Presidents Message
New York State Retired Teachers’ Assn. DBA Presidents Message This article is being written at the end of June. My wife and I are safe and comfortably living in the North Country of New York State, which opened up to Phase IV yesterday. We now fully realize what a real estate agent means when he/she says “location, location, location”. Yesterday, New York State had less than 1,000 hospitalized COVID patients for the first time since mid-March, 2020. The people of New York State have risen out of a very dire occasion to “flatten and descend the curve” of COVID-19 infections. This effort took courage, common respect from our fellow man, and LEADERSHIP. Kevin Mulligan, Three years ago, at the NYSRTA Convention, I gave a well attended workshop titled - President “Public Education Enemy #1- Governor Andrew Cuomo”. Today, June 2020, I hold an all new respect for Governor Andrew Cuomo. For 100 consecutive days, beginning in mid-March, Governor Cuomo held a news conference that provided much needed factual information, details of how the State was addressing the pandemic, and reassurance that we are “NY Strong”. He shared with us his personal family stories, even named a law protecting the elderly, Matilda’s Law, after his 87 year old mother. We got to know the names of his daughters, and his trials as a single parent in raising them. Andrew Cuomo, in my eyes, depicted himself not as the politician we have all come to know, for better or for worse, but as a human being faced with the daunting task of a pandemic that involved life and death.
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