President’s Message – Nov 2017
By Phil Orenstein
We’ve said it many times before and will keep saying it until we wake up. Elections matter. Voting has consequences, and now we see many of the unintended consequences in our neighborhoods and our city in decline as a result of dismally low voter turnout in past city elections.
The one power we enjoy as citizens is the act of voting and thereby holding our elected officials accountable. If we don’t vote we lose our power as citizens in America. Nothing scares our elected officials and defenders of the status quo more than an engaged public exercising their power to vote. Our founding principles give people a say in their government, meaning that we must exercise our votes and our voices. Everyone needs to get out and vote and encourage our neighbors and friends to do so on November 7th.
On November 7, New Yorkers will vote on two ballot referenda: Proposition 1 for a state Constitutional Convention, and Proposition 2, a Constitutional Amendment that would deny pensions to politicians convicted of certain crimes.
The city’s statues and monuments are being threatened with elimination, including the iconic Christopher Columbus statue at Columbus Circle, since Mayor de Blasio formed an advisory commission to “address monuments seen as oppressive.” Now a throng of vandals has appeared defacing our monuments, including the Christopher Columbus statue in Central Park which was vandalized, the destruction of the statue of Francis Scott Key, who wrote our beloved National Anthem, and many others. 
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE