Mount Vernon — like many cities across New York State — is wrestling with rising costs, shrinking revenue, and tough decisions about how to fund essential services. At the center of community debate is a proposed increase in property taxes and other local levies that could affect nearly every homeowner in the city and talk that Mount Vernon is on the brink of bankruptcy!
Mount Vernon is facing recent and proposed tax hikes, primarily property tax increases for the 2025-2026 budget, with the City Council approving a 3.5% increase after residents pushed back on a higher initial proposal, while the School District also approved a 3.3% rise, driven by union contracts and rising expenses, though residents remain concerned about affordability, especially seniors.
Mount Vernon residents voiced frustration Monday, December 1st, over a proposed property tax increase for 2026. The mayor’s draft budget proposes a 6.09% increase, compared to last year’s 3.6% rise, News 12 reported. Officials said the money is needed to cover added expenses, including $4 million tied to union contract obligations.
Why the Increase?
The city says higher taxes are needed to cover growing expenses, including union contract obligations and fixed costs that have outpaced revenue. Leaders have clarified that the numbers in the draft budget are not yet finalized, and that revisions and negotiations in the coming months could change the final tax rate.
Mount Vernon’s financial picture reflects broader pressures affecting many municipalities:
Rising city operating costs, including pensions, health benefits, and labor agreements.
Outstanding unpaid taxes and budget stress — auditors have reported millions in unpaid obligations and gaps between expenses and expected revenues. Westfair Online
Public services that residents rely on — such as police, fire, sanitation, and street repairs — still must be funded even as other revenue streams stagnate.
In a November 7th letter, Comptroller Darren Morton spelled out these growing expenses. This year, the City faced more pressure than usual because we had to pay over $11 million for obligations from prior years and advance payments that will be reimbursed later. These included:
$3.2 million in advance payments for capital projects awaiting State and Federal reimbursement.
City officials have also used short-term financing tools (like tax anticipation notes) to bridge timing gaps without increasing debt long-term — but these maneuvers don’t eliminate underlying fiscal pressures.
What the Tax Hike Would Mean for Residents
For Homeowners
The most visible impact will be on property tax bills:
A 6% rise in the city tax levy typically translates into higher annual payments on your home — for a $500,000 assessed value, that could mean several hundred dollars more per year.
If the city moves forward with the proposal, every property owner could see an increase unless exemptions apply.
This is especially sensitive for:
Fixed-income seniors
Working-class families
Those already feeling the pinch of higher living costs
Homeowners have also been complaining about the proposed a $250 fire inspection fee, and sources report that:
Judges will grant warrants for forced entry,
Inspectors will cite properties aggressively,
And violations will be used to push owners into financial collapse.
Black Westchester has also been contacted by residents expressing their concerns over a proposed rubbish tax. While this has been proposed city officials tell BW this has not been approved. Just the proposal of this additional tax have many residents up in arms.
For Renters
Renters do not pay property taxes directly — but landlords often consider tax costs when setting rent, so some of the increase could get passed on indirectly.
For Prospective Buyers
A separate state law now authorizes Mount Vernon to increase its real property deed conveyance tax (the tax paid when property is sold), up to 1.5%. This new authority gives the city another revenue source, but also raises closing costs for buyers and sellers.
Community Response So Far
Public reaction has been strong:
Residents voiced frustration at budget hearings, saying rising everyday costs make this the wrong time for higher taxes. News 12
Past proposals for school district tax levy increases also sparked concerns from families who felt rates were already high. News 12
Some grassroots calls have urged residents to appeal tax assessments en masse or protest proposed hikes at public forums.
Are There Any Tax Relief Options?
Yes — at the state level:
New York recently expanded the maximum property tax exemption available to eligible seniors from 50% to 65% of assessed value. This could provide meaningful relief for older homeowners living on fixed incomes, if the city elects to adopt the new exemption locally. 101.5 WPDH
Local governments still decide whether to implement the expanded exemption, and under what income thresholds, so Mount Vernon residents should watch for announcements from the assessor’s office.
What Happens Next?
The proposed tax changes are drafts, not set in stone. In the coming weeks and months:
The city’s estimate board and city council will continue budget discussions.
Officials may revise tax rates before the final budget vote.
Residents can attend meetings, submit feedback, and petition local officials before final approval.
Bottom Line for Residents
A proposed tax hike in Mount Vernon reflects real fiscal challenges — rising costs, service demands, and limited revenue growth. But the exact impact will depend on final decisions made over the next budget cycle, including exemptions and possible offsets. For many households, especially seniors and homeowners in tighter financial positions, even a modest increase could require budget adjustments.
This is on top of the Mount Vernon City School Board adopting a $272,206,615 budget for the 2025–26 school year and transmitted the required property tax report card to the state, approving a 3.3% increase in the district tax levy that Superintendent’s office staff said would fund contract settlements and preserve programs.
Black Westchester recommends that residents stay informed and involved in ALL local hearings and meetings, like the upcoming City Council meeting on Tuesday, December 16th at 6-8pm as it will give residents the best chance to influence how these tax policies are shaped and applied.
Residents are planning a rally in front of City Hall ahead of the December 16th City Council meeting.
RESISTING SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME – THE POWERFUL RISE OF THE NAACP
Some nights arrive not as events, but as visitations. Moments when history, healing, and human truth sit down together in the same room and invite us to listen.
Monday, December 8th, 2025 was one of those nights.
Inside the lower lounge of the YWCA White Plains & Central Westchester, the Westchester Women’s Agenda Juneteenth Committee hosted:
“Resisting Slavery By Another Name: The Powerful Rise of the NAACP.”
But what happened inside that room was more than a panel. More than a program. More than a commemoration.
It was a remembering. A recalibrating. A reclaiming.
It was the kind of evening that leaves a soft echo in your spirit long after the chairs are folded and the lights are dimmed.
(See the event in its entirety in the video below)
When a Woman’s Voice Softens the Room into Safety
Before any declarations of history or calls to action, Tasha Young stepped to the microphone with a calm, maternal steadiness that instantly grounded the entire space.
She welcomed us, not just as attendees, but as honored guests entering sacred work.
She named where the bathrooms were. Where the exits were. Where the refreshments waited.
Small details, but spiritually essential. A reminder that liberation begins with care.
Only when the room relaxed into itself did the night begin to rise.
