
- 7:20Speaker 2: David is.
- 7:21Speaker 1: Oh, David is?
- 7:22Speaker 2: Yeah, he's on the Italian caucus, yes.
- 7:24Speaker 1: No kidding. So 80% of the people, the Republicans, on
- 7:29Speaker 1: the city council are Italian. Well, how about that?
- 7:34Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he doesn't care about the Republican delegation or anybody.
- 7:37Speaker 3: You know, he 100% has his mission, and he's trying
- 7:43Speaker 3: to put forth this mission. And I think that people
- 7:47Speaker 3: in general just don't understand the significance of Columbus Day
- 7:50Speaker 3: and why there.
- 7:51Speaker 2: Is a Columbus Day.
- 7:52Speaker 3: And that was because in October of 1890, New Orleans
- 7:57Speaker 3: police chief was assassinated and he allegedly blamed the Italian
- 8:04Speaker 3: community with an ethnic slur right before he died. And
- 8:08Speaker 3: because of that, Eleven men, some of which were 19 originally,
- 8:15Speaker 3: some of which were acquitted, who was was were were
- 8:19Speaker 3: never tried. And some were there were mistrials. Eleven men
- 8:24Speaker 3: were dragged on March 14th, 1891, out of out of
- 8:29Speaker 3: jail and hung or beat to death or shot dead.
- 8:35Speaker 3: And that's why President Benjamin Harris at the time, as
- 8:39Speaker 3: a mea culpa.
- 8:41Speaker 2: To Italy, well, first he gave them $ 25, 000, each of
- 8:45Speaker 2: the victims' families. I guess that was the first kind
- 8:47Speaker 2: of hush money that was given, was $ 25, 000. But that
- 8:50Speaker 2: didn't work, right? So what he did was.
- 8:53Speaker 3: He, you know, then the fence, so to speak. He
- 8:59Speaker 3: enacted Columbus Day back in 1892.
- 9:03Speaker 2: And, you know, I have a resolution that's going to
- 9:06Speaker 2: be heard because I know about this story.
- 9:08Speaker 3: And that's why Columbus is so important, because 11 men
- 9:12Speaker 3: lost their lives. And as a mea culpa, President Harrison
- 9:16Speaker 3: gave the United States Italian-Americans this as America's saying, I'm
- 9:23Speaker 3: sorry to Italy and I'm sorry to the Italian American people.
- 9:26Speaker 3: So I have a resolution called the Innocent 11. And
- 9:29Speaker 3: it's the Innocent 11 Remembrance Day would be March 14th. And,
- 9:34Speaker 3: you know, we're hoping to have it heard very soon
- 9:36Speaker 3: and enacted.
- 9:37Speaker 1: No chance.
- 9:37Speaker 2: You know, people don't get.
- 9:39Speaker 1: Well, listen, I know, I know, I get it. No,
- 9:46Speaker 1: I think I hope they would do what they want.
- 9:48Speaker 1: They'll have 40 Muslim holidays here, 40. But God forbid
- 9:51Speaker 1: you want black holidays, too, by the way, 50 of them. OK,
- 9:54Speaker 1: whatever you want. But God forbid you want two Italian holidays.
- 9:58Speaker 1: And can you answer for me? I happen to like
- 9:59Speaker 1: this guy. jim genaro but why doesn't he and kayla
- 10:03Speaker 1: santoso these are two democrats why don't they join the
- 10:08Speaker 1: italian caucus they're italians i know they're democrats but they're
- 10:12Speaker 1: italians what is their problem Yeah.
- 10:15Speaker 3: I don't know why Jim Gennaro wouldn't join the Italian caucus,
- 10:18Speaker 3: and I don't know why he didn't join the Common
- 10:20Speaker 3: Sense Caucus, but he chose not to. And Santos Fosso,
- 10:24Speaker 3: she's extremely progressive.
- 10:26Speaker 2: She leans to the left. So she agrees with the fake...
- 10:32Speaker 2: depiction of Columbus, and she doesn't. She's a loser. But,
- 10:38Speaker 2: you know, Columbus is very important to Italian Americans. The Italian.
- 10:44Speaker 3: Caucus is growing exponentially, as I said before. We're having
- 10:48Speaker 3: a wonderful event coming up on October 7th, where we
- 10:52Speaker 3: will have a moment of silence for the lost lives
- 10:55Speaker 3: in Israel that day. But it's interesting. The only day
- 10:59Speaker 3: we could get from all that is interesting. Yeah. But
- 11:03Speaker 3: but anyway, and we will celebrate our heritage, the people
- 11:07Speaker 3: whose lives were lost and the fact that we helped
- 11:11Speaker 3: build this country. And we did it as one of
- 11:14Speaker 3: the most reviled. You talk about people of ethnicity that
- 11:18Speaker 3: were reviled. Italians were vile when they came here.
- 11:23Speaker 2: They were dirty.
- 11:24Speaker 3: They smelled.
- 11:25Speaker 2: They couldn't get jobs. And they rose above it.
- 11:28Speaker 3: They rose above it without one cent from the United
- 11:31Speaker 3: States government. They did it through hard work.
