COUNCILMAN SALAMANCA ATTENDED
40TH PCT. CMTY. COUNCIL MEETING
Councilman Rafael Salamanca attended the 40th Precinct Community
Council meeting to promote his NYCHA town hall meeting,
highlight policy and gave legislative updates.
(Above) Councilman Salamanca (c) provided some vital information
at the meeting.
Photo courtesy of Councilman Rafael Salamanca’s Offi ce
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M BTR ARCH 22-28, 2019 13
Action
Association
BY FRANK V. VERNUCCIO, JR.
There has been much written
about how harsh American
politics has become. The
fact exists that the nastiness
remains, for the most part,
one-sided. Despite the wailing
over President Trump’s
tweets, the lion’s share of the
vitriolic comments, and the
radical positions, come from
the Left. In contrast, the
Right has been comparatively
restrained in its descriptions
of the increasingly extreme
and dangerous comments and
positions emanating from the
Progressive side.
Consider the extraordinary
ideas pushed recently
by Democrats. The late Rep.
John Dingle, (D-Michigan)
shortly before his passing, advocated
abolishing the United
States Senate. There has also
been considerable advocacy
on the left for eliminating the
Electoral College. Those acts,
alone, would fundamentally
alter the entire governing
structure of the Constitution.
The motive for restructuring
the most successful republic
in world history is not based
on any profound practical
or intellectual complaint. It
comes from a crass and cold
calculation that a fundamental
transformation from a
federal system to one dominated
by a central government
would allow the left’s
centers of power, the large cities,
to essentially monopolize
power.
It would also be a crucial
step in allowing socialism to
fl ourish. That political/economic
system, in its hundredyear
existence, has failed in
every jurisdiction it has been
tried across the globe, and
resulted in political tyranny
and increased poverty. The
most recent example is Venezuela,
and the many American
leftists who hailed the
leadership of Hugo Chavez
and Nicolas Maduro have yet
to face substantial criticism
by the left-friendly media.
The label “extremist” is not
frequently used against its
advocates.
Positions against religion
have been taken, including
the rapid growth and acceptability
of anti-Semitism in the
Democratic Party, the attack
on First Amendment rights
of religious institutions (seen
in the mandates of Obamacare,)
and the sharp questioning
of Catholic nominees for
judicial positions by Senators
such as Diane Feinstein (DCa.),
Kamala Harris (D-Ca.),
and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
who have implied that followers
of that religion may not be
fi t for the bench have become
commonplace.
Noah Freldman, writing
in Bloomberg stressed that
“Senator Dianne Feinstein
owes a public apology to judicial
nominee Amy Coney
Barrett — and an explanation
to all Americans who condemn
religious bias. During
Barrett’s confi rmation hearings…
before the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Feinstein,
the California Democrat, insinuated
an anti-Catholic stereotype
that goes back at least
150 years in the U.S. — that
Catholics are unable to separate
church and state because
they place their religious allegiances
before their oath to
the Constitution.”
Steve Cortes, writing in
Real Clear Politics reported:
Sens. Mazie Hirono and Kamala
Harris, in written questions
to District Court judge
nominee Brian Buescher,
challenged his suitability for
the bench because he belongs
to The Knights of Columbus.
Hirono claimed that the
Knights have taken ‘extreme
positions’ such as affi rming
Catholic belief in traditional
marriage and even asked
Buescher, ‘If confi rmed, do
you intend to end your membership
with this organization
to avoid any appearance
of bias?’…Harris wrote that
‘the Knights of Columbus, an
all-male society comprised
of primarily Catholic men …
opposes a woman’s right to
choose.’ Anyone who further
dares to personally embrace
longstanding Christian doctrine
on the sanctity of life,
including the unborn, should
also seek employment outside
of the federal bench. Such
anti-Catholic bias represents
not just a discriminatory affront,
but also an unconstitutional
religious litmus test for
appointees…”
The most basic concepts of
the Bill of Rights have been
targeted by Progressive politicians
and advocates. Senate
Minority Leader Charles
Schumer (D-NY) called for restrictions
on the First Amendment.
