NYC Council Speaker: Solidarity Efforts Needed to Fight Trump as He Targets Muslims & Immigrants
(DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG) Interview, December 24, 2016 —
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I also want to bring into the conversation Melissa Mark-Viverito, the speaker of the New York City Council. A few weeks ago, she tweeted, quote, “If one day Muslims forced to register, that is day that this proud Boricua/Latina will register as a Muslim. #NeverIsNow #ExposeHate.”
Melissa, welcome to Democracy Now!
SPEAKER MELISSA MARK–VIVERITO: Thank you. Thank you.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Talk about that tweet.
SPEAKER MELISSA MARK–VIVERITO: Well, I mean, I think it just speaks to the lunacy—right?—the craziness that we’re experiencing right now, and the fear. Right? I’m not interested in normalizing the behavior and the attitudes that this president-elect is putting out there. And this idea of surveillance and these registries and building the walls are things that are really—you know, are just counter to our values, not only in New York City, but, I think, values that the majority in this country believe in.
So that’s why I said, you know, in order for us to really push back against what is being presented, we have to do solidarity work. Right? We have to really align ourselves, all of us, in rejecting the rhetoric and rejecting what soon will be actions that are going to be taken against particular members of our community. And so, that’s really what I was trying to say. I am going to be a very strong voice against what is being presented. I think our Democratic Party, of which I am a part of, needs to really reconfigure itself and re-envision itself and really serve as a countermeasure and a counteroffensive. And that’s why we need new leadership. There’s a lot of work yet to do, and I’m really interested in, you know, being part of that struggle.