DR. JENNIFER LEWIS
Opening the Portal with Precision and Presence
Dr. Jennifer Lewis moved to the podium with the authority of someone who has held many rooms and guided many truths.
She spoke with clarity, setting the historical grounding for the evening, weaving together justice, remembering, and the lineage of resistance.
Her tone was steady, focused, but filled with heart, like a door gently opening itself inviting us to step through.
SALLY PINTO
A Voice of Gratitude on Behalf of WWA
Representing WWA and speaking for Kate Permut, Sally Pinto brought warmth and sincerity.
Her voice carried appreciation for the community that gathered, for the work that continues, and for the women who labor behind the scenes to make nights like this possible.
She anchored the space in gratitude, a rare but powerful leadership.
THE ROLL CALL OF PRESENCE
Tasha returned to honor the elected officials in the room. Each name spoken was a soft drumbeat, a recognition of stewardship and accountability.
In a space filled with memory, names matter.
TIFFANY HAMILTON’S HOUSE
The Quiet Power of Women Who Build Possibility
Then came a moment that rippled through the room:
Honoring Tiffany Hamilton and the sacred space known as Tiffany Hamilton’s House, a sanctuary where strategy, leadership, and sisterhood are cultivated with intention.
And then Tasha shared a truth that felt like prophecy:
“Women didn’t wait for opportunity — we created it. And now it’s our turn.”
Every woman in the room felt that. Some nodded. Some exhaled. Some simply placed a hand over their heart.
Because it was true.
LEGISLATOR JEWEL WILLIAMS JOHNSON
A Full-Circle Moment in the Same Building Where She Once Swam Alone
When Jewel Williams Johnson approached the mic, her vulnerability opened a deeper layer of the night.
She shared that she once swam competitively in the pool next door, as the only Black girl on the team.
Now, decades later, she returned to this building as a legislator, standing before a convening on racial justice.
That is not coincidence. That is alignment.
That is healing walking back into the spaces that once held its ache.
THE YOUTH VOICE
Sister to Sister Speaks
A young woman from Sister to Sister stepped up. Her voice trembled for a moment, not from fear, but from the weight of being witnessed by a room full of leaders.
But as she spoke, her words gathered strength. She reflected on identity, belonging, and the power of being seen.
Her presence was soft, but her truth was solid.
The future entered the room through her voice.
MARITZA FASACK
The Silent Guardian Holding Up Signs That Guided the Flow
Not all leadership speaks through microphones.
In the back of the room sat Maritza Fasack, the timekeeper, the guardian of rhythm.
Throughout the night, she lifted different signs with reminders:
“Two minutes” “Wrap up”
Each sign rose with precision, and with every lift, the energy in the room subtly recalibrated.
Panelists adjusted their cadence. Moderators synced their pace. The conversation flowed without rush or stagnation.
Maritza wasn’t just keeping time. She was tending the energetic field of the evening, ensuring that every truth had space and every voice had room to land.
She held the room without ever needing to speak.
THE PANEL
A Trinity of Memory, Law, and Youth Rising
When the panelists took their seats, the room shifted again, as if preparing to deepen its listening.
These were not just speakers. They were carriers of lineage, defenders of justice, and midwives of the future.
KISHA SKIPPER
The Embodiment of Community Lineage
Kisha began by honoring every NAACP branch and president present. She spoke their names with reverence, not as a list, but as a lineage.
Her posture was firm. Her tone assured. Her presence grounded.
She spoke of the Yonkers NAACP not as an institution, but as an organism, alive, responsive, rooted.
Her voice carried the resonance of someone who holds both history and responsibility in the same hand.
MAYO BARTLETT, ESQ.
The Legal Alchemist Who Speaks to the Soul
Mayo leaned forward slightly before speaking, hands clasped, eyebrows soft in contemplation.
He spoke of the 14th Amendment with clarity, but also with compassion.
He shared a story of affirming a young man against a system intent on defining him by harm.
His words landed like balm:
“You are not what they are describing.”
It wasn’t a legal argument. It was liberation in a sentence.
Mayo reminded the room that justice is not only fought in courts but in how we speak to each other.
INGRAHAM TAYLOR, LMSW
The Midwife of Black Excellence
Ingraham spoke with her whole body, hands expressive, eyes bright, smile unguarded.
Her stories of ACT-SO were stories of transformation. She talked about youth with tenderness, like one speaks about seedlings in their first bloom.
Her story about taking a young girl to get her ACT-SO dress was a sermon on worthiness.
“She needed to know she was worth the trip.”
Ingraham teaches more than excellence. She teaches self-belief.
Together, They Formed a Living Blueprint
Kisha brought memory. Mayo brought framework. Ingraham brought future.
Their synergy was seamless, a braid of truth, justice, and possibility.
The audience didn’t just learn. They felt.
Truth has texture when spoken by those who live it.
THE ROOM REFUSED TO EMPTY
A Sign That Real Work Happened
When the formal program ended, no one rushed out.
People lingered. Hugged. Made eye contact. Exchanged numbers. Reflected quietly.
That is how you know the soul of a community has been stirred.
THE NIGHT CLOSES,
BUT THE CALL CONTINUES
As the room began to soften into evening, Tiffany Hamilton’s words echoed once more:
“Women didn’t wait for opportunity — we created it. And now it’s our turn.”
This night proved something:
We are not waiting. We are remembering. We are organizing. We are rising.
And after a night this intimate, this honest, This aligned with lineage and liberation.
I cannot wait to see the next event under this series.
Because once a community wakes up together, The healing cannot help but continue.
Suspect accused of stealing Shaquille O’Neal’s custom Range Rover in Georgia was arrested in New York; the vehicle is still missing
A man suspected of stealing basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal’s $180,000 customized Range Rover six weeks ago has been arrested in Mount Vernon, after a car associated with him had triggered a license plate reader.
According to Mount Vernon Police Deputy Chief Gregory Addison, the suspect was arrested around 8 p.m. on Friday, December 5th. Addison said officers received a license plate reader alert for a vehicle that might contain a wanted party with a warrant out of Lumpkin County, Georgia. The alert was for a specific South Carolina license plate. Officers located the vehicle within the city and watched as the driver walked into a local business. They followed the driver inside, detained him, and verified that he was the party wanted in Georgia.
Anthony Del Rosario, with addresses in Yonkers and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was placed under arrest for the extraditable warrant and is currently being held at the Westchester County Jail as a “Fugitive From Justice,” the New York State designation for someone wanted in another state. The vehicle he was driving was impounded because it was not registered; authorities confirmed it was not O’Neal’s Range Rover.
Authorities tell Black Westchester that the stolen vehicle has not been recovered and is believed to be somewhere in the Middle East.
The arrest follows weeks of investigation into the disappearance of O’Neal’s customized 2025 Range Rover, which was taken from a Dahlonega firm on October 20th. The SUV, worth around $180,000, was meant to be delivered to Louisiana for O’Neal to use at an LSU game that weekend, but it never came.
According to the affidavit by a Lumpkin Sheriff’s investigator, an accomplice impersonated Effortless Motors of California’s transport provider by using a phony phone number. This allowed the thieves to change the pickup instructions and submit a phony certificate of insurance, prompting Effortless to accept the car’s release.
The owner of Effortless, a Riverside, Calif.-based firm that has customized multiple vehicles for the 7-foot-1 NBA Hall of Famer, offered a $10,000 prize for the car’s return following the theft, indicating that the transportation company had been hacked.
Ahmad Abdelrahman, a spokesperson for Effortless Motors, said the vehicle was removed from the shop under false pretenses. He said the company arranged transport through FirstLine Trucking LLC, which later claimed its system had been hacked.
Abdelrahman said the arrest is a major breakthrough in what appears to be a large, coordinated criminal operation.
MVPD Deputy Chief Addison said that Mount Vernon police were notified about 8 p.m. that night that the car associated with Del Rosario, with South Carolina plates, had triggered a license plate reader.
After officers found the car and saw Del Rosario walking into a business on East Lincoln Avenue just east of Hutchinson Boulevard, they followed him inside and detained him. Once they confirmed he was the wanted man and the Lumpkin County Sheriff’s Office sought his return, he was arrested on a fugitive from justice charge and held at the county jail.
Denise came to see me after her third panic attack in two months. A senior vice president at a financial services firm, she was the kind of person who had spent twenty years building a reputation for being unshakeable. Denise ran a department of forty people, sat on two nonprofit boards, and still managed to show up for her teenage daughters’ track meets whenever she could. On paper, she had everything figured out.
In my office, Denise was fighting back tears and telling me she thought she was losing her mind.
The panic attacks had started coming out of nowhere, or at least that’s how it felt to her. She would be in a meeting or driving home from work when suddenly her heart would race, her chest would tighten, and she would become convinced that something terrible was about to happen. Her doctor ran every test and found nothing wrong with her heart, which should have been reassuring but somehow made her feel worse. If nothing was wrong, why did she feel like she was falling apart?
When I asked about her sleep, Denise waved the question away at first.
She told me she had always been a light sleeper and that she usually got about five hours, sometimes less, during busy seasons, and had trained herself to function on whatever rest she could squeeze in. She figured that was just how successful people operated. Besides, she said, she didn’t have time to sleep more. There was always another email, another presentation to review, or another problem that needed her attention before she could finally close her eyes.
What Denise didn’t realize was that the irritability she had been feeling for months, the way she would snap at her husband over small things and then feel terrible about it afterward, the difficulty concentrating that she blamed on getting older, the sense that she was constantly on edge even when nothing was actually wrong—all of it was connected to the chronic exhaustion she had normalized years ago. Her body had been sending her signals for a long time, and the panic attacks were just the loudest version of a message she had been ignoring.
Juan
Around the same time I was working with Denise, a law enforcement officer named Juan showed up in my office with a very different set of concerns. He was forty-three years old, had been on the force for eighteen years, and had recently scared himself badly enough to finally ask for help.
It started with chest pains that would wake him up in the middle of the night. The first time it happened, he drove himself to the emergency room, convinced he was having a heart attack. The doctors ran an EKG, drew blood, and kept him for observation, but everything came back normal. When it happened again a few weeks later, he went back, and again they found nothing. He didn’t keep the follow-up appointment with the PCP the ER had recommended because he generally “doesn’t like” doctors. By the third visit to the ER, he started to feel like maybe the doctors thought he was making it up, so he stopped going and started self-medicating instead.
With alcohol.
A couple of beers after his shift seemed to help take the edge off. Then it became three or four. Eventually, it became the only way he could fall asleep at all. His wife noticed and said something, which led to an argument, which led to him sleeping on the couch, making the whole situation worse. By the time he came to see me, he was averaging maybe four hours of broken sleep a night, drinking more than he wanted to admit, and genuinely worried that something was seriously wrong with him that the doctors just couldn’t find.
Juan had spent nearly two decades working rotating shifts, the kind of schedule that asks your body to be alert at 2 a.m. one week and asleep by 10 p.m. the next. He had never really thought about what that was doing to him because everyone on the job dealt with the same thing, and complaining about it felt like weakness. He pushed through the fatigue the way he pushed through everything else, and he assumed the chest pains, anxiety, and the drinking. were just the price of the life he had chosen.
The Pattern Underneath
Denise and Juan came from very different worlds, but when I sat with each of them and started asking questions, the same pattern emerged. Both of them had been running on empty for years, with symptoms that seemed mysterious until you looked at how they were sleeping. Denise buried herself in work while Juan reached for the bottle. Their coping strategies masked the issue just enough to keep them going while making everything worse underneath.
I see versions of Denise and Juan almost every week in my practice. The specifics change—different jobs, different families, and various reasons for walking through my door—but the story underneath stays remarkably consistent. Someone is struggling with their mood or their energy or their focus, and when we start peeling back the layers, we find chronic sleep deprivation holding up the whole thing like a crack in the foundation that no one thought to check.
What strikes me most is how long people wait before they connect the dots, not because they aren’t paying attention, but because no one ever told them to look there.
Who Gets to Rest
In the Black community, there is a long and understandable tradition around pushing through. We honor those who work doubles and triples, sacrifice their rest so their children can have more than they did, and who keep going when everything in their body is telling them to stop. This has been the untold sacrifice that has carried families through generations of obstacles that would have broken most people, and I would never dismiss it.
But somewhere along the way, exhaustion became a badge of honor, and rest became something we told ourselves we would get to later. After the promotion, after the kids were grown, after we had accomplished everything on the never-ending to-do list.
The problem that is being missed is that “later” never comes and is costing us more than we realize.
