Message of Hope, a Blessing for Easter, and a Prayer for America

We wish all our members, friends and families who celebrate, a blessed Good Friday and blissful Easter.

President Trump held an Easter Blessing on Good Friday at the White House with Bishop Henry Jackson. It was a great prayer and message of hope for America as the president wished everyone a Happy Easter Sunday celebrating the glorious resurrection, and asked Americans to pray for the nation to be healed.

He said “at this holy time our nation is engaged in a battle like never before, the invisible enemy. Our brave doctors, nurses, and first responders are fighting to save lives, our workers are racing to deliver critical medical supplies, our best scientists are working around the clock to develop life saving therapeutics, our people are making tremendous sacrifices to end this pandemic….Our nation will come through like never before.”

Bishop Jackson’s solemn prayer for America

“Lord let the death angel pass over. Let there be a mitigation of this plague, this disease. Let medical science come forth. Lord, let us come out with a thriving economy. But in this great land that was set up to glorify your name, we want to break, we come against the spirit of division. Lord, let ‘E Pluribus Unum’ be a reality in us. Let there be a uniting of America. Heal the divide between race, class and gender. Once again, give this great man, our president, and give our vice president wisdom beyond their natural limitations. Give them insight so they can cover us, lead us, and bless us. We bless them and America in Jesus’ name. Be encouraged, hope is on the way.”

Amen!

Happy & Healthy Easter Sunday to all!

I want to wish all our Jewish members, friends and families a very happy and healthy Passover starting with tonight’s Seder. As we celebrate the festival of the liberation of the Jewish people, alone or with our immediate family or together on a digital platform, it’s important to remind ourselves about the true meaning of freedom and liberty and our mutual responsibility to save our country.

As we celebrate the Festival of Freedom during this “11th plague,” Christians celebrate Holy Week this week, and Jewish people retell the story of the Exodus out of slavery in Egypt to receive the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and ultimately reach the Holy Land to “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof!” from Leviticus 25:10, which formed the basis of our Judeo-Christian culture.

I want to share with you a very uplifting message of hope from a dear friend:

Wishing you a Passover that brings strength and good health to endure the year ahead.  Couldn’t be a more appropriate time for the angel of death to pass over all our homes especially while we are sheltering in place.  It is at stressful times like these that our resolve is strengthened and we question whether these things happen for a reason. Hopefully it will be a wake up call to save our country. Seems like G-d is sending that message and the President is the Moses of the modern era. We mourn those people however who have been sacrificed and let us pray that we will all emerge as a stronger and healthier country.
Chag Pesach Sameach

Best wishes for the safety, health and happiness of you and your loved ones. We, members of the Queens Village Republican Club believe we will come out of this pandemic stronger than before and our greatest days are ahead of us!

Phil Orenstein
President
Queens Village Republican Club
America’s Oldest Republican Club – Founded 1875
Please donate at www.qvgop.org

It takes an army to educate a child

Letter from Sgt. Eric Spinner

Editors Note: This letter to the Queens Village Republican Club, from Sgt Eric Spinner, proud US Army Veteran and one of the directors of the NY Metro Chapter of ACT for America, was sent after participating in the club’s April 2^nd Zoom Video Meeting on the Electoral College.  

Once again you have put together a terrific meeting.  Under the challenges we’re facing, it’s a terrific venue that unfortunately requires a verbal request for financial support.  Unless they figure out how to do a 50/50 online, that’s what we’re reduced to.  One way or another, we’ll make it work for us!

The choice of speakers was terrific.  Jerry Matacotta was new to my world, but I’ve heard Trent England before, and Nick Giordano was one of our leading speakers for a NYMetroACT meeting.  Their insight into the failures of the educational system is apparent in their analyses of the questions.

One of your guests, James M, had posted some questions about how to change the system, and gave as an example the fact that his sister taught in NYC and, if I may paraphrase, had no freedom to teach the facts or express her opinions for danger of being disciplined by superiors or denied union protections.  I understand that, having survived over 37 years in the NYC system.  However, I taught in a different era, and I probably got away with things that today’s teachers might not be able to get away with.  I spoke my mind and let the chips fall where they may!  I’d like to believe that I put many young errant minds back on track, but teaching is filled with intangibles- we don’t often get to see the results of our efforts.

