His cuts include $223 million from New York City’s schools. Fifty-one percent of the cuts target high poverty school districts and will impact the most vulnerable and neediest students. 
At this point, mid-year cuts would lead to larger class sizes, fewer arts programs and eliminate important services and education programs. 

These cuts would disproportionately hurt Black and Hispanic students.  It would deprive them of class materials and many other education resources.  Among Black and Hispanic students, the drop-out rate continues to grow.  Patterson’s cuts will make matters worse.

Patterson proposes cutting millions of dollars from transitional bilingual and dual language student programs.  These cuts would make it more difficult for bilingual students to assimilate into the culture and foster achievement gaps with traditional students.

We should not ignore the current fiscal crisis facing New York.  However, Black and Hispanic students cannot disproportionately bear the burden of the crisis.  The Governor must stop trying to balance the budget on their backs and must weigh fiscally sound alternatives that I proposed.

For example my prescription drug bill, allowing us to purchase prescription drugs at much lower prices from Canadian pharmaceutical companies, would save the State millions of dollars.  I also sponsored a bill that would vastly improve the State’s efficiency in collecting state sales taxes from credit companies.  We can also tap into the state’s “Rainy Day” fund. 

These alternatives are more preferable than cutting school budgets.

The State’s highest court determined that New York has failed its constitutional obligation to provide Black and Hispanic children with a “sound basic education.”  As a result, in 2007, the legislature approved landmark reforms that shifted more state funding to high poverty school districts. The Governor’s proposed budget would be a major obstacle to the legislation.

Quality education strengthens our families, communities, and economy.  It is essential to economic recovery and path out of poverty.  Therefore, I will block any proposal by the Governor will cut education funds.  Black and Hispanic children should not pay the price for the current financial downturn.  

Today’s Daily News editorial: “Make a stand, Malcolm” shows the desire and desperation of this City’s editorial boards to be the ones that run, control and shape the political factors in this State without even being elected to do so.

I believe that, yes, Senator Malcolm Smith should make a stand.  He should send a message to the editorial boards that he is not one of those elected officials who make their decisions and run their lives based upon the whims of editorial boards that have, for years, never shown their concern for minority communities, and that their only concern is about the well-being of the rich.

These editorial boards have never missed an opportunity to attack and criticize Black and Hispanic elected officials for doing the same things that others have been doing for ages.  The editorial boards have gone out of their way to criticize what they call minority political dynasties, such as the Diazes, Riveras, Espadas, Serranos and Arroyos.  Never before our political success did we see them similarly criticize the Cuomos, Molinaris, Bushs, Roosevelts, Wagners, Addabbos, Hevesis, Kennedys, Vallones, Fossellas and many, many others who, for a long time, have been practicing exactly what we have learned from them.

The editorial boards waste no opportunity to try to destroy our leaders with unfounded innuendos and rumors, such as when they tried to smear Adolfo Carrion with regard to political contributions.  No such efforts were made against the people who controlled the political system for years before Black and Hispanics entered the political arena.

When it comes to defending the immigrants, editorial boards have taken every opportunity to denigrate immigrants – they have gone to great lengths to label immigrants as criminals.  The labor unions in this City represent mostly Black and Hispanic workers.  When the labor unions persevere in defense of our people’s rights, the editorial boards are quick to attack the unions and their leaders.  If it were not for the labor leaders, our people would be paid slave wages and be treated as if we were back in the Dark Ages.

When it comes to equal share of our government, when we Black and Hispanics started to know and compete within the same political system that they controlled for ages, the editorial boards began to call for reforms.  They knew we were getting too close to competing with them and getting some share of power, so obviously they had to change the system.  For example, when we began electing minority Borough Presidents who became part of the City’s Board of Estimate that used to control the City Budget, the editorial boards called for reform to abolish the Board of Estimate and took away our achievement.

When we began electing our own political party County Chairmen who began to select minority judges – the same as County Chairmen did for ages – the editorial boards called it corruption, called for reform, and said the system had to be changed.

Now that we have an Afro-American as the first Senate Majority Leader, the editorial board is calling him incompetent.

Watch out - they will soon point their editorial guns at President Barack Obama!

To all this, I say: Make a stand, Malcolm.  Once and for all, send them a message.  Be not afraid of those who have been suffocating and bleeding the life and sucking the blood out of the Black and Hispanic community. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.  They are not in control.  You are.

It is for this reason that I am surprised that our Democratic Governor has proposed budget cuts of 2 billion dollars to the State’s budget and that these cuts will directly and definitely hurt our most needy communities.

This proposal by Governor David Paterson includes cuts to programs and services for the elderly, cuts to our children’s education, increases in college tuitions, cuts to health care services, hospital closings, cuts to Medicaid, cuts to programs and services for the disabled, cuts to mental health services, and salary reductions to health care workers such as home-attendants, nurses and maintenance workers.

As Democrats, we are expected to fight for these services for our communities, and that is why I cannot, I should not, and I will not give my vote to my Democratic colleagues in the State Senate to approve these cuts proposed by Governor Paterson because these cuts will directly affect you, the residents of my community.

I am not suggesting that we ignore the fiscal realities of New York City, New York State and the United States of America. However, every time there is a fiscal issue, we cannot continue to balance the budget on the backs of the Hispanic communities, the African-American communities, and the neediest communities of the State.