Ironically, the individuals I see who are most reluctant to prioritize sleep are often the ones who need it most. They come in with high blood pressure that won’t respond to medication, or anxiety that seemed to start of nowhere, or weight they can’t lose despite doing everything right. When I ask about their rest, I get the same response Denise gave me—a wave of the hand, a shrug, something like “that’s just how it is for me.”
But it doesn’t have to be this way. A lot of us have accepted (or have become accustomed to) a level of tiredness that we’ve mistaken for normal when it’s a pattern that’s quietly making us sick.
To be fair, there are external reasons for our disrupted sleep patterns, and we cannot pretend that barriers don’t exist. When you’re working nights, when you’re worried about rent, when your neighborhood doesn’t quiet down until well past midnight, when you’re the person everyone depends on, quality sleep can feel like a luxury that simply isn’t available to you. I see those barriers every day in my practice, and I see what they do to the body over time.
But I also see what happens when people start treating sleep like it truly matters, even when the circumstances aren’t perfect.
When you frame rest as something that changes your blood pressure and your mood and your ability to show up for the people who need you, protecting it stops feeling selfish and starts feeling like the most practical thing you can do for yourself and everyone counting on you.
Sleep As “Medicine”
When you sleep, your body is doing essential maintenance that cannot happen any other way. Your brain is processing emotions and consolidating memories, your immune system is resetting, your muscles are repairing, and your hormones are recalibrating in ways that affect everything from your mood to your metabolism to your cardiovascular health. When you cut the process short night after night, the effects accumulate quietly until they become impossible to ignore.
That’s why one of the first “prescriptions” I offer is a serious conversation about sleep and recovery, because I’ve found that most people have never had someone sit down with them and explain what they’re really losing when they sacrifice their rest.
In these conversations, I’m always clear that better sleep doesn’t replace medical care. If you’re on medication for blood pressure, anxiety, depression, diabetes, or anything else, stay on it and keep working with your doctor.
Improving your sleep isn’t a substitute for your prescriptions, but it is a foundational piece that makes everything else work better, and most people have never been told how much it matters.
I have watched people like Denise and Juan make meaningful changes in their lives simply by starting to pay attention to their rest in addition to receiving regular medical care. They didn’t need to start with expensive interventions or complicated protocols, just with awareness and intention and a willingness to take it seriously.
Sometimes the most powerful “medicine” is something you don’t even perceive as potentially medicinal, and the one you’ve convinced yourself you don’t have time for.
What Changed
Denise and I worked together over several months to rebuild her relationship with sleep. At first, she wanted hard data. She bought a sleep tracker and started monitoring her sleep stages, her heart rate, and her nightly score. Every morning, she would faithfully check the numbers before she even got out of bed, and if the score wasn’t good enough, her whole day started with a quiet sense of defeat and anxiety.
She was optimizing her sleep the same way she optimized everything else, and I could see it was making things worse. So, we decided together to take the tracker away, not permanently, but long enough for her to reconnect with what her body was telling her. I asked her to stop measuring and start noticing how did she felt when she woke up, not according to an app, but to her own experience of being in her body.
It was harder than she expected because Denise had spent years rigidly trusting metrics more than her own instincts. But over time, she learned to let go of the score and pay attention to signals she had been ignoring for a long time. The panic attacks became less frequent, and the irritability that had been straining her marriage started to lift. She told me recently that she finally feels like herself again, and that she wishes someone had told her years ago that she didn’t have to perform her way through everything, including her sleep.
Juan needed something different.
He didn’t trust feelings and did not particularly want to sit in my office talking about emotions. What he needed was something concrete that proved that the changes he was making were working, because otherwise, he wasn’t going to believe it.
So, we gave him a tracker, but with a different purpose than Denise had given hers. Every week, we would sit down together and look at his numbers (sleep efficiency, REM percentage, resting heart rate, and HRV trends), not to chase perfect scores but to look for evidence that his body was recovering even when he didn’t feel dramatically different yet.
And there was always something we could point to. Some weeks, his deep sleep was up; some weeks, his heart rate variability had improved, and having those concrete markers gave him something to talk about other than the chest pains he was so afraid of. This approach gave Juan goals to work toward, which fit the way his mind worked, and it showed him something he desperately needed to see. He needed to know that his body wasn’t failing him and that it was responding to the changes he was making–and that it was more reliable than he had feared.
The drinking slowed down and eventually stopped. So did the chest pains. The last time I saw him, Juan told me he was sleeping better than he had in years, and he seemed almost surprised by how much had shifted once he started paying attention.
The Recovery Revolution
Two patients who took very different paths to get to the same place.
Denise needed to stop tracking and start trusting her own experience again. Juan needed to start tracking so he could build enough trust to eventually let go.
They needed help to see that the exhaustion they had normalized was a problem worth solving, and that solving it was more within their reach than they had imagined.
I share these stories because I want you to know that if any of this sounds familiar and, if you’ve been running on empty for so long that you’ve forgotten what rested feels like, you’re not alone in that, and you’re not broken. You may just be carrying a kind of tired that has become so familiar you stopped questioning it.
The “medicine” I’m talking about isn’t in a bottle but in the hours you end up giving away to everything and everyone else, the rest you are postponing because something always feels more urgent, and the recovery you keep telling yourself you’ll prioritize once things settle down.
You don’t have to earn the right to rest. But if you’ve been waiting for someone to tell you it’s okay to take this seriously, I hope this can be that moment for you.
Why? Because this is serious. Did you know that a major meta-analysis of over 1.3 million people, published in the journal Sleep, found that those who regularly slept less than seven hours per night had a 12% higher risk of death from any cause? And for people consistently getting five hours or less, the risk climbed to roughly 15%.
Who knew?
A separate study in BMJ Open found that those prescribed common sleep medications had more than three times the risk of death compared to matched controls—even after adjusting for other health conditions.
The point isn’t to alarm you. The point is that how you sleep matters more than most people have ever been told. And addressing the root causes of poor sleep may be one of the most important health decisions you can make.
Start paying attention to what your body has been trying to tell you. Make one small change this week, and then another one next week.
Our bodies have been keeping score. It’s high time we started listening.