- 11:34Speaker 1: The Italians are great people. Come on. And this pussy
- 11:37Speaker 1: mayor wouldn't step anywhere near the San Gennaro Festival. By
- 11:40Speaker 1: the way, he wouldn't go anywhere near the parade either
- 11:42Speaker 1: because there's going to be some heroic Italian guy that's
- 11:45Speaker 1: going to drop him. I'm telling you. Trust me. And
- 11:48Speaker 1: he won't go anywhere near the San Gennaro Feast. Nowhere
- 11:52Speaker 1: near that place. So the good news is these Italians,
- 11:55Speaker 1: these organizations can invite him to whatever they want, but
- 11:58Speaker 1: he doesn't have the courage to show up. And quite frankly,
- 12:00Speaker 1: he'd be stupid if he did. I'm being honest. He
- 12:02Speaker 1: really shouldn't show up, so I don't think he'll be
- 12:05Speaker 1: at the parade, do you?
- 12:05Speaker 2: No, I don't think he'll be at the parade.
- 12:09Speaker 3: His base would go wild. His base would go wild.
- 12:12Speaker 1: His base. Tell me about his base. I've got one
- 12:14Speaker 1: more for you. I'm upset with your speaker this morning. Now,
- 12:17Speaker 1: you have two ways you can go about this. You
- 12:19Speaker 1: can say, listen, I'm not going to get involved. She's
- 12:21Speaker 1: my speaker. You could agree. You could disagree. There's actually
- 12:23Speaker 1: three ways, okay? She comes out yesterday, and she's actually
- 12:27Speaker 1: criticizing P.B. Netanyahu's for raising the temperature here in the city.
- 12:33Speaker 1: Wait a second, wait a second. You got a mayor
- 12:35Speaker 1: who every day, no matter what's going on in this city,
- 12:38Speaker 1: people could be dying in a snowstorm, people could be
- 12:41Speaker 1: dying from Legionnaire's disease, billionaires could be moving out of town,
- 12:45Speaker 1: doesn't matter. He finds a way every day to mention
- 12:49Speaker 1: Bibi as a war criminal, which is a lie, as
- 12:53Speaker 1: a genocidal murderer, which is a lie. He wants to
- 12:56Speaker 1: arrest Bibi every single day. And the one time, The
- 13:00Speaker 1: one time Bibi does a 20-second harmless video and says,
- 13:06Speaker 1: I'm coming tomorrow to tell the truth, Julie Menon says,
- 13:10Speaker 1: why would the prime minister raise the temperature? Is she nuts?
- 13:17Speaker 3: No, listen, I do not agree with that statement, and
- 13:20Speaker 3: we can agree to disagree to speak. I actually applauded
- 13:26Speaker 3: that video. I cannot wait to hear Bibi finally have
- 13:30Speaker 3: his say after his name has been maligned every single
- 13:34Speaker 3: day for the last 10 months by a person who
- 13:39Speaker 3: is an anti-Semite. And he's blaming him as a war criminal,
- 13:43Speaker 3: which I'm sure he thinks that Columbus is a war
- 13:46Speaker 3: criminal too, if he were alive today. But this is
- 13:50Speaker 3: a man who has kept his... His mouth shut because
- 13:54Speaker 3: he knew he waited.
- 13:55Speaker 2: He's smart.
- 13:56Speaker 3: He waited for his day to come here to New
- 13:59Speaker 3: York so he could tell the truth. Because he knows
- 14:02Speaker 3: what's going on in Israel. He knows who's doing the genocide.
- 14:05Speaker 3: He knows who's killing young children. And he knows that Hamas...
- 14:09Speaker 3: is a.
- 14:11Speaker 2: Terrorist organization that this mayor supports. And he doesn't say
- 14:15Speaker 2: it with his mouth, but he says it with his
- 14:17Speaker 2: actions and with the.
- 14:18Speaker 3: Company he keeps. And what did every mother tell their
- 14:21Speaker 3: son and their daughter? Show me your friends and I'll
- 14:23Speaker 3: tell you who you are.
- 14:25Speaker 2: And that's who this mayor is.
- 14:27Speaker 1: God, you're beautiful. That skank that he married that liked
- 14:30Speaker 1: all those images. I am so proud of you. This
- 14:32Speaker 1: was an amazing appearance. I got to tell you, Joanne,
- 14:35Speaker 1: I like you more and more every day. I already
- 14:37Speaker 1: love you. I like you more and more every day.
- 14:39Speaker 1: This was really great. You're a great council lady and
- 14:41Speaker 1: a great voice. Thank you, Joanne. Thank you so much.
- 14:43Speaker 2: Thank you for your voice, Sid. Thank you.
- 14:45Speaker 1: God bless you.
- 14:46Speaker 2: Thank you for never backing down.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Never going to happen. You're right. Thank you. Joanne Areola
- 14:50Speaker 1: right there, the terrific council lady out of Queens.
- 14:53Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
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- 15:20Speaker 4: so you never have to wonder.
- 15:22Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?