Community Queens Ta kes Photos Queens residents join “Indivisible” action group to hold Congress accountable during the Trump era By Angela Matua AWoodside resident who has been involved in local politics for most of her career is now on a mission to get her Queens neighbors active in voicing their needs to Congress. Elenor Denker has served on Community Board 2, acted as the chief of staff under former Borough President Claire Shulman, served as the assistant commissioner of housing and community renewal under former Mayor Mario Cuomo and ran Woodside on the Move for 10 years. Now she’s involved in the nonprofit group known as Indivisible; it was started by former Congressional aides to educate every day people on how to organize and advocate for specific policies that were being discussed in Congress. Denker learned about it while watching MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” in January. The aides released the Indivisible Guide shortly after President Donald Trump was elected. The guide started as a “poorly formatted, typo-filled Google Doc” that outlined how the Tea Party organized against former President Barack Obama and a list of successful advocacy tactics, according to the website. The guide was downloaded more than a million times and now, all of the 435 congressional districts in the country have at least two Indivisible chapters, according to Denker. 34 March 2017 i LIC COURIER i www.qns.com Denker said there are 150 people signed up for the Indivisible Queens mailing list and that the group has a call every two to three weeks to discuss new issues that have risen in terms of legislation, exchange information about research and talk about events happening in the city such as rallies or protests. “I’ve been involved in government and politics for most of my career, and I can’t believe this is the country that I loved and I am not willing to let him have it without a hell of a fight,” Denker said. “I feel some days, I feel like a soldier defending my country. His view of what America is and mine are so completely at odds that I felt that I had to take a stand.” Denker said most of the members of Indivisible Queens are “every day people” who have not been involved in politics before. Doris P., a Queens resident and Filipino native, came to the United States in 2008 to make more money to support her parents and son. She is applying for citizenship in June and declined to give her last name. She’s finishing her degree at La- Guardia Community College and joined Indivisible Queens because she is concerned that President Trump’s policies will harm immigrant communities. “He just doesn’t get it,” she said in a statement. “I am concerned that my Filipino community will be greatly harmed by his policies.” by Anthony Giudice/QNS
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