General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
To the Editor:
“Louis Tikas Statue Unveiled at Coal Miners’ Memorial Park in Colorado” (Jul. 7) by Eleni Sakellis was so moving and emotionally charged I had to write and commend her for an excellent, well written report. Bravo, Eleni!
As a society, we are rapidly ceding the sacrifices those marvelous immigrant labor activists won for us during a century-long effort to expand workers’ rights. Schools are not taught American Labor history. So, we can’t blame the new generation for having no notion of the bloody chapters and tears shed by those very brave protestors who lost their lives in the struggle to establish basic human rights likean eight hour workday, taking the children out of the factories and placing them in school, forming holidays to enjoy family life.
Congress passed the Fair Standards Act in 1938 that established the 40-hour workday, not because they were anxious to make the worker happy but because of the continual striking and protesting thatcut production and profits.The American worker, finally, earned two days’ rest, by law! Right had triumphed over wrong.
But, the corporate world invented downsizing in the mid-80s and 90s where more productivity was demanded with fewer workers. Now, companies expect employees to be available on evenings and weekends. TD Bank now has 24-hour service. Why? Do many customers make deposits or withdrawals at 3AM?
Today, even with the labor laws in place,workers have to be constantly productive. One salary is not enough to pay those exorbitant rents, see that their children get an education, which in any case cause most students to graduate with enormous debt.
Is it any wonder that in the richest country in the world, there are 42 million people facing hunger daily; that 52,000 are homeless in New York State?
Now the president proposes a budget with major cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps, cutting the EPA’s budget causing our air, water and environment to be at risk.
Is it any wonder that the list of the 26 healthiest and happiest countries in the modern world, America is number 26? Today, wrong has triumphed over right and the blood that was shed for our benefit is slowly being obliterated. Will history repeat itself?
Phyllis (Kiki) Sembos
Emerson, NJ
Phyllis (Kiki) Sembos writes the recurring feature Greek-American Stories for The National Herald.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
CLOSTER, NJ – The well-attended Greek Independence Day Celebration in Closter, NJ, took place on March 25, beginning with the Flag Raising Ceremony at Ruckman Park in Closter.
ALBANY – New York State Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R, C-Staten Island/Brooklyn) on March 26 was joined in Albany by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America to recognize Greek Independence Day and the 50th anniversary of the illegal Turkish invasion and continued occupation of Cyprus.
ATHENS - Historic member of PASOK and passionate advocate of the recognition of Pontian Greek genocide Michalis Charalambidis died on Wednesday aged 73.
ATHENS - While the New Democracy government denied audio files from the 2023 head-on train crash in Tempe which killed 57 had been tampered with, five managers at the state-run OSE railways agency reportedly had access to them.
FAIRVIEW, NJ – The Greek Cypriots of New Jersey under the auspices of the Federation of Cypriot American Organizations, the Consulate General of the Republic of Cyprus in New York and Consul General of Cyprus Michalis Firillas will commemorate the 69th Anniversary of the EOKA Liberation Struggle of Cyprus from British Colonial Rule 1955-1959, with a memorial service at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Ascension, 101 Anderson Avenue in Fairview, NJ, on Sunday, March 31.