Academy of Mount St. Ursula Reality Check Chapter members celebrating GASO with Vonetta Dudley and
Guillermo Flores of NYC Smoke-Free, by educating their peers and school administration on negative impact
of tobacco use.. Photo courtesy the Academy of Mount St. Ursula
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, D 58 ECEMBER 20-26, 2019 BTR
Action
Association
Young Israel of Pelham Parkway
hosts Chanukah Party and Concert
Please join us at The
Young Israel of Pelham Parkway
located at 900 Pelham
Parkway South, corner of
Muliner Avenue on Sunday,
December 22 starting at 2
p.m. for a festive Chanukah
Party and Concert starring
the wonderfully talented
Aaron Alexander and The
Klez Messengers Band. This
is a free event.
Refreshments will be
served.
Come, enjoy and have fun.
BY FRANK VERNUCCIO
Two pieces of common
sense and common decency
legislation were recently
passed near unanimously.
One concerned the prevention
of animal cruelty. The
other, actually a collection
of two bills, dealt with measures
aimed at Beijing for its
attempts to illegally deprive
the people of Hong Kong of
their civil rights.
Bipartisanship can occur.
There is another version
of America, not covered by
the media, desperately wishing
that the nation’s business
would start to take precedence
over party politics.
But the news media doesn’t
like that idea—it’s not controversial,
and doesn’t provide
ratings or clickbait. Nor
does it comply with its hardleft
political leanings.
There is clearly a cancer in
the news business. Recently,
the Washington Times reported
that Bloomberg News
has blatantly stated that they
would not investigate Democratic
candidates, while continuing
to examine President
Trump. “Shortly after the
billionaire Mike Bloomberg
jumped…into the 2020 race,
Bloomberg News editor-inchief
John Micklethwait said
in a staff memo that the news
division would refrain from
investigating Mr. Bloomberg,
his fi nances and his family,
describing that policy as
part of its journalism ‘tradition.’
In addition, he said,
Bloomberg News will refrain
from conducting investigations
into Mr. Bloomberg’s
Democratic rivals — but will
continue to investigate President
Trump and his administration
— and that several
Bloomberg editors and editorial
board members will
jump temporarily to the campaign.”
While dwelling almost
pathologically on any inartful
use of language or Twitter
decorum by Republicans,
extremely bizarre statement
by Democrats are barely
mentioned.
Former presidential candidate,
Senator, Secretary
of State and First Lady Hillary
Clinton was a virtual
production line for statements
that would have ruined
any GOP career, but she
remained largely shielded by
many key media sites. Just
one example: “Who is going
to fi nd out? These women are
trash. Nobody’s going to believe
them,” speaking of the
accusing statements made
by women her husband molested
or raped.
All of which brings former
Vice President Joe Biden
into the discussion. Biden
has a long history of truly
weird acts and comments,
which have received more
play on Saturday Night Live
then they have in establishment
news sources. His invasion
of the personal space
of females young and old has
been caught numerous times
on camera. His antics, most
notably in the vice-presidential
debate with Paul Ryan,
were outside the bounds of
any defi nition of normality.
But these have received
scant notice.
Now, however, Biden is,
according to some estimates,
a front runner for the 2020
presidential election. According
to some estimates,
he is far ahead of his rivals
in national ratings. There
are serious questions about
his mental fi tness for the position.
America has survived
presidents lacking personal
scruples (think Bill Clinton),
odd personalities (Richard
Nixon) and many who were
ineloquent. But there are serious
questions about his
mental fi tness, and that is a
whole other level of concern.
These concerns are not
just the criticism of Republicans
or conservatives, or
even his Democratic primary
opponents. (By the way, the
portrayal of Biden as a moderate
are as far off as the attempts
to characterize him
as a ‘blue collar’ guy. His
policies are solidly on the
elite left. He only looks less
radical when compared to
the most extreme elements of
his party.) They come from
individuals who one would
reasonably assume would be
fi rmly in Biden’s camp.
Biden served as President
Obama’s Vice President, and
was wholly supportive of him
and his policies. Obama’s
refusal to endorse Biden or
support his campaign in any
way speaks volumes. It gets
worse for the ex-VP. Obama
campaign strategist and key
Democrat operative David
Axelrod has been especially
critical.
Many in the media see
Biden as the strongest candidate
to defeat President
Trump, and so reporting on
the possibility of mental fi tness
issues has been light.
The barons of the media seem
to prefer partisanship to the
safety of the nation.
NYC Smoke-Free at Public
Health Solutions sponsors
Great American Smoke Out at
the Academy of Mount St. Ursula
Tobacco is still the leading
cause of preventable death
and disease. In New York
State, over 28,000 lives are
lost every year due to tobacco
dependence; over 12,000 are
from NYC alone. Despite these
numbers being on the decline,
it’s still important that smokers
receive the resources to
help them quit.
On Thursday November 21,
members of the Reality Check
Chapter at the Academy of
Mount St. Ursula celebrated
the Great American Smoke
Out along with NYC Smoke-
Free of Public Health Solutions.
Reality Check students
hosted an educational session
where students, faculty and
other members of staff heard
from the group about tobacco
companies and their negative
impact towards youth and infl
uence on youth tobacco use.
Reality Check members also
invited Jeannie Di Benedetto,
coordinator of Student Ministry
and Activities, who is also
a former smoker to talk with
students about the dangers of
tobacco use and how quitting
smoking helped changed her
life.
“When I was a smoker and
worked in residential care we
always observed the Great
American Smoke Out with
our residents. We would stop
smoking for the day and now
I’m happy that we do this
event at the Academy of Mount
St. Ursula as well,” stated Di
Benedetto
Reality Check students
also display a creative poster
board with messages and tobacco
facts from their classmates
to help encourage those
who are smokers to quit smoking
and to keep up the fi ght
against Big Tobacco.
“The tobacco industry will
always fi nd new ways to encourage
youth tobacco use
and increase the adult smoking
rates. That’s why it’s important
for our youth to use
their voice especially on days
like today where individuals
are encouraged and supported
to give up smoking for
a 24-hour period in hopes that
they can stop smoking all together”,
stated Vonetta Dudley,
Bronx Youth Engagement
manager. “Programs such as
NYC Smoke-Free and Reality
Check are vital in this fi ght
against Big Tobacco”.
The NYS comprehensive
tobacco control programs use
evidence-based practices, policy
driven and cost effective
approaches to decrease youth
tobacco initiation and support
current tobacco users to quit.
Great strides have been made
in combatting the tobacco epidemic,
but more work needs to
be done to reduce the signifi -
cantly higher smoking rates
among disparate populations
in the Bronx and throughout
the state.
For more information on
NYC Smoke-Free or to lend
support in ending NYC’s devastating
tobacco epidemic
please visit www.NYCSmoke-
Free.org.
/www.NYCSmoke-
/www.NYCSmoke-Free.org
/www.NYCSmoke-Free.org
/Free.org