4/30 Hour 2

Bob Lonsbury, starting now on News Radio Wham, All of Anything. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate that. Good morning, Americans. Hello, my friend. Like always, it's a delight to be with you. It's been interesting to watch the reaction of New York State's political masters. Governor Kathy Hochul, Letitia James, the other Democrats at the top, it's been interesting to watch their reaction to the Supreme Court decision yesterday saying that racial discrimination is no longer tolerable in the drawing of congressional district boundaries. And that's what it's been since, well, pretty much 1965. The United States... has promoted, encouraged, and in some instances demanded racial discrimination in the drawing of congressional district boundaries. Courts have ordered repeatedly across this country that lines for congressional districts be drawn specifically to provide advantage to African American voters and African American politicians. That, of course, is racial discrimination, which seemingly would be rejected by the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence and seemingly would be patently unconstitutional under the wording of the 14th Amendment. But, you know, this injustice has been a thing. And so across this country... There are congressional districts which have been specifically drawn to make sure that a white person has almost no chance of winning representation there. And very disparate and distant black or Latino or Asian communities have been cobbled together to assure that the person elected will be black or Hispanic or Asian. We have had since 1965 in the name of voting rights. a clear racial bias against people who are Caucasian and in favor of people who aren't. That's just a fact. But the deal is that that inequity, that prejudice, that bias, that bigotry, instead of being recognized for what it is, a vice, and an unfairness, and a contradiction to the very premise of all men are created equal. instead it has been described and depicted and crammed down the throats of students and schools as a political and social virtue that we are a good country because we discriminate in favor of people of color and discriminate against people who are Caucasian. And states, to include this one, have with pride pointed to districts specifically drawn to create black, for example, members of Congress. We have chosen to favor politicians by virtue of the color of their skin.

And that, in fact, is wrong. And the fact that we have done something morally and constitutionally wrong since 1965 doesn't make it right. And this decision yesterday out of Louisiana is, in our country, it has from the beginning been a perpetual journey towards true liberty and equality. Right? We've never been perfect, but we've always been the best on the planet. And we've also always been moving forward and upward. And this decision yesterday is part of that continual progress forward and upward towards greater equality and freedom. We have said that you can no longer... discriminate on the basis of skin color when it comes to drawing congressional districts. It doesn't matter what the skin color is. Doesn't matter who you're discriminating for or who you're discriminating against skin color is not to be considered a factor when drawing congressional districts. That, again, is absolutely in keeping with the 14th Amendment and with the concept that all men are created equal and that we have equal protection under law. That's the 14th Amendment. If you create situations that favor people because of the color of their skin, then you do not have equal protection under law. And acts of government, which create favoritism for people of color, are just as morally reprehensible as acts of government which favor people who are Caucasian. That is a truth that we need to embrace. That is a truth which we have ignored out of our racial hypocrisy of the last generation plus. america has run on the principle since the mid nineteen sixties that the only way to deal with one bias is to replace it with another to denounce one bigotry as we should while simultaneously embracing and codifying and mandating another bigotry which we should not do and this decision yesterday takes us away from that two wrongs make a right standpoint. And it takes us toward who we were conceived to be and who we have been striving to be, lo these many years of our history. That is a society where we truly are equal. Equality is not achieved through favoritism. Equality is achieved through equality. Right? And me and you being treated the same is equality. Me getting a special favor or you getting a special favor because of something as fundamentally irrelevant as the color of our skin is absolutely wrong. In whatever guise, racism presents itself, it is wrong.

It was wrong on the plantation. It was wrong in Jim Crow. And it is wrong in these policies of the last generation as well. And again, it's not that far distant. I'd point out to you that the last time the Monroe County legislature was redistricted, a deal that culminated, I think, in December of 2022, the issue that had been argued for months through that year of 2022 was how many specific black districts are you going to set aside? And how many districts will you draw guaranteeing that they will have black representation? And the objective was to see how many black members you will have in the Monroe County Legislature. And so the entire structure or paradigm of redistricting for the Monroe County Legislature came down to skin color, which is not the American way. And it need to take a break here, but it is astounding to me to see the protests from people like Kathy Hochul and Tiss James about unfair representation. And I'll explain that to you. And because Kathy Hochul and Letitia James and their party are arguably the largest and most oppressive. practitioners of political oppression in the United States of America. And I'll explain to you how that is undeniably true in just a half a moment on news radio Wham 1180. The most important thing right now. This is an important moment. Get the important events of the day. This blockade. The ceasefire. The price is going to come down. When you check in. Jeremy Mandarin. The midterms. Charles III Visit. On news radio, Wham, 1180. Hey, Franz Lonsbury here. In Louisiana, one of the criticisms is that... Given the number of districts without racial gerrymandering, I think something like 15% of the districts would have a black congressperson, yet 30% of the population of the state is African American. And so they say the Democrats' belly aching that this leads to an underrepresentation. And I understand that, and I don't contest that, and that is, you know, something to think about and try to, you know, find ways to address in a free and democratic way. But I'd like to point out a couple of things. In the northeastern United States,

