Fifth Annual Dip Against Homelessness
Representatives from BronxWorks, BronxNet, the Bronx Polar Bear Bears gather before the 2018 Dip Against
Homelessness at Orchard Beach. Photo Credit – BronxWorks
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 22 ANUARY 18-24, 2019 BTR
Action
Association
BronxNet and Bronx-
Works will partner with The
Bronx Polar Bears for the
for The Fifth Annual Dip
Against Homelessness. The
event will take place on Saturday,
February 9 at Orchard
Beach.
The event will kick off at
1 a.m. with an offi cial welcome,
safety instructions
and warm-ups.
The big plunge into the
cold waters of the Long Island
Sound will take place at noon.
The team will include Bronx-
Works executive director Eileen
Torres, BronxNet executive
director Michael Max
Knobbe, friends and staff of
both organizations as well as
a few other special guests!
“For the fi fth year in a
row, we are thrilled to gather
with our community partners,
BronxNet and The
Bronx Polar Bears, to show
support for our most vulnerable
neighbors,” states Torres.
“Together, we will continue
to raise awareness of homelessness
in the Bronx at this
worthwhile annual event.”
All are invited to attend,
but registration is requested
to help raise money for services
provided by Bronx-
Works for the homeless population
of the Bronx. Each
year, the BronxWorks Homeless
Outreach Team (HOT)
makes thousands of contacts
with street homeless men and
women. Engagement is the
fi rst step in bringing about
change. A trip to the Bronx-
Works Living Room/Safe Haven
or a safe bed at a church
that collaborates with Bronx-
Works is a critical interim
step before BronxWorks helps
street homeless persons obtain
permanent housing.
Visit www.bronxworks.
org/dip-against-homelessness
to register or contact
BronxWorks at (646) 393-4002
or agangi@bronxworks.org
if you have any questions.
Donations of new warm
winter gear including hats,
gloves, socks, and scarves
are also appreciated and
may be brought to the event,
a BronxWorks location, or
BronxNet Television at Lehman
College.
BY FRANK V. VERNUCCIO, JR.
Will 2019 be the year in
which the ‘Bait and Switch’
that characterizes the activities
of organizations that purport
to represent female interests
be widely exposed?
Clearly, there are indications
that the long-ignored
problem within the movement,
portions of which have served
more as a thinly disguised partisan
front for left-wing causes,
are fi nally becoming more apparent.
The National Organization
of Women and the Women’s
March on Washington in particular
are the subject of increased
scrutiny.
There can be little doubt that
the most pressing danger facing
females today is the abuse,
slavery, and murder they receive
at the hands of Islamic
extremists. Reports of the horrors
women face are clear, well
documented, and abundant.
However, as ‘Hannah,’ a courageous
Tunisian young woman,
a Fulbright scholar and an earnest
advocate for equal rights
in her homeland stated on the
Vernuccio/Novak radio program,
“No one seems to care
for these women. The so-called
‘sex jihad’ which justifi es the
treatment of women—especially
young girls, as property
and the ‘spoils of war’ is virtually
ignored by some western
organizations that claim
to represent women.” (Due to
continuing threats on her life
by the Moslem Brotherhood,
‘Hannah’s’ real name cannot
be disclosed.)
Despite this reality, NOW
continues to generally overlook
this most fundamental of
all matters affecting women.
What does it concentrate on?
A review of its website over the
past several years discussed
enthusiasm for a variety of issues
that had little relationship
to discrimination against
women. NOW’s political contributions
have been given in
an approximately 50-1 ratio to
Democrats over Republicans,
an overtly partisan fi gure.
The Women’s March has an
even more troubling problem.
The Washington Examiner exposed
the co-chair of the organization,
Linda Sarsour, “as an
enabler of sexual assault after
one of her previous employees
shared her story of working
for her at the Arab American
Association in 2009… Asmi
Fathelbab, the alleged victim,
is Muslim and now 37 years
old. She told the Daily Caller
that after complaining to Sarsour
about a man in her offi ce
building groping and sexually
harassing her, she was immediately
dismissed and even
fat-shamed. Sarsour has advocated
for Sharia law, which
essentially treats females as
mere property.
The peculiar relationship
between the Women’s March
and radical Islam is truly disturbing.
The Hill recently reported
that the organization’s
Chicago chapter cancelled its
scheduled January rally following
complications from the
revelation about the group’s
ties to Nation of Islam leader,
and noted anti-Semite, Louis
Farrakhan. The news apparently
discouraged volunteers,
rendering the event untenable.
According to Tablet magazine’s
Leah McSweeney and Jacob
Siegell “According to several
sources, it was there—in
the fi rst hours of the fi rst meeting
for what would become the
Women’s March… something
happened that was so shameful
to many of those who witnessed
it, they chose to bury it like a
family secret. Almost two years
would pass before anyone present
would speak about it. It was
there that, as the women were
opening up about their backgrounds
and personal investments
in creating a resistance
movement to Trump, Perez
and Mallory allegedly fi rst asserted
that Jewish people bore
a special collective responsibility
as exploiters of black and
brown people—and even, according
to a close secondhand
source, claimed that Jews were
proven to have been leaders of
the American slave trade.
These are canards popularized
by The Secret Relationship
Between Blacks and Jews,
a book published by Louis Farrakhan’s
Nation of Islam—’the
bible of the new anti-Semitism,’
according to Henry Louis Gates
Jr., who noted in 1992: ‘Among
signifi cant sectors of the black
community, this brief has become
a credo of a new philosophy
of black self-affi rmation.’
To this day, Mallory and Bland
deny any such statements were
ever uttered, either at the fi rst
meeting or at Mallory’s apartment.”
Note a key fact about the
Tablet article. In addition to
the blatant anti-Semitism, the
overt political bias—resistance
to Trump—is a key element of
the Women’s March movement,
another indication that the organization,
like several other
similar groups, is more concerned
with partisan politics
than women’s issues.
Another meeting reminder.
Our 3rd Sunday
post meeting will be held as
usual at American Turners
on Clearance Avenue with a
parking lot around the corner
at Philip Avenue. Meet up
at 10:30 a.m. for coffee, starts
promptly at 11 a.m., with our
luncheon and cash bar afterwards
at noon.
Department of NY Mid-
Winter Conference is coming
up this month, fi nal arrangements
discussion at this meeting.
I hope we can have a big
showing, this being our 100th
Year and our fi rst Bronx
County hospitality suite, our
theme - the Bronx Bombers!
Bring your Yankees caps! (No
Mets caps, you know who you
are).
In February we’ll have the
Mass of the 4 Chaplains at St.
Benedict with breakfast afterwards
in their basement
hall. Thanks again Fr. Norton.
Start considering attending
the American Legion
Family College in June, a
weekend immersion course
in the workings of the Legion.
Even us old dogs can learn
new tricks. Be on the lookout
for candidates for Department
of NY Boys State. Also
in June, a rewarding adventure
shaping the leaders of
the future. These two activities
take place at SUNY Morrisville,
NY.
Until next time: There
was a time when young people
respected their elders, no one
can recall when that was...
/www.bronxworks
link
/www.bronxworks
link