WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey January 15, 2018:
President Donald Trump’s unfortunate gutter characterization of Haiti and El Salvador and nations in Africa last week was the “Talk of the Town” this morning at the 25th Anniversary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Breakfast and “The Talk of the Nation.”
A raucous Martin Luther King breakfast crowd, for the first time in this reporter’s memory, saw Westchester County’s Big Four Politicians raise their level of awareness and alarm at last week’s Presidential loss of dignity, taste and compassion spewed out of the White House.
The dignified top four, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, County Executive George Latimer, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and a concerned Mayor Tom Roach expressed their disgust and concern about the President Trump faux pas last week and the President’s waffling on the fate of the “Dreamers.”
Congresswoman Nita Lowey, showed a feisty side I have rarely seen, leading off the Big Four Westchester County leaders described her shock saying if one of her children said what Mr. Trump said, “I’d have washed their mouth out with soap,”
“Instead of doing the budget (in Washington), we are hearing racist comments coming from the leader of this country,” Lowey said.
“What an embarrassment it is, not just to our people here but to the entire world. Instead of a leader reaching out and bringing people together with love, concern, and focus–it is beyond me, beyond all of us– in this room to understand how you can be elected with that kind of racist comment.
I am going back (to Washington) first thing tomorrow morning. In congress we have put together a bipartisan plan to address DACA to make sure those youngsters..to think, we’ve been having an argument for over six months whether the DACA young people can stay here. This is the height of hypocrisy.
“Then we hear from the president that those from Haiti and El Salvador who have temporary protected status may have to go home. This is not the United States of America.
“The optimist that I am, I am hoping the house and the senate can understand their responsibilities in making clear to this president that we can work together with love in our hearts and commitment in our hearts to assure that everyone in our great country has the opportunity to reach the stars.
“I’m hoping that the people who sat around that table and say they do not remember what the president said–they know what the president said. And they have to stand up, party or not the party for truth and for those who depend on the United States of America.”
Latimer: Westchester Gets It.
County Executive George Latimer said
“Westchester gets it. Aren’t we on the right path finally? This is a day where we take heart from what Dr. King’s life meant. He preached nonviolence but he did not preach timidity or avoiding issues head on. He gave us a roadmap and now we have to start down that road.
Latimer said eliminating gun shows on county property and the gun culture was a start. So was releasing held back contracts. “We have a long way to go in Washington…”
“The bottom line is here we’re here this morning because we recognize that the dream only matters if it’s put into action and even after 50 years we’re still not there yet. So we will march together down the road, do the things we can do in county and city government and we will make sure the state government can do those things and ultimately we get the national government we deserve and properly so..and then as martin luther king said at the end of his greatest speech free at last, free at last, christ almighty we’re free at last.”
“State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins (35th Senate District) came out swinging and hit the Trump pitch out of the park and touched them all:
“We’re not just here for a breakfast we are here to continue the legacy of Dr. King. The legacy of love, compassion, the legacy of fighting injustice and continue to reach for the greatest among us and within ourselves so we can lift every tide so we can continue to move barriers and to make sure that the promise of America and the promise of every individual is realized.
Going Against an Opposite Reaction to President Obama
“We have had the good fortune for 35 years of having this day as our moral compass. Even if we forget, we could always come back to this point and remember where we came from and where it is we must go.
“We had the luxury the last 8 years. We wanted to believe we had come a very long way, because we had elected the first African-American president. So we are experiencing an equal and opposite reaction.
“But we are well trained. We are well equipped. We have our marching orders, a lot of practice, a lot of repetition is in our dna. We know how to fight. We know how to stand. We know how to rise. We know how to speak truth to power, we know how to hope.
We know how to make sure our country is our country and guess what– (gesturing to the faces of the guests) it looks like this and it will continue to look like this, brother and sister, hand in hand together making sure there’s a of the people the promise of god the promise of Martin Luther King demonstrated with his life is not in vain.
White Plains Mayor Tom Roach delivered the most passionate address i’ve heard him give since he has been in office:
Mr. Raoch began quoting Cory Booker’sTwitter feed on a Dr. King quote,
“You should not lead the people if you do not love the people. It sums up why Dr. Martin Luther King was so powerful. We are in difficult times that you can’t even make up what you read. There’s so much ugliness. It’s disturbing.”
Roach said that he was 7 in 1968, and now looking back he wondered how we would survive:
“I think our nation is resilient and we will get through this if we work together. Dr. king’s message, Letter from Birmingham Jail was not written to persuade (Governor) George Wallace and the KKK to get with it It was written to liberals who meant well, but who were saying (to King) slow down go easy let’s not go too fast. He said what do you mean go easy…how long do i wait?”
“I think it is up to us to take this energy and fight for change.”
“So many people have worked so hard for so long to get the improvements that we’ve seen we have to remind you folks that things are better. It’s not for me to say there’s a lot of work to do it’s right in front of you.
When Dr. King walked in Chicago, he received criticism from some liberal people saying ywe’re on your side but bringing out all this hate an aninmosity when you march is a bad idea.
Dr. King said i’m not bringing it out I’m showing you what’s there. You don’t blame the doctor who is telling you you have cancer, …our president has done it, he is showing us what is there.
“I think we have to care for the people being impacted by these changes we are seeing. We have to fight to hold the ground where we can and we have to work.
“This is a democracy. It is not just a privilege; it is a responsibility. We have to vote, work for candidates and put people into office who see the values of our country in a positive way and think the country is more important than their personal issues.
Roach raising his voice, became emotional, saying:
“Democracy is a fragile glass. It did not exist before America was founded. youlook at the graves at The First Presbyterian Church of those who died to establish this democracy
“It should put in us the energy to say we’re’not going to just say ‘here he goes again’ but we’re going to fight to see that this stops. Even the dignity of the presidential office is gone.
Roach said he disliked divisive campaigns, but saw the need of them in a campaign with this observation:
“What we have now is leadership that takes the devisiveness of his campaign and transfers it to the way he governs.
Roach wrapped up with two quotations from Abraham Lincoln at the close the civil war.
