Catholic High School students from Seattle likley have a more thoughtful approach than Suffolk County Legislator Kevin McCaffrey, undercover President of Teamsters Local 707 which represents Nassau OTB employees, who are not all of one religious or any religious persuasion. There are no Greeks in NY, no bettors who want to be on any day of the year in NY etc. Welcome to the State of Cuomo.
Some Nassau OTB cashiers request the help of left coast Catholic students to see that NY Const Art 1, Sec. 3 etc is given its due
Eastside Catholic School
https://www.eastsidecatholic.org/
Bellevue. Overview, calendar of events, academics, admissions, alumni, athletics
Eastside Catholic School
SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Eastside Catholic
prides itself on teaching acceptance. At the end of Crusader Way, by
the school’s entrance, banners hang celebrating “relationships” and
exhorting passers-by to “remember to take care of each other.” Students
use a sign-language gesture to remind one another of the school’s
emphasis on unconditional love.
But
now the school is unexpectedly grappling with how it defines both love
and acceptance. Last month, a well-regarded vice principal was forced to
leave his job as soon as administrators became aware that he had
married a man; in the weeks since, the suburban Seattle school has been
roiled, first by protests in support of the vice principal, and then by
the resignations of those who sought his departure. The chairman of the
school’s board resigned last month, and on Tuesday, Eastside, a middle
and high school with about 900 students, announced the resignation of
its president.
The
ouster of Mr. Z, as the former vice principal, Mark Zmuda, is known,
comes amid a wave of firings and forced resignations of gay men and
lesbians from Roman Catholic institutions across the country, in most
cases prompted not directly by the employees’ sexuality, but by their
decisions to marry as same-sex marriage becomes legal in an increasing
number of states.
This month, the band and choir director at a Catholic school in Ohio
was fired hours after he told the school’s president that he planned to
marry his boyfriend; in December, a French and Spanish teacher at a
Catholic school in Pennsylvania
was fired days after telling his principal he was applying for a
marriage license in New Jersey. Similar ousters have taken place at
Catholic schools, universities and parishes in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Missouri, New York and North Carolina.
For
Catholic school and church leaders across the country, the issue is
clear. The Roman Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage, and school
officials, including Mr. Zmuda, generally sign contracts saying they
will abide by church teachings so that their lives can be models for
their students.
But
for some young Catholics, the firings are mystifying, particularly
given the new tone set by Pope Francis. At Eastside Catholic, some
students have taken to crafting banners with the quotation “Who am I to
judge?,” words uttered by the pope when asked about gay priests; others
have been trying to reach the pope via Twitter, hoping he will somehow
intercede.
“He
made it safe for people to raise issues and questions that, in the
past, they were shut down for,” said Nancy Walton-House, whose son
attended Eastside. “There’s a lot of hope, and maybe some naïveté, about
how fast things can happen.”
Eastside’s
senior-class president, Bradley Strode, a 17-year-old wrestler and
lacrosse player, is seeking a meeting with the archbishop of Seattle,
arguing that even if the church’s doctrine does not change, its
employment practices should.
“It
was just shocking that the Catholic Church would turn its back on a
teacher for something that didn’t affect his work performance,” he said.
“Gay marriage was something I never really thought about before, but
everyone can agree that employment discrimination is wrong.”
Last week, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle issued a statement defending the school and rejecting the notion that the firing ran contrary to the direction of the new pope.
“Pope
Francis has often reminded us of the limitless mercy of God, for Jesus
came to bring his father’s mercy,” Archbishop Sartain said. “At the same
time, Pope Francis has also reminded us of our responsibility as
Catholics to live the timeless truth of church teaching on a wide
variety of topics, including the sacredness of traditional marriage.”
Some
students have quietly expressed support for the decision to remove Mr.
Zmuda, but the prevailing sentiment at the school has been upset,
reflecting, in part, the shifting attitudes toward same-sex marriage
among young people.
“A
lot of it is just generational,” said Christian Smith, a professor of
sociology at Notre Dame who studies the religious lives of teenagers.
“It’s a distinct minority who thinks there’s something wrong with
same-sex relationships, and that’s a big change from older generations.”
Eastside
Catholic, faced with intense blowback and sustained publicity over the
removal of Mr. Zmuda, has defended its decision but is clearly concerned
about the impact on applicants and donors as some students, parents and
alumni ask what the ouster means about the school they have chosen and
cheered.
This
month, in a step many in the school community have found confusing,
administrators gave a short-term contract to a choreographer who, in a
show of support for Mr. Zmuda, had announced on talk radio that she was
engaged to her girlfriend.
“It’s
great that they’re keeping me, but it’s a little confusing,” said the
choreographer, Stephanie Merrow, 41, who taught the school’s students to
dance in a 2012 production of “Footloose,” and is now doing the same
for this year’s production of “Guys and Dolls.”
“I feel for them,” she said. “I think maybe a mistake was made, and now what do they do?”
The
school’s president, Sister Mary E. Tracy, had also sent mixed signals.
She initially suggested to Mr. Zmuda that he might be able to keep his
job if he got divorced, and then oversaw his ouster. After weeks of
protest, she asked Julia Burns, an 18-year-old senior, to share with the
public this comment: “I look forward to the day when no individual
loses their job because they are married to a person of the same sex.”
Sister Mary did not respond to requests for an interview.
On
Tuesday, when the board announced Sister Mary’s resignation, it called
the step “a difficult, but necessary decision so that a new leader can
be brought in to ensure the entire Eastside Catholic community is moving
forward on a positive path.”
Mr.
Zmuda had not been at the school long, but he was liked by students,
especially on the swim team, which he coached. He married in July, seven
months after same-sex marriage became legal in Washington State, and he
was ousted in December, shortly after the school’s administration
received a complaint from a teacher about his marital status.
As students began to hear about his dismissal, they sprang into action.
“I
found out about it and just texted 15 or 16 people,” said Ian Edwards,
17, a senior. Word spread quickly, and students staged an impromptu
sit-in, skipping classes and gathering in a commons to talk, and, in
some cases, to cry. “We just shouldn’t allow this discrimination to
happen.”
Over the next weeks, the students took to social media to rally support, gathering signatures on an online petition and communicating via Twitter
and texts. They protested outside Sammamish City Hall, at a Seahawks
game and outside the archdiocese of Seattle, where they were joined by
Ed Murray, then the city’s mayor-elect, who is Catholic and gay. Also
this month, many students wore orange — the more attention-getting of
the school’s two colors — to class one day to express their concern; and
on Jan. 31, the students are hoping that other Catholic schools across
the nation will join them in a similar act.
Alumni and parents are organizing online as they seek to force change at the school.
“If
I had read the school handbook and it said, ‘We will hire you, but if
we find out you are gay and you are married, we will fire you,’ I would
not have put my kids there,” said Florence Colburn, who has two children
at the school.
And
Corey Sinser, 26, said he was an enthusiastic alumnus (class of 2006),
but that now, “I worry that this will have a negative effect on the type
of students who want to come, or the type of teachers who want to work
there.”
Some are hoping Mr. Zmuda will get his job back; others are seeking a change in the school’s employment practices.
Julia Troy, 17, a senior, said she believed that speaking up was an outcome itself.
“I
have gay friends, and I care about them,” she said. “Even if all that
happens is they know that I support them, that’s enough for me.”
HI-
Thanks for
the help. The item’s below. I’d be happy to mail you a copy,
if you give me a mailing address.
Claude
Solnik
(631)
913-4244
Long
Island
Business News
2150
Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI
Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
Long Island Business News
Suffolk,
Nassau
OTB probe ethics conflict
by David Winzelberg
Published: November 24th, 2013
At least one employee of Nassau County Off-Track Betting is questioning whether the head of his employee union, a member-elect of the Suffolk County Legislature, should have a say in Suffolk OTB business.
Teamsters Local
707 President
Kevin McCaffery, whose union represents about 200 Nassau OTB
workers,
was elected earlier this month to serve as a Suffolk
legislator
representing the 14th District. In a letter last week, Nassau
OTB
cashier Jackson Leeds alerted the Suffolk County Ethics Board
to
McCaffery’s possible conflict of interest.
“As a Suffolk County legislator, his duties are to the people
of
Suffolk County,” Leeds wrote. “He cannot simultaneously
represent the
interests of employees of Nassau OTB, a Nassau County public
benefit
corporation.”
McCaffery told LIBN he doesn’t think the two counties’ OTBs
are in
competition with each other and he doesn’t see his role as
union leader
for Nassau OTB workers as a conflict with issues surrounding
Suffolk
OTB.
“If anything, I have the background of dealing with Nassau
OTB, which
gives me more insight on the subject than any other legislator
out
there,” McCaffery said.
When asked if the legislator-elect’s union job appeared to be
a
conflict of interest, Nassau OTB chief Joseph Cairo said, “If
you
really want to stretch it. But I don’t see anything that’s
apparent to
me.”
Cairo added that he’ll instruct the Nassau agency’s counsel to
review
the situation.
Leeds, a 10-year veteran of Nassau OTB, complained that both
union
officials and county OTB management have been too focused on
the 1,000
video lottery terminals planned for each county’s OTB and
they’re not
paying enough attention to current operations.
“They never worked behind a window,” Leeds told LIBN. “They’re
out of
touch with the bettors of Nassau County.”
Internet wagering and dwindling handles – the overall money
being
wagered – have prompted a consolidation in Nassau OTB’s
operations in
recent years; there were 15 betting offices in Nassau in 2003,
and now
there are eight. Suffolk OTB, which has seven branch offices,
filed for
bankruptcy last year.
These days, according to some analysts, OTB offices exist
largely for
political patronage – another reason, according to Leeds, that
the
Nassau union chief shouldn’t mix one business with the other.
“Union leaders should not be politicians,” he said. “OTBs are
run by
politicians. Being political and doing public good aren’t
always
incompatible, but they often are.”
This isn’t the first time a Long Island legislator’s OTB ties
have
become an issue.
In May 2000, Gregory Peterson, then-president of the Nassau
OTB, sued
to prevent Nassau County Leg. Roger Corbin from voting on
appointments
to the Nassau OTB’s board of directors. Because Corbin was
employed as
a branch manager for New York City OTB and a member of
Teamsters Local
858, which then represented all employees of Nassau OTB,
Peterson
alleged Corbin’s legislative role posed a conflict of
interest.
A New York Supreme Court judge issued an injunction preventing
Corbin
from voting on OTB appointments, but Corbin appealed and the
lower
court’s decision was reversed. The Nassau County Board of
Ethics also
chimed in, determining by a 3-2 vote that voting on OTB
appointments
didn’t create a conflict because Corbin didn’t influence
policy or
engage in labor negotiations.
With McCaffery, some observers say it’s best to proceed with
caution.
Anthony Figliola, vice president of Uniondale-based government
relations firm Empire
Government
Strategies, said the legislator-elect may want to recuse
himself
from any votes concerning Suffolk OTB until the Suffolk County
Ethics
Board offers an opinion.
“OTB is a political football,” Figliola said. “It’s better to
stay out
of it, especially if you want to get things done in the
Legislature.”
David
Winzelberg
Reporter
631.913.4247
917.796.1801
No comments:
Post a Comment