182
1 NEW YORK STATE SENATE
2
3
4 THE STENOGRAPHIC RECORD
5
6
7
8
9 ALBANY, NEW YORK
10 January 17, 2018
11 11:24 a.m.
12
13
14 REGULAR SESSION
15
16
17
18 LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR KATHLEEN C. HOCHUL, President
19 FRANCIS W. PATIENCE, Secretary
20
21
22
23
24
25
183
1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 THE PRESIDENT: The Senate will
3 come to order.
4 I ask everyone present to please
5 stand and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance with
6 me.
7 (Whereupon, the assemblage recited
8 the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.)
9 THE PRESIDENT: In the absence of
10 clergy, may we bow our heads in a moment of
11 silence.
12 (Whereupon, the assemblage respected
13 a moment of silence.)
14 THE PRESIDENT: The reading of the
15 Journal.
16 THE SECRETARY: In Senate, Tuesday,
17 January 16th, the Senate met pursuant to
18 adjournment. The Journal of Monday,
19 January 15th, was read and approved. On motion,
20 Senate adjourned.
21 THE PRESIDENT: Without objection,
22 the Journal stands approved as read.
23 Presentation of petitions.
24 Messages from the Assembly.
25 Messages from the Governor.
184
1 Reports of standing committees.
2 Reports of select committees.
3 Communications and reports from
4 state officers.
5 Motions and resolutions.
6 Mr. Floor Leader.
7 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: I move to
8 adopt the Resolution Calendar, with the exception
9 of Resolutions 3416 and 3432.
10 THE PRESIDENT: All in favor of
11 adopting the Resolution Calendar, with the
12 exception of Resolutions 3416 and 3432, signify
13 by saying aye.
14 (Response of "Aye.")
15 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed?
16 (No response.)
17 THE PRESIDENT: The Resolution
18 Calendar is adopted.
19 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Now, Madam
20 President, can we take up the reading of the
21 noncontroversial calendar.
22 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
23 read.
24 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 42,
25 by Senator Croci, Senate Print 7314, an act to
185
1 amend the Civil Service Law.
2 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
3 section.
4 THE SECRETARY: Section 3. This
5 act shall take effect immediately.
6 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
7 (The Secretary called the roll.)
8 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54.
9 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
10 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 47,
11 by Senator Marchione, Senate Print 7319, an act
12 to amend a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
13 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
14 section.
15 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
16 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
17 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
18 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
19 (The Secretary called the roll.)
20 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54.
21 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
22 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 54,
23 by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 7326, an act to
24 amend Part E of Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2017.
25 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
186
1 section.
2 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
3 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
4 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
5 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
6 (The Secretary called the roll.)
7 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54.
8 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
9 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 57,
10 by Senator Hannon, Senate Print 7329, an act to
11 amend the Public Health Law.
12 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
13 section.
14 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
15 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
16 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
17 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
18 (The Secretary called the roll.)
19 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54.
20 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
21 THE SECRETARY: Calendar Number 62,
22 by Senator Funke, Senate Print 7334, an act to
23 amend the Economic Development Law.
24 THE PRESIDENT: Read the last
25 section.
187
1 THE SECRETARY: Section 2. This
2 act shall take effect on the same date and in the
3 same manner as a chapter of the Laws of 2017.
4 THE PRESIDENT: Call the roll.
5 (The Secretary called the roll.)
6 THE SECRETARY: Ayes, 54.
7 THE PRESIDENT: The bill is passed.
8 That concludes the reading of the
9 calendar.
10 Mr. Floor Leader.
11 SENATOR DeFRANCISCO: Yes, may we
12 now go back to motions and resolutions and take
13 up Resolution 3432, by Senator Stewart-Cousins,
14 read it in its entirety, and call on Senator
15 Stewart-Cousins to speak.
16 THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will
17 read.
18 THE SECRETARY: Legislative
19 Resolution Number 3432, by Senators
20 Stewart-Cousins, Larkin and Klein, commemorating
21 the observance of the 33rd Annual Martin Luther
22 King, Jr. Day in the State of New York on
23 January 15, 2018.
24 "WHEREAS, From time to time we take
25 note of certain individuals whom we wish to
188
1 recognize for their valued contributions and to
2 publicly acknowledge their endeavors which have
3 enhanced the basic humanity among us all; and
4 "WHEREAS, Attendant to such concern,
5 and in full accord with its long-standing
6 traditions, it is the custom of this Legislative
7 Body to join the people of this great
8 Empire State in proudly observing the 33rd Annual
9 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the State of
10 New York, on January 15, 2018, taking note of his
11 many accomplishments and contributions to
12 mankind; and
13 "WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King,
14 Jr. was born the grandson of a slave into a
15 segregated society in Atlanta, Georgia, on
16 January 15, 1929, and was instrumental in
17 formulating a policy which ultimately destroyed
18 legal apartheid in the southern states of our
19 nation; and
20 "WHEREAS, In February of 1968,
21 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about the
22 inevitability of his death and hoped that when we
23 spoke of his life, we would not concentrate on
24 his academic achievements: that he graduated
25 from Morehouse College, that he attended the
189
1 Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston
2 University, where he earned a doctorate in
3 systematic theology; and
4 "WHEREAS, Furthermore, Dr. Martin
5 Luther King, Jr. did not find it important that
6 we mention that he won the Nobel Peace Prize and
7 over 300 other awards; and
8 "WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King,
9 Jr.'s finest legacy of greater social justice for
10 all Americans was truly reflected in his devotion
11 to serve and respect others, and in his steadfast
12 love for all humanity; and
13 "WHEREAS, Standing in a long line of
14 great American black leaders, Dr. Martin Luther
15 King, Jr. represents the historical culmination
16 and the living embodiment of a spirit of united
17 purpose rooted in black African culture and the
18 American dream; and
19 "WHEREAS, An apostle of peace,
20 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought unrelentingly
21 for the civil rights of all Americans and taught
22 us that through nonviolence, courage displaces
23 fear, love transforms hate, acceptance dissipates
24 prejudice, and mutual regard cancels enmity; and
25 "WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King,
190
1 Jr. manifestly contributed to the cause of
2 America's freedom, and his commitment to human
3 dignity is visibly mirrored in the spiritual,
4 economic, and political dimensions of the civil
5 rights movement; and
6 "WHEREAS, In addition, Dr. Martin
7 Luther King, Jr.'s life was devoted to the
8 liberation of his people and his courage
9 transcended the advocates of mindless
10 retrenchment; and
11 "WHEREAS, It is the sense of this
12 Legislative Body that the common and shared
13 responsibility of governance demands an
14 irrevocable commitment to the preservation and
15 enhancement of human dignity as exemplified by
16 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and
17 "WHEREAS, Upon the occasion of the
18 celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther
19 King, Jr., it is the practice of this Legislative
20 Body to commemorate the heroic efforts of
21 Dr. King, who loved and served humanity, and who
22 was a drum major for peace, justice and
23 righteousness; and
24 "WHEREAS, The 2018 Dr. Martin Luther
25 King, Jr. Holiday observance marks the 89th
191
1 anniversary of his birth, and the 33rd annual
2 holiday celebrated in the State of New York in
3 his honor; now, therefore, be it
4 "RESOLVED, That this Legislative
5 Body pause in its deliberations to memorialize
6 and pay tribute to the legendary life and
7 achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., upon
8 the occasion of the anniversary of his birth and
9 the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in
10 the State of New York and throughout the nation;
11 and be it further
12 "RESOLVED, That a copy of this
13 resolution, suitably engrossed, be transmitted
14 to the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian
15 Legislative Caucus."
16 THE PRESIDENT: Senator
17 Stewart-Cousins.
18 SENATOR STEWART-COUSINS: Thank
19 you, Madam President.
