The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

17th District

Congressional Candidate Mondaire Jones Describes his Progressive Platform for the 17th District

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Nyack resident Mondaire Jones, a 33-year-old attorney, calls himself “the only progressive candidate running in this race.”

Mondaire Jones Photo by Laura Brett

Jones, who grew up in Rockland County and graduated from Spring Valley High School, is running on the party’s left flank. He supports a range of progressive initiatives, from single-payer health care and a “Green New Deal” to a wealth tax, $15 minimum wage and student debt forgiveness. His campaign has earned the endorsement of two former presidential candidates, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro.

Jones was born to a single mother, growing up in Spring Valley’s Section 8 housing. He recalls accompanying his grandmother to work cleaning homes because his family could not afford childcare.

“For me, policy is personal,” he says. “You listen to the other candidates, all they talk about is Donald Trump. But even before Donald Trump, this economy was not working for the vast majority of American households.”

Jones sees dealing with the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis as the top priority facing the next Congress. He proposes payouts of $2,000 a month to each adult and $1,000 a month for children for a six-month period in response to the virus.

“People are going to go hungry and die, or get evicted, and have their illnesses go untreated if they do not get immediate cash assistance,” he says. “So that is a fundamental way in which COVID has changed my priorities.”

Jones sees this cash assistance as a temporary solution, and does not favor a permanent Universal Basic Income, or UBI. But his platform comprises a host of ambitious and costly proposals. He is the only candidate calling for single-payer health care, or Medicare for all, under which the federal government would cover virtually all costs for the $3.6 trillion health care sector. He calls for a one-time forgiveness for all college debt, which totals close to $1.6 trillion, and free public college, which has been pegged at around $2.2 trillion over ten years in similar plans. Universal childcare has been estimated to run another $70 billion per year.

Jones acknowledges that taxes would go up for the majority of taxpayers but says that for 95% of Americans the tax hike needed for single-payer healthcare will be more than offset by savings on healthcare costs. On net, he sees single-payer resulting in lower total costs. Experts are split on this – the Urban Institute estimated single-payer would increase total spending by $7 trillion over a decade, while economist Gerald Friedman estimates savings of more than $6 trillion over the same period.

Jones echoes Warren’s call for a wealth tax of 2% on savings over $50 million and 3% on wealth over $1 billion. He also believes capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income.

In addition to calling for a Green New Deal, Jones supports legislation to phase out large factory farms.

“The way factory farms are run present safety issues for workers and consumers, and sustainability issues for our environment,” he says.

Finally, to combat police brutality, Jones calls on his website for a range of reforms including an end to qualified immunity for officers.

“We must honor the memories of people killed by the police by listening to the demands of their family members for justice, ensuring that law enforcement officers are held accountable, and moving towards a society where the institution of policing plays less of a role in black and brown communities,” he states on the site. 

For additional information and to follow Mondaire Jones’ campaign, visit: https://mondaireforcongress.com

The Importance of the U.S. Post Office

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My name is Maddie Stone. I am 13-years-old. As a kid, I know how special it feels to open the mailbox and discover a birthday card, party invitation, or a note of some kind. In fact, this spring, my English teacher at Fox Lane Middle School posted an optional word game assignment on our online learning platform. It was a lazy Friday, so I decided to play for fun. I did really well, and earned the highest score. It was cool, but I didn’t think much of it. A few days later, I opened my mailbox to a surprise. It was a letter from my English teacher. I tore open the envelope and found the nicest note congratulating me on my score (even better, there was a lollipop attached!). During a time of substantial stress and worry, it was truly nice to receive something so kind. But here is my point: this note would not have been nearly as special over email.

“We deliver packages, we deliver prescriptions, we deliver, for example, masks, which we need to cope with the pandemic, and we also are a way of communicating,” commented Millwood Post Office Postmaster General Susan Scholl. “Someone can communicate with a family member or a loved one being that we are under the strict guidelines to be quarantined.”

