A couple of weeks before five undercover police officers fired 50 bullets into a car occupied by three unarmed, young black men, my wife’s 16-year-old cousin was brutalized by a member of New York’s Finest near the same Southeast Queens neighborhood.
For all we know, since at press time the names of the officers who killed groom-to-be Sean Bell and critically injured his two friends were not named, the same officer may have been involved in both incidents.
Ironically, Angelo, who was struck three times on the side of his head with a police radio by a grown man who obviously thought it was fine to abuse someone else’s child, had once dreamed of becoming a police officer. Now he lives in fear of them. He feels that he was unfairly targeted and arrested for simply being a young Latino male on a NYC street. The two young white males he was with weren’t touched.
This fear and distrust of cops is all too common among youth, especially from poor, mostly black and Latino neighborhoods throughout this city who are often stopped, frisked, humiliated and harassed on their way to school, the store or their homes. There are neighborhoods full of people who know all too well that regardless of the mayor or police commissioner in power, the culture that exists within the NYPD is deeply ingrained and often viciously displayed.
Indeed, we’ve experienced this culture and its ugly manifestations too many times in Sunset Park. Take for instance Officer Joseph Gray, who drove his minivan into a family after drinking at a local topless bar all night with other cops from the local precinct.
Gray will be eligible for parole next year. If he’s released, and I’m praying he serve the full 15 years and more that he deserves, he’ll likely return to suburbia, his wife and two girls. The four members of the Pena and Herrera families that he mowed down on that tragic August night of 2001 will never again walk through the streets of Sunset Park.
We’ve also seen a Latina grandmother and her children manhandled and brutalized by the former commanding officer of the 72nd Precinct and his minions during what was supposed to be a festive celebration of the Fourth of July. As is often the case in these types of incidents, the victims themselves were arrested and charged with a laundry list of crimes.
After a grueling year of court dates and sinister games by the office of District Attorney Charles Hynes, the grandmother, Margarita Acosta and her kin were cleared of all charges. The commanding officer in this case, as in the Pena Herrera case, was reassigned. It’s something the NYPD does often. They seem to be experts at spreading the cancer and not prosecuting the criminals within their own ranks.
There will be some who will try to peg me as being anti-police, a frivolous label that could not be further from the truth. I am anti-police brutality. I strongly believe that police officers engaged in such practices stain the reputation and integrity of many good, hard working police officers. It makes their work harder and often more dangerous. I wish more would speak out about the problems that persist within the NYPD.
Angelo’s case goes to court on Thursday and we will demand that they drop all charges. The following day there will be a wake for Sean Bell. That evening, I will attend an event at Hunter College where the archives of my mentor and friend, Richie Perez, will be presented to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies.
Richie, a former Young Lord and a lifelong warrior for Global Justice, was and continues to be among the most powerful figures in the fight against police brutality and racial injustice in New York City and across the nation.
He spearheaded and coordinated numerous actions around the police killings of Amadou Diallo, Anthony Baez and Anthony Rosario. His activism and accomplishments over the course of four decades are numerous.
If he were still with us, Richie would be in that court room with Angelo and also demanding justice for Sean Bell. In fact, I have no doubt that Richie will be presente. Richie Vive, La Lucha Sigue!
Sunday, December 3, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Thanking Those Who Fill Our Plates
It always strikes me as morbidly ironic that every year this country celebrates a holiday that allegedly began when some indigenous people rescued a group of foreigners from the brink of death.
By today’s standards, these people who were rescued would probably be classified as being among first illegal aliens to land on the shores of what would become the United States. History calls them Pilgrims.
Now, the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock would certainly have not survived had it not been for the Native American people who lived in the area now known as Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Indeed, half of these newcomers did not survive the first winter.
Yet, Native Americans like Squanto, from the Patuxet tribe, helped these Englishmen who were living in squalid huts, hungry, sick and waiting for their impending deaths. They showed them how the local Native Americans cultivated the land, how to catch fish, and how to collect other seafood.
These Pilgrims survived, multiplied and spread themselves across the land. Squanto, however, and millions of Native Americans died of diseases introduced by the Europeans, were enslaved or placed in barren reservations. In other words, they nearly became extinct in what may well be one of history’s greatest instances of genocide.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I don’t mean to ruin your appetite or spoil your celebration. I plan on feasting with my wife and her family on what is called Thanksgiving Day like millions of other families across this country. Yet this year, I would ask you to be thankful for those people who work seven days a week to put food on your table.
