Over the last couple of months we have all been shocked and amused by the rhetoric of Donald Trump, but to me the most shocking revelation has been the mesmerized silence by our elected officials, both Democratic and Republican in Westchester county. While the Donald, Chris Christie and Walker & Cruz are advocating for a Japanese internment-type system to tattooing of immigrants suspect of being here illegally or those speaking something other than English, we don’t seem to hear Astorino or Bramson or Lowey or our County-wide elected officials comment about these outrageous comments. Are they not embarrassed, ashamed or disgusted? Latinos comprised almost 50% of the public schools in Yonkers, Port Chester and New Rochelle. Are we such a suspect class that we are not worthy of support or alliances? Do we matter? Immigrants that we are, we contribute to the county economy via property and sales taxes? We work in the service sector and we often work in difficult and rather unsafe jobs – we live where we can and often pay inflated rents in illegal apartments managed often by US Citizens who take advantage of our status. So what gives Mr. Bramson or Mr. Astorino – what do you have to say of the Donald and his vitriolic Joseph McCarthy-type venomous diatribes? Is your silence a convenient complicity to get elected by your own party faithful? Do you, like the Donald, believe that we should bring back the auction block?
Martin Sanchez