Vince Fumo was sentenced this week and, like everything he has done in his 30-year political career, the sentence was controversial. Many LGBT leaders in Philly were pleased with the 55-month sentence, since Fumo has been the state’s most outspoken supporter of gay issues. He really walked the walk, from funding to his tearful speech on the Pennsylvania Senate floor pleading for gay marriage. And that support went back to before he was an elected official, when he was a lawyer and did pro-bono work on several lesbian cases, one involving adoption rights. Below is the letter I wrote to Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter regarding our friend Vince.
Your Honor:
I’m writing you about my friend Vince Fumo. Please forgive me in advance since I’ve never written a letter of this sort before and I’m certainly not a lawyer. So, I won’t waste your time on the legal issues, but rather the human issues. Strangely enough, I’d like to use as an example Bernard Madoff, and the sentence he received in New York last week.
If I understood it correctly, Madoff had stolen billions of dollars from individuals, pension funds and charities. He was given a 150-year sentence. Personally, I think that’s a fair sentence for the destroyed lives he left behind.
Senator Fumo did not destroy any lives, pension funds or charities. In fact, it is the exact opposite. He helped build wealth into pension funds by creating state work for numerous unions, created programs that gave Pennsylvanians education, jobs, food on the table, medical care — especially to children — and so much more.
So in my non-legal way, I look at the two cases — one convicted of stealing billions and gets 150 years. And the senator who was convicted of misusing $1.4 million of the people’s money but giving back billions in numerous ways to a multitude of causes. Your Honor, I’m not going to tell you that Vince is a saint: He certainly is not. But what I will tell you is that he’s a public figure who cannot control his image because of his own ego. In that sense, he’s his worst enemy. He adores the image of the tough South Philly politician, especially when he’s being challenged or competitive, but [the] reality is, those are rare times, and when you see the real Vince, you see a guy with a big heart, who cares deeply for this city and state. This is no cliché.
Even while waiting to hear your verdict, which will drastically change his life, he’s made it a point to assist the various factions in Harrisburg on ways to solve our budget problem. They ask for help since they acknowledge he is the only one who can get them together. Similarly, he’s helping with numerous other city and state issues even though [he’s] not an official or on the books. The job and solving unsolvable issues were what he loved. And like other executives, he had an expense account. Most Americans smile when you use those words, “expense account.” And we all know why. Well, Vince is no different, only and unfortunately larger.
He’s not only assisting to solve the city’s and state’s budget problems, he’s also attempting to discover funds for a host of nonprofits hit hard from this recession. When I say host of nonprofits, I do [mean it] since it would take several pages to list them all: from breast cancer, meals on wheels, schools, HIV education, health centers … on and on.
Even though fighting for his life, he still e-mails friends with problems and asks how he can help. He won’t show that side, nor his generous side.
He did what a state senator was supposed to do: bring funds back to his district. But Vince, being larger than life, brought funds back to the entire city or almost any project that approached him. Billions of dollars, which enriched this city, from landscape to history to the cultural arts.
To get those funds, he did what all politicians do. Garner power. But again the image is not what one might expect. To gain power, you need votes and you expect your coalition to bring them in for you. On two occasions, I told Vince that I and the LGBT community wouldn’t support his candidate. This, after all his vocal and financial support of the community. He asked why, and I explained that, in my opinion, the candidate he wanted me to support was antigay or, to be polite, had done nothing to further gay rights in the commonwealth. Vince didn’t even blink. He said he could easily understand.
A few years ago, Vince and I had break-ups of our different relationships. We were both devastated. Neither of us could sleep, so we’d contact each other maybe 2, 3, 4 in the morning and have these conversations. That is the Vince I’d like the world to see, the one pouring out his heart.
Years ago, I met U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger at a reception. It was after the Supreme Court ruled on a Georgia sodomy case. I believe it was Bowers v. Hardwick. The court had ruled that gay people had no right to privacy. When I asked Justice Burger about it, he said, “Time was not right yet, give the people a chance to catch up.” My thoughts were that this was the Supreme Court, not a public-opinion poll.
Sir, if you’re going to make a ruling based on publicity this letter has been a waste of time for both of us. But if you are making a ruling based on humanity and one’s life achievements, then please take his achievements, generosity, the use he still can be to our current leaders, into consideration. Who knows, maybe this is a time for creative sentences.
Thanks for your time, Respectfully, Mark Segal
Mark Segal is PGN publisher. He can be reached at [email protected].