20 I rise, as I have had the
21 opportunity and occasion to rise for over
22 10 years, to commemorate the memory of Reverend
23 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
24 And this year is just incredibly
25 different from every other year I've had the
192
1 opportunity to speak on this occasion. Like most
2 of my colleagues, I spent the weekend, the King
3 weekend, not golfing, but attending events
4 honoring Dr. King's legacy. And as I stand here,
5 I recall how in 2008 I stood for the first time,
6 as so many of us did, because America had elected
7 its first African-American president and people
8 saw that as an indication that we had moved a
9 mighty long way and saw President Barack Obama as
10 the embodiment of that dream that, as Dr. King
11 said, is deeply rooted in the American dream.
12 That occasion was coincident with one of my
13 grandsons' birthdays. And with the election of
14 Barack Hussein Obama, I knew that my grandson or
15 your grandson or your granddaughter --
16 everyone knew they could achieve that dream.
17 And now I stand here after this
18 weekend where, days prior to the beginning of
19 this great celebration, the president of our
20 nation, in a meeting to determine what would
21 happen to the 800,000 Dreamers who have come to
22 this country, who we've made a commitment to,
23 what would happen to them -- and in the course of
24 that, we find that the very dialogue about the
25 Dreamers on Dream Weekend is debased by a
193
1 president who felt that disparaging remarks about
2 people's countries of origin was really more
3 important than respecting and fulfilling the
4 dream. How sad.
5 Because this day, the 33rd
6 celebration, 50 years after Dr. King's death,
7 this celebration was always a reflection on how
8 far we had come. We'd talk about how far we had
9 to go. Rarely do we have to stand and talk about
10 how quickly, if we are not careful, we can lose
11 the dream.
12 This weekend one of the speakers,
13 Dr. Marx, at the Nepperhan Community Center
14 celebration -- again, well attended. So many
15 people went to all of these events. So many
16 people wanted to stand and say I get this, we are
17 still America. But this one speaker was talking
18 about, Are you a thermometer or are you a
19 thermostat? And that's where we are right now.
20 He said that when you're a thermometer, you just
21 measure the temperature. But when you're a
22 thermostat, you regulate the temperature, you
23 regulate the surroundings.
24 In this chamber we have an
25 opportunity to not be thermometers, but to be
194
1 thermostats. We have an opportunity to look at
2 our policy decisions, look at our budget, look at
3 what's coming from Washington, D.C., and look at
4 what we can do to be the thermostat, to make sure
5 that New York, in all of its diversity and all of
6 its greatness and all of its promise, stands
7 strong in the vision of Dr. King.
8 We have been practicing what the
9 King legacy has been about year after year and
10 feeling that we are making incremental progress.
11 This is the time to stand and really deliver on
12 what the promise of Dr. King is and must be for
13 our country.
14 You know, when the president, who
15 defends the KKK, who has found ways to sow hatred
16 and division for his own dangerous agenda, when
17 he came to the public and addressed people -- not
18 in my community directly, but directed his
19 comments to communities of color and said, "What
20 do you have to lose?", he's answering that
21 question. We have not only the dream to lose, we
22 have the fabric of our country. We have the
23 basis and the root of why we are America and why
24 so many people dream our dream.
25 And it's not just what people of
195
1 color have to lose, it's what all of us have to
2 lose if we allow these yearly celebrations to
3 just be a time to play golf or pat ourselves on
4 the back. In this place, we are thermostats. In
5 this place, we are dreamers and the children of
6 dreamers. In this place, we have so much to
7 stand for and so much to stand against. In the
8 spirit of Dr. King, let us do just that.
9 Thank you, Madam President.
10 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
11 Senator Sanders on the resolution.
12 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you, Madam
13 President.
14 The leader has spoken well, and I
15 just want to underline.
16 I'm very happy to be here to speak
17 for the drum major, for a person who said that he
18 wanted to be remembered not for all of the
19 degrees, not for all of the honorary titles, but
20 as a drum major for justice -- some person, in
21 military terms, who's sitting with their drum and
22 calling people to arms, calling all of us
23 together that the battle is not over, that the
24 war is not won, that the enemy is still out there
25 and sometimes the enemy is within us, that we
196
1 have to get out there and challenge.
2 We could speak of how Dr. King and
3 the entire civil rights movement led to
4 incredible journeys in America. Everyone made
5 progress. We can speak of the senior rights
6 movement, the gay rights movement, the Latino
7 rights movement, the Native American rights
8 movement, the Asian rights movement, just to name
9 a few.
10 But I must say that I was amazed at
11 how President Trump could actually sign the
12 proclamation the very next day. After making
13 such racist statements, I'm amazed that the pen
14 didn't jump out of his hand and just refuse --
15 the ink would refuse to come out. I'd have to
16 applaud such a person for having such ability to
17 think one way about a situation and to write --
18 you're turning the truth on its very head. It's
19 the inversion of every single thing that Martin
20 Luther King, the Reverend Doctor, stood for.
21 It's not just pretty words that we
22 put on a proclamation; it has to be something
23 that we believe in. It has to be American values
24 that we commit ourselves to and say that, you
25 know what, we're going to see this great American
197
1 experiment through. And it is an experiment. At
2 the very beginning, even in this great chamber,
3 many of the people now in this chamber were never
4 conceived of being in here, except perhaps to
5 bring some water or to clean it up.
6 But this experiment has gone beyond
7 the very beginning and has moved to a greater
8 place. And we need to see ourselves as being
9 part of that.
10 America today is fighting for its
11 very soul. What is America? Is it worth
12 fighting for? Is this the place that we say give
13 us your tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to
14 breathe free? Or is it the place that we're
15 going to build a wall? Is it the place where we
16 are going to say that we are great and something
17 for everyone, or is it the place we're saying "us
18 four and no more"?
19 We have to decide. We in our
20 actions every day are deciding what America will
21 be. And I would contend that that is the best
22 reward that we can do, the best honor that we can
23 give to Martin Luther King, where we commit
24 ourselves to say we're not going back, that all
25 of these folk with sheets and without sheets
198
1 talking about stuff, that's not America and
2 that's not what we're fighting for. We're not
3 going back. All of us need to say it together
4 and say it loud and say it proudly -- perhaps
5 holding hands and perhaps not -- but to say to
6 all of those guys, We're not going back. We beat
7 you guys in World War Two, and we'll beat you
8 again if need be.
