Privatizing Social Security will kill the guaranteed returns and only benefits corporations. Slashing staffing without planning ensures a debacle of epic proportions, risking the reliability of monthly checks most recipients rely upon. If you touch SS, you will literally kill some Americans and throw undue hardship on others.  You also will owe each of us what we have paid in for the program, plus accrued interest—large sums of money that you would have to pay out. Or you will have a class action suit with tens of millions of people on our side.

The current situation in Gaza and the West Bank calls for immediate and decisive international action to stop the ethnic cleansing and the genocide of millions of Palestinian civilians. This film, made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, shines a light on the destruction of homes and communities by the Israeli military and the determination of Palestinian people to rebuild their homeland.

Powder Mountain could be lost to privatization forever if action is not taken.

This help protect any child of any sexual abuse allegations in school. The students may feel safer to disclose to schools, it may also help the student who is being accused come forward to any abuse he/ she is facing outside of school. Teaching kids young that sexual abuse has consequences. We need to help protect our children. 

On Sept 11th, 2022, at 12:45 am, my 26yr old daughter, Hanahn Mystique Benitez, was struck and killed by a driver who just said he " saw nothing" and was not charged with anything. Not even a ticket. My daughter was almost seven months pregnant with a baby girl that she was naming Winter. She was struck on the eastbound side of 347 & Terryville Rd. She was wearing a bright yellow hoodie and was a few feet from the crosswalk. She had already passed almost all the way across the two lanes from a very lit up area coming off the sidewalk from a car dealership corner when the driver struck her from his front left side of his vehicle, and he said he "saw nothing! The driver that killed them made it a point to tell the officers that he is a head nurse at Stony Brook hospital. He hit her so hard that the impact flew her over the metal divider and threw her to the westbound side traffic and she was then hit by two other cars *as per the witness’s statement whose car was facing west and was waiting at the left turn lane. The witness saw everything even though he was facing the opposite direction. How did the killer see "nothing". Was he distracted by something in his car? The police failed to inform me of the driver’s actions before and at the time of impact. The driver was not given a breathalyzer, asked to take a toxicology test, his phone was not looked at (that I know of because it’s not in the incident report), his speed was not documented, and he was NOT made accountable for his actions. When the detectives came to my house that morning to inform me that my daughter and granddaughter had passed, one detective simply stated that it was an accident. How could they come to that conclusion without a thorough investigation yet? It sounded more like it was a vehicular manslaughter. He walked away and she didn’t. This tragedy has devastated her family, her twin brother, and friends.

The Tuscana Planned Development threatens the heart of our wetlands and the headwaters of the Everglades. This ecologically vital area should be among the most protected due to its significance in water filtration, flood mitigation, and wildlife habitat. The surrounding area is already experiencing substantial flooding, with taxpayer dollars continuously allocated toward mitigation efforts. If this development moves forward, destroying this critical natural buffer will eliminate the only viable location for emergency water pumping. This will inevitably cause floodwaters to backflow into vulnerable areas, even during minor rain events, exacerbating an already pressing issue for residents.

This petition amplifies a collective voice demanding accountability from U.S. leadership for harmful rhetoric toward Ukraine. By uniting millions, it pressures policymakers to prioritize ethical diplomacy and repair trust. It also sends a powerful message of solidarity to the Ukrainian people, affirming their right to sovereignty and resilience against aggression. A strong signature count proves grassroots commitment to justice, urging leaders to act with integrity and uphold global values.  

We must shine a light on these bullying and strong-arm tactics and demand change. Our hospital, schools, transit and local attractions should be considered priorities by the Restaino administration. The fact that employees from these entities are afraid of retribution if they speak to the press, speaks volumes as to how Mayor Restaino conducts business.  WHY withhold funds from our schools in a time of economic crisis? WHY withhold funds from the only hospital located in our city? WHY withhold funds from the Underground Railroad Museum, which attracts thousands of tourists every year? The train station is already operating at a $130,000 annual deficit because the city has failed to properly utilize event space adjacent to the museum. WHY withhold funds from the NFTA when many of us rely on public transportation to get from home to work and back? Mayor Restaino's actions only make sense when viewed through the eyes of a greedy miser.

On February 25th, 2025,  the Woodburn School Board failed to pass Resolution 25-001, Reaffirming Safe and Welcoming Schools for All.”  We need community support to pressure elected officials to defend the safety of all students, especially students being affected by current federal immigration enforcement.  This is the first step to ensuring we have a strong and representative leadership in our schools. 

We are not experts about exactly what has gone wrong here, but what we can tell you is that Rochdale Village is currently controlled by an unaccountable and potentially corrupt management company named Summit Management, which has had a stranglehold on pretty much all decision-making of importance here and has for many decades, under one name or another. We believe that their terrible financial decision-making on numerous occasions and their overall mismanagement have led directly to the crisis we are all now facing. Every time Cooperative residents ask Summit Management representatives why we are in such a financial mess, we get a different answer. They keep pointing to new causes without any accountability for their own actions or inaction. Below are just some of the reasons they have given: ● Summit Management, over many decades, without keeping residents fully informed or consulted, has arranged a crushing debt burden through a $195 million mortgage loan with Wells Fargo bank, which is a predatory balloon mortgage deal. Rochdale Village now has a huge multi-million dollar liability on this predatory high interest loan. In the January 2025 issue of the Rochdale Village Bulletin, the Cooperative's newspaper, they reported that Rochdale Village has a $31,626,760 liability in payments on their Wells Fargo loan, in part because a portion of their payments were deferred for 6 months between May and October 2020. After giving this temporary deferral, Wells Fargo, then massively and without warning, raised Rochdale Village's monthly loan payments by nearly 25%. ● Summit Management Company also has racked up a $13 million debt to the NYC Water Board on their water bills with large fines for late payment and non-payment. This large water bill is also obviously greatly increased by corrupt NYC Mayor Eric Adams' decision to push through a $1.4 billion hidden tax on the NYC Water Board which was then passed on to us in the form of the the highest water board rate hike in 14 years in early July 2024. ● At the most recent Board of Directors meeting, we also learned that Summit Management had negotiated a sweetheart rent deal that allowed Chase Bank, one of the largest banks in the world, allowing them to benefit from a lease deal that guarantees only an 8.3% rent increase over the next 5 years, or just a 1.6% increase per year. All of these generous terms are being offered to Chase behind our backs while Cooperative residents are at the same time being told that there is no alternative to forcing us to accept an historic Carrying charge rate increase of 22.3%-35% in just 1 year!!! ● We have also learned that Chase Bank is not the only sweetheart rent deal Summit Management has negotiated recently. Apparently, other commercial tenants like Key Food supermarket and others have signed similarly generous rental leases. ● On top of the lack of fair market income coming from these commercial tenants, Rochdale Village owns vacant property that has been vacant for many years and even worse has sold property that was converted into other forms of housing nearby that Summit Management claims they don't even have the sale paperwork for!  We are not aware of any other business would have the ability to survive if they conducted business this in this way. And Summit Management's complete lack of accountability and transparency obviously raises many ethical and legal concerns as well. ● Summit has also claimed that there is a crisis of residents in arrears on their Carrying charges going back to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest numbers given claim a loss of $6 million in arrears on Carrying Charges as of June 2024. Personally, we believe that NY's elected officials at all levels must also take responsibility for and provide relief and aid for those in arrears due to COVID-19 and other economic or health issues, because without such an intervention, these residents will eventually become unhoused and will very likely need much more expensive aid and services from both NY City and NY State. Obviously, these economic problems and their causes are not unique to Rochdale Village. But, we believe that our elected officials must do whatever they can to support our community members and work with us towards a solution to this crisis that does not place the financial burden of all of these crises on the overwhelming majority of our shareholders, who played no role at all in the decision-making that led to these crises in the first place.  We also believe that increased oversight by elected officials of the ways in which Summit Management Company is running Rochdale Village is URGENTLY NECESSARY to prevent future financial mismanagement and crisis. Their complete lack of accountability and effective stranglehold of all decision-making power is completely unacceptable and undermines the very mission of the NYS Mitchell-Lama program, which was founded on the "Rochdale’s Principles" to build Cooperative and truly democratically run communities in which community members have equal voting rights and participate in all decisions. We ask for your leadership in ensuring that Rochdale Village remains an affordable housing option for those who need it most. We appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to your response on how your office plans to address these urgent issues. We prefer that you respond via email, as it is not feasible for our entire community to participate in a single phone call. Furthermore, we believe an in-person meeting is warranted to discuss these matters openly. Such a meeting would allow for full transparency, ensuring that the truth is clearly presented and that the current status of Rochdale Village’s business practices and financial management can be properly reviewed. We seek swift and thorough investigative action on our behalf to ensure that this community not only survives but thrives.

Please help the voices of the American people reach President Zelenskyy, the people of Ukraine, the US Government, and the world.

Dear Friends, At the present time we do not have any power to change the foreign policy of the USA.  But we do have the power to be a decent human being. Please share and join me. Thank you.