I’m thankful for the millions of farmworkers who, while working for low wages and often no benefits, are planting seeds and picking and packing the fruits and vegetables that will land in our produce departments. These farmworkers are often separated from their families, are exposed to dangerous pesticides and chemicals and are prohibited by law from a forming a union that can fight for their rights.
I’m thankful for the thousands of workers who work in the meatpacking and poultry industry like those who have been struggling for dignity and respect at a company called Smithfield in North Carolina, the world's largest hog producer and pork processor. Workers at Smithfield slaughter 32,000 hogs every day. It’s dangerous and dirty work yet the company continues to harass, fire, threaten and intimidate the hundreds of mostly Latino and African American workers who are trying to secure the protection of a union contract.
I’m thankful for the thousands of underpaid, over worked, and usually invisible army of bakers, cooks, waiters, busboys and dishwashers who prepare and deliver wonderful meals to thousands of customers at eating establishments and stores across the country.
On this occasion I simply wish to give thanks to the millions of workers throughout this country and the world who are starving for dignity and justice while also making sure that we don’t starve. I hope you thank them too.
By today’s standards, these people who were rescued would probably be classified as being among first illegal aliens to land on the shores of what would become the United States. History calls them Pilgrims.
Now, the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock would certainly have not survived had it not been for the Native American people who lived in the area now known as Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Indeed, half of these newcomers did not survive the first winter.
Yet, Native Americans like Squanto, from the Patuxet tribe, helped these Englishmen who were living in squalid huts, hungry, sick and waiting for their impending deaths. They showed them how the local Native Americans cultivated the land, how to catch fish, and how to collect other seafood.
These Pilgrims survived, multiplied and spread themselves across the land. Squanto, however, and millions of Native Americans died of diseases introduced by the Europeans, were enslaved or placed in barren reservations. In other words, they nearly became extinct in what may well be one of history’s greatest instances of genocide.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I don’t mean to ruin your appetite or spoil your celebration. I plan on feasting with my wife and her family on what is called Thanksgiving Day like millions of other families across this country. Yet this year, I would ask you to be thankful for those people who work seven days a week to put food on your table.
I’m thankful for the millions of farmworkers who, while working for low wages and often no benefits, are planting seeds and picking and packing the fruits and vegetables that will land in our produce departments. These farmworkers are often separated from their families, are exposed to dangerous pesticides and chemicals and are prohibited by law from a forming a union that can fight for their rights.
I’m thankful for the thousands of workers who work in the meatpacking and poultry industry like those who have been struggling for dignity and respect at a company called Smithfield in North Carolina, the world's largest hog producer and pork processor. Workers at Smithfield slaughter 32,000 hogs every day. It’s dangerous and dirty work yet the company continues to harass, fire, threaten and intimidate the hundreds of mostly Latino and African American workers who are trying to secure the protection of a union contract.
I’m thankful for the thousands of underpaid, over worked, and usually invisible army of bakers, cooks, waiters, busboys and dishwashers who prepare and deliver wonderful meals to thousands of customers at eating establishments and stores across the country.
On this occasion I simply wish to give thanks to the millions of workers throughout this country and the world who are starving for dignity and justice while also making sure that we don’t starve. I hope you thank them too.
Healthcare For All: The Time is Now!
Over the weekend, I was privileged to attend a national strategy meeting in Chicago regarding the future of healthcare in the United States as a member of Latinos for National Health Insurance, a volunteer group that’s been working with the national Healthcare NOW! coalition.
Just days after the historic electoral tsunami that wiped out Republican control of both the Senate and Congress, the air was filled with an aura of excitement and optimism that was best summed up by Congressman John Conyers of Michigan when he said, “the time is now!”
Conyers was referring to a bill he had introduced in Congress, H.R. 676. The bill will provide healthcare for everyone in the United States by eliminating the profits of the insurance companies and negotiating drug and other treatment costs. It will be paid for on a sliding scale by all of us together. We will have no bills, co-payments, deductibles, denials, or bankruptcies. And, get this, we will be paying less than we are now.
Currently, there are close to 46 million uninsured (at least 26 percent of the people in Sunset Park), and many more underinsured, people in the U.S. An increasing number of Americans are paying more out-of-pocket or tragically neglecting their health. Millions more declare bankruptcy every year unable to pay mounting medical bills.