You know, we all have to face those hazards, if you will, equally and together, even if we are not Caucasian. And so anyway, that's the deal on that. There'll be a lot of yelling and belly aching, and there will be, when the Democrats take power next, a big push to pack the Supreme Court, I suspect. But this step is a step in the direction of liberty, and it is a furtherance of true civil rights. News is next with the great Joe Lasky. We'll be back when he's done on News Radio, Wham 1180. What the hell is happening? The war. Increase in oil and gas. Happening. They will still shoot some missiles. Prevent that from happening. Happening. What's really happening. Check in throughout the day. Today. Tomorrow. Stop. Use radio. Wham, 1180. Weaker Farm and Nursery is open for the season. Local and family run. They're ready to help you with spring gardening or yard project. Through all of upstate New York, and that has an impact on the level of Lake Ontario. Find out where that stands and what preparations are being made in case things get catty wampas. We're going to be joined by the supervisor. of the town of Greece, the Honorable Jeff McCann. Sir, good morning. Welcome to the broadcast. Good morning, Bob. How are you? Good, sir. I hope that you're doing well also. How does the lake look these days? Well, as of yesterday, the level was 246.8, and, you know, the flood stage is somewhere around 247. So we're right at the brink of being a flood stage for the lake. And this has been very problematic. Was it 2017, 2019, something like that, did an awful lot of damage on the coast to your town. Yeah, yeah, no, it definitely did. And, you know, what we're doing is we have staged a number of pumps. We've rented extra pumps. Again, we're hopeful that they aren't needed, but, you know, hope isn't a plan. We need to be ready. And our DPW crew stand ready to help protect people and their property that live up along the lake shore. So you've got personnel and equipment kind of pre-deployed and ready, sir, just in case? Yes, yes. And another project that we're hopeful will be very helpful in terms of mitigating the effect of flooding is after the flooding in 2019, the state provided quite a bit of money for communities along the lake shore. And we have, they're called ready projects. I forget what the acronym stands for, but it was related to the flooding. And one of the major problems we had back in 2017 and 2019 is the storm sewers that we have up on Edgemere Drive actually discharge into the ponds, which are on the south side of Edgemere Drive.

And what would happen when the ponds reached a certain level, there was nowhere for the water to go for an engineer drive. And then what was happening is the ponds would actually flood the road. So we've installed, I believe it's 15 valves that actually shut off that connection between the pond and the road. So we're able to prevent the ponds from back. backfilling on the road and that our crews are going to be able to pump the excess water into the pond. So that was a really a major problem with what had happened in the past. And if there is flooding, this will be our first opportunity to test out that project. Is Greece supervisor Jeff McCann sandbags, I presume, sir, at the ready? Yeah, we have, I think it's about 40,000 sandbags. If people need sandbags, we will drop them off to people, and we will also drop off the sand with them. But, yeah, so we're ready to help people with sandbags, too. Jeff McCannes, the Greastown supervisor, are there things that affected residents or potentially affected residents need to do in preparation, sir? Yeah, and, you know, most of the people who live up on the lake shore have lived there a long time. Many cases, it's, you know, generational transfer the property. So a lot of people know this, but, you know, we want to be helpful and just put this out there anyways. Really, some of the biggest things they could do is make sure that there's some pumps are working, you know, if there is flooding in the basements, that's a critical. a critical thing to have working and also making sure that the discharge is clear of the foundations of their houses and also if people have valuables in a basement they really ought to take some action to lift them up so that they're not on the ground so in case there is flooding that they aren't damaged those are those are some simple things that people can in due to help themselves. Jeff McCann's, the Greastown supervisor, is, you know, like when a river floods you, they can anticipate and predict crest or whatever. Is that possible with the lake? Do we know which direction things are going or if there's a time frame of particular concern, sir? My understanding is that we could be having problems as early as next week, and it's not definite by any means, but it's possible. And then I know the sort of the cycle of spring and the runoff and water ending up into the lake. is that this is something we're going to have to worry about for at least a month or two before we're out of the woods if we end up being out of the woods. In years past, we're speaking, of course, to Jeff McCann, who's the supervisor of town of Greece. In years past, you know, there has talk about the lake level maintained by this IOC or whatever that abbreviation is, IJC, and then there's the outlet dam or something over at the east end. Are those things factors in this, sir?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, right. Historically, there's always been a challenge balancing the interest. Right, I think one of the things like the, I think the Ottawa River, right, if they let too much water out of the lake, that could affect people in Montreal. And then I know that there's a big runoff south of Montreal where water is going. into the river. So that's a concern. And again, the IJC is balancing all of the interests between the people in Montreal, the people on the South Shore, our folks, the shipping interest. And that's really the balancing act that they're doing with the IJC. And, you know, we're looking at this from the standpoint of You know, there's not a lot that we can control here. What we can control is our response and being ready to help people. And, you know, the biggest variable in this obviously is Mother Nature. And, you know, as you said, April, but March was very wet too. So we've had an incredibly wet March in April. and, you know, hopefully fingers crossed that the rain lets up a little bit, and, you know, we can sort of dodge the bullet here. Jeff McCann, Greastown supervisor. Also, I suspect that some of the properties you see up there, it looks like the owners may have, like, fortified or whatever, tried to, you know, make their shorelines a little bit, you know, able to resist some of the water. Is that going to be helpful? Yeah, I believe so. And again, I think this will be the first opportunity to really test that. You know, I saw one of the stories that the media did based on us. telling them what our steps were they talked to one of the neighbors. And I saw a gentleman who I'm quite familiar with and know well. You know, he had said since the 2019 flooding, I think he said they had invested $135,000 on a break wall in big boulders out into the lake with that. So, you know, a lot of people have spent a lot of money, you know, including the state to help us get ready. And, you know, the simple truth is, We aren't going to know how all of this works until it's tested. It would be ideal if it was never tested. But, again, we've made preparations at the town to be as ready as we can be. And, you know, we're going to be in a position to be at the ready to help people as soon as anything happens if it does happen. But, you know, that's really the big takeaway. We want to make sure that... the people up on the lake, and we have one of the largest populations on the lake in the state that they know that we're ready to help them, and we're actually trying to be proactive. So that way, when things happen, we're ready to flip the switch and respond.