9 So I just want to underline my
10 speaker who gave all of the good points that I
11 possibly could come up with, and I too want to
12 commit myself to the Reverend Martin Luther King,
13 Jr., Reverend Doctor, to say I still hear the
14 drum major, I still hear the beat. This battle
15 is not over, this war is not over, and I'm still
16 in the fight.
17 Thank you very much, Madam
18 President.
19 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
20 Senator Bailey on the resolution.
21 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you, Madam
22 President.
23 It's very difficult to bat third in
24 an all-star lineup and the bases are clear, but I
25 will attempt to hit a home run.
199
1 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would
2 have led with a scripture, Luke 12:48: To
3 whomsoever much is given, much is required. The
4 life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
5 was squarely based upon that verse. He
6 understood that there was a lot required of him.
7 And one of the most striking things
8 about Dr. King's life -- and I said it last
9 year -- and actually, this is the one-year
10 anniversary of my first speech on the floor. As
11 you know, I'm very shy now, I don't speak too
12 often. But I noticed something last year, as the
13 youngest member of the Senate right now:
14 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the age of 39
15 when he died.
16 When we look at his life and his
17 legacy and all that he accomplished, a voluminous
18 record that would be much larger than this, we'd
19 think that he was a man who lived to be 139.
20 Thirty-nine years old.
21 We look at our intern class of this
22 year, many who are ambitious and bright and
23 talented college students. We look at me at the
24 age of 35 -- and I understand that I have four
25 years to do what Dr. King did? That's a lot of
200
1 pressure.
2 SENATOR PARKER: Hurry up.
3 (Laughter.)
4 SENATOR BAILEY: You'll be waiting
5 for a long time, Senator Parker. You're waiting
6 for me to be the dreamer.
7 When we speak about Dreamers, my
8 legislative director, Angelica, is a Dreamer.
9 And that dream seems to want to be taken away by
10 a White House who -- well, they're going to say
11 one of my favorite Dr. King quotes, and the
12 embodiment sometimes of Washington, that nothing
13 in the world is more dangerous than sincere
14 ignorance and conscientious stupidity. When you
15 make references and remarks about people from
16 certain areas being certain types of holes, I
17 wonder what kind of sheer ignorance that you are
18 displaying.
19 But this isn't all negative, this is
20 to commemorate the life and legacy of a legend.
21 I learned a lot from Senator Larkin, who is not
22 present right now, about his experiences. And I
23 understand more now than ever that -- I know if
24 I'm sick, I don't care if it's a Republican
25 doctor or a Democratic doctor or a white doctor
201
1 or a gay doctor or a black doctor or a straight
2 doctor, I just want the best health.
3 I understand now more than ever that
4 we must realize that the dream of Dr. King has
5 not been sufficiently realized, but we can
6 realize it through my daughters and your
7 daughters and your children and your
8 grandchildren.
9 You know, we talk about Dr. King's
10 legacy and how the holiday was created in 1983,
11 when I was celebrating my first birthday. They
12 voted 338 to 90. One would think that such a man
13 with such a record and such a legacy would be
14 unanimous. Not so. It's been there and it shall
15 remain there. Sheer ignorance, conscientious
16 stupidity.
17 Sometimes we talk about resistance.
18 And we must resist -- we must realize that
19 resistance is far more than a hashtag in social
20 media. We must register, register to vote. It
21 should be easier for us to get to the polls, get
22 our souls to the polls, as my preacher friends in
23 the South would say.
24 You know, we must remove -- not just
25 remove nonsense, but remove barriers that we
202
1 often put in the way ourselves. My friends, and
2 I say this sometimes in my district, if you like
3 bacalao, then that means you like salt fish,
4 because it's the same exact thing. You're just
5 saying it in a different way.
6 Hate cannot drive out hate, only
7 love can do that. The more we realize that we
8 have more in common, the better off we will be.
9 SENATOR ROBACH: Preach now,
10 Jamaal.
11 SENATOR SANDERS: Amen.
12 SENATOR BAILEY: Well, I'll leave
13 that to my clergy friends to actually preach.
14 But I just want to drive this point
15 home that when we remove these barriers, when you
16 remove side versus side, person versus person,
17 you get an understanding of who people actually
18 are and how they live their lives.
19 Now, we're not going to agree on
20 everything, and quite frankly I like it like
21 that. That shows that we have the ability to
22 think. And that is what Dr. King would probably
23 have wanted us to do.
24 But Dr. King also was somebody who
25 was known for his nonviolent and silent protests.
203
1 And in 1990, the National Football League made
2 the decision to move the Super Bowl from Arizona
3 because the State of Arizona refused to celebrate
4 MLK Day. I wonder, in the current iteration of
5 the NFL, if they would do the same thing, because
6 they seem to have a problem with silent protests
7 in the NFL nowadays. Just a thought.
8 But as I come to an end of this,
9 life's most persistent and urgent question is
10 what are you doing for others? And I want us to
11 continue to think about that as we go through
12 budget season, as we go through our committees,
13 as we go through everything that we do in this
14 legislative body, that we realize who it is for:
15 It is for the people we represent.
16 I thank you, Madam President, for
17 allowing me the time. I thank you, Madam Leader,
18 for introducing this resolution. And Senator
19 Sanders, thank you for coming before me, there is
20 nothing else that I can say.
21 Long live the life and legacy of
22 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
23 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
24 Senator Kennedy on the resolution.
25 SENATOR KENNEDY: Thank you, Madam
204
1 President.
2 First of all, let me start by
3 thanking my colleagues who spoke so eloquently --
4 Senator Bailey, Senator Sanders, of course our
5 great leader, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins --
6 about this auspicious occasion as we celebrate an
7 extraordinary human being that came before us in
8 this great chamber and we celebrate and
9 commemorate the life and the legacy of Dr. Martin
10 Luther King, Jr.
11 You know, this past weekend out in
12 Buffalo I had the opportunity to celebrate at
13 various different occasions, and I have to tell
14 you each and every one was unique, but each and
15 every one had the same common denominator: It
16 was a call to action. And as we recall the life
17 and the legacy of Dr. King, he was not a man of
18 words, he was a man of action. And he used his
19 words to promote the action not only of himself
20 but of others, to help to cultivate the nation
21 and the world. The eyes of the globe were on
22 him, the eyes of the globe were on the
23 United States.
24 And if you think about where we've
25 come from as a country in the last 50 years since
205
1 he passed -- and this April 4th marks the
2 50th anniversary of his passing -- I would say
3 that Dr. King would be proud, but I would also
4 say that Dr. King would be very, very concerned,
5 maybe more so today than at any other moment in
6 time over the course of the last five decades.
7 Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King
8 was tragically stolen from this world.
9 Thirty-nine years old, and think about what he
10 accomplished. Not only a visionary and a leader
11 in our nation, but across the globe. I had the
12 opportunity on Sunday night to stand on the same
13 stage that 50 years earlier this past November,
14 in 1967, Dr. King stood on, amid the riots
15 happening across the nation. And Dr. King came
16 to Buffalo as he went around the nation preaching
17 nonviolence, preaching peace, preaching the
18 advancement of our nation's morals and goals in a
19 nonviolent manner. An inspirational human being
20 by anyone's account.
21 He made such a mark on this nation
22 that we celebrate his life and legacy and are
23 reminded every year. But it shouldn't be just
24 once a year that we're thinking about his vision
25 and his goals, it should be the other 364 days as
206
1 well. And it shouldn't just be what we do
2 outside of this chamber; it's just as important,
3 if not more important, what we do in this
4 chamber. And think about the bills that we're
5 passing and how they have an impact on people's
6 lives, how they have an impact on people that are
7 living in poverty, how they have an impact on a
8 child's education, how they have an impact on
9 unemployment, how they have an impact on race
10 relations, on religious relations, on all
11 relations.
12 So I'm so honored to stand and
13 recognize the legacy of Dr. King, but I recognize
14 also that as far as we've come, we've got a long,
15 long way to go. And we must use this opportunity
16 on the 50th anniversary, but every anniversary,
17 as a reminder to recommit ourselves as a Senate
18 chamber, as a government, as a state, and as a
19 nation to the goals of Dr. King.
20 And as my partner in government
21 Senator Bailey articulated, 39 years, think about
22 that. I turned around to Senator Parker, I said,
23 Well, if I wanted to accomplish what he did in
24 39 years, I've already lost. I was born in 1976,
25 nine years -- I'm sorry, eight years after
207
1 Dr. King was assassinated, so I never got to see
2 our nation ripped apart as it was in the '60s.
3 I was just reminded by watching the
4 extraordinary, revolutionary documentary on the
5 Vietnam War by Ken Burns. I was enthralled by
6 it, captivated by it. Where our nation was,
7 where the globe was. People ripping each other
8 apart because of their differences. The 1960s
9 were some of the worst times in our nation's
10 history. But what came of that was our nation
11 rising up and coming together.
12 I'm going to quote a couple of
13 preachers from Buffalo. The one was Pastor
14 Brown, who I heard from this weekend. And the
15 motto of his message was, Open your mouth. You
16 got to open your mouth, you got to be heard.
17 Another preacher friend of mine,
18 Pastor Jenkins, about four or five years ago I
19 got to see him speak at a church service on a
20 Sunday morning. And, you know, we go to various
21 church services, and every now and then something
22 sticks with you. Well, this one stuck with me.
23 I remind him every now and then of his message.
24 And he talked about going out and he told a story
25 about his wife being upset that he trudged in the
208
1 house with manure on his feet from the flowers
2 she had planted. And then he told a story about
3 the fact that these beautiful flowers have to
4 come from the dirt, that manure. And the story
5 was about the difficult times that we must endure
6 individually and, I would argue, as a nation
7 today and as a state, and from that, depending on
8 how we act, will come a beautiful flower. We
9 will rise up.
10 So our nation has risen up from the
11 difficulties of the 1960s when an American hero,
12 the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., walked
13 this great earth. But we have so much more
14 manure that exists out there, so much more dirt
15 in society that needs to be addressed. And one
16 only needs to turn on the television or the radio
17 or open up the newspaper to see what I'm talking
18 about. And the only way we're going to get there
19 is to get there together and in a nonviolent
20 manner.
21 Dr. King was not only a hero here in
22 the United States, but every year I'm reminded
23 about something new, I'm educated on something
24 else that he taught this world while he lived
25 here. And so I read a story on an Irish blog
209
1 over the weekend. And in the north of Ireland in
2 October of 1968, six months after Dr. King was
3 assassinated here, the Irish Catholics who were
4 living in what had been promoted as a Protestant
5 state for Protestants, Northern Ireland at the
6 time -- in 1922 it was referred to as such -- and
7 the Catholics were segregated into the ghettos,
8 and they were deprived of jobs, and they were
9 deprived of voting rights, and they were
10 oppressed. Sound familiar?
11 Well, they used the message and the
12 tactics of Dr. King, the peaceful protests, and
13 they were violently encountered on their civil
14 rights marches through the streets of the north.
15 So today in the north of Ireland there are murals
16 of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on walls and
17 promenades throughout the communities, to remind
18 the northern Irish of the struggles of the past,
19 of the hope of the future. But for Dr. Martin
20 Luther King, it is said that the north of Ireland
21 would still be considered that segregated state,
22 that secret segregated state of England. But no
23 more. Now we have the peace.
24 In the words of Dr. Martin Luther
25 King, Jr.: If you can't fly, run. If you can't
210
1 run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl.
2 But whatever you do, you've got to keep moving
3 forward. That is what we have to do as a
4 community, across this state, it's what we have
5 to do as a chamber as we walk into this budget.
6 And we have to send a message to the rest of the
7 nation that New York is the special place that we
8 all know that it is. And we have to be, as a
9 state, the beacon of hope for the rest of the
10 nation.
11 Thank you, Madam President.
12 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
13 Senator Savino on the resolution.
14 SENATOR SAVINO: Thank you, Madam
15 President.
16 I also want to thank Senator
17 Stewart-Cousins for sponsoring this resolution
18 and all of my colleagues for cosponsoring it.
19 This is the 14th year that I am
20 speaking on this resolution since I was elected.
21 And it's one of my favorite moments in the Senate
22 chamber, Madam President, because we get to
23 experience Dr. Martin Luther King through other
24 members. Normally this would be the day when we
25 would hear from Senator Larkin about his personal
211
1 experience with the historic moment that he
2 shared with Reverend King in Selma.
3 I remember when Senator
4 Hassell-Thompson was a member of the Senate, she
5 would talk about her personal interaction when
6 she was a young woman and she got to meet him,
7 and how profoundly it affected her.
8 Senator Bailey, we are getting to
9 the point where the rest of us are old now, and
10 thank you for reminding me. Senator Kennedy,
11 too. But there are less and less of us here who
12 can claim a personal interaction with the
13 Reverend Martin Luther King. Most of us learned
14 about him in history books.
15 But in spite of that, a man who has
16 been dead for 50 years, who lived a very short
17 period of time, had such a profound effect on all
18 of us -- whether we ever knew him, whether he
19 personally affected us or not -- because of his
20 legacy and what he was committed to.
21 And I always like to remind people
22 of where he was and what he was doing on the day
23 he was assassinated. He was in Memphis,
24 Tennessee. Because two months before he was
25 assassinated, two sanitation workers in the City
212
1 of Memphis, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, two
2 black sanitation workers who belonged to a union,
3 an AFSCME local in the City of Memphis -- the
4 city would not recognize them, wouldn't recognize
5 their union, wouldn't recognize their humanity at
6 all.