Despite being the richest and most powerful country on Earth, The U.S. ranks 33rd in infant mortality rates, ranks 25th in male life expectancy, and 26th in female life expectancy. All other industrialized nations, like those in the European Union, Canada, and even poorer countries like Cuba have universal health care for their citizens.
Universal healthcare does not exist in the U.S. right for one simple reason: GREED. Insurance companies make billions in profits. At least 15 to 30 percent of private insurance companies premiums are wasted on marketing, excessive CEO salaries, profits, bureaucracy and paper work, rather than being spent on healthcare services. But, there is a viable alternative to this immoral dilemma by way of H.R. 676.
H.R. 676 would:
· For the first time, provide an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing healthcare costs while covering everyone.
· Cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care, including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary care and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.
· End deductibles and copay’s that take a chunk out of workers’ take home pay.
· Make every employer contribute a fair share toward the cost of the system. Employers like cities and municipalities would spend less, since they would no longer be paying for the uninsured and under-insured.
· Save billions of dollars annually by eliminating the excessive administrative costs of private insurance, as well as the unnecessary billing expenses of hospitals and doctors offices.
H.R. 676 will be re-introduced early next year. Our local Congress member, Nydia Velazquez, and many of her colleagues from New York, signed on last year and we’re hopeful they’ll do the same this year.
If you believe that we desperately need to change healthcare in this country, now is the time to act! Call your local elected officials, ask your unions to get on board, talk to your pastors and spread the word among your neighbors.
For more information visit: www.healthcare-now.org or call 212-475-8350 or 800-453-1305.
Just days after the historic electoral tsunami that wiped out Republican control of both the Senate and Congress, the air was filled with an aura of excitement and optimism that was best summed up by Congressman John Conyers of Michigan when he said, “the time is now!”
Conyers was referring to a bill he had introduced in Congress, H.R. 676. The bill will provide healthcare for everyone in the United States by eliminating the profits of the insurance companies and negotiating drug and other treatment costs. It will be paid for on a sliding scale by all of us together. We will have no bills, co-payments, deductibles, denials, or bankruptcies. And, get this, we will be paying less than we are now.
Currently, there are close to 46 million uninsured (at least 26 percent of the people in Sunset Park), and many more underinsured, people in the U.S. An increasing number of Americans are paying more out-of-pocket or tragically neglecting their health. Millions more declare bankruptcy every year unable to pay mounting medical bills.
Despite being the richest and most powerful country on Earth, The U.S. ranks 33rd in infant mortality rates, ranks 25th in male life expectancy, and 26th in female life expectancy. All other industrialized nations, like those in the European Union, Canada, and even poorer countries like Cuba have universal health care for their citizens.
Universal healthcare does not exist in the U.S. right for one simple reason: GREED. Insurance companies make billions in profits. At least 15 to 30 percent of private insurance companies premiums are wasted on marketing, excessive CEO salaries, profits, bureaucracy and paper work, rather than being spent on healthcare services. But, there is a viable alternative to this immoral dilemma by way of H.R. 676.
H.R. 676 would:
· For the first time, provide an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing healthcare costs while covering everyone.
· Cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care, including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary care and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.
· End deductibles and copay’s that take a chunk out of workers’ take home pay.
· Make every employer contribute a fair share toward the cost of the system. Employers like cities and municipalities would spend less, since they would no longer be paying for the uninsured and under-insured.
· Save billions of dollars annually by eliminating the excessive administrative costs of private insurance, as well as the unnecessary billing expenses of hospitals and doctors offices.
H.R. 676 will be re-introduced early next year. Our local Congress member, Nydia Velazquez, and many of her colleagues from New York, signed on last year and we’re hopeful they’ll do the same this year.
If you believe that we desperately need to change healthcare in this country, now is the time to act! Call your local elected officials, ask your unions to get on board, talk to your pastors and spread the word among your neighbors.
For more information visit: www.healthcare-now.org or call 212-475-8350 or 800-453-1305.
No Praise for City Council Raise
On a day when voters were deciding the future direction of this nation, members of the New York City Council Government Operations Committee were deciding whether to give themselves and their colleagues a raise.
Not content with the $90,000 they earn annually for their part-time public service position (plus many thousands more in bonuses they simply call lulus), members of the City Council are now considering a 25 percent raise – to $112,500!
When was the last time you got a raise like that?
