During the time that I campaigned and all sorts of Englewood political insiders complained about party boss Joe Ferriero, I reserved judgment. Although there were clear indications that he helped my opponent to regain his Fourth Ward Council seat and continue the duo's quest to pimp those portions of the Fourth Ward that developers haven't yet been permitted to pillage, I maintained my stance that I did not have enough information to take any position for or against Mr. Ferriero. After all, as an academic, I have been trained to suspend judgment and analyze facts.

Now, however, the proverbial shit has hit the fan and I am damned mad. I was incredulous when I first read that Mr. Ferriero had decided to nominate Rev. Vernon Walton to fill Connie Wagner's now vacant Bergen County Freeholder slot. My disbelief had very little to do with the facts that Reverend Walton had accomplished the politically unheard of (in losing his Council-at-Large seat to Gordon Johnson--as an incumbent—only to later be considered for freeholder) or that the other frontrunner was Zonnie Lesane, a Black female who ran for the General Assembly (Democratic Line) in District 40 and received 16% of the vote.

That which incensed me most was the message that Mr. Ferriero has sent to Black Democrats. That message is that He can single handedly select our leaders for us and there's nothing we can do about it. The cajones here are unbelievable. Does Mr. Ferriero have so little respect for the Black community that he seriously believes he can "give" us our first Black freeholder and garner our vote? Does he believe that all of us are so blinded by the title "Reverend" that he merely needs to put a Black face with the title before us and he can count on our unswerving devotion? Does he believe that the majority of us have failed to learn lessons of the past, such as those taught by awesome teachers like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall through venerable quotes like, "My father told me there's no difference between a black snake and a white snake. They both bite"?

Did Mr. Ferriero forget or ever know the potency of these lessons or the tremendous impact they've had? Lessons such as these, in addition to my own life experience, have emboldened this citizen to move past using my vote and participation in the democratic process to uphold mere symbols of racial and/or gender equality, instead I choose substance. What is the substance of a particular candidate/nominee's message? Is that message prophetic and geared toward the common good or not? What has the candidate/nominee accomplished and how have those accomplishments positively impacted the Black community? I also find it ironic that Mr. Ferriero, the head of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, would deny me my right to fully participate in the selection of a person to fill this vacancy, by naming his choice in a most undemocratic fashion.

The term "Reverend" used to mean something (especially during the Civil Rights era) when many Black ministers were led by a prophetic vision and carried on a prophetic tradition. Public intellectual Cornel West distinguishes between Prophetic Christianity and a form he refers to as Constantinian Christianity that appears to be practiced by many of Englewood's Black ministers. According to West, Prophetic Christianity is "an ecumenical force for good [that continually reasserts itself] as the principles of public service, care for the poor, and the separation of church and state that this Christianity demands." In contrast, Constantinian Christianity "has much to do with the cozy alliance of Constantianian Christian leaders with the political elites beholden to corporate interests who provide shelter for cronyism." This is the brand that seems to resemble that practiced by far too many Black ministers in Englewood who seem all too willing to sell their congregants' votes for a new building extension or a patronage job for their wives in the Englewood school system. And Mr. Ferriero knows this fact all too well.