There was once a mayor in New York City named Fiorella Laguardia. In fact, you may have flown into or out of Laguardia Airport if you’ve ever visited New York City. He was a mayor who was known to be a very kind-hearted man and he led his great city through a world war and the Great Depression. The legend goes that he showed so much compassion to a woman who was starving that he got a standing ovation from a courtroom full of people who were waiting for trial. The fact-checking website Snopes can’t determine if this story is true or not, but one thing that is true is that it seems like something Mayor Fiorella Laguardia would have done. So take the story with a grain of salt, but know that it’s a good lesson in how to treat other human beings. Enjoy this story.
We have a story for you, about a famous mayor of years past. The mayor of New York, in fact. Fiorella Laguardia was mayor of the city for the entirety of WWII, and during the Great Depression before that.
Laguardia was nicknamed the Little Flower for being a diminutive man, but what he lacked there, he made up for in heart. Read on to find out what Laguardia did, and learn the difference between sympathy and compassion.
I heard a story about Fiorello LaGuardia who was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII. He was adored by many New Yorkers who took to calling him the Little Flower, because of his name and the fact that he was so short and always wore a carnation in his lapel.
He was a colorful character he rode the New York City fire trucks, orphanages to baseball games and, when the New York newspapers went on strike, he got on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.
One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.
But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. It’s a real bad neighborhood, Your Honor, the man told the mayor. She’s got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson.
LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, I’ve got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail. But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous hat, saying, Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore, I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.
The following day, New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered woman who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren. Fifty cents of that amount was contributed by the grocery store owner himself, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.
Someone beautifully said, “Sympathy sees and says, ‘I’m sorry.’
Compassion sees and says, ‘I’ll help.’
When we learn the difference, we can make a difference.”
