Luis Quiros, M.P.A., M.S.W.
Board Chairperson

  Summer months are always the most racially intensive periods that require us to follow and connect the “social dots” to our daily lives without forgetting our own history.

On July 22, 2008, Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced Executive Order 120, which ensures that all New Yorkers will have meaningful access to all city government programs and services, regardless of their English ability. As a result, when New Yorkers go into any city government office, they'll be able to get important forms and information in at least six languages and get help in their language when they need it.

Unfortunately, Executive Order 120 will not change the animosity and mind-set of individuals that find it necessary to protect the status quo of the community in power at the expense of communities in need of power.  And with all the traveling I do throughout this county I consistently find myself in the midst of people and their dialogue known for reducing communities into “them” versus “us”. At an economic symposium a person from a community that had itself been segregated and wrongfully entrenched into an “illegal” underground culture for centuries stated that, “it is stupid to hire illegal immigrants” – totally out of context with the subject of the gathering. Because the words’ mind-set is too common today and one of the pillars to every holocaust I was mandated to rebuttal it.     

For example, tragedies where detainees in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody become ill and suddenly they die, appear much too often.  The New York Times, August 13, 2008:

…In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he
could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th
birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement…his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months…

As WestCOP’s proud Chairperson I am grateful for all the “on-board” individuals who understand that morality defines civilizations. Often, we confront decisions that cry out for empathy even at the expense of challenging the logic of some laws that are contrary to how we would like to be viewed and treated. And as for those individuals who first want to see the citizenship papers from people in need of compassion before assisting them, they need to remember their own history and re-learn that if people do not work and get paid, they do not eat, and then they die. I remember two of this nations’ finest minds, Alan Keyes and Alan Dershowitz, debate “Does Organized Religion Hold Answers to the problems of the 21st Century?” Dershowitz tells a wonderful Hasidic story about an old Rabbi, who explained that there is one time in ones life when it’s very important to be an Atheist. “When a poor person comes to you in charity, acts as if there is no God. Act as if you are the only person on the face of the earth who can save that poor human being, and give him charity, not because God wants you to give him charity, but because that’s the right thing to do.” 

I ask the individuals who understand WestCOP’s play on ethics and view of the law to continue with their moral and financial donations so that we can continue administering and exercising the mandates of our government contracts while never abandoning the moral law that defines us as human beings. 

Luis Quiros

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