20 THE COURIER SUN • MARCH 23, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM Helen Marshall remembered at Queens Borough Hall atrium named in her honor BY GINA CONTEH editorial@qns.com @QNS Those impacted by the spirit of Helen M. Marshall gathered on Sunday, March 19, to honor the former borough president’s life at the cultural center named in her honor at Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens. Marshall died earlier this month at the age of 87. She served three terms as the first African-American and second woman to be elected to the office of Queens borough president. Her career and life in public service of over 40 years was dedicated to improving the lives of her neighbors around Queens. “Most of us here knew Helen for many years. We celebrate her numerous accomplishments and triumphs,” former Mayor David Dinkins said about Marshall. “She touched the lives of more people than she could ever know.” This celebration of life encompassed loving stories of the impact Marshall had on community leaders, government officials and those involved in the programs she implemented in Queens. “She just blazed the trail when it came to integration and when it came to equal rights and when it came to making sure her children and children who came after them would have the best education that the city could give,” said current Queens Borough President Melinda Katz. Marshall’s dedication to uplifting the community began long before her involvement in Queens’ government. She was a schoolteacher for eight years and became the first director of the Langston Hughes Library after creating it in 1969. Marshall was commended for the work she performed to better the education and facilities for children in Queens. After stints in the State Assembly and City Council, Marshall was elected Queens borough president in 2001. She worked to revamp Queens libraries; Marshall dedicated up to $132 million of her capital and expense money for libraries, specifically for children’s programs. Cassandra Wilkins, a student in Queens, said that she remembers all the programs created for children in the libraries of Queens. “Everything was just better,” Wilkins said. “We had so much more to do after school and I know without these programs I would not be in college studying to get a degree.” Marshall was also remembered for her passion and commitment toward the people she diligently served in Queens. Her former colleagues recollected on the personal touch Marshall had when it came to helping people around the county. Councilman Barry Grodenchik recalled, “You could not walk down the streets of East Elmhurst without her stopping to talk to every single person on the block.” Former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman added, “Helen, she was different. She was never too busy to talk to people about their problems… She sat there with patience and a generous heart, and tried to find solutions to the problems everyone had.” Many in attendance also thanked Helen Marshall’s family for sharing her with the community. Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry presented Helen Marshall’s grandsons with a letters from Governor Andrew Cuomo, Councilmen Jumaane Williams and I. Daneek Miller, and Public Advocate Letitia James. A Trumped Up Budget for 2018 Last week, billionaire President Donald Trump unveiled his 2018 federal budget proposal. Not surprisingly, for someone who’s rhetoric has espoused fear – whether it be racist or xenophobic – and a need to protect oneself from “the other,” Trump plans to pour lots of money into defense while cutting funding to just about every other area. Trump’s proposed budget would take money out of domestic programs for science, health, the arts, infrastructure, job training, environmental protection, justice, indigent defense and housing, where a few hundred thousand dollars can mean the deference between success or failure, health or illness, productivity or idleness for entire communities and towns. Meanwhile Trump will drop $54 billion into the military, a pittance for the Pentagon’s $580 billion dollar budget. Although Congress ultimately decides how to fund the government, the President is the leader of his party, and it is probable a public program-hating Congress will take him up on many of his cuts. It’s not unusual that Trump’s budget would seek to undercut the Federal government’s role in providing support for vulnerable communities. His advisor Steve Bannon has been boasting about his intention to “dismantle the administrative state.” But in its aggressive stances against funding housing programs and research into climate change, it is almost as though he had New York City and Southeast Queens particularly in his crosshairs. As Mayor de Blasio announced on Thursday, March 16, the Trump budget would cut NYCHA’s capital funding by $220 million, nearly two-thirds. It would lop off another $150 million from NYCHA’s operating budget, or about 13 percent. That is, around the cost of three F-35 fighter jets, when experts estimate NYCHA needs $17.1 billion for maintenance and repairs. These cuts would wreak havoc with Southeast Queen’s public housing. No doubt Trump and Bannon imagine they are cutting moochers off from free stuff. However, the true victims are working families coping with outrageous, inflated housing costs, and the elderly and disabled who require supportive housing. Progress in combating climate change was slow enough under President Obama. Trump’s current budget would halt it entirely, and even undo some of the progress that has been made. It would cut 19 percent of the EPA’s budget, reduce Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan, and pull $100 million out of already meager climate change research funds in the US and abroad. Overall, it would reduce the EPA 31 percent, and take an additional $250 million from coastal research to help mitigate the effects of rising seas. Hurricane Sandy showed New Yorkers how vulnerable their city is to rising ocean levels. We don’t have a few more years to wait to start fighting climate change. The challenge is here and now. On the Rockaway Peninsula, the residents of the Beach Channel Drive, Redfern and Hammels Houses will now find themselves twice under attack: by the ocean, and by a President who sees their lives and safety as budget liabilities. The Trump budget throws the baby out with the bathwater, chopping efficient and inefficient programs with the same ax. I believe we deserve a more carefully tailored approach to our country’s diverse needs. Southeast Queens demands that we dump the Trump budget. THE IMPACT Photo via Twitter/@MayorsCAU Former Councilman Archie Spigner addresses the crowd at the March 19 memorial service for Helen Marshall.
SC03232017
To see the actual publication please follow the link above