Unfortunately, too many of us take the U.S. Post Office for granted even though so much we should appreciate arrives in the mail–life-saving medical equipment, critical paychecks, letters from far away relatives, and so much more. Almost everything we need can be mailed to us in an envelope or a cardboard box. This is especially important to poor and elderly communities that may not have access to technology millions of other Americans enjoy without much consideration. The fact of the matter is the post office provides us with many services we may not be sufficiently thankful for, and it’s up to us to advocate for its continued support as the agency faces threat. A large part of this threat is that many people have found technological substitutes for tasks they may have once completed over mail, but it does not help that politicians are constantly belittling the post office. President Donald Trump told reporters in April the post office is “a joke.” He has also threatened to block the Postal Service from COVID-19 relief funds unless it begins charging large customers a whopping four times as much as current package rates. Needless to say, blocking the funds would be catastrophic.

“It is always the case that reaching voters by mail is essential even more so now when greeting voters at their doors or at train stations is inadvisable, but also the mail right now plays an exceedingly important role in running our elections for this upcoming primary,” observed David Buchwald, 93rd district state assemblyman, who together with candidates Asha Castleberry, David Carlucci, Dr. Evelyn Farkas, Allison Fine, Adam Schleifer, Mondaire Jones and Catherine Parker are the Democrat candidates vying for Congresswoman Nita Lowey’s 17th District chair. According to the League of Women Voters of New Castle, (LWVNC) there are also two candidates in the Republican Primary for the 17th–Yehudis Gottesfeld and Maureen McArdle Schulman. Specifics for candidate events as well as links to voting information, she added, can be found on the LWVNC website:  http://www.lwvnewcastle.org

There are so many reasons to save the post office beyond enabling us to vote in November, as critically important as the voting reason most definitely is. For one, about 470,000 people are career employees at the U.S.P.S. These are people’s jobs we are talking about. Also, perhaps the most obvious reason: we still need the Postal Service! People argue all companies are going entirely digital, but this simply is not true. Many companies, including large corporations we have grown to rely on such as Amazon, still depend on the post office; and by extension, so do we, the customers.

In thinking about which local business owner to interview for this piece, I realized I couldn’t think of an area entrepreneur who banks on mail service more heavily or for a more vital product than the woman who published the very article you’re currently reading.

“Basically, if the U.S Post Office closed,” said Grace Bennett, publisher/editor of The Inside Press, “it could mean the end of at least the print end of my business.” The magazines have always been a huge ‘selling point,’ in their ability to reach its audience by mail, and at a reduced shipping cost,” explained Bennett.

In addition, direct mail catalogues and flyers on everything and everyone from dry cleaning to jewelers would impact business strategies perhaps to such a degree where  the business owner may worry they may not adapt their business model adequately or in enough time if the agency were to close or shrink to an unrecognizably small size.

“The lives of the American people have changed dramatically over the last two months,” said Northeast Area U.S. Postal Service Spokesperson George B. Flood. “In the midst of the constant upheaval, one constant has been our employees’ commitment to fulfilling the vital public service mission of the Postal Service. Whether it be the letters or packages containing much needed medicine, goods, benefit checks, test kits, or important information, postal employees continued to deliver every day for the American people.”

Hopefully these inspirational words from Flood will motivate people to support the Postal Service, and, along with it, every business, organization and individual that relies on such a critical agency.

NY17 Candidate Allison Fine Emphasizes a Commitment to Empowering People

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My interview with Allison Fine, congressional candidate for the 17th District, took place late in February and was slated to run as part of the mix inside May Mother’s Day editions prior to the print editions being canceled. So here it is for our online edition, one in a series of profiles of congressional candidates for the 17th District we have been presenting. 

During this period of quarantining and isolation too, if there is one thing I’ll remember most from speaking with Allison Fine it was her immediately relaying to me her #1 passion: to make sure every single person is known, seen and heard. “So much of what has pulled us apart in the last 30 years is people feeling invisible, unheard and powerless.”

