By Phil Orenstein
“Now is not the time to sit back and be a spectator. Now is the time to get involved, take action, and be a gladiator.”
As you know, we repeat our mission statement at every meeting and on our website in order to keep our principles seared in our minds as well as to acquaint our new members and friends with our objectives. Briefly, our mission is simply to uphold and promote the principles of the Republican Party and to elect strong Republicans who uphold and give voice to these principles. We are loud and proud and we are waking up the silent majority, giving them courage and a voice to speak up against the radical leftist politicians destroying our country and communities.
Our club is all about taking action. Now is not the time to sit back and be a spectator. Now is the time to get involved, take action, and “be a gladiator” – that’s what we are all about, to get moving and organized in the fight for our principles and freedoms, to rebuild the Republican Party.
At our last club meeting on September 5th, a couple of our speakers issued a call to action dealing with some alarming community issues, that should make us mad as hell and taking it to the streets. David Solano, former PTA president of Bayside High School and chair of the school’s Industry Advisory Council, spoke about the $3 million cut from Bayside HS’s funding by de Blasio’s Department of Education. David called on all club members and friends to raise our voices and attend the local Community Board meetings and press conferences, and to call the city’s decision makers, until Bayside HS is funded 100%.
Bayside HS is the latest target of the Mayor and Chancellor Carranza’s leftwing agenda to punish success and reward failure. Bayside HS is consistently one of the top performing high schools in NYC, with a recent graduation rate reaching 98%, the third highest rate in the city. Mayor Bloomberg implemented the Fair Student Funding (FSF) formula, but in recent years Bayside HS has been shortchanged up to 17% of its allocated city funding. Currently the school is owed over $3 million more according to the formula, while the DOE continues to waste 100’s of millions of our tax dollars on political interests and pet projects like the failed Renewal Schools program. The PTA’s press releases and letter writing campaign calling on the Mayor and Chancellor Carranza to fairly fund Bayside HS have fallen on deaf ears. David is calling on club members and the entire community to call Mayor de Blasio (212-788-2958), Chancellor Carranza (212-374-0200) and City Council Speaker Cory Johnson (212-564-7757) to provide Bayside HS with 100% of the funding it is entitled to under the FSF formula.
Tom Zmich, President of MAGA Queens, spoke about another colossal assault on our quality of life in Queens. The City Planning Commission recently rubber-stamped the Mayor’s plan to shut down Rikers Island and build four new jails in the outer boroughs, including one here in Kew Gardens. The Mayor is fast-tracking his plan to close Rikers by 2026 with the CPC’s hearings approving the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, to impose the new jail facilities on our communities, making decisions for all of us. The next step is the City Council vote on the project. The Mayor’s plan to close Rikers requires shrinking the inmate population down to 4000 from its original 9400 when the Mayor first announced the proposal, releasing 1000’s from incarceration into our neighborhoods!!
But the loudest voices at the hearings were the far-left activists who not only want Rikers to close, but demand “no new jails.” We must raise our voices even louder, show up and speak out to preserve the safety of our communities. Tom is organizing rallies and protests to fight back, and we must all be there!
There is a political sea change now in the age of Trump. It’s a great time to be a Republican activist in Queens, to fight to save our country and communities. We must organize, build our county committees, take to the streets and raise our voices loud and clear. We cannot be afraid to proclaim our proud support for our President and the Republican Party. We must take our government and institutions back, and “make Queens Republican again!” Onward to 2020!