Most of the speakers seemed to agree that involvement with the schools is a good idea, and the suggestion that getting involved at the lower grades is the way to proceed.  You can shout at the Chancellor of the NYCDOE all day and night to no avail.  But speaking with teachers at local board meetings can bear fruit.  I’m checking to see when my local districts meet, and those who see the problem and can present a legitimate case for change should do the same.

I also see this from the perspective of a military veteran.  The American Legion is very active in schools and teaches Americanism, Flag etiquette, and respect.  Another of my organizations, the Vietnam War Veterans Association, takes it a step further.  We have been going to about a dozen high schools, several middle schools and a few elementary schools for many years at the invitation of teachers and administrators.  We send a group of from 5-12 veterans, mostly Vietnam and Vietnam era, to teach social studies for the entire day, mostly about freedom, patriotism and service to country with a focus on the Vietnam era.  We have always been well-received by students and staff, and most react by saying that they never knew or understood much of what we presented.  My take on this is that the effort is not wasted, it’s just too limited in scope.

They say it takes a village to educate a child.  Perhaps it takes an army.  Perhaps we can be that army to get involved and make the change!  We certainly need it now!

2020 is here as we embrace digital gatherings!

By Joseph Concannon

As every restaurant, pizza parlor, bar and food court shutter their doors, so too did Antuns Caterers by order of the State of New York in addressing the Coronavirus.  What would happen to our dinner, our fundraiser, and how would we move forward?

For the very first time all New Yorkers were introduced to “social distancing.”  Social distancing is the nemesis of our annual gala in which socialization and networking are key components.  Our dinner is a place where politicians and candidates alike come to “shake hands,” develop new relationships and enjoy the historical aspects of the event.

Our 145^th event was on pace to once again have 400-500 attendees, rekindle relationships, enjoy a great dinner and service by Antuns.  Yet it seemed as though every signal we received was to cancel the event out of hand and suffer the loss.

We are the Queens Village Republican Club.  We are strong-minded, independent and determined to overcome adversity in all its forms.  We never back down, never cower at the sign of opposition and we break down barriers large and small to accomplish our mission.  It is who we are as a club and for 145 years we have prevailed.

Our forward-thinking club needed to make a key strategic decision in the face of this virus and that was whether to present our dinner to our members and friends in a digital format.  This meant reviewing our flyer with formatted agenda and transferring that into a digital show.  Sounds easy, but it is a ton of work and requires an enormous amount of flexibility and focus.  Our speakers, our awardees, our introductions, our master of ceremonies, every aspect of our event had to be duplicated, verified and assigned a place in our digital dinner.

Frustrated at every turn, how would our members, friends and families respond?  Could we get our members, friends, event attendees to buy into this new format of video conferencing and tune in for two hours?  How would we fundraise and would our members when confronted with these challenges rise to the occasion?  We thought we were doomed. 

Surprise, surprise, as our board members joined us for four nights of training and familiarity as we tested out Zoom video conferencing and experimented with its functions.  We were gaining confidence.  Steve Bannon said no problem.  Katie Hopkins flew into NY for our event and several others and then had to fly back before the travel ban into the UK kicked in.  A day later Katie confirmed she was fully on board.  Confidence was certainly building. Each of our honorees developed a video and we knew we had a winner.  Especially as Sgt. Philip Kahn, 100 years young stepped up and gave a terrific video presentation.  Sgt. Kahn just blew us away, a true patriot!

The 145^th Digital Dinner went off without a hitch, donations are still coming in as of this writing so our accounting for the event is going to be delayed.  The generosity of our members and friends is a testament to the strength and power of our wonderful club.  This event was our annual fundraiser.  Everyone knew it and after our digital dinner we heard from many of you, “I want to donate my ticket to the club”, “I want to donate 75 dollars” and many, many other expressions of generosity.  It’s frankly overwhelming.  Thank you is just not enough and keep it coming because we have some huge bills to pay. 

Our club and its prominence in New York goes without saying.  Remember please, and help us teach and inform others that elections have consequences and voting matters.

President’s Message by Phil Orenstein for March 2020 Queens Village Eagle

The first week of February 2020 was amazing week for Republicans throughout America and for our President with his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial and a rousing SOTU address!  It’s a time for celebration with President Trump’s 49% all-time high approval rating, according to a recent Gallup poll, and it has been steadily climbing over the past few months of the entire impeachment farce!  Furthermore, Gallup is showing that more voters are warming towards Republicans than Democrats, and we know that Gallup is no friend of Republicans.  The Democrats are losing their minds lurching further left, as a great red wave will be washing across the nation this November!