7 They were denied the opportunity to
8 sit in the employee break room -- it was pouring
9 rain outside -- because they weren't allowed
10 inside because they were black sanitation
11 workers. White sanitation workers weren't
12 treated much better, but at least they could come
13 in from out of the rain. Denied the opportunity
14 to take shelter in the break room, they sat in
15 the back of a sanitation truck to get out of the
16 rain. And that sanitation truck malfunctioned
17 and killed the two of them in the back of the
18 truck.
19 And over the course of the next two
20 weeks, the City of Memphis did what the City of
21 Memphis did back in the Jim Crow South -- treated
22 them as less than human, treated their families
23 as less than human, wouldn't even acknowledge
24 their existence.
25 And at that, 1300 sanitation
213
1 workers, mostly black, went on strike in the City
2 of Memphis. And they walked around carrying
3 signs that had nothing to do with wages, even
4 though they didn't barely earn enough to survive,
5 and had nothing to do with the unsafe working
6 conditions. It didn't say anything about the
7 things that unions usually carry signs that say
8 in a strike. It had a simple message: "I am a
9 man," an acknowledgment that the City of Memphis
10 would not convey upon them.
11 And after two weeks of a strike that
12 caught national attention, the Reverend
13 Dr. Martin Luther King went to Memphis to lead
14 that strike, to help negotiate. It was there
15 where he delivered his famous "I have been to the
16 mountaintop" speech, maybe prophetically knowing
17 that he wasn't going to get there. And on the
18 next day, he was assassinated in the City of
19 Memphis.
20 He was a true leader for working
21 people. He understand the power of the labor
22 movement, that no organization, no political
23 party will ever advance the interests of working
24 people the way an organized, well-funded labor
25 movement can.
214
1 And so here we are 50 years later.
2 What can we do to acknowledge his legacy and
3 where he was the night he died? Fifty years
4 after that strike, AFSCME, the American
5 Federation of State, County and Municipal
6 Employees, still struggles in the South. But
7 they're launching a campaign called Iam2018.org,
8 asking people to enroll and join and participate,
9 whether locally or online or nationally, to
10 remind people that the enemies of labor never
11 sleep, they are actively working across the
12 country to undo the benefits that working people
13 have, trying state by state to pass "right to
14 work" laws.
15 As we speak, before the United
16 States Supreme Court is a landmark case that
17 could upend workers' rights in this country.
18 It's called Janus vs. AFSCME. If Dr. King were
19 alive, I believe he would whisper in the ear of
20 every Supreme Court justice, Don't go down this
21 road. Don't defund organized labor, because no
22 organization can protect workers the way the
23 organized labor movement can. I believe that is
24 one of his most profound legacies.
25 And as long as I'm a member of this
215
1 Senate, I will get up and tell the same story
2 every year. And I hope that you will all join me
3 this year and join the Iam2018.org, and let's
4 strike a blow for working people and an
5 advancement of Dr. King's legacy.
6 Thank you, Madam President.
7 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
8 Senator Parker on the resolution.
9 SENATOR PARKER: Thank you, Madam
10 President. On the resolution.
11 First let me join my colleagues in
12 thanking our intrepid leader, Andrea
13 Stewart-Cousins, for living the dream. And not
14 just for sponsoring this resolution, but the
15 leadership she's provided to this conference.
16 And she has been King-esque in the way that she
17 has led us -- the intelligence, the grace, the
18 vision, the moral uprightness. But in the face
19 of that, always having opposition to the things
20 that are wrong.
21 And so I typically wanted to bring
22 to everybody's attention really two points, one
23 of which is that King -- everybody likes to talk
24 about the nonviolence and the peace, but they
25 rarely say nonviolent direct action or nonviolent
216
1 constructive action. The notion of what King was
2 about was about action. It was about directly
3 engaging people, and particularly, in this
4 particular case, white supremacy where it stood
5 at that place and at that time.
6 And the second part is that he
7 called all of us to listen to our better angels
8 and to dig deep and to be not just leaders
9 involved in direct action, but moral leaders, to
10 really -- to look within whatever moral compass,
11 whether it was religious or not, but to look at
12 that compass and go towards the way that provided
13 a moral upliftment, not just to yourself but to
14 the people around you. He very much believed
15 that it was the only way that the world was going
16 to be better and that the U.S. was going to be
17 better.
18 And I want to thank my colleagues,
19 all of which made some fantastic points. And
20 Senator Savino, I'll tell you now, I'll be
21 joining that movement with AFSCME. It's
22 critically important. I come from a family of
23 union activists and union leadership, and
24 certainly that was important to Dr. King and the
25 work.
217
1 And what you see in Dr. King's
2 legacy is everybody was touched. You see -- and
3 Senator Sanders touched on this point -- that the
4 antecedents of almost every single group's civil
5 rights march, not just here in the U.S. but
6 around the world, comes out of King. Right? And
7 you see it with labor, you see it amongst
8 Latinos, you see it amongst the Irish, you see it
9 amongst gays and lesbians, you see it amongst
10 many, many groups.
11 And so I think that we remember
12 that, we honor that legacy, but we also must
13 remember that that legacy did not come without
14 risk and without peril. That it is -- you know,
15 it's easy now to talk about peaceful
16 demonstrations because we perceive it to be in
17 the way that we in fact encounter it in 2018.
18 All right? Or 2017, right? We think it's Black
19 Lives Matter, like you go out, the police are
20 protecting you, you have signs. And it actually
21 quite was not like that.
22 That in fact in the 1950s when these
23 protests were happening, they were actually in
24 opposition to the actual police department. And
25 it was in fact the police department who were
218
1 beating people, hosing people down with
2 high-powered fire hydrants, you know, setting
3 dogs on people, you know, using mace and other
4 kinds of techniques to immobilize groups.
5 And literally part of the
6 conversation that you heard that Senator Savino
7 harkened on is Senator Larkin's story about how
8 he was sent as part of the U.S. federal
9 government to stop the police from brutalizing
10 protesters. Right? And that's not quite what we
11 see the vast majority of times nowadays. That we
12 have really no context to understand what black
13 and white protestors were going through facing
14 white supremacy, especially in the Deep South, in
15 the '40s, the '50s, even in the '60s. That for a
16 person to go to jail in one of these small,
17 sometimes rural communities, you could wind up
18 missing or dead, as we saw with the civil rights
19 workers who were bussed from New York to
20 Mississippi. Right?
21 And we also think about Dr. King as
22 being Dr. King. Right? So you think about if
23 anybody knows a freshman in college this year,
24 for them, there's always been a King holiday.
25 Right? So for them, King has always been on that
219
1 plateau, right, to the degree that they know
2 King. But many of us remember the fight. you
3 know, Jamaal Bailey was probably three -- two
4 when the holiday was created, right? Some of us
5 remember the fight that we had.
