In a new year that promises to be as miserable, as rancorous, and as bloody as the last — oil lust and delusions of empire — we choose to celebrate the thrilling hope and promise of newly elected democratic socialist and New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani, who has embraced diversity, collectivism, and the rare opportunity to shape “a life that (we) will fill with freedom” when “for too long freedom has belonged only to those who can buy it.” Lesson learned now: (good) change happens.
Yes, we know the bad kind happens too, like America’s reckless and illegal attack on and kidnapping of the sovereign nation of Venezuela, “the actions of a rogue state” overseen by an ignorant and confused state. The syllables Made Commander-in-Chief (sic). Fake claims and Struggling To stay upright during his allegedly euphoric press conference about storming Caracas blind. Add to that the drunken bully Hegseth who brags, “America is back!” — into the murderous swamps — and weak Marco who disparages a country, ostensibly Cuba, “run by incompetent and senile men” — pardon me — and their brazen disregard for legal mandates to consult with Congress by dismissing that entire pesky branch of government as “”Very weak“- All in all, a crazy and unschooling act Arrogance This is definitely theirs Disastrous He comes back “Naked Imperialism” is best summed up by James Fallows: “Oh my God.”
That’s why we prefer to enjoy, at least briefly, Mamdani’s astonishing rise, and the opportunity it represents to “transform and reinvent.” “Rarely does a moment like this come, and even rarer is when it is the people themselves who put their hands on the tools for change,” he said at his jubilant inauguration ceremony. Mamdani, 34, promised to govern “broadly and boldly” and was sworn in on New Year’s Day by Bernie Sanders, a major political mentor, after taking office. Solemn oath The night before from AG Letitia James at City Hall tube station. On both occasions, he got his hands on two copies of the Qur’an – one a historical copy from the New York Public Library, and the other belonging to his father. Both times, his wife, Rama Dawaji, a 28-year-old designer and artist, stood by his side, and he repeatedly emphasized themes of unity, equality, diversity and populism.
Mamdani arrived at his inauguration, not in a limousine, but in a car procession Of taxis, in reference to the hunger strike he went on with taxi drivers in 2021. In reference to the trains that are important for millions of New Yorkers’ daily commute – in the case of Mamdani from Queens – PA announcer What berne wagenblast, al via Subway system worker who Recorded voice He endlessly warns passengers, “Please stay away from the edge of the platform.” Mandy Patinkin rich Over the rainbow With the PS 22 Children’s Choir of Staten Island. Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus sang the workers/women’s rights anthem Bread and roses. Along with Bernie, AOC give A fiery speech – “We have chosen courage over fear” – the poet Cornelius Eddy delivered his poem guide “This is our time,” cried Public Defender Joman Williams, the son of immigrants from Grenada, as he chanted in the crowd: “I will not give up hope.”
In his ascension letter to Noisy crowdMamdani has repeatedly insisted that government should work to improve people’s lives, that its job is to meet the needs of the many not the elite few, and that New York, “this magnificent mosaic,” belongs to its people, all of whom deserve an equal share in its governance. “I was elected as a social democrat, and I will govern as a social democrat,” he said. “Here, where the language of the New Deal was born, we will return the vast resources of this city to ordinary people…the construction workers in steel-toed boots and the kosher cart vendors whose knees hurt from working all day,” “the neighbors who carry a plate of food for the elderly couple down the hall,” “those harried people who still lift strangers’ strollers up the subway stairs, and every person who chooses day after day, even when it seems impossible, to call our city home.”
He also stressed that, whatever their vote or politics, “If you’re a New Yorker, I’m your mayor. And regardless of whether we agree, I will protect you, celebrate with you, mourn alongside you, and will never hide from you, not for a second.” Eloquently it is pledge, “Together, we will tell a new story for our city,” neither “one city ruled by the 1%” nor “two cities, rich versus poor.” “It will be the story of eight and a half million cities, (each) a universe, (each) woven together… The authors of this story” will speak Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole; He prays in mosques, shuls, churches, or does not pray at all; There will be the Russian Jews, the Italians, the Irish, the black homeowners who have triumphed over longstanding redlining, the young people in the apartments whose “walls shake when the subway goes by,” attracting cheers, the Palestinians “who will no longer have to deal with a politics that speaks of universality and then makes them the exception.”
On his first day on the job, he visited the rent stabilizer’s building to advertise three Executive orders Aimed at improving/creating affordable housing: a Mayor’s Office for Tenant Protection Confronting property owners and two task forces – to review city properties that could be converted to affordable, and identify/remove regulatory barriers to building new housing. From the beginning, Mamdani’s campaign boasted unique accessibility, starting with his hilarious editorial campaign. Street video – Holds a “Let’s Talk About the Election” sign as several troops pass by or report their vote for Trump – to his own page Walking The 13-mile length of Manhattan “because New Yorkers deserve a mayor they can hear, see and even yell at if they need to. We’re here.” A few weeks ago, after he had already been elected, he kept this tradition for 12 hoursThe mayor is Listen It happened, invitation His diverse constituents sit down and tell him what’s on their minds.
Eventually, 144 of them sat across from him at the Museum of the Moving Image, often with their children, to talk about it. Tell him Among their hopes and fears – cuts in Medicaid and mental health services, subways that don’t feel safe, buses that don’t run when they need them after work, students who spend hours on buses, floods and heat, changing bird migration patterns, the need to “put fresh food in front of New Yorkers,” especially tomatoes, the “city disgrace” that is Riker’s Island, the retaliation that tenants face for speaking up, and the sweeps that homeless people endure just to return to the same place after Four hours after they lost all their stuff, the terror, the nightmares, the helpless feeling about ICE, like “the whole city was attacked.” A crying woman said: “I dream of being taken away, sent to a foreign country, and never seeing my mother and little brother again. Please protect people like me.”
a lot to talk Affordability, or lack thereof: People whose families have lived for generations in neighborhoods they had to leave, who can’t find a place with their new baby, who spent decades in an apartment but now fear becoming homeless, who can barely afford groceries: “It’s sad to buy anything here.” A single mother asks how universal childcare will work. “It’s for everyone,” he says gently. “Like public schools.” A queer Russian asylum seeker who, after losing her country, does not yet feel part of her new city or her “spaces of power” yet with him, and begins to cry. Samina, a woman from Pakistan, carefully thanks him, quietly, almost in a whisper, for his compassion: “When I go out, I see happiness on people’s faces, hope, and light. You have changed people’s hearts, created softness in their hearts. Please continue to be our light and hope in this difficult time.” He smiles, thanks her, and holds her hand. She leaves and he cries.
He listens, nods, scribbles notes on a small piece of paper, laughs at the tomatoes, and promises to strengthen sanctuary policies so there is no police “collusion” with ICE. He thanks a seven-year-old boy for worrying about the homeless, hugs the Russian woman who says she’s first passionate about politics, and nods that he’s also troubled by the accelerating climate crisis. At the end of the long and rich day, he was asked how he felt: “That was a beautiful, wonderful day. I feel like my cup is full of what New Yorkers shared with me.” He points to the breadth of their interests, their fluency in dealing with issues, and “the reality of the risks they live with every day.” “These are people who give themselves to the city and rarely get much in return,” he says. “That’s why we try so hard. She was beautiful. She was incredibly brave.”
Source link