Allison Fine, candidate for the 17th District  PHOTO by Grace Bennett

Fine has authored three books relating to harnessing technology for social good. “My entire career has been about giving people the tools and the power to manage their own life,” she said, noting she initially focused on helping nonprofits define and measure their success. More recently, she has worked with the Gates Foundation on the impact of artificial intelligence and automation on social change. As chair of the National Board of NARAL, the Pro-Choice America Foundation, she also sought to give people the tools to have autonomy over their own lives.

“Over the last 30 years we have seen the collapse of the middle class, and that is why our politics don’t align with our people, why we don’t have the political will for common sense gun control and reproductive freedom,” Fine said, noting the resultant loss of accountability. She believes that her focus on giving people that voice and power makes her unique in this race.

“It is that kind of building and shifting power to give more people a voice and the ability to control their own life that I know best in this race. So, this is not a moment in time to elect people who are career politicians and have worked inside this system – this is a time to have people who have very different experiences building and creating power outside to take us into the next chapter,” Fine argues.

Policy Priorities

The mother of three (her children are 24, 22 and 19), she is excited about trying to pursue change now that she is an empty nester. Fine is particularly passionate about women’s issues, dedicated to enabling women to control their own futures, both physically and financially. “The Republican Party is centered in controlling women; if it’s not abortions, it’s birth control or making sure we don’t get paid equally or we don’t have paid family leave,” she said. Citing the fate of Roe v. Wade and the realities in many states, she adds that “this is a fight worth having and winning, because over 70% of people in every state of the country believe in safer legal access to abortion. We need to build the political power and will to move past this bottleneck to full women’s equality,” she added, pointing to the Women’s Freedom agenda detailed on her website.

Fine is also dedicated to increasing job security. “So many people feel like the ground is moving beneath their feet economically.” She notes the uncertainty regarding benefits for increasing numbers who are contractors, freelancers, or “gig” workers, as well as everyone’s concerns about retirement and their children’s futures. She worries that her own kids will never be able to afford to live in communities like where they grew up (Irvington) or where she lives now (Sleepy Hollow, where she was raised).

Fine points out that with a quarter of NY17 LatinX, immigration must be addressed, noting the current administration’s “shameful” terrorization of both the documented and undocumented. “We need comprehensive immigration reform, a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people living in the shadows, we need to protect the DACA kids. We also need to hold accountable companies exploiting undocumented workers. I would love us to become a country where don’t just accept immigrants, we welcome them, as wonderful participants in our society, as people starting businesses, raising their families, working very hard, as those are the principles our country is built on,” Fine said.

A former synagogue president, Fine is also committed to fighting the rising wave of antisemitism and hate crimes. She points to the “separating” of communities, and advocates for having community mediators to bring different groups together in creative ways to increase understanding.

Noting too how technology has aided isolation of people and communities, Fine adds that “we are at the beginning of what I call “Online Onland Intersection.” As a legislator, she would push to hold social media companies accountable for misusing and selling personal data and failing to keep people safe online. She also points to co-working spaces as an example of maintaining the need for communal contact even while pursuing individual business interests.

Relatedly, Fine says “we desperately need people in Washington who understand automation and what is about to happen to our jobs, to our people, to our communities,” and calls automation an “equal opportunity disruptor” that will result in job losses everywhere – Wall Street, paralegals, the medical profession, and service industries. “Across the board, we need to make sure we have people who are making sure technology is harnessed ethical ways, that people are in charge of the technology and not the other way around and that we are investing heavily in workforce development because people are going have to create different kinds of occupations.” She added that access to capital, especially for traditionally overlooked groups like women and people of color, is crucial to create new businesses to support these new realities.

Fine also agrees that “the climate crisis is our existential crisis of the time,” and that the federal government “must invest in innovations that become commercial enterprises, to protect communities from rising temperatures, rising water, to vary the grid, and create jobs.” And she finds the lack of common sense gun control “confounding,” supported by the majority of the country but the inaction political.

A Crowded Field, With Many Women

Fine is impressed with how smart and well-intentioned her competitors are for this congressional seat. She is proud that so many women are running: “It’s awfully important who is at the table.. It matters for what issues are at the top of the agenda,” she said, pointing to countries like Finland that have a legislative majority of women that focus on issues like equal pay.

