4 The Queens Courier • tribute • july 4, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com ▶tribute to helen marshall LOOKING BACK ON THREE TERMS: Helen Marshall, a faithful servant to Queens BY TERENCE M. CULLEN Borough President Helen Marshall has always seen herself as a public servant. Her chief of staff, Alexandra Rosa, said her boss has worked for every person she represents. “She never forgets where she came from and the fact that it’s about people,” Rosa said. “Always about people.” Marshall, the first African-American Queens Borough President, will exit office in December because of term limits. She leaves behind a legacy based on the ideas of cultural understanding and tolerance. When she came into office in January 2002, the city was still recovering from the September 11 attacks. People and religions were being misunderstood in the wake of the terror. Marshall established the Queens General Assembly — a tribute to the United Nations, which she does not fail to mention began in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The General Assembly has promoted understanding, down to the significance behind a culture’s holidays. Something like this is particularly important in the nation’s most diverse county, she said. “There’s a feeling among all of the members that this is their country, too,” Marshall said. “And I mean that it’s a really nice feeling they have about everything. If they have a problem, they give us their problem, we tackle it.” Borough President Helen Marshall has always been a staunch advocate for the borough. Councilmember Karen Koslowitz, who was deputy Borough President from 2002 to 2009, said Marshall’s timing on establishing the General Assembly, and the details it worked on, came when people needed it most. “That was a magnificent thing to bring all the different ethnicities together to learn about the holidays and the food,” she said. Marshall, like many in the borough, was not born in Queens. But she has still made it her home. She and her family moved here from the Bronx in 1957, first settling in Corona, and then Photos Courtesy Dominick Totino Photography East Elmhurst. She became involved in the civil rights movement, Rosa said, and would speak to Malcolm X when the activist lived in Elmhurst shortly before his death in 1965. The desire for better understanding has been a strong part of Marshall’s tenure, and remains an active one to this day. Marshall has hosted LGBT Pride Day every year since coming to office. It was one of the civil policies she saw the borough needed. Her most recent one coincidentally took place on June 26 — hours after the Supreme Court ruled
QC07042013
To see the actual publication please follow the link above