Mario Cuomo – Spokesman for the disadvantaged

Ted Folkert

January 6, 2015

Well, we lost a good one the other day – we actually let a good one get away – we should have convinced him to run for president when we had the chance in 1992. Many of us liberals tried, but he declined.

As we all know, he was Governor of New York for many years, and his son, Andrew, is now Governor of New York.

Mario Cuomo, whose eloquence and inspiration I had the lasting pleasure of enjoying a few years ago in Los Angeles at a business gathering, could give you goose bumps – he could give you a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye. If you had a liberal bone in your body, you hung on every word he said, which he spoke with such eloquence and articulation that you would just keep saying yes, yes, yes – under your breath.

Thanks to Pat Hininger for finding “the speech”, which Mario blessed us with at the Democratic Convention in 1984. What a magnificent speech, from the heart. I have heard lots of political speeches, like most everyone, but never one to compare to Mario Cuomo’s masterpiece.

The speech was meant as a response to Ronald Reagan’s description of America as a shining city on a hill, the key to the Republican’s political success.

“This nation is more a tale of two cities than it is just a shining city on a hill,” Cuomo said. “There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces you don’t see, in the places you don’t visit in your shining city.”

Here it is: http://wapo.st/1I3ahyF

Please listen – you won’t be sorry. I think you may have a lump in your throat or a tear in your eye.