Many of these council members already hold other jobs as lawyers, accountants and other professions in the private sector. Those who don’t should consider themselves fortunate to earn a nearly six figure salary, especially when some of them barely function on a part-time basis.
You know who I’m talking about.
To his credit, only one council member has opposed this raise, Queens Council Member Tony Avella who said, “I’m fine with $90,000. I think that is enough.”
Currently, the median annual income for a city resident working full-time is $40,000 dollars. In Sunset Park, the median income is significantly less with nearly 30 percent living below the poverty line.
Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of this pay raise is the fact that it’s the council members themselves who will vote on it. And, of course, they will want to implement immediately.
One can easily predict that a term limits law, passed twice by voters, will become their next target since most of these council members will be headed out the door in a couple of years.
Last year, when I ran for City Council, I didn’t run because it paid $90,000 a year. I ran because I truly felt that the hardworking families in our neighborhood and City, needed and deserved public servants who truly appreciated and worked overtime, not just part or full-time, for every single one of their tax dollars.
There are many fine City Council members who work hard and truly deliver for their districts, but they should not try to violate the public trust by offering themselves a raise and possibly trying to extend their own terms. After all, the public is the boss.
Despite a chorus of calls against this pay raise by many good government groups and the city’s editorial boards, including the New York Times, I’m sure the City Council will try to pass this salary increase in time for the holidays.
And when the vote comes, I’m sure that even those members often cited for their abysmal attendance records at City Council meetings will be seated early and voting with a hearty “YES!”
(If you want to voice your opinion on this pay raise call the New York City Council at 212-788-7210.)
Not content with the $90,000 they earn annually for their part-time public service position (plus many thousands more in bonuses they simply call lulus), members of the City Council are now considering a 25 percent raise – to $112,500!
When was the last time you got a raise like that?
Many of these council members already hold other jobs as lawyers, accountants and other professions in the private sector. Those who don’t should consider themselves fortunate to earn a nearly six figure salary, especially when some of them barely function on a part-time basis.
You know who I’m talking about.
To his credit, only one council member has opposed this raise, Queens Council Member Tony Avella who said, “I’m fine with $90,000. I think that is enough.”
Currently, the median annual income for a city resident working full-time is $40,000 dollars. In Sunset Park, the median income is significantly less with nearly 30 percent living below the poverty line.
Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of this pay raise is the fact that it’s the council members themselves who will vote on it. And, of course, they will want to implement immediately.
One can easily predict that a term limits law, passed twice by voters, will become their next target since most of these council members will be headed out the door in a couple of years.
Last year, when I ran for City Council, I didn’t run because it paid $90,000 a year. I ran because I truly felt that the hardworking families in our neighborhood and City, needed and deserved public servants who truly appreciated and worked overtime, not just part or full-time, for every single one of their tax dollars.
There are many fine City Council members who work hard and truly deliver for their districts, but they should not try to violate the public trust by offering themselves a raise and possibly trying to extend their own terms. After all, the public is the boss.
Despite a chorus of calls against this pay raise by many good government groups and the city’s editorial boards, including the New York Times, I’m sure the City Council will try to pass this salary increase in time for the holidays.
And when the vote comes, I’m sure that even those members often cited for their abysmal attendance records at City Council meetings will be seated early and voting with a hearty “YES!”
(If you want to voice your opinion on this pay raise call the New York City Council at 212-788-7210.)
That’s Crazy to Call Us Lazy!
A few days ago I awoke to a news headline about a city health report that labeled Sunset Park, in the words of a city tabloid, “The lazy-bones nabe.”
In addition to the immediate anger that I felt at this unfair characterization of the neighborhood I grew up in and love, I also found myself getting nostalgic.
I recalled early weekday mornings as a child living on 54th Street. At times I would wake up to the sound of the 1010 WINS news ticker and an announcer promising to give you the world in 22 minutes. It was my father’s alarm.
I rarely stayed up long enough to get the world, but by 3 a.m. my father was already sipping his coffee and getting ready for his hour-long commute to a midtown delicatessen where he would prepare breakfast for workers who wake up at 7 or 8 a.m.
These are perhaps the kind of workers who write reports and new stories about lazy-bones neighborhoods.
After making breakfast and lunch for hundreds of customers, my father was back on the train again at about 4 p.m. Finding a seat in a crowded train was a real treat after standing next to a hot oven all day.