We have always blamed the Republicans for proposing cuts that abuse our communities. Yet, now that we, Democrats, are in the majority in the State legislature and we have a Democrat in the Governor’s office, how can we continue to direct cuts to our communities and our people when we can confront the economic crisis in other ways. We cannot use the economic crisis as an excuse to continue to harm our communities while protecting the rich.

There is an immense pressure to decide the issue of leadership in the State Senate so that the Democrats would have the majority of the votes to approve these proposed detrimental cuts.

I have always been a Democrat. I am still a Democrat. And I will always be a Democrat.

As a Democrat, I have fought and will continue to fight for more and better services for our senior citizens, low income and affordable housing, and rent control, to protect the needy and the immigrants, along with helping our streets and roads to be safe, I have been the only Democrat, who, in defense of our children’s education, has asked publicly for the resignation of New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein and New York City Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott. I have fought for and will continue to bring affordable housing services to my Senatorial District.

I am also a Minister and a Pastor of an Evangelical Church in the Bronx, as such, I do not support the matrimony of homosexual couples, nor will I support abortion on demand. Although my Democratic party is fighting to bring homosexual marriage to the State of New York, I am a Democrat who believes in the sanctity of life and the sacredness of marriage.

I cannot join my Democratic colleagues in the Senate to support the budget cuts proposed by Governor David Paterson – even though he is a Democrat like me – that directly hurt the needy people in our communities, nor will I support any agenda that includes homosexual marriage in the State of New York.

I pray and hope that you, as my constituent, will understand my positions. Rest assured, that as your State Senator, I will continue to be the strongest advocate for housing, rent control, health care, education, senior services and the overall improvement of our community.

May God bless you and may the new year bring you health and prosperity.

I told Liz Smith Benjamin that the gay community has been jamming my office phone line and making threats to me and my staff.  I told her that I am very angry that my office has received phone calls threatening my life and calling the women on my staff “whores” and “bitches”.  I told her that to add to those names, Ed Koch called us rats.

I told Liz that the only rat is Ed Koch.  I told her that when he was Mayor and was rejected in my community, the only person who stood by him was this rat, and that now this rat is good no more.  I told her that I am so angry that because of their calls and editorial boards and because of the insulting Koch statement, there is nothing else that they can do to us or say to us, and that they will see what we can do.

That, my friends, was the basis of my anger, not because the gay community is jamming my phone lines.  I am an elected official and I am an old man, and they can do this any time.  It was the content of their calls that made me angry.  I welcome people to call my office – but with respect to me and to my staff. 

When I told Liz that they will see what we can do, this was not at all meant to be a physical threat.  As far as what we can do, we have many options, which include: going to the Republican Party, staying neutral to create an impasse, or going to the Democratic Party.

So that is the whole story, and I hope it will set the record straight, for good or for bad.

***

June 13, 2008

Judy Doesschate, J.D.
Director of Board Operations
Wadsworth Center
New York State Department of Health
Empire State Plaza, Box 509
Albany, NY 12208-0509


Dear Ms. Doesschate:

This letter is to express my response to the Empire State Stem Cell Board’s strategic framework that will guide New York State’s $600 Million, 11-year investment in stem cell research.

The report expresses the intention that New York’s investment in stem cell research will hold the promise of revitalizing and strengthening New York’s biomedical research industry, saving lives, and improving health. This is a false hope. The Empire State Stem Cell Board’s draft report discusses a great potential that may come from embryonic stem cells. To date, there have been no known cures - nor the promise of any cure - from embryonic stem cells.

Research in the area of embryonic stem cells is the twenty-first century’s version of alchemy. Medical researchers in this area are pursuing the “gold rush” to create an organ replacement industry to stave off illness and disease. While the practice of alchemy only involved the use of base metals, embryonic stem cell research requires the sacrifice of precious living human fetuses as fodder for their experiments.

Embryonic stem cell research is nothing New York State tax dollars should fund and nothing New Yorkers will support if they realize what it entails. When the world learned about Joseph Mengele’s experiments on Jewish children, the reaction was shock and revulsion. Using abortion clinics as a source of material for embryonic stem cell experimentation fills most New Yorkers with the same kind of revulsion.

I strongly recommend that Empire State Stem Cell Board funded research use its resources for adult stem cell research, umbilical cells, and the newly discovered induced pluripotent stem cells - iPS cells - because we know these to be effective. Non-embryonic stem cell research, which includes adult stem cells, cord blood cells, and iPS cells, is clearly an area of medicine and research that proves capable of aiding the treatment of a growing number of illnesses and diseases which should be funded by our tax dollars.

I cannot and will not support or encourage any Empire State Stem Cell Board research that uses, exploits or destroys embryonic stem cells from aborted children. It is morally indefensible and fiscally irresponsible to use taxpayer funds for the purposes of cloning or for human stem cell research. It disgusts me to think that our tax dollars could ever be used to support cloning children for experimentation purposes.

I urge Empire State Stem Cell Board to prohibit research or funding to clone, create or manufacture another human life in a laboratory with the sole purpose of killing him or her to be able to use their cells for experiments. I urge the Empire State Stem Cell Board to prohibit the use of aborted baby’s body parts for experimentation and research.

I urge Empire State Stem Cell Board to build upon the great success of adult stem cell research, and to promote ethical and successful methods. These research projects must clearly exclude any plans to experiment on embryos, unborn children, or cloned humans.


Sincerely,


Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz