The glass ceiling is still in place and women can only rise to a certain point.”

By Erica Jackson

 

America Celebrates the 90th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage 

It’s hard to believe that prior to the adoption of the 19th amendment of the Constitution in 1920 many women in America were not permitted to vote or hold office.  After all, today, women, according the the US Census Bureau, vote more often than their male counterparts.  There are also more women holding congressional office than any other time in American history — there are 76 women serving in Congress and 17 that hold Senate seats.  Yet, despite the strides made by women, many local women leaders say there is still much work to be done.

 

“Women have come a long way over the years, but true equality is still not quite there” said Suffolk County Legislator Kate Browing, who is one of only three women legislators currently serving on the 18-member legislature.  “We have strong female leaders in government, the military service and in the science field to name a few, however they do not always gain the respect to their male counterparts. For every dollar a man makes, a women makes approximately 75 cents.  Young women need to be encouraged to explore careers outside the fields they were traditionally steered towards. Much progress has been made, but more needs to be done.”

 

Vivian Viloria-Fisher, who serves as the Suffolk County Legislature’s deputy presiding officer, agreed with her colleague:  “We as women must be models of leadership to our next generation. I do not believe that we have enough representation by women in our halls of government at this point. Having the right to suffrage for three generations or more, we are not at the point we should be. We should have much better representation.”That is, she pointed out, especially so in Suffolk County where women outnumber men. 

 

According to Deanna Marshall, director of Suffolk County’s office of Women’s Services, women constitute over 51 percent of the population in Suffolk County.  

“There is still much more to do,” said Marshall, “When you think about it, 90 years is only one lifetime — obviously, a very long lifetime – but there are women alive today who were born into an America where no women had this country’s guarantee that she could vote.  Look at what’s changed since this amendment was finally passed, women not only vote, but are getting elected and appointed to high-level offices in government. Think about how many decades our suffragists lobbied and marched and worked to get it done. Maybe that will encourage us to keep working to do women’s work.”

 

“We have some challenges ahead of us,” said Angie Carpenter, who currently serves as Suffolk County’s treasurer. She previously sat on the Suffolk County Legislature as one of four women leaders at the time.  “I was a business owner for many years and I never felt a bit inhibited because of my gender, but in politics there is room for improvement. We don’t have as many women elected officials.  Look at the demographics of the county. More than half are women and yet we only have three women legislators. In its hay-day, I was one of four.  But focusing on the anniversary of our right to vote will hopefully wake some people up and provide an opportunity to look at our representation in government.  Women bring something unique to the table.  They are up to the task.”

 

“Women achieve more and more each year,” said Joyce Rosenthal, president of the Smithtown League of Women Voters, an organization that encourages everyone to vote.  “but we have not reached complete equality.  The glass ceiling is still in place and women can only rise to a certain point.”

 

Theresa Knox, who sits on the Smithtown Central School District School board, agrees and remembers pondering as a child, why women couldn’t serve as say, Pope.  “Women’s suffrage was the first important step for half the population to been seen as full citizens.  I wish more men and women would exercise that important right to vote on a regular basis. People died for this right.”

 

And making young women aware of the importance of voting is something that Shari Lee Sugarman, president of the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association hopes to do.  “It is very important that women vote and our organization is dedicated to bringing women forward and teaching them the importance of the political process.  We want to teach our children the importance of women voting and how it can help to get more women voted on the bench.”

 

Aside from thinking about all that needs to be done in the United States, Lisa Renee Pomerantz, lawyer and chair of the Suffolk County Women’s Business Enterprise Coalition, reminded to keep in mind “that there are counties where women are still denied the right to vote and obtain education and participate fully as citizens.”  She said,  “There are so many countries where nobody has the right to vote.”

 

And while many agree that so much needs to be done, Lynda LaCour, owner of SmithtownMomstown.com said we should always remember what the women before us have done. She said, “It is unbelievable to me that at one time women did not have the right to vote in this country. At SmithtownMomstown.com we meet women who are essential leaders in our community. Without the right to vote, these women would never have had the opportunities they have today to be leaders in our community, businesses, government, education and many other fields. We should all take a moment to reflect on the strong women who fought the difficult fight for all of us.”

Suffolk County Conservative Party First Exec Chair Endorses Cox

SMITHTOWN, NY — Today, the Suffolk County Conservative Party’s First Executive Chairman declared that “Our once proud Conservative Party has lost its way.”