There were no gyms or tennis courts or indoor swimming pools after work. Besides, even if any of these luxuries existed in Sunset Park, he was usually too tired.
After dinner, we would sit and talk about school, my dreams and his reality. By 7 p.m. he was usually back in bed which meant we had to do our best to tip-toe around the house on old, creaky floors.
My story is not unique. In fact, I know there are thousands of men and women in Sunset Park who toil at two maybe even three jobs to make ends meet in a city that is becoming increasingly hostile to the working poor.
Reports like these, that describe Sunset Park residents as lazy, do nothing to make our lives any better, even if that’s their intent.
In fact, given the stereotypes often used to describe the latest wave of immigrants to call Sunset Park home, Mexicans and other Latin Americans, it may very well perpetuate these racist notions.
The report said the residents of Sunset Park “are least likely to exercise of all New Yorkers. In fact, 57% admitted they are sedentary, while residents of Greenwich Village and SoHo hit the gym on a regular basis.”
Sedentary, that quite literally means sitting on your ass. It’s something bureaucrats who write these kinds of report are quite adept at doing – then they got to the gym. It’s too bad these experts don’t take so many other important factors into account before they stigmatize an entire neighborhood.
Can we really be called lazy if we work at several jobs and often for long hours? If we had time to exercise, could we afford childcare or the price of a gym like those in neighborhoods like SoHo or Greenwich Village? If we live in a neighborhood that has the lowest percentage of open space in the city, where can we go to exercise even if we had the time and energy?
Ironically, perhaps in an effort to make the next generation even lazier, Mayor Bloomberg’s Park’s Commissioner Adrian Benepe recently announced that he was shutting down the boxing program in Sunset Park.
In the meantime, Bloomberg is making sure children in elite private schools, like Regis and Dalton in Manhattan, have nearly exclusive access to the playing fields in Randall’s Island, just a stone’s throw away from East Harlem, another poor minority community the report cites as the most obese.
We all know that unemployment, obesity, asthma, diabetes, poverty and immigration issues,
among other daily concerns, are preventing many in our neighborhood from gainful employment, educational opportunities and even leisurely exercise.
But until we can address those concerns with increased funds for sports and athletic programs, additional recreational facilities, and comprehensive immigration, housing, employment, medical, and nutritional services, the city and the tabloids can shove their reports and labels.
In addition to the immediate anger that I felt at this unfair characterization of the neighborhood I grew up in and love, I also found myself getting nostalgic.
I recalled early weekday mornings as a child living on 54th Street. At times I would wake up to the sound of the 1010 WINS news ticker and an announcer promising to give you the world in 22 minutes. It was my father’s alarm.
I rarely stayed up long enough to get the world, but by 3 a.m. my father was already sipping his coffee and getting ready for his hour-long commute to a midtown delicatessen where he would prepare breakfast for workers who wake up at 7 or 8 a.m.
These are perhaps the kind of workers who write reports and new stories about lazy-bones neighborhoods.
After making breakfast and lunch for hundreds of customers, my father was back on the train again at about 4 p.m. Finding a seat in a crowded train was a real treat after standing next to a hot oven all day.
There were no gyms or tennis courts or indoor swimming pools after work. Besides, even if any of these luxuries existed in Sunset Park, he was usually too tired.
After dinner, we would sit and talk about school, my dreams and his reality. By 7 p.m. he was usually back in bed which meant we had to do our best to tip-toe around the house on old, creaky floors.
My story is not unique. In fact, I know there are thousands of men and women in Sunset Park who toil at two maybe even three jobs to make ends meet in a city that is becoming increasingly hostile to the working poor.
Reports like these, that describe Sunset Park residents as lazy, do nothing to make our lives any better, even if that’s their intent.
In fact, given the stereotypes often used to describe the latest wave of immigrants to call Sunset Park home, Mexicans and other Latin Americans, it may very well perpetuate these racist notions.
The report said the residents of Sunset Park “are least likely to exercise of all New Yorkers. In fact, 57% admitted they are sedentary, while residents of Greenwich Village and SoHo hit the gym on a regular basis.”
Sedentary, that quite literally means sitting on your ass. It’s something bureaucrats who write these kinds of report are quite adept at doing – then they got to the gym. It’s too bad these experts don’t take so many other important factors into account before they stigmatize an entire neighborhood.
