Certainly No Vito
In his social media, Boss Collins has suggested that I portray him as like Vito Corleone, a character from “The Godfather.” But he isn’t the fictional Vito, and Vito wouldn’t have called the cops on a guy driving down the block. I would just say that Collins has an inflated ego and perhaps believes his own social media posts about himself.
I remember seeing the movie, “The Godfather” for the first time. I waited online with my fiancée for a 10 pm show at a long-ago-closed single screen movie house on the Upper Eastside. It was a magnificent movie and a very sanitized version of what that life was.
A mafiosi’s power always was because he was willing to use violence and death to keep people in line. It isn’t a secret that most of us are restrained by our inner voice telling us what is right and wrong. We have limits as to how far we are willing to go in pursuit of our goal.
Though the whole thing about honor and protection of the weak in that world sounds good, that was never why a godfather existed. They inhabited a world where they would do anything to make a buck including extorting the weak. One of their biggest rackets was making everyone in their territory kick up money to the godfather. That included little shopkeepers, business owners and the poor…or their livelihoods, or perhaps even their live could go away.
I don’t believe that Boss Collins is a godfather by any stretch of the imagination, and he knows he isn’t either. Any power he derives is because he was elected by 57 votes. To understand how few people decided that race, there is an automatic recount if you come within ½ of a percent of your opponent of the total votes cast. There was no recount.
I have also been told some of his posts refer to his “political” trials like those of Jesus. That is a really inflated view of yourself.
Boss Collins is just a little man who we see in all his insecurities acting as if he is so important. The power he has exhibited is the ability to wreak havoc on the livelihood of local businesspeople, contractors, and working people. If he was the godfather, he would be taking his piece off the top to keep them in business and not try to bankrupt them with his ZIP.
And comparing yourself to the Lord and his trials shows that Collins is either possessed or mad. In my writing, I use the term Boss as a pejorative, Collins may think it shows his virility. My portrayal is of someone pathetic not powerful. Boss Collins is not even the proverbial big fish in a small pond. He is the result of voter apathy.