FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 6, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 29
Victoria’s
SECRETS
Victoria
SCHNEPSYUNIS
vschneps@schnepsmedia.com
Having known Eric
Adams since his time as
a State Senator and as
Brooklyn Borough President, I
was not surprised, but rather
delighted to hear his fi rst message
to the public and his team
of offi cials: SHOW UP and GSD
(Get Stuff Done)!
I remember one of my fi rst
Power People podcast interviews
where I asked former Forest
Hills Gardens resident Peter
Kalikow, then the president of
the MTA, what advice he would
give our listeners to be as successful
as he is. He simply said,
“show up!”
As a business owner I learned
over the years how true those
simple words are.
By nature and by action, I’m a
person who is driven to “GSD.”
From listening to Eric’s mantra
throughout the campaign trail to
his fi rst formal City Hall message,
I heard that same message.
I know he will do everything in
his power to fi ght through the
city’s bureaucracy and “GSD!”
With his appointments of
experienced talented “doers,”
it is clear that Eric is a man
on a mission, and based on his
NEW MAYOR IN ACTION:
GET STUFF DONE
history of achieving his goals, we
will be the benefactors.
At Eric’s November Election
Night victory party at the
Brooklyn Marriot’s Grand
Ballroom, I had a chance to chat
with Eric’s brother Bernie, a former
police offi cer who served in
Queens.
Bernie shared with me that his
brother Eric, as a young man,
told his blessed mother, “Mom,
I’m going into the police force
and will become a captain. Th en
I’m running for State Senate.
Th en I’m running for Brooklyn
Borough President and then I’m
going to be Mayor!” It all came
true!
He’s a man with a mission who
has accomplished every goal he
has set for himself and he will be
a game changer for our city! He’s
the right man at the right time in
our history!
Over New Year’s weekend, I
was inspired by a quote I found
from Gloria Steinem that is
as appropriate today as it was
when she wrote it in her 1983
book, “Outrageous Acts and
Everyday Rebellions.”
“If the shoe doesn’t fi t, must
we change the foot?”
Steinem argued that the country’s
prejudiced policies and sexist
culture oft en fail to protect its
people, and that instead of trying
to change each individual
to fi t the mold, the system
itself needed a radical
transformation.
Today, I think we need
to have both people and
our government changing.
Mayor Adams is set
up to make changes, but
sadly, day aft er day, we
see people fearful of our
changing world.
While watching my
Sunday morning news
programs, I was startled
when a reporter
shared the analysis
done by the University
of Chicago of the people
in the mob that violently
rioted through our
sacred Capitol building
in Washington, D.C.,
against the results of the
last presidential election,
claiming it was fraudulent.
Th e study showed the
majority of those rioters
were from areas that
were changing demographically,
and had been
Eric is sworn in during the New Year’s
celebrations holding his late mom’s image.
economically challenged
during the past downturns.
Obviously, they feared change.
Fear of people who are diff erent
from ourselves was a challenge
I faced decades ago.
My husband and I were visiting
the Willowbrook State
School on Staten Island to consider
their Infant Rehabilitation
Program for our darling 2-yearold
daughter Lara.
While waiting in the lobby for
our appointment, we saw for the
fi rst time of our lives a young
woman with Down syndrome,
then minutes later, a man curled
into a wheelchair drooling.
My husband Murray and I
silently looked at each other and
simultaneously got up to sit outside
in the garden. Our discomfort
seeing people who looked so
diff erent from our beautiful baby
frightened us.
It was a lesson I’ve never forgotten.
Each of our following visits
to Willowbrook began to take
down the curtain of our discomfort.
But it took a while to begin
to feel comfortable around people
who looked so diff erent.
Learning that lesson 50 years
ago made me realize how critically
important it is to understand
the prejudices I experienced
decades before.
Lara taught me great lessons,
one of which was that I had
been uncomfortable with people
whom I didn’t know.
I wish I could invite the world
to visit Queens and walk through
the streets of our many diverse
neighborhoods living side by
side peacefully.
For example, in Jackson
Heights, on 74th Street, it feels
and looks and smells like you are
in Mumbai. Th en, walking down
Roosevelt Avenue, you see the
Spanish communities have created
clubs, restaurants, bodegas
and stores. Th en just a few blocks
west, the Asian world has created
shops for their community featuring
their locales’ specialities.
Flushing has become a prominent
destination for the city’s
Asian population and is home
to a plethora of great restaurants,
shops, hotels and Flushing
High School, where 130 languages
are spoken. Now, Queens is
home to the city’s biggest and
best “Chinatown.”
I love walking down those
streets, passing from one world
into another.
Queens is America in a microcosm.
Th e “World’s Borough” is a
symbol for what our roots are: A
nation of immigrants.
Our world is ever changing,
and while it will never be the
same, it can be better.
I await the better days for our
city and for each of us. Mayor
Adams can make it so.
Cheers to a year like no other
and may it be the best year yet!
Eric brings a renewed sense of optimism.
The U.S. Capitol
building under siege.
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