Can we really be called lazy if we work at several jobs and often for long hours? If we had time to exercise, could we afford childcare or the price of a gym like those in neighborhoods like SoHo or Greenwich Village? If we live in a neighborhood that has the lowest percentage of open space in the city, where can we go to exercise even if we had the time and energy?
Ironically, perhaps in an effort to make the next generation even lazier, Mayor Bloomberg’s Park’s Commissioner Adrian Benepe recently announced that he was shutting down the boxing program in Sunset Park.
In the meantime, Bloomberg is making sure children in elite private schools, like Regis and Dalton in Manhattan, have nearly exclusive access to the playing fields in Randall’s Island, just a stone’s throw away from East Harlem, another poor minority community the report cites as the most obese.
We all know that unemployment, obesity, asthma, diabetes, poverty and immigration issues,
among other daily concerns, are preventing many in our neighborhood from gainful employment, educational opportunities and even leisurely exercise.
But until we can address those concerns with increased funds for sports and athletic programs, additional recreational facilities, and comprehensive immigration, housing, employment, medical, and nutritional services, the city and the tabloids can shove their reports and labels.
Parents, Students: Tell Recruiters NO on Oct. 26th
If you have a child in a public high school, this Thursday’s parent teacher meeting may provide you with an opportunity to protect your child and send a clear message to those who fight illegal and unpopular wars with children that are not their own.
After three years, three hundred billion dollars and nearly three thousand U.S. soldiers killed, there’s still no end in site to the war in Iraq. Osama bin Laden still hasn’t been found and the situation in the Middle East is getting worse by the day.
Yet, every single day, during the busy afternoon rush especially, commuters can witness the shameful spectacle of grown men in uniform preying on young, impressionable youth returning home from public high schools across the city.
These men, although they sometimes use women as well, are military recruiters and there is no honor in the trickery, lies and deception that they use to try and scam our young people into signing up for military service.
These vultures are trained to make all kinds of promises for signing away their lives: thousands of dollars in bonuses, a college education, and a chance to travel the world. They use hip hop lingo, go around in pimped out Hummers and play rap or popular music supportive of war and military culture.
One important fact they fail to mention however, is how Bush and his administration has repeatedly lied to the American people and the international community in order to invade and start a war with a country that did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to bin Laden.
On top of the U.S. military casualties, recruiters also fail to mention that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the U.S. invasion. Gunfire and bombs caused the majority of these deaths but thousands of people have died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict.
Recruiters avoid telling our children that after they sign on the dotted line, they may face the same fate or be injured and later ignored back in the U.S. if they survive.
These same recruiters have instant access to private information about your child thanks to a clause in Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.”
However, the Act also states that “a secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student’s name, address and telephone number ... not be released without prior written parental consent.” And it requires that parents be informed of this option.
On Thursday evening, October 26, all the New York City high schools will have parent/teacher conferences. There are many parents who are not aware that their child’s name will be turned over to the military unless they fill out an “opt out” form.
Several organizations, including United for Peace and Justice and the YaYa Network, are sponsoring a coordinated day of action at many high schools, prioritizing schools with the most recruiter activity, mostly those with low income students, students of color and students from immigrant families.
After three years, three hundred billion dollars and nearly three thousand U.S. soldiers killed, there’s still no end in site to the war in Iraq. Osama bin Laden still hasn’t been found and the situation in the Middle East is getting worse by the day.
Yet, every single day, during the busy afternoon rush especially, commuters can witness the shameful spectacle of grown men in uniform preying on young, impressionable youth returning home from public high schools across the city.
These men, although they sometimes use women as well, are military recruiters and there is no honor in the trickery, lies and deception that they use to try and scam our young people into signing up for military service.
These vultures are trained to make all kinds of promises for signing away their lives: thousands of dollars in bonuses, a college education, and a chance to travel the world. They use hip hop lingo, go around in pimped out Hummers and play rap or popular music supportive of war and military culture.
One important fact they fail to mention however, is how Bush and his administration has repeatedly lied to the American people and the international community in order to invade and start a war with a country that did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to bin Laden.
On top of the U.S. military casualties, recruiters also fail to mention that over 600,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the start of the U.S. invasion. Gunfire and bombs caused the majority of these deaths but thousands of people have died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict.
Recruiters avoid telling our children that after they sign on the dotted line, they may face the same fate or be injured and later ignored back in the U.S. if they survive.
These same recruiters have instant access to private information about your child thanks to a clause in Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.”