6 You know, it's interesting, I was in
7 a restaurant this weekend, it was a young lady's
8 birthday, she had to be about 16 or 17, and her
9 friends were singing "Happy Birthday" to her, but
10 everybody was singing the version from Stevie
11 Wonder, right, that was actually written for the
12 King holiday. And I didn't ask them, but I knew,
13 dollars to doughnuts, they did not know that that
14 song was for King. But it actually, particularly
15 in African-American communities, has been the way
16 that "Happy Birthday" is now sung. Right?
17 And so, you know, it's important
18 that we continue to pass the understandings, all
19 of our understandings of what King means to all
20 of us, but more importantly, for us to live those
21 understandings. And so I want to remind
22 everybody in this chamber -- not just the
23 members, but every single one of us -- that we
24 are Dr. King's dream, that Dr. King's dream
25 wasn't limited to African-Americans. Right? And
220
1 it wasn't limited just to people who are
2 oppressed. But it was really a notion that not
3 only are the oppressed hurt by the oppression,
4 but so are the oppressors.
5 That in fact we ask everyone to look
6 into their better selves -- and this is something
7 that has to be done by all of us daily, to look
8 into our better selves and live our better selves
9 as we engage in the work that we do in our
10 communities, as we look towards the work that we
11 do here in this chamber, in the way we engage
12 with each other, in the way that we interact,
13 particularly with those of us that we disagree
14 with. That it's important for us to rise to our
15 higher selves and to find a way to be more
16 King-esque and use that moral courage to get to a
17 place where we can have some common
18 understandings and lift not just our community,
19 not just our municipalities, but lift this entire
20 state.
21 And as I close, let me remind us
22 that we need every single day to bring good into
23 this world and let no good be lost.
24 Thank you, Madam President.
25 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
221
1 Senator Hoylman on the resolution.
2 SENATOR HOYLMAN: Thank you, Madam
3 President.
4 And thank you to my colleagues for
5 their inspiring words, and particularly to our
6 leader. It is such an honor to serve alongside
7 you, because we in the conference -- and I know
8 others have felt this when they served alongside
9 Dr. King -- feel that history is being made. So
10 thank you for your words.
11 Senator Parker is right, and my
12 colleagues are as well, when they say that we
13 each view Dr. King's legacy through our own lens.
14 And of course for me, being the only openly LGBT
15 member of this body, I do take constant
16 inspiration from Dr. King's struggle and desire
17 to fulfill that precept that all men and women
18 are created equal.
19 And to me every day when I serve
20 here, Madam President, my staff and our team here
21 in Albany reminds us of the work that's yet to be
22 done in terms of civil rights, and I want to
23 mention two areas in particular.
24 The first is transgender
25 New Yorkers. Over a decade ago when this body,
222
1 to its credit, passed the sexual orientation
2 nondiscrimination law that granted civil rights
3 and liberties specifically to the LBG population,
4 they left off the T. They left out transgender
5 New Yorkers specifically because it wasn't
6 politically tenable. And to this day, even
7 though there have been efforts by the Governor,
8 very admirable, to include transgender people in
9 our Human Rights Law, that's only by executive
10 order, so any future governor could overturn
11 those executive orders.
12 We have to codify the rights and
13 civil liberties of transgender people. We could
14 do that in this body, but we have not yet found
15 it politically tenable to do so. And I wonder
16 what Dr. King would say about that.
17 I wonder what Dr. King would say
18 that transgender New Yorkers are not protected,
19 even with the Governor's executive actions, from
20 hate crimes in the entire State of New York. So
21 although you have many local governments,
22 municipalities and counties, that have done what
23 we haven't done -- give transgender people their
24 civil liberties -- nowhere in this state are
25 transgender people protected under the hate
223
1 crimes law.
2 And that stands alongside the facts
3 that transgender people, more than any other
4 population, are more likely to be the victims of
5 hate crimes. That is an enormous disparity that
6 we should fix in this chamber, and I think we
7 should fix it right away. After all, what would
8 Dr. King say?
9 And secondly, I want to dial the
10 issue a little more locally, in my district,
11 where there is a church called Judson. I don't
12 know how many people are familiar with it. But
13 it's a beautiful church that sits on the south
14 side of Washington Square Park. And since 2007,
15 Judson has been the home of the New Sanctuary
16 Movement. Under the leadership of Dr. Donna
17 Schaper and others in the community, including a
18 local Democratic district leader, Keen Berger,
19 they have fought to protect undocumented
20 New Yorkers from detention and deportation.
21 And one individual who has come to
22 Judson over the years is a man named Jean
23 Montrevil. He's Haitian, he has -- in 1990, he
24 was convicted of a cocaine illegality, at age 21.
25 But since then, he has founded a small business
224
1 and he's had a model record.
2 But the folks of ICE, the
3 Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of
4 the U.S., have tracked Jean for all those years.
5 He's reported every year according to the rules
6 of ICE and has been, as I suggest, an upstanding
7 citizen. He has, in fact, raised four children
8 in the United States since he's been here. But
9 he was detained last week for no reason,
10 apparently, other than the fact that perhaps he's
11 Haitian, perhaps he's suspect, perhaps the
12 federal administration doesn't look kindly on
13 folks like him.
14 Every year, though, he's lived under
15 the specter of being detained and deported.
16 Every year. Every year his four children, his
17 four American children, have feared for the
18 future of their dad. In fact, one of his kids,
19 Jahsiah, who's aged 14 years old, has written
20 about attending all the protests and living with
21 the uncertainty of his father's presence. He
22 wrote recently, "He had to go to annual check-ins
23 with ICE. Before every check-in, I always try to
24 spend as much time as possible with him and try
25 not to think about the fact that it may be the
225
1 last time I see him." That's what Jean Montrevil
2 and his family have lived under for the last
3 decade plus.
4 Well, he was detained two weeks ago,
5 sent to Newark, transported to Miami, and we just
6 learned today that Mr. Montrevil has been
7 deported to Haiti. What would Dr. King say?
8 So I think we all view the legacy of
9 Dr. King through our own lens, but we certainly
10 have a shared experience, we certainly have a
11 shared sense of morality that we as Americans and
12 as New Yorkers and as state senators need to put
13 into action.
14 Thank you, Madam President.
15 THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
16 If no other members wish to be
17 heard, the question is now on the resolution.
18 All in favor signify by saying aye.
19 (Response of "Aye.")
20 THE PRESIDENT: Opposed, nay.
21 (No response.)
22 THE PRESIDENT: The resolution is
23 adopted.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Floor
25 Leader.
226
1 SENATOR RITCHIE: This resolution
2 is open for cosponsorship. If you wish to be on
3 the resolution, please see the desk.
4 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: The
5 resolution is open for cosponsorship. Any member
6 who wishes to be a cosponsor should notify the
7 desk.
8 Floor Leader.
9 SENATOR RITCHIE: Can we please
10 take up Resolution 3416, by Senator Funke, read
11 the title only, and call on Senator Funke to
12 speak.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: The
14 Secretary will read, title only.
15 THE SECRETARY: Legislative
16 Resolution Number 3416, by Senator Funke,
17 celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of
18 Frederick Douglass, the noted African-American
19 orator, journalist, and anti-slavery leader who
20 was a long-time resident of New York State.