100% Jeff McCann's supervisor of town of Greece. And again, and I appreciate and admire that, and I'm certain the residents do as well. An interesting thing has to be, if you're the supervisor of the town of Greece, that while this is intentionally important for the people who live there, it has almost no impact on the overwhelming majority of your residents, right? A very small percentage of your total population lives on the lake. Well, you know, I mean, that's sort of what government does, right? You know, we serve everybody, we help everybody. And, right, you look across government services, and that's the case a lot of times, you know, you're targeting a group or a population that might be relatively small. But, you know, in theory, we're doing that for everybody. And, you know, if you're... If it's your turn to be in need, you know, the government's going to be there to help and help respond with that. And, you know, one of the other things I've seen some people online, and I think I've mentioned this before, I spend more time looking at stuff online than I probably should. But people are like, geez, why would people build a house right on the water like that? A lot of these properties go back. many, many generations, many, many years. And, you know, I've seen pictures and talked to people who've lived there a long time. And, you know, before the St. Lawrence Seaway and all of that happened, you know, many, many years ago, a lot of these properties actually had significant beaches right in front of their house. And that, you know, and again, I, you know. I definitely don't second guess anyone's choice to live there and to do that right. That's just an unfortunate reality of their situation. And again, we want to serve and help and do whatever we can to make things better and respond as well as we can. Absolutely. Absolutely. Help where it's needed. And another thing, too, that question, and you're 100% right. These houses didn't all used to be on the water and say, why would someone build up there? And my response might be because for the other 50 weeks of the year, it's paradise up there, right? It's one of the most beautiful places that a person could possibly live. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It really is. It's great. And, you know, one other thing I want to say, too, is, you know, the folks who are going to respond to this and our DPW crews, and, you know, they're the same people who, you know, work hard to plow the roads and keep them safe, you know, the people who work in our DPW. do a great job. The guy who's our commissioner is somebody who we appointed the beginning of the year. Corey Granette, he's doing a fantastic job for us. And, you know, our DPW team is really, in many cases, they're the unsung heroes of the town. And, you know, they're our first line of defense for a lot of people in a lot of situations. So I just can't say enough good things about the work that they do.

Amen. That's Greece Town Supervisor Jeff McCann. Sir, thanks so much. Thanks for being prepared like this. And thanks for telling us about it. We really appreciate it. Okay. All right. Yeah. Thank you. You take care. You bet you. Jeff McCann, supervise the town of Greece back in a moment on news radio Wham 1180. Today. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. facts, truth. On any given day. People understand. You need to know what's on the table. There's no telling. Every single day. What's going to happen? Every single week, sponsor surprises, both good and bad. Use radio. Wham, 1180. Sagging roof, worn siding, grafting, drafty windows, it's time for a makeover.