Peter's Place

Zohran Mamdani's Mandate and the Death of the Old Playbook   As John Lennon sang,  Imagine all the people, livin' life in peace... I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one. This week, the world took a step closer toward living as one as the city serving as the world's stage, New York City, elected a person as mayor with that same vision, albeit half a century later. Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory, powered by a record-breaking turnout of over two million voters, was not just an election--it was a mandate. It was a clear, unambiguous declaration from the people that the "same-old, same-old" isn't working anymore. But before this new future can be fully realized there remain many struggles ahead a little bit of housekeeping to take care of. That housekeeping concerns the "establishment playbook"—a cynical set of tactics that says if you can't win on facts, use fear. It’s a playbook that relies on dirty, underhanded tactic...

At 9am today, 68 year-old West Hartford resident Sujitno Sajuti must check in with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at JFK Airport in New York City to be deported back to his home country of Indonesia—a land he hasn't seen in nearly 40 years. A practicing Muslim, Sajuti has no ties to any family there, no assets, no anything. Mr. Sujitno Sajuti I have been living here for almost four decades—nearly forty years, more than half my life. If I am sent back to my native country, I wouldn't even recognize it. I have nothing there, I know no one. All my assets are here, in this country. I would have no money, no house, no retirement, no income, no jobs, no pension, no family, no friends, no medical, nothing. I would be an outcast, due to my failure [in completing my PhD program]... I would not be able to help anyone, as I do here. My wife and I enjoy, so much, helping people in our community. I could not work, due to forced retirement age. I would be useless, ju...

On the evening before five very important primary elections were to be held on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, supporters of Bernie Sanders noticed something quite strange taking place on Facebook: groups advocating support for Bernie Sanders, which have been a primary vehicle for disseminating information and mobilizing support for actions, were disappearing. According to Lauren E Stafford, a social media consultant and administrative assistant, many of the affected Bernie Sanders Facebook groups have more than 50,000 members. "At least ten such very well-known and popular groups were removed during Monday evening's attack, leaving hundreds of thousands of Bernie Sanders supporters in the dark," she claimed. Evidence implicating a coordinated effort by Hillary Clinton's campaign and/or her supporters was quickly uncovered as some Clinton supporters, such as Casey Champagne, bragged about being part of that effort in the "BROS 4 HILLARY #GiveEmHill" Facebook gr...

There's a story that's been going around lately, and it's pretty true, that a bunch of Muslim women were recently arrested at the Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York (which is owned by the Westchester County Government --the only amusement park in the nation so owned by a governmental entity ), for causing a disturbance and protesting the park's refusal to allow them entrance on the park's many rides while wearing their headgear. Being a life-long resident of Westchester County and friends with folks who've worked at Playland over the years, I have an issue with this entire story. It's being made out that the Muslim women were singled out, and that's just not the case. Here's the fact of the matter: Anyone wearing any sort of headgear, including scarves, is not permitted on any ride at Playland, for safety reasons: If the women were allowed onto the rides and one of them were choked to death because their scarf (their headgear) ...

When I first started coming out, I learned the value of why one should lead an open life. While I value, and respect, privacy, I've found that leading one's life out in the open has numerous benefits over keeping one's life out of public purview, benefits that are immeasurable. For this reason, I've lived my life openly, often putting things into the public eye that most others would shy away from doing. I've discussed my mental illness openly  and, in doing so, have reaped the rewards of helping others deal with their struggles. I've discussed so many aspects about my personal life, receiving accolades and support all along the way. I've befriended countless individuals and had such positive forces and energy come into my life as a result of living a life where I hide very little, if anything. It doesn't come as a surprise to me that individuals would try to use my openness against me; what does surprise me is that a judge fell for such obviously t...