21 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Senator
22 Funke.
23 SENATOR FUNKE: Thank you,
24 Mr. President.
25 Senator Robach and I will tell you
227
1 that in Rochester we claim rights to everything
2 and everybody who has spent any time in our town.
3 We gave you Kodak cameras and Xerox machines and
4 contact lenses and John Lithgow and Chuck
5 Mangione, and of course Susan B. Anthony. And
6 now we're about to celebrate the 200th birthday
7 of someone who is uniquely ours as well.
8 Frederick Douglass had no record of
9 the exact date of his birth in 1818. So it was
10 in the life of a slave. He chose February 14th,
11 Valentine's Day. Douglass taught himself to read
12 and write on that plantation and proved to the
13 world that no matter where you start in life,
14 where you finish is up to you.
15 He escaped slavery in Maryland by
16 hopping a train headed north, disguising himself
17 in a sailor's uniform, with papers given to him
18 by a free black seaman, and he eventually made
19 his way to a safe house in New York City. And
20 the rest is a beautiful history of a brilliant
21 American.
22 Frederick Douglass became one of the
23 most important, most effective orators and
24 writers of his time and in Rochester, where he
25 lived for 25 years, published The North Star, the
228
1 first abolitionist newspaper. The paper's motto,
2 "Right is of no sex, truth is of no color, God is
3 Father of us all, and we are all brethren."
4 He was the only African-American to
5 attend the first women's convention in Seneca
6 Falls, where he stood with Elizabeth Cady Stanton
7 and said he could not accept the right to vote as
8 a black man if women were not afforded the same
9 right.
10 He was an early advocate for
11 desegregation, noting that a good education above
12 all else was critical, and saying "It is easier
13 to build strong children than to repair broken
14 men."
15 Douglass believed in dialogue. He
16 refused to paint everybody with the same brush.
17 He believed in forging relationships across
18 racial and political divides. And when radicals
19 criticized his willingness to hold meetings with
20 slave owners, he said, "I would unite with
21 anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."
22 The first statue in this country to
23 memorialize an African-American citizen was that
24 of Frederick Douglass, who is buried in
25 Rochester's Mount Hope Cemetery. Sadly, that
229
1 statue was moved from a business intersection
2 downtown to a less visible spot in a county park
3 in 1941. And thankfully, it will be moved back
4 downtown this year as part of his birthday
5 celebration.
6 And so it is with great pride that
7 on the day we recognize the legacy of Dr. Martin
8 Luther King we also recognize the legacy of
9 Frederick Douglass today, a man who advised
10 presidents, a man who became the first
11 African-American to run for vice president and
12 lectured thousands, Frederick Douglass, a
13 Rochesterian for a third of his life, a leader, a
14 fighter for justice, an intellectual, an American
15 hero -- and still today, 200 years later, an
16 inspiration and role model to the world.
17 Thank you, Mr. President.
18 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Thank
19 you, Senator Funke.
20 Senator Robach on the resolution.
21 SENATOR ROBACH: Yes,
22 Mr. President, let me too rise and thank Senator
23 Funke for this resolution.
24 It is true, Frederick Douglass was
25 not only a great man, but we do take great pride
230
1 that the majority of his writing, the starting of
2 his newspaper, The North Star, where he got so
3 many great ideas out and had such a great impact,
4 was done in his 30 years, the majority of his
5 adult life, in the town where my family has lived
6 our entire life, Rochester. It's significant to
7 us on this 200th anniversary of his being.
8 And I can't help but think how
9 extraordinary this is that we're doing
10 resolutions and memorializing both Dr. King and
11 Frederick Douglass, and the saying that, you
12 know, whose shoulders we stand on and that we
13 remember what great things have been done to get
14 us to where we are today.
15 And I would really say that what was
16 so remarkable about Frederick Douglass was that
17 when he got freedom in those days, many people
18 who did left, took off and took advantage of it
19 only for their own well-being. Clearly,
20 Frederick Douglass did exactly the opposite. He
21 took that opportunity for freedom to go against a
22 lot of norms, create a newspaper, which was
23 unheard-of at that time, and came to the north
24 from Maryland to try and change the things that
25 he endured that were unfair for other people, not
231
1 only like him but across the board.
2 And so it is really a very fitting
3 thing on this 200th anniversary that we would
4 commemorate both these great people who did very,
5 very good things. I say it in the most simple
6 terms; I think you can put King, you can put
7 Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, so many
8 people in that category that they simply took
9 action to try and make sure that everyone --
10 which is the American dream -- that everyone, no
11 matter what, got the ability to pursue life,
12 liberty, happiness and be treated equally. And
13 it is very important that we do commemorate those
14 people.
15 I will end with where I started,
16 extra proud that Frederick Douglass again spent
17 the majority of his professional time with his
18 newspaper in my hometown, Rochester, along with
19 Susan B. Anthony, two of the most premier people
20 in moving all civil rights early in the history
21 of this great country, helping put Rochester a
22 little bit on the map. A proud day, and we thank
23 them and remember them.
24 Thank you, Mr. President.
25 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Thank
232
1 you, Senator Robach.
2 Senator Bailey on the resolution.
3 SENATOR BAILEY: Thank you,
4 Mr. President.
5 I would like to thank my colleague
6 Senator Funke for bringing this resolution to the
7 floor and Senator Robach for articulating what
8 you did so wonderfully.
9 I don't believe in coincidences. I
10 believe that things are the way that they are
11 supposed to be. If we can go back to a quote
12 from Dr. King briefly, "We know through painful
13 experience that freedom is never voluntarily
14 given by the oppressor and must be demanded by
15 the oppressed."
16 And I imagine when Dr. King was
17 thinking about that, he thought of Frederick
18 Douglass, who famously said: "If there is no
19 struggle, there is no progress. Those who
20 profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate
21 agitation, they want crops without plowing up the
22 ground. They want rain without thunder and
23 lightning. They want the ocean without the awful
24 roar of its many waters... Power concedes
25 nothing without a demand. It never did, and it
233
1 never will."
2 We talk about if there is no
3 struggle, there is no progress. That brings me
4 to a time when I was at an awards ceremony for
5 one of my favorite law professors, Professor
6 Howell, and she said something so brilliant and
7 so brief -- brilliance and brevity -- she said,
8 "Thank you for giving me the strength to
9 struggle."
10 Now, the idea of the strength to
11 struggle is so profound, yet it's so brief. What
12 gives us the strength to struggle? What gave
13 Frederick Douglass the strength to struggle?
14 What gave my grandfather the strength to
15 struggle, or your grandfather the strength to
16 struggle?
17 When I heard that speech, the
18 strength to struggle, my wife was four months
19 old -- excuse me, was -- no, she was not four
20 months old.
21 (Laughter.)
