8 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 26, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM LOVE YOUR EYES COME IN AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR SPECIALS Queens takes part in the Women’s March in Manhattan BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected]/ @AngelaMatua The Women’s March on NYC took place on Jan. 21 in Manhattan, and Queens was well represented among the more than 400,000 people who marched through the streets, joining similar rallies across the globe. The march, organized to prompt “civil rights for every human regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, religion or creed,” according to its website, was a sister march to the main event in Washington, D.C. Thousands of women and men held signs and marched from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 48th Street and Third Avenue to Trump Tower at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. Among the thousands of marchers were people from Queens, including Councilman Daniel Dromm, who organized a trip for a group of Jackson Heights residents to attend, and Center for the Women of New York, which is based in Kew Gardens. “I was proud to march alongside hundreds of my Jackson Heights neighbors at the Women’s March on NYC,” Dromm said. “Our contingent was truly diverse and included children a n d s e n i o r s , immigrants, Muslims and members of the LGBTQ community. Together we sent a loud and clear message to the Trump administration that we will never stop fighting against their hateful agenda.” Riding the 7 train into the city, s t r a p - hanger s could see hundreds of people waiting to board on the Manhattan-bound platform at the Court Square-23rd Street station and other stops along the route. Photos by Angela Matua and Dean Moses 2/23/17 2/23/17 2/23/17 2/23/17 2/23/17 Politics and more Inauguration Attendance a Mixed Bag for Queens Pols BY MIKE FRICCHIONE Washington D.C. could have easily been mistaken for a giant parking lot on Black Friday last week, as supporters of the President, as well as his many detractors, gathered for the coronation of 45. However, the 45th President didn’t draw the type of Congressional support that our nation has historically seen from a peaceful transfer of power. In fact, some 67 Democratic Members of Congress, that’s more than one-third of House Democrats, decided to skip this year’s inauguration. And of that 67, three of Queens’ five House Representatives also snubbed the President to be. Representatives Grace Meng, Gregory Meeks and Nydia Velaquez, who represent either all or parts of Queens, cited the tone and tenor of Trump’s campaign as reasons for not attending. “The President-elect must get the message that his antagonistic and divisive comments are unacceptable,” said Meng in a statement. “We cannot tolerate attacks on women, minorities or a civil rights icon.” Other Democratic representatives chose to strike a more conciliatory tone, at least for the inauguration. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and recently elected Congressman Tom Suozzi saw attending the inauguration not as sign of personal affirmation of the President and his policies, but as respect for the country. “This is not about Tom Suozzi and Donald Trump,” Suozzi said. “It is the United States Congress and the President.” Similarly, Maloney, who campaigned for Hilary Clinton all across the country during the campaign and who represents a district that maintains the highest concentration of Clinton supporters anywhere in the country, attended the inauguration “out of respect for our country’s peaceful transition of power and our democratic institutions.” The next day, however, she protested in New York and displayed her resolve against many of the President’s policies. The 2016 presidential campaign will certainly go down in history as one of the dirtiest and most divisive campaigns in our nation’s history, but it’s not without precedent. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, for example, launched attacks that almost pale in comparison to what we heard last year on the campaign trail. Nasty attacks like these continued throughout the 1800 and 1900’s and even led to the expression “politics ain’t bean bag.” A part of our nation’s healing process after major elections has always been to forget the campaign rhetoric after the campaign. It’s not just a political phenomena, it’s also very human. And yes, it has historically began by Congress attending the inauguration.
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