However, the Act also states that “a secondary school student or the parent of the student may request that the student’s name, address and telephone number ... not be released without prior written parental consent.” And it requires that parents be informed of this option.
On Thursday evening, October 26, all the New York City high schools will have parent/teacher conferences. There are many parents who are not aware that their child’s name will be turned over to the military unless they fill out an “opt out” form.
Several organizations, including United for Peace and Justice and the YaYa Network, are sponsoring a coordinated day of action at many high schools, prioritizing schools with the most recruiter activity, mostly those with low income students, students of color and students from immigrant families.
CB 7 Set to Build a Wall of Shame
Former Community Board 7 chairman and now vice chairman Joseph Longobardi may be one of the richest and biggest landlord’s in Windsor Terrace but he’s certainly no air quality expert.
He was recently quoted saying that a one million dollar wall approved by the community board, to surround the New York Power Authority (NYPA) power plant on Third Avenue, “was essential to the health of the community.”
I say we start a fund to pay for the mental health needs of the community board. One million dollars for a wall is a colossal waste of money and will not, I repeat WILL NOT, improve the quality of air for the residents of Sunset Park.
As a gesture of good will, some may call it hush money or a kick back, NYPA agreed to provide the community with a grant for one million dollars in exchange for allowing the plant to be built here in the first place (like we had a choice).
But, instead of using the money to do something useful for the community, several members of the community board decided that a one million dollar wall would be a nice way to shield the community from a noxious power plant we never wanted or needed. See no evil, smell no evil.
In Spanish there’s an expression, “no se puede tapar el cielo con la mano.” You can’t block the sun with your hand. Nor can you stop noxious fumes and particulate matter with a wall. This doesn’t require a Ph.D. folks.
This wasteful wall building effort would almost be funny if the lives and lungs of so many weren’t at stake.
As a member of the community board, I voted against this stupid idea and proposed that we spend the money on revolutionary things.
How many trees could we buy and plant along our congested avenues and streets with one million dollars? How many garbage cans can we place on corners throughout the neighborhood? How many HEPA filters can we purchase for nearby homes, schools, churches and businesses?
I’m sure the readers of El Barrio News and other members of the community could come up with even more creative and useful ways to spend one million dollars too. Community input … now that would have been revolutionary!
Given the screwed up priorities of certain officials, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one million dollar wall were built before the new high school we’ve been promised for decades. While other communities across the city are getting community centers, schools, affordable homes and parks, we’re building walls.
One million dollars that our working poor community critically needs are being wasted, squandered, thrown away on this NYPA/community board wall of shame.
He was recently quoted saying that a one million dollar wall approved by the community board, to surround the New York Power Authority (NYPA) power plant on Third Avenue, “was essential to the health of the community.”
I say we start a fund to pay for the mental health needs of the community board. One million dollars for a wall is a colossal waste of money and will not, I repeat WILL NOT, improve the quality of air for the residents of Sunset Park.
As a gesture of good will, some may call it hush money or a kick back, NYPA agreed to provide the community with a grant for one million dollars in exchange for allowing the plant to be built here in the first place (like we had a choice).
But, instead of using the money to do something useful for the community, several members of the community board decided that a one million dollar wall would be a nice way to shield the community from a noxious power plant we never wanted or needed. See no evil, smell no evil.
In Spanish there’s an expression, “no se puede tapar el cielo con la mano.” You can’t block the sun with your hand. Nor can you stop noxious fumes and particulate matter with a wall. This doesn’t require a Ph.D. folks.
This wasteful wall building effort would almost be funny if the lives and lungs of so many weren’t at stake.
As a member of the community board, I voted against this stupid idea and proposed that we spend the money on revolutionary things.
How many trees could we buy and plant along our congested avenues and streets with one million dollars? How many garbage cans can we place on corners throughout the neighborhood? How many HEPA filters can we purchase for nearby homes, schools, churches and businesses?
I’m sure the readers of El Barrio News and other members of the community could come up with even more creative and useful ways to spend one million dollars too. Community input … now that would have been revolutionary!
Given the screwed up priorities of certain officials, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one million dollar wall were built before the new high school we’ve been promised for decades. While other communities across the city are getting community centers, schools, affordable homes and parks, we’re building walls.
One million dollars that our working poor community critically needs are being wasted, squandered, thrown away on this NYPA/community board wall of shame.
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