“Last year I created an effort called The Network of Elected Women because women are getting elected at record levels, at the municipal level around the country, county, town and village. We have 25 women here in Westchester who come together once a month and they support one another and they learn together and some of them are then taking the next step,” Fine said, describing the “virtual” meetings of the group. She added that New Castle Town Supervisor Ivy Pool has been a part of the council from the beginning, and it convinced her to run for Supervisor after being on the Town Board, an example of the need to convince women to take the next step for leadership positions.

“A couple of weeks ago, Goldman Sachs said it wouldn’t take any company public that didn’t have one female board member. Really? One? That’s how low the bar is set. Why isn’t it a third? Why isn’t it two-thirds? One?”

Personal Role Models and Being A Fighter

Fine points to her own mother and grandmother as her role models. Her grandmother, eventually fired for leaving her Lower East Side sweatshop sewing machine to march for suffrage, had arrived in the US in 1905 at the age of five on a boat from Lithuania, but found the courage to be an early fundraiser for Israel and fight for women’s rights while raising three sons. Fine describes her own mother as an introvert who found the courage to run for chair of the Westchester/Putnam Girl Scouts and eventually the Tarrytown school board, where she fought for children’s education for 10 years.

From them, Fine became a fighter: “you have to lift people up and move them forward. That’s what I do – I build communities and move them forward every step of the way,” she said.

Visit allisonfine2020.com for more information on Allison and her policy positions.

Conversation with Chappaqua Native and National Security Expert Evelyn Farkas And Now Congressional Candidate for the 17th District

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PHOTO By Grace Bennett

An interview with the very accomplished Evelyn Farkas might have started ‘anywhere’ but we started with her raison d’etre for being ‘back in Chappaqua,’ her childhood home, and her ‘connection’ to the 17th District: “I grew up here, and I never really left… I don’t have my own nuclear family, so this is where I come back to as often as possible, for holidays and more…

“I left my town to serve my country,” she added pointedly. “I came back to serve my country,” said Farkas, whose campaign announced over $460,000 raised by the first filing deadline, just six weeks post launching.

The 52-year-old Farkas, MSNBC National Security contributor and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for President Obama, speaks proudly of her parents who raised her here–94- and 81-year old Hungarian immigrants who fled Hungary after the Communist Revolution failed. “They came to America for freedom and economic opportunity,” after moving from Manhattan’s ‘Little Hungary’ to Chappaqua when Evelyn was one month old; she and her three siblings graduated from Horace Greeley High School.

“When his ship docked in Brooklyn, my dad was 31, and he had to learn English. He knew a little from music and films, but that was all. He took odd jobs and eventually got his Master’s in Library Sciences from Columbia University. He had a Ph.D. and a law degree, so he was on track to be a judge in Hungary. My mother was 13 years younger, so when she came to the U.S. she did a year of high school and college in Oklahoma where she studied pharmacy. They moved to Westchester because he got a job as director of the Briarcliff Manor Public Library. They chose Chappaqua for the schools. I’m so grateful to this district and my schooling. When I got to college, I realized just how well prepared I was.”

I asked her what stood out the most for her in Chappaqua schools: “I learned to write really well–it was a fantastic education, starting at Grafflin elementary school. I can still sing the school song!” We shared a laugh as Farkas recited its lyrics. Greeley, she elaborated, gave her “a great start” with advanced placement in Social Studies, for example. She also recalled a guidance counselor who had a huge impact on her life; she said he helped her navigate college admissions–eventually landing at Franklin & Marshall College with a double major in government and German; she related that her mom worked at three hospitals to supplement her dad’s modest income, so that they could afford her years at F&M, from where, upon graduation, she landed a first job at the Council on Foreign Relations. She described a “massive debt” not paid off until many years later with federal assistance. Today she is on F&M’s board.

