Walt Shepperd is a veteran of Central New York's political scuffle, having covered government and politics in Syracuse for more than four decades before being asked for press credentials.
He is the Senior Editor of the City Eagle and the Mayor of Montgomery Street in downtown Syracuse.
Shepperd is also the producer of the The Media Unit, Central New York national award winning teen performance and production troupe.
Samadee is his alter ego. At least that's the rumor.
Back in the day, when he was helping Nancy Duffy rebuild the Syracuse Press Club, the Senior Editor visited Sam Valesquez, then executive director at la Liga, who was hosting Entrevecinos, a weekly television program focused on issues of interest to the local Hispanic community. His show was one of several oriented to issues of concern to local communities of color, shoehorned into a narrow timeframe on Sunday morning, including the City-County Human Rights Commission’s Straight to the Source, the NAACP’s Karamu and Alive in Syracuse, produced by the Syracuse Coalition for a Free Flow of Information in the Broadcast Media (SCIFFI). Producers called it “the ghetto hour.” Valesquez was lamenting media coverage on the local Hispanic community...
Most demurred, but Samadee knew the next election had begun before the results of the last had been calculated. The emotion of Election Night, with triumph of the Campaign of Hope against Hope, and Obama’s acceptance speech, with references to the Pettis Bridge and other battles of the Sixties Civil Right Movement, had actually washed away his informed cynicism, for the moment, and several days beyond. The triumph, it seemed, had been too emphatically real to be stolen after the fact, for which he had readied himself. History had been made, ironically, with an historical occurrence which most of those beaten by police or stomped by their horses at the Pettis Bridge probably would have denied possible...
Although fallen off the crisis charts of American media, recognition of the HIV/AIDS epidemic got a boost locally as a three-day exhibit of AIDS Memorial Quilt Panels at Oncenter drew city, county and university officials to speak on the issue. More impressive than the big dogs authenticating the crisis, however, were the school tours and workshops for students, especially those focused on involving youth in the cause. The most concentrated involvement for youth can be found in the Teen AIDS Task Forces organized by AIDS Community Resources. With 33 chapters in middle and high schools, youth centers and human service agencies in seven counties, the TATF (Teaching Awareness Through Friends) network focuses on education, with emphasis on prevention...
Samadee was pacing Hanover Square. He had just seen Godspell at Syracuse Stage and needed a place to launch a Nadine Malouf fan club. Quigley’s would have been the perfect spot, and with temperatures sneaking toward 60 degrees, he could have carried a table to sit outside, even in the face of the city’s overregulation of such matters. But Quigley’s was gone. Emptiness reigned in the spot where, for over a decade, anyone could hang if they were cool, and didn’t push their thing on anybody else. Quigley’s would have been the perfect place to launch a Nadine Malouf fan club, resulting in a flood of t-shirts, buttons and bumper stickers. But Quigley’s was gone.
A piece of history, perhaps never to be reclaimed.
Samadee took a sidewalk survey...
