Our new President Trump, who called Queens his home, is looking to put his stamp on the country and the world.
I’d like to invite him back to his roots to visit our international borough. What makes Queens great is our peaceful diversity, living side by side with our neighbors. What makes America great is our diversity. We are interdependent with each other and my faith is that President Trump sees that and will assure us all that diversity is what will continue to make us great!
I was so proud of my daughter Elizabeth who traveled by car with her 5- and 7-year-olds to march in solidarity with other women on Saturday.
It may have been partly a pity party for the loss of Hillary as the first woman to hold the highest office of our land, but it was to me a statement of strength of woman power and their commitment to their hopes and dreams on many issues. Interestingly, not just across the country but around the world, the physical presence of millions of people sent a message. I will forget the rhetoric but remember the diverse concerns.
Now, how do we harness this striking step in history and make it a movement with legs to carry the message forward?
President Trump is president for all of us and I wish him enormous success because his success will be ours. Let’s raise our voices and prayers to see that happens for all of us. God’s speed!!
Getting Away from It All!
Off I am on the picturesque island of St. Maarten, just over three hours away on Jet Blue, but feeling like another world. I’m sitting on the white, soft, sandy beach overlooking the Caribbean Sea surrounded by stately, stunning, tall, majestic palm trees gently swaying in the light breeze. It’s an island shared by the Dutch and French, with the boundaries created out of a war between the two countries and settled by splitting the little heaven on earth.
I landed at the new airport on the Dutch side and drove to my villa on the French side on a curving road that was one lane each way. The demarcation between the two countries is marked by flags on the road and a gentle hill.
I had been to the island two decades ago with my beloved fiancé Nat and had sweet memories of my time on the island. So as I drove through the “two-country island,” I felt déjà vu. So much was the same.
The Dutch side is filled with high rise hotels, condos and casinos, and dotted with multiple restaurants and many marinas filled with yachts. The French side, which is more laid back, is lusher with vegetation, no casinos and few neon lights.
My time here is filled with lazy days reading the books I never find time to read (since I read three daily newspapers plus my own), sitting on the many beaches on both sides of the island, dinners at diverse restaurants and trips to the casinos. I am gratefully having a wonderful break from reality!
Mentoring at James Madison High School
I wrote about how Matilda Cuomo visited my alma mater James Madison High School in Brooklyn to create a Mentoring USA program with Principal Jodie Cohen. However, I forgot to mention the most remarkable public servant former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman and philanthropist businesswoman Linda DeSabato, who also graduated from the school of Judge Judy and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and multiple Nobel prize winners!