Democrat lawmakers
in Hawaii seek to abolish the
Second Amendment.
Perhaps most profoundly,
Progressives have advocated
for eliminating the very concept
of U.S. citizenship. H.R. 1,
introduced by Rep. Sarbanes
(D-Maryland) would protect
jurisdictions that allow illegal
aliens to cast votes. It
passed with near-unanimous
support by House Democrats
(but will not survive in the
U.S. Senate.)
It cannot escape notice that
even as deeply radical concepts
are pushed by the left,
they are hardly ever characterized
by the media as ‘extreme.’
That label seems to be
reserved for moderates and
conservatives who generally
seek to merely preserve the
traditional practices of America’s
governing structure, its
economic system, and societal
norms.
OPED: by Michael Johnson
Bronx Council Members Should support
Healthy Bodega Marketing Campaign
Too often Bronx bodegas
are seen as ‘a source of the
problem’ because they sell
unhealthy snack foods, sandwiches,
soda, alcohol and tobacco
products. But 54 Bronx
bodegas are changing that unhealthy
perception as partner
bodegas in the Healthy Bodega
program.
Over the past four years,
the Bodega Association of the
United States, the Institute for
Family Health’s 80+ member
Bronx Health REACH Coalition
and the Hispanic Information
and Telecommunications
Network (HITN) have offered
bodega owners a series of
trainings and workshops focused
on procuring, selling,
and marketing healthier food
and beverage options in bodegas
as a profi table venture.
“Selling healthy food helps
our community,” says Frank
Marte, owner of Green Earth
Grocery Store on the Grand
Concourse and East 171st
Street. “Our customers want
to eat healthier because they
are seeing the harmful effects
from diabetes, heart disease
and high blood pressure.”
According to the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation
County Health Rankings
Report, the Bronx has been
ranked 62 out of New York
State’s 62 counties in health
outcomes over the past nine
years. Access to fresh, affordable,
healthy food and beverages
is a major barrier to living
a healthy lifestyle in the
borough. According to a NYC
Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene Community
Health Survey, 32% of residents
are obese, 36% have hypertension,
16% have diabetes,
and almost 18% had no
servings of fruits or vegetables
the previous day. The Healthy
Bodega program is one way to
improve the health of Bronx
residents.
The 54 stores that have
agreed to sell healthier foods
and beverages sell fresh fruits
and vegetables, healthy sandwiches,
low-fat dairy products,
water, and low sodium products.
However, the bodegueros
can only continue to sell these
items if people buy them. They
are businesses after all and
need to make a profi t.
To encourage more customers
to buy healthy foods
and beverages, Bronx Health
REACH collaborated with the
Bronx Bodega Partners Workgroup
to create the ‘Don’t
Stress, Eat Fresh’ Bronx bodega
marketing campaign.
Workgroup members include:
Montefi ore Medical Center’s
Offi ce of Community & Population
Health, BronxWorks,
Bronx Community Health
Network, the American Dairy
Association North East, Well-
Care Health Plans Inc., Urban
Health Plan, City Harvest, the
NYC Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene’s Bronx
Neighborhood Health Action
Center, and BronxCare Health
System.
The design and messaging
of the campaign was informed
by discussions with
youth from BronxWorks and
the Mary Mitchell Family
and Youth Center; youth and
adults from the South Bronx
Overall Economic Development
Corporation; and bodega
owners from the Bodega Association.
We would like to put this
campaign in neighborhoods
across the Bronx and to do
this we have requested funding
from our Bronx City Council
Members.
We believe that with more
consumer awareness, there
will be greater demand for
our partner bodegas to carry
healthy foods.
(Michael Johnson represents
the The Bodega Association
& The Bronx Health
REACH Coalition.)