Fries, whose lifelong conservative principles were inspired by his grandfather’s love for America, refused to sacrifice his core values. He was the only executive committee member to reject Randolph Altschuler as the party’s designee in the First Congressional district.

“It was clear to me then, and it’s even clearer now: Altschuler is not a Conservative, nor is he even a Republican,” said Fries. “It was insulting for the other members of the Executive Committee to completely ignore the letter from highly respected, former New Jersey State Republican Chair, Virginia Littell. In it, she detailed a 2008 meeting where Altschuler informed her that he would be running as a pro-choice candidate because he was not pro-life.”

“The fact that Executive Committee members completely ignored her letter and still picked Altschuler is outrageous!” said Fries. “What’s especially disappointing are the elected officials who blindly jumped to an uninformed endorsement.”

“I have not gone public before today out of respect for my position as an officer, but I can no longer sit back and watch my beloved Conservative Party be destroyed by a few misguided individuals. The endless stream of distortions and repulsive lies by Altschuler and his dishonorable gang must stop now!” he declared.

Fries described in detail Altschuler’s lifetime of liberal lapses, including his district-shopping, his Marxist Green Party membership, and his history of outsourcing our American jobs overseas.

After learning that Altschuler had only voted once in his entire adult life, Fries said, “It angers me that someone who did not care enough about his country to even vote, would be begging our beloved veterans to vote for him. It’s an insult to all American heroes, past and present, who continue to risk their lives protecting our freedoms.”

Fries said, “I fully expect to be the latest member of the Conservative Party to be attacked and shunned for standing up for my beliefs. To paraphrase our great former President Ronald Reagan, “I have not left the Suffolk Conservative Party; the Conservative Party has left me.”

You Are Invited To Gather to Remember 9-11

Community To Gather to Remember 9-11

By Erica Jackson

Debbie Virga of Commack, like many other Americans remembers exactly where she was when the Twin Towers fell nine years ago. She was watching a television in the teachers’ lounge at Commack high school when she witnessed two airliners crash into the towers; a third airplane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and she saw the aftermath of a fourth plane that hit the ground in Pennsylvania.  On that day,  2,996 lives were lost, including the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers who steered the planes to their doom.

 

“It is a day that I will never forget,” said Virga, who is the director of community relations for the Commack School District.  Nor will she forget the days following the attack.  She recalls the community outpouring. She started a collection and people came out of the woodwork, donating money for families who lost loved ones and gathering goods for the armed forces.  She spoke of one young girl, about six or seven years old, who sent her a letter with $2 enclosed in it.  The girl wrote that many people sent her money when she was in the hospital with a brain tumor and she wanted to give back and help.

 

Virga still has that letter along with many others that she received during that time. She keeps them in a scrapbook along with photos of “Ground Zero” that her son took two days after the attack. “I hope that this scrapbook will be used as a sense of history,” said Virga. “Everyone’s lives changed on that day.  Everyone was affected. You can’t get on an airplane without taking your shoes off.  Our innocence is gone.”

 

Yes, she said, “we have moved” on since that fateful day, but she hopes people will “continue to remember and never forget what happened.” That is why for the past 8 years she has vigilantly worked to keep the memories of those who perished on that day and all those affected by holding a Night of Remembrance at the Commack High School Athletic Field.  This year will be no different.  “I will keep doing this until there is one person left in the stands.” said Virga, who thought that that time would have come five years ago.  Yet, year after year, 500 to 1,000 community members gather on the field to pay tribute to not only those who lost their lives, but to their families, the military, and rescue workers.

 

Like in years past, volunteers from all aspects of the community have stepped up to provide services for this year’s gathering, including the Commack Ambulance Crop; the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, representatives of the NYPD Honor Guard, and the Veteran Marines of Huntington.  Numerous community leaders also will be in attendance to give speeches.  Among those leaders will be Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, Congressman Steve Israel, Senator John Flanagan, Suffolk County Legislator John Kennedy, and Smithtown Councilman Kevin Malloy.

 

In addition family members of Commack residents who lost their lives on 9-11 will be in attendance. Including the families of iEzra Aviles, who left behind a wife and three children; Benilda Domingo, whose sister is a Commack resident and took in Domingo’s two young children as her own; Dennis Scauso, a Commack High School graduate who left behind his wife and four children; and James Munhall, also a Commack High School graduate.

 

Special this year will be representatives of the 9-11 first responders committee.  Virga said they were invited to help pay tribute to the near 900 or more people who have been affected by health ailments after working at “Ground Zero”

 

Talking about the ceremony, Virga said, “This is an event where people can be together to reflect. I am about togetherness.” This year’s Night of Remembrance will start at 6:30 p.m. on September 11.  All are welcome to attend.

George Demos - Wants You To Know

George Demos said:

“Both Randy Altschuler and Chris Cox know that our campaign of consistent conservative principles has surged us into the lead. 

These pathetic and obviously untrue attacks is what desperate politicians do when they are losing. 

I’m sure on September 15th, both Randy Altschuler and Chris Cox will go back to wherever they came here from and we will never see nor hear of them again.”

Rick Lazio - Ground Zero Cordoba Mosque

New York, NY - After two months of a divisive public debate over the Ground Zero Mosque, 70% of New Yorkers surveyed in a new Quinnipiac poll released last week believe Andrew Cuomo should examine the funding streams behind the Cordoba Initiative. This follows two months of a very public debate following Rick Lazio’s letter to Cuomo on July 7th asking the Attorney General as overseer of all registered charities to examine the funding sources behind the Ground Zero Cordoba Mosque:

Rick Lazio said, “Many view the Imam’s comment on CNN last night of terrorist activity in the United States if his Mosque does not get built as a veiled threat.  The Imam has invited this conclusion by his numerous offensive comments comparing America unfavorably to al Queda and saying that American policies were an accessory to the crime of September 11th. The Imam’s failure to answer simple questions with simple answers last night does not make him a ‘bridge-builder.’ It is just as outrageous that Andrew Cuomo refuses to do his job and examine all of the funding sources behind this project, from assets used to acquire the land to the Imam’s refusal to rule out taking money Iran for the construction of his $100 project.  It’s time for Andrew Cuomo to stop acting like an appeaser and take an accounting of what is going on right under his nose.” 

Standing with representatives of 9/11 families at a lower Manhattan news conference on July 7th, Rick Lazio pointed to several initial reasons why Cuomo needed to examine the Cordoba Initiative as overseer of charities, not the least of which were the public statements of the Initiative’s leader Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, including: 

RED FLAG: IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF’S PUBLIC STATEMENTS:
• In June of 2000, the Imam refused to admit that Hamas is a terrorist organization on WABC radio. 
• Two weeks after the attacks of September 11, the Imam stated, “United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.” (60 Minutes – 9/30/0)
• In the same interview the Imam also stated, “In fact, it—in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”  (60 Minutes – 9.30.01)
• “Imam Abdul Rauf … told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Islamic center will be financed through contributions from Muslims in the US, as well as by donations from Arab and Islamic countries,” the newspaper reported. (NY Post, May 25, 2010)
• In interviews with US media, Rauf has insisted funds would be raised here. “We hope to raise it from a combination of gifts from the local Muslim community and perhaps from some combination of bonds or something like that,” Rauf told WABC Radio’s Aaron Klein in May. 

The same day Andrew Cuomo said of the Mosque project: 
“I have not heard of any evidence of criminality… and if someone has evidence of criminality they should bring it forward.” 

Stated Rick Lazio: “For nearly two months New Yorkers have waited for Andrew Cuomo to look into the finances of the Ground Zero Mosque; waited while he toasted Charlie Rangel, waited while he raised over $9 million of Albany special interest money, and waited while he refused to do his job of protecting New Yorkers.”

Stated Rick Lazio: “Thanks to the enterprising reporters at the New York Post, The Daily News, ABC News, Fox News Channel, Fox 5 Television in New York and CNN we know that in addition to the Imam’s many troubling comments on CNN last night, that also the developers of the Mosque project did not deal in good faith with the Community Board as the real owners of the property to be developed.  We have heard contradicting stories about which countries might provide funding for this project, including Iran, and in recent days we have seen the revelation of the criminal backgrounds of the two financers of the project, including assault and Medicaid fraud.”

Lazio went on to point out further evidence of criminality behind the Cordoba Ground Zero Mosque.

RED FLAG: FALSE REPRESENTATION: DEVELOPERS DO NOT OWN ALL OF THE MOSQUE PROPERTY:
• The New York Post reported on August 8, 2010: “One of the two buildings on Park Place is owned by Con Edison, even though Soho Properties told officials and the public that it owns the entire parcel. And any potential sale by Con Ed faces a review by the state Public Service Commission.”  (NY Post 9/8/10)
RED FLAG: DEVELPERS NOT RULING OUT MONEY FROM IRAN:
• ABC NEWS reported on August 18, 2010, “Pressed on whether the developers were willing to rule out accepting donations from the governments of Saudi Arabia or Iran, he (Oz Sultan, spokesman for the developers) repeated, ‘I can’t comment on that.’” (ABC News, 8/18/2010).

