January 18,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, This past Monday the Martin Luther King, jr. interfaith celebration was held. It was intended to be a celebration of the teachings of Dr. King and was to include Rev. Sampson, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in New York as the guest speaker, followed by an outdoor rally and a light lunch. The program was also to feature Ridgewood and Glen Rock student speakers and musical performances by the Indian Hills Chamber Choir and Men of Umoja chorus.
Much of the event was beautiful until Aronsohn and Gottheimer turned it into their own personal soapboxes.
It turned into a political rally of sorts. After Pastor Mack Brandon introduced Rep. Gottheimer and welcomed him to the podium, suddenly FORMER Mayor Aronsohn shoved his way to the front, all but pushing Gottheimer back down. Aronsohn then proceeded to give an unscheduled speech (unscheduled, but not unplanned, because he had a paper in his hand as he bulldozed his way to the altar). Following this ridiculous display, Aronsohn himself went on to welcome Gottheimer to come and speak, even though Gottheimer had already been invited to the microphone by Pastor Brandon a few minutes earlier. People were kind of shocked by Aronsohn going off-script and just inserting himself into the event. Gottheimer then proceeded to give a political rally type of speech, not one honoring Dr. King and his principles and teachings, but one that was self-promoting, all about him and his agenda.
Politicians (or wannabe politicians like Aronsohn) should be banned from speaking at such an event. It was a disgrace.
Wow , The talk on the street is there’s a lot of X council and mayor’s would like to re-run. What does that tell you.
Aronsohn – douchebag
When did they start have politicians speak at this even ? I attend Martin Luther King, jr. interfaith celebration in the past and there was never a political speaker. Who is on the MLK committee and how could they allow this to happen.
Oh man, I wish Aronsohn would run again. He would lose so badly.
Marge Roukama used to speak every year. The mayors of GR and Ridgewood speak every year. Corey Booker was the main speaker 2 years ago. There have always been politicians who participate. In fact, the question should be asked, which council members were not in attendance and why?
FORMER Mayor Aronsohn and FORMER Councilwoman Hauck were on the MLK Committee this year. So now you understand how the event got all fucked up.
All we need to know on why Aronsohn and Gottheimer were speakers . Rev Jan Philips is on the MLK committee .
“The mayors of GR and Ridgewood speak every year” I don’t think that true 8:03.
8:03 – You are actually defending Aronsohn pushing Gottheimer aside to rush up uninvited and give his own speech? You must be Aronsohn himself.
Marge Roukema was asked to speak because she was a Ridgewood resident. Josh Gottheimer is not. And Paul Aronsohn is the FORMER Mayor of Ridgewood, not the current Mayor of Ridgewood. Sit in your seat and shut up next year Paul.
Which elected official from Ridgewood or Glen Rock spoke this year? Aronsohn is not the Mayor anymore even if Rev Jan Philips still thinks he is.
8:15 Or Rev Jan Philips.
PLEASE – – Don’t compare the late Representative Roukema to Arohnson – – frankly, as a Democrat, I did not always agree with her, but no one would dispute she was a woman of intelligence, principle and grace. We could use more like her and less like Arohnson.
As for Arohnson disrepecting the late Dr. King, what would you expect? Dr. King urged us to respect one another with our words and our deeds. When Arohnson was in office, we saw he was only capable of mouthing the words of great people; and when he actually dealt with his fellow citizens, Arohnson simply mouthed off.
Lets all remember this was an event about MLK not the elected officials of Glen Rock and Ridgewood
Lets’ stop picking on Little Josh. He’s got plenty of work to do promoting how great he is in order to get re-elected in what should be a Republican district. He will probably get a little help when the Republicans nominate another fringe candidate.
9.45. Republican district? Put that dream to sleep. We have more snowflakes in this village/town/soon to become Brooklyn than all snow that fell yesterday. Gothheimer , Vagianos, Aronsohn , Booker will have no problem getting a majority of votes here whenever there is an election. If they voted Murphy then they are capable of any kind of stupidity.
9:45 agreed with regard to Ridgewood and surrounding area inundated with snowflakes, but take a look at the entire district.
Not too many snowflakes to the west.
117 The Vag lost the last election. No one interested in Arohnson any more.
Rev Jan Philips? REV? She is not a reverend. There is no such thing in the Friends-Quakers.
There is a place for our local mayors to say a few token words. That is different than paul and Josh fighting for the podium and then talking for 20 minutes and ask the while disrespecting other government officials in the audience. Who was the missing counsel
Loathsome and lascivious …