Breaking Barriers

“I do pride myself on working my way up–being self-made,” said Farkas, who after two years overseas went on to graduate school outside Boston to get a Masters and PhD at Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. While she was there, she served as a fellow for the House foreign affairs committee, and worked inside Bosnia for six months. As a Human Rights Officer, “it was the most absorbing, meaningful job I’ve had to date.” What followed: The Marine Corps hired Farkas as one of its first two women assistant professors and eventually promoted her to associate after she finished her doctorate. It was on to the Senate Armed services staff for Senator Carl Levin (“a phenomenal member”) who endorsed Farkas to represent NY-17 in Congress in the late fall.

For nearly a decade, Farkas worked on “a whole swath of issues… combating terrorism but also narcotics, Asia Pacific policy, export control, and homeland defense after 9/11.” This led to a key appointment on a post 9/11 commission “getting to the bottom of the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.” She also worked at the American Security Project founded by Senator John Kerry with whom she worked closely with on environmental issues before returning to the Department of Defense and reporting to “the head of the U.S.-European Command.” Farkas then became the Sherpa to Secretary Leon Panetta for the 2012 NATO summit which led to her most pivotal role when appointed to become Obama’s Assistant Director of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Euroasia.

“Of course, famously, one of my countries invaded the other… I was alarmed to hear that the Trump campaign had this weird relationship to the Kremlin. I knew exactly what that meant because I knew how the Kremlin operated. And that probably represented something more serious. I went on national TV and raised the alarm. I said we need to get involved and Congress needs to get involved.”

Farkas barreled ahead, speaking and writing op-eds–while weathering time consuming and costly attacks by the far right, she related. “Ultimately the Republicans still in control of Congress made me testify. Of course, there was nothing to it, nobody was leaking to me. I just have a brain and I could put the dots together.”

The Pros of ‘Inside Washington’ Tenure

That brain and resolve eventually landed Farkas as a contributor at MSNBC. Ensconced in her role there, Farkas stated that she did not think she would be a politician. But then in the fall, after Nita Lowey announced her retirement, friends who had worked for Nita and strangers in the district convinced Evelyn to run.

“People said to me they wanted someone who understands national security issues, who’s a fighter, who will protect both our democracy and our economic opportunities; these are issues near and dear to me…”

“So is looking at gun safety and fighting hard so that our children don’t need to be afraid to go to school or working to make sure health care is accessible to more people at more affordable rates, Farkas added.

“I will fight, it’s in my DNA.” Farkas emphasized her national stature and that she knows how to get things done at the federal level. “For seven years, I drafted and passed legislation. I know the ranking members, the senior staffers… I already have a voice that people listen to. They follow me on Twitter, they watch me on MSNBC, and care what I have to say.”

Climate Change as a #1 Priority

She describes the ‘backdrop to everything’ regarding her priorities boils down to “protecting our freedom and our economic way of life,” and in that, her Number 1 priority, she makes clear, is the climate crisis.

“With the planet on fire literally and melting, we can’t ignore the climate crisis. While that’s my top priority, there are other issues. And we have to tackle them all.”

“All of us are affected by what’s happening: Along the Hudson, Long Island Sound, Rye Brook: all affect the district and those who live here–connected to that are issues pertaining to the airport for example. We do have to manage our air quality and noise.”

Gun safety is a very close second priority, calling the current state of affairs “an appalling blemish on our society.”

“It’s also preventable… Do background checks. It’s so basic. Many of these shooters would not otherwise have had access to weapons. Mental illness would have disqualified some too. Farkas also advocates no fly/no buy legislation, noting her background in counter terrorism. “Appallingly, people who are banned from flying because of suspicion they might be involved with terrorism are not on a banned list for buying firearms!”

Another must do, she emphasized, is a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons. “I worked for the military and saw weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq and been out to battle zones. Those weapons belong in the hands of our military, and after that, our law enforcement. I don’t want those types of weapons on the streets of America.”

Protecting women’s rights, Farkas stated, is also a high priority. “It’s bad enough that at the state level there was an attack on Roe v. Wade, and not only that but access to reproductive health care. We need to work harder at getting equal pay for women and even harder for women of color across the board. We need to rectify that.”