RED FLAG: DEVELOPERS JADED CRMINAL PAST:
• The Daily News reported on August 28 that, “Years before his latest real-estate project ignited an uproar, Sharif El-Gamal racked up at least seven run-ins with the law, including a bust for patronizing a prostitute.”   The most recent of which was on September 10, 2005, for and assault on a barber who sublet a Manhattan apartment from El-Gamal’s brother, Sammy (The Daily News, 9/25/10).

RED FLAG: DEVELOPER IS A WAITER IN 2002 AND MAKES A SUDDEN PRUCHASE OF A $39 MILLION MANHATTAN PRPORERTY:
• Fox News Channel’s Craig Rivera reported on August 9, 2010:  Sharif El-Gamal was a waiter at Serafina Restaurant in 2002.  (Geraldo-At-Large, Fox News Channel, 8/9/10).
• The Daily News also reported on August 28, 2010:  “If his 2008 cries of poverty were genuine, El-Gamal experienced a dramatic reversal of fortune a year later, scoring a $39 million mortgage to buy a W. 27th St. commercial building. He had a partner, Egyptian-born businessman Hisham Elzanaty, who co-signed the loan. Elzanaty denied to discuss his dealings with El-Gamal.” (The Daily News, 8/25/10).

RED FLAG: EGYPTIAN MONEY MAN BEHIND MOSQUE PROJECT DEFRAUDED STATE MEDICAID PROGRAM AND TERRORIST FUNDER: 
• Fox 5 New York discovered Hisham Elzanaty is the Ground Zero Mosque Developer Sharif el-Gamal’s “guarantor” on the Ground Zero Mosque site: Mortgage documents obtained by Fox 5 confirm Elzanaty is the guarantor on a $39 million loan El-Gamal’s company used in buying the building. (WNYW-Fox5, 8/25/10,)
• Fox 5 also reported that Elzanaty was “ordered to repay more than $331,000” after “an audit showed that one of his companies was overpaid by Medicaid.”  “Elzanaty is the owner of several medical companies run out of a building in the Bronx. East Tremont medical center is a clinic. In the reception area, there is a picture of Elzanaty proudly posing with his staff. But as state records show, Hisham Elzanaty was ordered to repay more than $331,000. An audit showed that one of his companies was overpaid by Medicaid.” (WNYW-Fox5, 8/25/10)
• Fox 5 New York reported on September 2 that Elzanaty gave $6000 to an identified terrorist organization called the Holy Land Foundation. ((WNYW-Fox5, 9/02/10)

RED FLAG: IMAM FEISAL RAUF AGAIN DOES NOT RULE OUT TAKING MONEY FROM IRAN:
• Exchange between CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien and Imam Rauf on September 9, 2010:
IMAM RAUF (with respect to origins of donations): We will do whatever is absolutely correct and legal and the safe thing to do.
SOLEDAD O’BRIEN: Which means what exactly? I mean, because that’s — that’s an extra condition.
IMAM RAUF: You see, I’m the visionary behind it. I’m not the actual builder. I’m not the financial expert. I’m not the legal expert on these things. But I have a vision here of establishing something which I know in my heart of hearts will be a powerful instrument of peace. (CNN, 9/9/2010) 

RED FLAG: IMAM’S “DODGY” COMMENTS OF TERRORIST ACTIVTY IF HIS MOSQUE IS NOT BUILT ON THE GROUND ZERO SITE:
• Imam Feisal Rauf’s comments on our “personal security” if we do not build the Mosque at the Ground Zero site on  CNN, September 9, 2010:  “Our national security, our personal security, is extremely important. And this issue has become, now, a national security issue. And therefore, in our conversations, in our decision making process, we have to weigh many, many factors, and that (location) has been dominant among them.” (Imam Faisal Rauf, CNN, 9/9/10)

Rick Lazio said, “How many more red flags does Andrew Cuomo need to do his job? By neglecting his duty as the chief law enforcement officer of New York, Andrew Cuomo has not only abused the public trust but brought on a divisive public debate which could have been avoided.  New Yorkers, 9/11 victims families and the Anti-Defamation League are still awaiting Andrew Cuomo to act.”