President Trump celebrated after the acquittal saying: “The spirit for the Republican Party is stronger now than it’s ever been in the history of our country!” We see the fruits of this spirit here spreading to Queens, President Trump’s birthplace, where we are witnessing a Republican resurgence in the making as we continue to build the Republican Party. At our Feb 6^th club meeting we were regaled by Gene Ho, President Trump’s original campaign photographer, who shared his belief that all states will go Red in November, even California and New York, in a landslide of epic proportions, and then our nation will be healed as people finally see our way.

But there are the naysayers and the prophets of doom and gloom saying the Republican Party is toast in New York, and before we return to the bad old days of raging crime and chaos, we had better vote with our feet and run for the exits. Others say that former walkaway Democrats should come back to the party to save us from domination of the radical left, by voting as Democrats in the primaries for the lesser of two evils. Councilman Chaim Deutsch recently made a plea to Jewish New Yorkers to register as Democrats and “seize back the Democratic Party from the clutches of the most extreme, leftist voices.”

The Editorial Board of the Jewish Press, an independent weekly newspaper based in Brooklyn, urges Jews to come back to the Democrats to vote in the historically low turn-out primaries, in order to defeat progressive leftist candidates.

This defeatist attitude harkens back to the famous quote by Winston Churchill: “an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” The Democrats created this crocodile and now it is devouring them. Today it’s the party of socialism, radicalism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism. It has been devoured by the “squad” of AOC, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib. 

Last year Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was spreading anti-Semitic vitriol. She lashed out against Israel and the Jewish people which such outrageous anti-Semitic tropes as: “Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Republicans rightly rebuked her, but not a single Democrat politician said a word including the Queens Party chairman, Congressman Meeks. We implored our local Congressman Tom Suozzi to make a statement against her disgraceful anti-Semitism, but his silence was deafening.

Before the recent Queens DA primary contest, loud mouths insisted that we register as Democrats to save NYC from the far leftist Tiffany Caban in the primary race against the allegedly “moderate” Melinda Katz. However, newly elected Queens DA Katz, turned out to champion the same destructive policies as Caban. No sooner than she was sworn in, did she promise comprehensive criminal justice reform, ending cash bail, and closing Rikers Island, and she swept the house clean of nearly all the conservative-leaning executive staffers of the DA’s office replacing them with leftwing “true believers.”

Every one of the Democrat presidential candidates trashed America as “a racist society from top to bottom” as Bernie Sanders depicted us in the recent New Hampshire debate. Even sleepy Joe Biden said, “the fact is that there is systemic racism.” The party’s leadership as well as “moderate” Democrat politicians are all lurching leftward and agreeing with the anti-American “squad.”

When Nancy Pelosi ripped up President Trumps SOTU speech at the end of the night, she only succeeded in pounding the final nail in the Democrat Party’s coffin. This is not your father’s Democrat Party.

No voter from Jewish or other minority communities in Queens should want to identify with a corrupted party just to make a meager difference in the primaries. No respectable candidate should run as a Democrat. There is no saving the Party of socialism, anti-Semitism and the radical left by voting for the lesser of two evils.

The Democrats are historically the party of slavery, while the Republican Party is the enduring party of freedom. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator of the slaves, whom we will be celebrating along with our remarkable President Trump, at our annual gala Lincoln Dinner on March 22^nd.

If Jews, Hindus, Haitians, Asians, and voters of every ethnic minority register as Republicans en masse, this will have the greatest influence on New York City’s political climate. If 100,000 Orthodox Jews or any other groups send in their voter registrations and check off the Republican box, this will pave the way to saving NYC from a return to the crime-ridden Dinkins era.

This is a call to action that goes out not only to Republicans, but to all voters in Queens to get involved and save our city from impending ruin. We are at the edge of the precipice. There is no choice but for voters to register Republican! Come join us at our inspiring monthly club meetings. Join our club! Help to build a great new Republican Party in Queens. Come to our glorious Lincoln Dinner Gala on March 22^nd! Join the battle for the very survival of our city, state and nation.