What You Should Know

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz

32nd Senatorial District, Bronx County, New York

Tel. 718-991-3161

Enough is Enough

You should know that I join with President Obama and Leaders throughout the United States in the growing outrage of the February 26th killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black youth who lived in Florida.

According to the bare facts, even though George Zimmernam was told not to chase Trayvon Martin, he refused to obey the authorities, and shot and killed the 17-year old.

We in the Bronx are all too familiar with the killings of unarmed Black youths, as our communities remain outraged by the recent killing of 18-year old Ramarley Graham.

We will continue to be outraged and confront injustice until each human person who lives and works in our communities is treated with dignity and respect.

I would like to take this opportunity to advise my fellow Legislators – especially the Black and Hispanic Members of the New York State Senate – that we should also be outraged by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget. Governor Andrew Cuomo's Budget cuts last year and this year have been taking away: services to care for our senior citizens, education for our youth, services for the handicapped, medical services for our sick, and social services for the needy.

I would also like to take this opportunity to advise my fellow Legislators – especially the Black and Hispanic Members of the New York State Senate – that there is another kind of killing that has been taking place in our communities, and some of them have been part of it.

You should know that we should all be outraged by Governor Cuomo’s Budget last year and this year, and while these cuts have not been literally killing bystanders and needy people in our communities, they have been doing so quasi-physically.

It is a shame that some of my colleagues – especially the Black and Hispanic Members of the New York State Legislature – have joined and are joining Governor Andrew Cuomo in destroying the lives of New York’s innocent bystanders who live in our communities: the handicapped , the senior citizens, our children, and the defenseless poor, and the working families whose pensions have been destroyed - with a Budget that has been crafted by New York State Andrew Cuomo Governor.

We should also be publicly outraged by the redistricting votes by the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly that have caused the African-American district in Buffalo and minority districts throughout the state to be parceled out and eradicated.

I am calling upon my colleagues to join me in showing the same outrage that we are feeling about the killing of Trayvon Martin and vote against Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Budget when it comes to the floor in Albany, because the lives of the innocent bystanders and defenseless members of our communities are at stake.

We should all get together, and the same way that our nation is sending a message to Florida, we should also send a message to New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo: “Enough is enough!”

I am State Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz and this is what you should know.