Speaking of women, Farkas said she has received words of encouragement from Hillary Clinton for whom she helped fundraise in 2008, and again in 2016, “joining a group of other Chappaqua women at that time. “I spoke with her recently about this race… she had a number of pieces of concrete advice; her last was my favorite, and that was: ‘Have fun.’ She also said, ‘call me anytime’ when I offered to keep in touch!”

Addressing Today’s Antisemitism

As I was working on shaping this story, antisemitism had passed a boiling point–with brutal and lethal attacks on Hasidic and ‘visibly” Jewish people, in particular in Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Jersey City and Monsey with memories of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting still searing through Jewish and public consciousness. How are we going to heal this country, I asked Farkas. How do we take this deep division developed over these last three years and bring this country back together? How would you address antisemitism, I asked.

Farkas said that knowledge of the Holocaust was “ingrained in me,” despite that her parents weren’t Jewish, she said her grandparents had friends growing up who were Jewish who were terribly affected… It was a horrible time period in Hungary’s history. Coming out of that, my parents wanted us to understand how horrible humans could be to each other and have an awareness so we could do everything to prevent it.”

Farkas explained that her family history shaped her world view and she geared her education choices toward preventing atrocities. The genocide in Bosnia, she related, was one of her doctoral topics. “I’ve been wanted to stop hate from the beginning of my life.

Taking on Trump

“But now I’m also disgusted by what Trump has done,” she continued. “He says he’s proud of his daughter and Jewish son in law, but he is aiding and abetting anti-Semitism, aiding and abetting ‘otherism’ and hatred of African Americans, the LGBTQ and Muslim communities.”

Farkas said she spoke at a Jewish Federation of Peace lecture series in Pennsylvania. She recalled that the series was named after a prominent survivor, Leo Camp, who had survived Auschwitz. “We have to remember so that it doesn’t happen again,” Farkas said. Referring to a recent article about another survivor, she added: “This man, who didn’t even want to speak to his immediate family about his experience, is now so alarmed by what is happening that he is speaking out publicly as much as possible. I know many of the survivors who are very old doing just that.”

In our discussion about antisemitism, Farkas noted that she is “absolutely opposed to the BDS Movement.

“I think it’s bad for Israel. It is bad for U.S./Israeli relations. At best, it’s misguided. When it comes to Israel, yes, we need a two-state solution. Israel has the right to remain a Jewish state and I believe the Palestinians should have their own state as well. We need to remain shoulder to shoulder with Israel on security. I’ve worked on that in the Pentagon…” She said that “giving Israel the “qualitative military edge in defense means giving Israel the ability to deter all the other bad actors in the area from taking military action against Israel.”

She stated that Trump has “done more to put Israel at risk, to diminish protections than any other President in my lifetime. Politically, it also concerns me that the Israeli government has enabled Trump and others to make support a partisan issue when it has always been a bipartisan issue. Some people–and Trump is at the forefront of this–are changing the bipartisan support. He says ridiculous things like only he supports Israel, only the Republicans support Israel… There’s Nita Lowey, there’s Senator Levin, and many others.”

Mandating Education to Fight Hate

Farkas said that we also can’t always assume negative intentions to those making criticisms of Israel any more than of any other country. “That said, we do have to educate. There are younger people coming into Congress who have probably never traveled to Israel. Our commitment to Israel isn’t just political and military–it is moral.“

“This is why if you have people not educated in the history–and even don’t know how we in America did nothing and turned Jews away during the Holocaust… we now have a moral responsibility to Israel and to the Jewish people. In Congress, I would rectify this lack in education. I also view it as a broader issue than Israel and antisemitism. I’m against all ‘isms.’”

Time was almost up. Early in the interview, Farkas had shared her motivation in breaking barriers: “I’m a Doer. Even though I can be a Thinker, I’m a Doer.” I asked her for a final thought. “Although I grew up here in Chappaqua, we did struggle. But we got by because of its excellent education system.

I feel I want to protect that for future generations–that political freedom, that economic opportunity. I will fight for this district. From day one, I will be able to deliver. Because I’ve already legislated at the Federal level.”

For more information, please visit evelynforny.com