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.
Our country is at a crossroads, perhaps its most significant in decades. We’re facing the greatest public health crisis in a century, which has caused us to teeter on the brink of economic catastrophe. We’re facing an overdue reckoning of racial inequality, which has further exposed our country’s deep wounds. And we’re less than 100 days from a presidential election.
Every election cycle, Americans are asked to question whether their country is on the right track. These crises have each exposed our leadership’s true priorities and we must ask ourselves if those priorities accurately represent our interests.
For me, the answer is no. Beyond its recent failings in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump Administration has spent nearly four years dismantling much of what I believe to be at America’s heart. From inhumane women’s health and immigration policies, to the rollback of environmental protections and the implementation of economic priorities that favor big business over workers, the Trump Administration has been a failure.
I’m proud to be a delegate for and support Joe Biden in this election because…
I am a woman.
As a female elected official and attorney, I know first-hand the struggles women face getting into positions to make a difference. We’re still answering the question, “can a woman really do that?”
Women still get paid significantly less than their male counterparts, with women of color suffering from the largest wage gap. Women are too often punished for working while caring for their children or aging relatives, forced to choose one over the other. Joe Biden has pledged to confront these obstacles by fighting for equal pay, providing resources for female entrepreneurs and expanding access to paid leave and childcare.
We can’t talk about a candidate’s stance on women’s issues without talking about healthcare, particularly healthcare for women of color. The United States has one of the highest death rates in pregnancy and childbirth among developed countries. Black women in particular are over two times more likely to die during pregnancy. This is the result of decades of disinvestment and miseducation on healthcare.
We need a president who recognizes the community benefits of improved healthcare and who will build on Obamacare and expand access to ensure affordable healthcare for all. We need Joe Biden.
I am a daughter of immigrants.
Opportunity was scarce for my parents so, like thousands before them, they came to the United States hoping it could improve their lives. But in the process, my immigrant parents contributed to this country. They worked hard, started a small business, provided job opportunities for others, raised a family and gave back to their community.
This story isn’t unique. In fact, many of us have a version of this story somewhere in our ancestry. And yet, the Trump Administration has turned its back on our history as a nation of immigrants, attacking refugees seeking asylum at our borders, implementing travel bans based on a person’s religion, and separating children from their parents.
A Biden presidency will reinstate the Obama-Biden Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, restore our country’s asylum laws to protect people fleeing persecution and create a path to citizenship for millions of people who have been living in and strengthening our country, the same way my parents did.
I am an environmentalist.
For a decade now, I have been a commissioner on the board of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, helping ensure clean water and effective infrastructure for Cook County. My fellow commissioners and I fight for environmental justice because we have seen first-hand how something like a lack of clean drinking water can decimate a community. That’s why I’m backing the candidate who has committed to ensuring clean, safe drinking water is available in all communities and recognizes that this starts with a significant investment in water delivery and treatment infrastructure.
Joe Biden understands two fundamental truths about the environment: 1) the United States needs to up its game in the fight against climate change and 2) the economy and the environment are inextricably linked. Joe will get us back in the Paris Agreement on climate change, prepare our nation’s workers to build and support a clean energy economy and lead the U.S. to a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
I am alive during a pandemic.
It has become painfully clear that the lack of a coordinated response from the Trump Administration to the COVID-19 pandemic has cost lives and put millions of this country’s workers in dire financial straits. The United States accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s COVID cases but is less than five percent of the world’s population. It’s embarrassing and unacceptable.
We need a leader in the White House who can coordinate a national response to this virus. Joe’s plan guarantees paid sick leave for those positive for COVID-19, provides PPE to all employees returning to work, implements a national contract tracing program and provides immediate financial assistance to workers and small businesses.
Predictably, this health crisis has caused an economic crisis, with millions losing their jobs and healthcare, and some businesses shuttering forever. Quite simply, we cannot restart the economy and get people back to work without solving the public health crisis, which only happens when we have a wide-spread successful vaccine. Joe’s plan for restarting the economy puts workers first, starting with ensuring everyone can earn at least $15 per hour because our economy grows when everyone can participate in it equally.
We are living through what we can only hope will be this generation’s darkest days. This is not a time to pretend we are an unconnected network of states responding to the crises we face in a silo. We are one, united country that deserves clear leadership, now more than ever. In November, let’s speak as a united country and send Joe Biden to the White House.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — It was in the den that Karen Goodwin most strongly felt her son’s presence: On the coffee table were his ashes, inside a clock with its hands forever frozen at 12:35 a.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A bus carrying worshippers on a long-distance trip from Botswana to an Easter weekend church gathering in South Africa plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass Thursday and burst into flames as it hit the rocky ground below, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.