References
1. Cappuccio FP, D’Elia L, Strazzullo P, Miller MA. Sleep duration and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Sleep. 2010;33(5):585-592. doi:10.1093/sleep/33.5.585
2. Kripke DF, Langer RD, Kline LE. Hypnotics’ association with mortality or cancer: a matched cohort study. BMJ Open. 2012;2(1):e000850. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-000850
Derek H. Suite, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist and the founder of Full Circle Health in New York. He is the host of the SuiteSpot podcast and the author of the forthcoming book Sleep as Performance Medicine.
Crockett’s Announcement shakes up Democratic primary – Former Rep. Colin Allred dropped out of the race Monday morning, but state Rep. James Talarico remains as Democrats prepare to contend for GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s seat.
Representative Jasmine Crockett on Monday filed paperwork to run for the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas, hours ahead of a planned news conference where she announced her plans. Crockett joins the race to take on GOP Sen. John Cornyn, who is facing multiple primary challengers himself. The two-term congresswoman’s decision also comes as her Dallas-based House seat was redrawn in a GOP-led redistricting effort.
“I’m done with going along to get along, and it gets us nowhere,” Crockett, one of Congress’ most outspoken Democrats, said during her announcement Monday. “I’m done watching rural hospitals and public schools close their doors. I’m done watching parents be afraid to send their kids to school or the mall or the movies because Republicans have flooded our streets with guns. I’m done with the Senators sitting around doing nothing, while Trump takes your hard-earned money, skims your Social Security, slashes Medicare, and gives tax breaks to billionaires. I’m done. I’m done watching the American dream on life support while Trump tries to pull the plug. The gloves have been off, and now I’m jumping into the ring. I’m asking for your support to be the next United States Senator from the great state of Texas.”
Crockett, with a slogan of “Texas Tough,” pitched herself as the Democrat best-positioned to drive out turnout and appeal to disillusioned voters, saying she can build “a strong multi-racial, multi-generational coalition,” and pledged to focus on addressing the cost of living and holding President Donald Trump accountable.
Some Democrats dismissed the Dallas congresswoman as too polarizing to capture the swing voters needed to win. Others said her turnout-over-persuasion approach is the recipe to break through.
“In the eyes of some pundits and politicos, the Dallas Democrat’s nomination would spell doom for her party’s chances of winning a statewide race for the first time in over three decades. To others, she is a fighter and gifted communicator whose expand-the-electorate strategy is worth trying in a state where Democrats of all stripes and styles have failed,” The Texas Tribune reported.
Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas in more than 30 years, but they have been eyeing next year’s Senate race as a potential pickup opportunity, with Cornyn facing primary challenges from state Attorney General Ken Paxton and GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt. Democrats need to net four seats to take back the Senate next year.
Others say she would need to attract voters who cast their ballots for President Donald Trump, in a state the president carried last November by nearly 14 percentage points — a gap that some argue cannot be bridged by high Democratic turnout alone, and that Crockett is too polarizing to achieve.
As Democrats have struggled with unscripted forums, finding their digital voice and authentic presentation, Crockett, a frequent presence on cable television and in long-form interviews, is regarded among the base as an invigorating and clear communicator, never robotic or boring.
“Jasmine Crockett is the most talked about member of the United States Congress, House or Senate,” Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a bastion of Houston politics, said at Crockett’s launch event. “And why are they talking about her? Because she talks back. She will expand our base. She’s a great communicator. She has shown that she can raise money.”
Crockett said her campaign conducted polling showing her in a strong position in the general election and the primary, though she did not name her chief primary opponent as she launched her campaign Monday night.
If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in either of the March 3 primaries, the top two vote-getters advance to a primary runoff on May 26.
You’re acting like he got appointed Police Commissioner with a machete in his pocket.
Let me tell you what you’re really mad about:
That he didn’t stay broken.
That he didn’t stay in the box you put him in.
That a man who went to prison came back with clarity, credibility, and the kind of conviction most of these career politicians will never know.
From Conviction to Contribution
Mysonne did seven years. SEVEN.
Not seven months in some soft-core Wall Street white-collar holding tank, seven years in a New York prison.
And he came home and didn’t become a statistic.
He became a soldier for justice.
Co-founder of Until Freedom.
Led protests for Breonna Taylor.
Marched through Louisville, Ferguson, Harlem, and the Bronx.
Got cuffed for standing with mothers, not chasing cameras.
Held street vigils.
Organized back-to-school drives.
Educated incarcerated youth about the system they were born into.
You want reform? You want lived experience?
He IS the blueprint.
But you don’t want lived experience, you want lived submission.
You want redemption that whispers.
Mysonne came back and spoke with his chest.
And that scares you.
The Backlash
The same city that locks up Black boys at 16 without a blink got shook when one of them grew up and came back ready to lead.
Let’s talk stats:
Over 76% of formerly incarcerated people are unemployed a year after release.
Black people are 13% of the U.S. population, but nearly 40% of the prison population.
NYPD officers have over 15,000 misconduct complaints in the last decade and yet many get promoted.
But Mysonne gets one seat on one advisory committee, and the whole city starts screaming?
Because it’s not about his past. It’s about his power.
You’ll trust a cop who choked someone on camera before you’ll trust a Black man who changed.
Make that make sense.
The Pain Beneath the Politics
Yes, a widow is grieving.
And that’s real.
But so is this: Pain and progress can coexist.
Nobody’s asking for the past to be erased.
But can we allow the future to breathe?
Mysonne didn’t ask for a pardon.
He’s not on a redemption tour.
He’s been on the ground:
In the streets
In the classrooms
In the boardrooms
In the budget meetings
In the legislation strategy sessions
While you were tweeting, he was teaching.
While you were critiquing, he was building.
He has earned this moment.
Period.
The 4 I’s of Oppression, Yes, We Gotta Go There
Let’s call it what it is.
The reason this hit a nerve is because the system is doing what it was designed to do, and you don’t even see it.
Ideological: You were taught that a convicted Black man can’t lead. That once you’re caged, your credibility expires. That’s the lie.
Institutional: The media calls him an “ex-con” in every headline. But where were the headlines when he helped pass policy? When he fed 500 families during COVID? When he mentored boys who were on the edge of that same system?
Interpersonal: The beefs? The side-eyes? That’s us hurting each other because the system taught us to compete instead of heal.
Internalized: Some of you really believe he shouldn’t be there. Because you’ve been conditioned to see transformation as impossible.
Don’t fall for it.
Don’t become a mouthpiece for your own oppression.
The “Beef” Isn’t the Whole Story
Let’s not act like public tension is new.
We’ve watched entire political campaigns run on shade.
But when it’s two Black men with trauma and platforms, suddenly it’s “unfit to serve”?
No
It’s pain without therapy.
It’s ego without rest.
It’s survival mode spilling into public discourse.
Yes, Mysonne responded.
Yes, he got triggered.
Yes, he clapped back, but he didn’t spiral.
He stood ten toes down.
He said what needed to be said and kept building.
A decade of transformation shouldn’t be erased because of a 90-second YouTube clip.
Let’s not confuse viral for valid.
Mysonne’s not perfect. He’s honest.
He’s not clean-cut. He’s cut from real cloth.
He didn’t go to Yale. He went to Rikers, survived New York State Correctional Facilities, and came back whole.
Eric Adams ran with the Seven Crowns, a crew once feared in these same streets. Now he wears the NYPD’s blessing and the mayoral crown. So let’s not pretend like Mysonne’s path is unprecedented. The difference? Mysonne didn’t trade his past in for power; he brought his pain, his truth, and his people with him.
That’s the kind of leadership our communities actually need.
Because nobody knows how to fix a broken system better than someone who survived it and came back with tools.
And if your version of justice can’t include that? You’re not serious about change.
The system didn’t expect him to come back.
It definitely didn’t expect him to come back ready to lead.
And now that he’s here? They want to discredit, dismiss, and distract.
Online Purchases and Package Deliveries Increase During the Holiday Season, Leaving More Consumers Vulnerable to Package Theft
Secretary Mosley: “While you’re preparing to spread holiday cheer with those gifts, thieves may be trying to steal both from you.”
The New York Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection is warning consumers about package thefts this holiday season and sharing tips on how they can protect themselves from thieves trying to steal packages from their homes. The National Retail Federation recently reported that during the five-day holiday weekend from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, online shopping increased nine percent (9%) compared to last year. This increase in online shopping means more convenience for consumers, but also brings more risks. According to the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General’s 2025 Package Theft in the U.S. Report, at least 58 million packages were stolen nationwide in 2024, leading to approximately $16 billion in financial loss.
“Many consumers have already started or even finished their online holiday shopping for the season and are now waiting for their purchases to be delivered to their doorsteps,” said Secretary of State Walter T. Mosley. “While you’re getting ready to spread holiday cheer, thieves may be trying to take advantage. If you’re expecting deliveries this holiday season, make sure you’re taking added precautions and keeping track of your packages to prevent them from being stolen.”
New York State Police Superintendent Steven G. James said, “Online shopping has become a standard practice, and during the holiday season, package theft is even more prevalent for consumers. Stealing a package takes only seconds and can leave the victim with frustration and unexpected financial difficulty. By using package, order, or logistics “tracking” of packages and using alternative delivery methods (Hub locker, BOPIS), you can better protect your purchases and further ensure that you actually take possession of your delivered items.”
As you check things off your shopping list, be sure to follow these tips to prevent package theft and identity theft:
Keep track of your packages: Package theft peaks during the holiday season, so keeping track of your deliveries is critical to prevent theft.Delivery companies offer real-time tracking and the option to receive customized alerts so you can stay on top of your holiday shipments once they arrive and retrieve your packages as soon as they’re delivered.
Schedule deliveries when someone is home: Many online retailers and delivery companies allow consumers to schedule specific delivery timeframes. Choose a timeframe when someone will be home to avoid potential theft. When you are home, closely monitor delivery progress via tracking links and bring the package inside as soon as possible to limit the window of vulnerability.
Enlist your neighbor’s help: If you’re not going to be home, enlist the help of a trusted neighbor. When possible, have your packages delivered to a location where they can be received in person.
Monitor your front door with a security or doorbell camera: While a camera may not deter thieves, the presence of a camera can help you keep track of when packages are delivered so you can retrieve them quickly. If a package is stolen, the video recording of the theft can also be shared with the police.
Take advantage of the “Ship to Store” option: Many retailers offer a “ship to store” option. This means that you can order items online and have them sent to a local brick-and-mortar store. You can then pick up your purchase at a time convenient for you.
Consider alternative delivery options: Most delivery companies have alternative pickup and delivery options available. Some include redirecting packages to a local merchant partner or holding packages at their location. Do some research by visiting their websites to explore your options and update your delivery preferences. If you know you’re going to be on vacation, request a vacation hold on all shipments.
Opt for other services: If you’re doing most of your shopping online, consider alternative delivery options like a package locker, lockbox, or smart locker. Major retailers and delivery companies are increasing these services in multiple areas throughout New York State. In New York City, the LockerNYC program offers New York City residents access to free delivery lockers.
Require delivery confirmation signature: Consider requesting a signature for packages, especially for high-ticket items. This will ensure your items are not left unattended when delivered. This may require choosing a pricier shipping option.
Find out how a delivery company will communicate with you: Depending on how you signed up for notifications, messages from a delivery company are usually posted within a secure online portal. Delivery companies will never contact you with unsolicited calls or texts. If you receive an unexpected call, hang up and call the company using the official customer service number to verify its legitimacy.
Beware of phishing attempts: Another common scam this time of year is scammers using phishing emails and text messages to impersonate delivery companies (e.g., UPS, USPS, FedEx), banking and credit card companies and other large retailers (e.g., Netflix, PayPal, eBay, Amazon), which often include links to sites attempting to steal your information. Common phishing techniques include:
Suspicious links: These messages often look legitimate, but if you click the link, your usernames and passwords for your online banking, email or social media accounts could be compromised according to the Federal Trade Commission. Always open a browser and type the company’s website address yourself instead of clicking on a link in an email or text message.
Request for personal information: You receive an unexpected text from a delivery driver or a post office asking you to verify your address. If you call a number from an unsolicited message, you will then be asked to confirm your personal information and may be asked to provide your credit card information to pay a delivery fee. If you did not recently order a product, the caller may try to convince you the package is a gift from a friend or family member. In either scenario, the package does not exist. Providing your personal information to a scammer puts you at risk of falling victim to identity theft.
Report stolen packages immediately: Retailers may offer a partial or full refund if your package was stolen, but you must follow up with the retailer as quickly as possible to initiate this process.
About the New York State Division of Consumer Protection
Follow the New York Department of State on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and check in every Tuesday for more practical tips that educate and empower New York consumers on a variety of topics. Sign up to receive consumer alerts directly to your email or phone here.
The New York State Division of Consumer Protection provides voluntary mediation between a consumer and a business when a consumer has been unsuccessful at reaching a resolution on their own. The Consumer Assistance Helpline 1-800-697-1220 is available Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, excluding State Holidays, and consumer complaints can be filed at any time at https://dos.ny.gov/consumer-protection. The Division can also be reached via X at @NYSConsumer or Facebook.
The recent Westchester County budget tells a story far more honest than the slogans that dominate New York politics. While some lawmakers in Albany—most notably Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani—continue to push a Democratic-Socialist agenda built on ever-expanding government, Westchester has been forced into a different conversation: reality.
Under this year’s $2.5 billion budget, nearly every county department absorbed an eight-percent cut. Roughly 180 positions were eliminated through attrition, and a hard hiring freeze was imposed. Even with these reductions, the County Executive still had to raise the property-tax levy by 3.7 percent—down from an originally proposed 5.27 percent. These are not the actions of a government pursuing ideological expansion. They are the actions of a government trying to keep the books balanced while the economy tightens and federal support shrinks.
Thomas Sowell famously reminded us that “there are no solutions—only trade-offs.” Westchester’s budget reflects that truth. County officials did not stand at a podium calling for “free everything” or promising the illusion of unlimited public services without consequence. Instead, they confronted what every household and every business already understands: when revenues fall, and costs rise, you must adjust your spending. You cut where you can. You preserve what is essential. And you resist the temptation to pretend fiscal gravity doesn’t apply to you.
Ken Jenkins’ victory speech made one thing unmistakably clear: leadership is not performance — it is stewardship. When he reminded Westchester that “competent, stable leadership beats chaos and drama every time,” he wasn’t offering a slogan; he was acknowledging the reality of the budget he must now execute. An eight-percent reduction across departments, 180 positions eliminated through attrition, a hiring freeze, and a disciplined 3.7 percent tax levy increase are not the talking points of a politician seeking applause — they are the trade-offs of a leader who understands that governing means making decisions grounded in arithmetic, not ideology. His speech echoed the very structure of the budget: sober, steady, responsible. Where others promise transformation through sweeping rhetoric or redistribution, Jenkins laid out a path rooted in fiscal discipline and institutional stability. His words matched his work. At a time when New York is filled with movement candidates who speak in poetry and govern in slogans, Jenkins is signaling that Westchester will be governed by the math — not the microphone.
Albany offers the clearest example of what happens when political fantasy outruns fiscal restraint. While Westchester is tightening its belt, Albany continues to expand spending even as revenues weaken, businesses close, and residents flee the state. The Legislature has adopted policies that drive up labor costs, restrict police authority, inflate entitlement spending, and treat the taxpayer as an endlessly refillable well. The result is a multibillion-dollar structural deficit, rising debt service, and an economic climate so unstable that even long-standing New York companies are relocating. Albany’s approach mirrors the ideological playbook of its Democratic-Socialist wing: promise more, produce less, and blame external forces when the math no longer works. Westchester, by contrast, is behaving like a county that understands something Albany refuses to confront — arithmetic is not partisan, and outcomes do not bend to political slogans.
Contrast that with the Democratic-Socialist worldview, where the answer to every problem is more government staff, more government programs, and more government spending—funded by higher taxes on the same shrinking tax base. Mamdani and his allies offer sweeping visions of expanded social services, regardless of cost. But visions do not pay bills. Growth in government payrolls does not drive economic growth. And raising taxes in a region already experiencing out-migration does not increase the number of people available to pay them.
What we see in Westchester is not conservatism in a partisan sense—this is economic realism. The county’s approach recognizes that incentives matter, taxpayers respond to burdens, and businesses relocate when operating costs rise beyond reason. Those aren’t ideologies; they are patterns of behavior so consistent that they border on economic law.
The county’s 3.7 percent property-tax increase is already a meaningful adjustment for residents across Westchester, but its effect becomes far more severe in Mount Vernon. Unlike wealthier municipalities with stronger commercial tax bases, Mount Vernon depends heavily on homeowners to fund essential services. When the county raises taxes at the same time the city prepares a 5 percent increase of its own, residents are hit twice in the same fiscal year. Their incomes don’t rise, their services don’t dramatically expand — but their cost of staying in their homes grows significantly. What appears to be a manageable county levy adjustment becomes a compounded burden for families already navigating some of the highest effective tax rates in the region.
But it’s also important to be clear: this is not the county’s fault. Fiscal stress in Mount Vernon is the product of choices made at City Hall, not at the county level. Westchester County has bailed the city out numerous times — most notably with the $10 million allocated for Memorial Field, a project that administration after administration in Mount Vernon failed to complete. The county was eventually forced to take over the entire redevelopment and invest an additional $10 million of county taxpayers’ money just to deliver what the city had promised for more than a decade. So while the combined tax increases hit Mount Vernon residents hardest, the structural problem lies in chronic local mismanagement. The county can absorb eight-percent departmental cuts; many Mount Vernon residents cannot absorb near-double property-tax pressures — especially when past city leadership has repeatedly wasted opportunities for fiscal stability and responsible growth.
Policymakers who ignore these patterns—no matter how noble their intentions—produce predictable outcomes: declining tax bases, rising deficits, and shrinking opportunity. You can see versions of this in parts of New York City that embraced the very policies Mamdani champions. The results have been budget gaps, weakened public safety, deteriorating services, and a political culture more comfortable blaming external villains than correcting internal failures.
Westchester’s budget is a quiet rejection of that mindset. It says, “We cannot spend our way into prosperity.” We cannot tax our way into affordability. And we cannot build a stronger country by refusing to confront fiscal limits.
This is not a radical insight. It is simply an acknowledgment of what Westchester reader must understand: outcomes matter more than intentions. Budgets are moral documents not because they signal virtue, but because they reveal discipline—or lack of it.
This time, like it or not, Westchester chose discipline. Albany still chooses illusion. And the difference between the two will show up not in soundbites, but in the lived reality of the people who call this state home.
BOARD HONORS LEGISLATORS BOYKIN AND PARKER WITH DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD AT FINAL 2025 MEETING
Both Complete Service on County Board After Six Terms
On Monday, the Board of Legislators honored two outgoing legislators with the Westchester County Distinguished Service Award, the highest level of recognition the Board can bestow. The medals are awarded to individuals who have significantly benefited the general welfare and common good of the County through dedicated public service.
The honorees were Legislator Ben Boykin, District 5 (representing most of White Plains, all of Scarsdale, and West Harrison), and Legislator Catherine F. Parker, District 7 (representing Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Rye, and part of Harrison), both of whom will leave office at the end of the month, having reached term limits.
“I would like to extend my most heartfelt congratulations to my friends, Former Chair and Legislator Ben Boykin and Legislator Catherine Parker, on their well-deserved retirement from the Westchester County Board of Legislators. Their years of dedicated service, thoughtful leadership, and commitment to the people of Westchester have left a profound impact on our communities,” County Executive Ken Jenkins shared with Black Westchester.
Board Chairman Vedat Gashi (D–New Castle, Ossining, Somers, Yorktown) said, “Transitions on the Board are always bittersweet, but the departure of these two outstanding legislators seems especially poignant.
Ben’s long service to the public is extraordinary. Serving as NYSAC’s 80th president and completing two terms as Chair of the Board during a period of tremendous change are accomplishments unlikely to be matched. He guided the legislature through the pandemic, ushering in technological advances that kept the Board’s work moving forward. He also led the first Board with majorities of women and people of color, and offered me, personally, invaluable mentorship.
Catherine has dedicated 18 years to public service—six years on Rye City Council, followed by six terms steadfastly representing District 7 on the Board. Her legislative leadership on environmental issues set a high standard for the future, improving quality of life for the Sound Shore towns she represents and all of Westchester—from advancing flood-control measures, to creating a County Office of Sustainability, to stewarding the management of Rye Playland, a cherished County gem.”
“I am humbled and honored to receive this prestigious award from the Westchester County Board of Legislators, the highest honor the Board bestows. My twelve-year tenure here has been historic and transformative in many respects as I led this Board as Chairman for four years from 2018–2021. I have enjoyed working with my colleagues and our outstanding staff to move our County forward. My service has been a labor of love, and I thank my constituents and all the residents of Westchester for allowing me to help make our County a better place to live, work, and enjoy,” Legislator Benjamin Boykin II said.
“It has been the honor and privilege of my life to have served as the County Legislator for the 7th District these last 12 years. So many individuals and local organizations have shown me over my tenure that we can achieve so much when we come together to tackle problems like climate change, affordability, and flooding. I leave office knowing government can be a force for good, and feeling that the legacy I leave shows the next generation that we were thinking of them as we made our policy decisions,” Legislator Catherine F. Parker said.
The legislators’ colleagues included enthusiastic statements of gratitude for the leadership, friendship, and institutional knowledge both legislators freely gave throughout the years, noting in particular their steadfast leadership in County government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediately following the celebration, the Board of Legislators convened a special meeting to vote on the 2026 Budget.
Watch the full Regular Meeting below.
“During his tenure, both as legislator and Chair of the Board, Legislator Boykin guided his colleagues through complex budget cycles, COVID, and advanced policies that strengthened County Services. Legislator Parker’s deep commitment to the sound shore communities and strong advocacy on quality-of-life issues made a meaningful difference to the residents she served. As they begin this next chapter, I offer my sincere gratitude for their partnership and tireless effort on behalf of the people of Westchester. We wish them continued success and fulfillment in all that they do,” CE Jenkins shared in closing.
The Westchester County Board of Legislators is the policy-making branch of county government, serving one million residents. The 17-member Board allocates funds, approves the budget, and manages taxes, in addition to passing local laws, acts, and resolutions. It is the longest-running elected body in New York, with a history of over 300 years. Learn more by visiting www.westchesterlegislators.com.
The outrage over the Supreme Court’s latest redistricting ruling misses the most essential truth in the conversation: the Court did not create the political vulnerability Black America is now experiencing. If anything, the verdict exposes a flaw in our own political strategy — one that has gone unchallenged for decades.
The Court’s decision to allow Texas to use a disputed congressional map is being described as an attack on minority voting rights. Critics argue it weakens Black and Latino political power and ignores racial discrimination. But that framing avoids the ruling’s fundamental logic. The Court did not bless race-based gerrymandering. It reaffirmed what it has already said for years: partisan gerrymandering is legal, and federal courts will not referee it.
That single distinction changes the entire analysis. Racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. But partisan gerrymandering — drawing lines to benefit a political party — is not. So when states claim their maps are designed for partisan advantage, not racial targeting, the Court accepts that explanation unless racial intent can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Here is where the problem becomes ours.
When over 90 percent of Black voterschoose to align with one political party, the political effect becomes indistinguishable from race. Diluting Democratic votes inevitably dilutes Black votes because the two have become nearly identical in practice. The Supreme Court did not engineer that political uniformity. It merely responded to the reality we created.
This is the uncomfortable truth we avoid: predictability is political weakness. A group that consistently gives one party near-automatic support surrenders its bargaining power with both parties. One side assumes your loyalty. The other assumes your hostility. In that environment, gerrymandering becomes mathematically simple. You don’t need to target Black voters by race — targeting them by party accomplishes the same outcome with constitutional cover.
And we reinforce this vulnerability every election cycle.
We treat political loyalty as culture. We mistake party identity for community identity. To change this, Black leaders should promote policies that prioritize community interests over party loyalty, encouraging voters to evaluate candidates based on impact rather than allegiance, thereby increasing leverage.
And as long as we remain politically monolithic, partisan redistricting will continue to undermine our representation while remaining perfectly constitutional. To counter this, Black voters and leaders must prioritize coalition-building, voter education, and advocacy for competitive districts to break the cycle of political uniformity.
The Court’s ruling was not a betrayal. It was a mirror.
The Court’s ruling was not a betrayal. It was a mirror. It shows that political power is not secured through loyalty — it is secured through independence, unpredictability, and a willingness to withhold support until demands are met. Other voter blocs understand this. They negotiate. They extract concessions. They shift when necessary. That is why they are courted instead of taken for granted.
If Black America wants equal political influence, we cannot continue playing a game where everybody else negotiates for power while we negotiate for symbolism. We must reassess our strategy to build real leverage and influence.
The Supreme Court is not our problem.
Our one-sided strategy is.
And until we confront that truth, rulings like this will not be the exception — they will be the new normal.
