I am from PA so my first introduction to Rudy was in the late 90’s while serving overseas(Germany) in the Army. One day I saw a news broadcast where the topic revolved around this new mayor cleaning up New York by closing down Manhattan's many X-Rate movie theaters. This was the first time I consciously remember seeing Rudy, I remember that day as if it were yesterday because I was flooded instantly with negative emotion the minute I saw his face. After the short segment, I was trying to figure out why I had these feelings after seeing a person I never saw before. It wasn’t the position he took on X-Rated movie theaters because at the time as well as today I could care less about the porn industry. Since that time, every time I heard Rudy’s name mentioned or saw his face, I had an instant negative reaction. For years I have told people that I really dislike this man and I really could not explain why. In the early part of the 2000’s there have been many stories about Rudy the bolstered my reason to dislike him, but I still could not pinpoint my original disgust for the man. This was becoming a real obsession ( only when I was bombarded with his image) for me to figure out why I really hated this man. The more I heard him talk the more I would get angry when ever I saw him or his name was mentioned.
Fast forwarding to 09/11/2001. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when mass disaster struck our country. Since I left the military I had become a software developer and at the time, I was a contractor working on my second year for one of the largest insurance companies in the country. They had offices in New York but I worked out of their Delaware office. I worked with a small group of developers, one of which was a good friend of mine that I have known for more than twelve years at that time. My friend and I arrived at the office around the same time as we always did. We walked to our “Box”. This is what we called our work environment because it was four walls and a door within a larger room. We had no access to the outside, no windows, no way of knowing what was going on outside unless we physically left the building, someone told us what was going on, or accessing the news from the internet. I remember that day one of the project managers coming into our “Box” and jokingly telling us he heard on the news that a small plane ran into one of the twin towers. We all thought that was really strange; talked about it for a while and then went back to work. About 30 minutes later we all noticed that our internet connection was very slow. I tried to go to Google's website after I could no longer connect to the exchange email server that I was running from my house to provide my email. I thought this was very strange because I never had an issue with getting my email before. That coupled with the slowness of the internet, unable to get to Google’s website, and just being in the “Box” with no contact with the outside world was making us very uneasy. Several of us walked out of the “Box” and ask people in the outer office if someone had a radio. One of the older ladies that had been with the company forever had a small radio. She turned to a news station and that’s when everything was made clear. The first thing we heard was that the US was under an apparent attack. The broadcast was talking about a second plane that hit the world trade center. We almost at once shouted, “A second plane!!”. Someone then brought in a small TV with rabbit ears. We turned to the local NBC station to get more information. After seeing a replay of a plane hitting one of the towers, we all tried calling our families to see if they knew what was going on and if they had more information. I had three children in school and my wife was a teacher so I knew it may be difficult for me to get in contact with my immediate family. I tried to call anyway but I could not make a call on my cell phone and all of the office phones were down because our phones in the office were connected to a PBX system in New York. Given the magnitude of what was going on, the call was made by upper management to let everyone go home. I had a 45 minute drive back to my home in PA so I kept the radio on a AM news station that could reach south eastern PA., Delaware and South Jersey. I still could not use my cell phone so I did not speak to my family until I reached home. My wife also left early and picked up our kids on her way home.
Now back to Rudy. My wife and I watched the news as it unfolded in New York and by then, the Pentagon. The news showed Rudy walking with police and again hateful feelings flooded my thoughts. I remember saying to my wife, “I hate that guy!”. At that moment I should have been feeling some empathy for him as he was faced with a disaster no one had to deal with since Pearl Harbor but all I felt was hate for this man. There was nothing that he could say or do that would have made me feel any different. Fast forwarding to present day; Rudy has since said things that legitimized my hatred for him but none of what he said was the origin of my overwhelming disdain for him.
In 2010. It finally became clear why I hated Rudy. I was listening to Satellite radio on my way to work and I happened to turn to the Howard Stern show where they were interviewing a person they call Under Dog Lady. This was a person that loved Under Dog and would dress up as Under Dog for parades and parties. At that moment it clicked. I immediately knew why I hated Rudy and it stemmed from my child hood. I too was a fan of Under Dog and would watch the cartoon all the time as a kid. As with all super heroes, they always have a arch nemesis to deal with and Under Dog was no exception. Under Dog’s arch nemesis is Simon Bar Sinister. If you were a kid and watched the Under Dog cartoon, you hated Simon Bar Sinister. You did not just hate him because him was enemy to Under Dog but also because he would always capture Polly Polly Purebred ( Under Dog’s love interest and the Lois Lane of this cartoon). It so happens that Simon Bar Sinister looks like a caricature of Rudy Giuliani and he also sounds a little like Rudy.
This may be a weird story and I have to admit if someone told me this story without having the same background, I would have thought it was weird. Now that being said, please go out and vote tomorrow for the person not tied to the evil Simone Bar (Rudy) Sinister!
