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Editorial: A Chinese heart?

By The TimesLedger

What would Confucius say?

Two advertisements published last month by City Councilman Allan Jennings (D-Jamaica) in Chinese-language newspapers may represent one of the strangest episodes ever in the history of New York City politics.

The half-page ads, which highlight his failed marriage to a Taiwanese woman and his relationship with a Chinese-American folk dancer, proclaimed the southeast Queens politician as a “Councilman with a Chinese Heart” and ran in the March 16 editions of the World Journal based in College Point and the Sing Tao Daily in Manhattan.

What were you thinking, Councilman?

In defending the ads, Jennings told the Times Ledger, “I serve everyone in the city. It is very important to me to bring all communities together.” But what about all the nationalities he didn't marry or even date? What about the Polish Americans in Greenpoint or the many Haitian Americans in his own district? How are they to feel?

Perhaps they should feel lucky.