LOCAL NEWS OP-ED
The liberating
power of hope
BY KEVIN PARKER
With the national debate
about voter
rights making daily
headline news, I cannot help
but take a more than casual
moment in contemplating
the life and legacy of Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. on his
91st birthday.
Now more than ever as we
battle serious issues such as
a global health pandemic, a
crime epidemic, police brutality,
the rollback of Civil
Rights and voter rights legislation
and high unemployment,
it’s vital that we lean
into Dr. King’s message of
working together as he exhibited
in his words and actions.
Moreover, we must
also embrace his heart’s
message of hope.
For even as Dr. King stood
on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington
D.C. and challenged America
to look into its soul, there
were no indicators that America
was going to change. During
his lifetime, as he passionately
recited his dream that
one day “little black boys and
black girls will be able to join
hands with little white boys
and white girls as sisters and
brothers,” there was nothing
in the America of his day to
assure him that this day would
come. In fact, to the architects
of the Civil Rights Movement,
“we shall overcome . . .” someday
was real although there
were no concrete signs that
“someday” will come.
This is not a dilemma singular
to Dr. King but rather a
common experience for most
freedom fi ghters. Like Dr.
King, the freedoms for which
many have fought were not
realized in their lifetime but
after their deaths. However,
A B train drives down snowy tracks in Brooklyn. Trains roll back
B & Z subway line return, but where’s the W?
the time being, MTA offi cials
said Tuesday.
“Fortunately, the number of
people unavailable due to COVID
in the last few days has
diminished, therefore we are
able to put all but one of the
previously suspended subway
lines back in action,” said MTA
acting chairperson and chief
executive offi cer Janno Lieber
in a statement.
The suspended lines were all
on routes covered by other train
lines — W line commuters can
still take the N, Q, and R trains
instead — and MTA maintained
at least 90% service across all
its 472 stations, according to the
head of subways.
“It is a credit to the subways
team, those who work
behind the scenes and on the
rails, that we are able to navigate
the surge and hope to
restore service to the W line
soon as well,” said Demetrius
MTA/TWITTER
Crichlow in a statement.
The agency went from 14%
of its train operator and conductor
workforce being sick with
COVID to 7%, Lieber added,
but did not specify how many
are currently out sick at the
67,000-strong MTA, which is
one of the few workforces left
in New York City without a
vaccination requirement.
During the recent Omicron
wave, MTA offi cials have repeatedly
shied away from giving
precise infection rates among
its ranks or how many workers
called out sick due to the virus.
More than one-in-fi ve, or
21%, of subway operators
and conductors were out sick,
amounting to some 1,300 workers,
the New York Times reported
on Jan. 6.
An MTA spokesman did
not immediately provide current
stats on worker infections
and shortages.
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they moved from a deeper
consciousness that can only
be described as … hope.
It was the strength of this
hope that carried Dr. King
through his 13 years of activism
and struggle for racial and
social equality and economic
empowerment. He lived,
moved, and acted on the hope
that “an oppressed people cannot
remain oppressed forever.”
In much the same way,
we who cherish his ideals
are challenged to hold on to
our hope. Though Dr. King
was not privileged to live the
dream, we acknowledge the
gains that have been made
through the Herculean efforts
of the forbearers of the
60’s. We cannot take lightly
the legal protection in the
areas of public accommodations,
housing, schools, and
transportation systems.
Even so, we cannot turn
a blind eye to the fact that in
America we still have 37.2
million poor people, including
12.5 million children, even
though our GDP is double digits
higher than it was in 1968
when Dr. King launched the
Poor People’s Campaign. Nor
can we ignore the fact that
the gap between the rich and
the poor in the United States
is at its highest ever recorded.
Or that America has become
the world’s leading jailer with
a prison industrial complex
housing 2.3 million people. Or
that corporate greed and our
government’s failed economic
policies have all but bankrupt
our country.
For we cannot trumpet
Dr. King’s ideals of nonviolence
and reconciliation
without acknowledging his
prophetic anger.
State Sen. Kevin Parker
represents Brooklyn’s 21st
Senate district.
Member of the National
Newspaper Association
Member of the
New York Press Association
Member of the Minority
Women Business Enterprise
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
B and Z trains are back on
track, but New Yorkers
can’t get the W just yet.
The MTA returned some subway
lines on Jan. 19 that have
been cancelled for weeks due to
worker shortages caused by the
COVID-19 winter surge.
The B and Z trains hit the
rails for the fi rst time in 2022
after the Metropolitan Transpiration
Authority suddenly
pulled those two routes and
the W line ahead of the morning
rush on Dec. 30 due to
transit staff calling out sick en
masse amid the outbreak of
the Omicron variant.
The agency also brought
back express service to the 6
and 7 trains, which were cut
on Jan. 3, along with rush hour
A trains to Rockaway Park for
the fi rst time since Dec. 27,
but the W train is still out for
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