22 SENATOR BAILEY: That would be
23 interesting.
24 She was four months pregnant with my
25 now three-year-old, Giada. What gave her the
234
1 strength to struggle with burgeoning life? And
2 when I was running for office, she was pregnant
3 with our second daughter, Carina. What gave her
4 the strength to struggle?
5 What gives these activists -- who
6 don't get paid to do so -- who favor freedom but
7 don't deprecate agitation, what gives them the
8 strength to struggle? The 63 of -- well, 61 of
9 us now, what gives us the strength to struggle in
10 our communities? Most importantly, what gives
11 our constituents the strength to struggle?
12 I want us to think about the life
13 and legacy of both Dr. King and Frederick
14 Douglass when we go back to our districts, when
15 we're voting on budgets, when we're going to the
16 community events. What gives them the strength
17 to struggle? I would not be here, literally or
18 figuratively, without my father or grandfather
19 who had the strength to struggle. And the
20 movement would not be where it is today without
21 Frederick Douglass giving us the strength to
22 struggle.
23 So thank you, Mr. President.
24 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Thank
25 you, Senator Bailey.
235
1 Senator Sanders on the resolution.
2 SENATOR SANDERS: Thank you,
3 Mr. President.
4 What a day we have, two great
5 Americans honored on one day. I agree with you,
6 sir, I don't believe that this is a coincidence.
7 I want to thank Senator Funke and of course
8 Senator Robach for being great -- Rochesterans?
9 I don't even know how to say it. How do you say
10 that, sir?
11 SENATOR ROBACH: Rochesterians.
12 Try it.
13 SENATOR SANDERS: I won't even try.
14 But it's great. But it's great. But I want to
15 thank you for having such a city that could try
16 to hold such brilliance.
17 Frederick Douglass was a man's man.
18 Frederick Douglass was a person who, when a slave
19 driver came and was whipping him, he fought back
20 and actually beat the slave driver.
21 But Frederick Douglass was also a
22 great believer in women's lib. He was an early
23 feminist. He believed in women having the right
24 to vote way at the -- what, roughly 60 years
25 before women did get the right to vote.
236
1 He was an incredible feminist and
2 walked out of different meetings when they did
3 not allow women to speak on different issues. He
4 wouldn't speak either.
5 He was ahead of his time. I'm
6 hoping that my colleague Tim Kennedy will speak
7 of his Irish roots. Frederick Douglass also
8 spent a lot of time in Ireland, and there were
9 lessons that he learned there. I'm hoping that I
10 can inspire him.
11 But I will close with the same
12 speech -- or at least put him on the spot,
13 whichever works -- but the same speech that you
14 were reciting earlier, sir, he also said
15 something that I've always taken to mind. He
16 said, "The limit of tyrants is prescribed by the
17 endurance of the oppressed." And that is
18 certainly something that we in this country
19 should take to heart. We too decided that we
20 were, in the very beginning, opposed to tyranny,
21 and we stood up to it.
22 I encourage all of us, in the
23 tradition of great Americans, to continue to
24 stand up to tyranny wherever we find it.
25 Thank you very much, Mr. President.
237
1 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Thank
2 you, Senator Sanders.
3 Senator Parker on the resolution.
4 SENATOR PARKER: Thank you,
5 Mr. President. On the resolution.
6 Let me thank my colleagues who have
7 spoken on this resolution. Let me thank
8 Senator Funke for his leadership on bringing it
9 to the floor.
10 And I agree with my other colleagues
11 who believe that it is no coincidence that we are
12 honoring, you know, two great Americans and this
13 great New Yorker, in Frederick Douglass, today.
14 And some of you might wonder why
15 Senator Funke and Senator Robach -- not just
16 being from Rochester, but being Republicans, it's
17 very apt that they brought this resolution,
18 because Frederick Douglass was actually very,
19 very active in the Republican Party. And in fact
20 in 1888, he actually ran for president and was
21 actually the first African-American to receive a
22 vote for president on a major political party in
23 the United States. And so unfortunately the
24 Republican Party is not what it used to be, but
25 we still honor that legacy and that history for
238
1 him and thank you gentlemen for, like I said,
2 bringing forward the history of this great
3 American.
4 I think that many of my colleagues
5 have raised the important points that I would
6 have highlighted, but let me just reemphasize the
7 notion of both Frederick Douglass and Dr. King as
8 men who resisted, in the vernacular of what we're
9 using in 2018. That these were not people who
10 stood by as shrinking violets, you know, going
11 along to get along or hoping that things would
12 get better, but they were directly engaged in the
13 political life of their time and standing up
14 against the wrongs of their time.
15 Let me make a tiny correction in
16 language that I've heard everyone use today and
17 talk about Frederick Douglass being a slave. And
18 this is going to surprise you, but Frederick
19 Douglass was never a slave. Frederick Douglass
20 was enslaved, but never a slave. See, slavery is
21 about a mentality, and he always fought for
22 freedom. And so his enslavement was a physical
23 limitation but not a spiritual one for him.
24 And certainly, you know, his life
25 gives way to the notion for all of us not to let
239
1 our physical conditions dictate our spirit, our
2 mindset, and the places in which we are going.
3 And so, you know, again I harken us
4 to a place where we remember what he was going
5 through and the fact that some of the things that
6 sound very simple, that in the 1880s to have an
7 African-American man, you know, do a newspaper,
8 be an orator, be engaged in politics, run for
9 president, were revolutionary acts in a way that
10 we can't even imagine right now. And that every
11 day, even in Rochester, even in the north, even
12 in an area in which African-Americans were free
13 at that period, it was dangerous. And his life
14 was always at risk doing the engagement.
15 Anytime he'd gone to one of these
16 meetings and he's organizing African-Americans
17 or, you know, working with Harriet Tubman or
18 those kinds of -- or with the women's movement,
19 those were dangerous times. They were even
20 dangerous for many of the women he worked with.
21 And the fact that he was an early womanist is
22 something that I think is well-documented and
23 something that we should all remember and engage
24 in a way that we are moving now.
25 I think it's certainly apt in the
240
1 Governor's Executive Budget proposal that he is I
2 think following in the footsteps, at least in
3 this narrow field, of Frederick Douglass. And
4 hopefully he'll continue to walk in these steps
5 and continue to put forward the issues and the
6 priorities of women in the state priorities.
7 And so again, gentlemen, thank you
8 very much for raising this. We remember
9 Frederick Douglass for giving us the words to
10 understand that we must always resist, resist,
11 resist.
12 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Thank
13 you, Senator Parker.
14 Senator Kennedy on the resolution.
15 SENATOR KENNEDY: Thank you,
16 Mr. President.
17 First of all, let me thank my
18 colleagues Senator Funke, Senator Robach, for
19 bringing this to the floor today. I think it is
20 once again extremely fitting that we have such
21 extraordinary American heroes being honored in
22 this wonderful chamber on the same day, Frederick
23 Douglass and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,
24 Jr.
25 Frederick Douglass himself a
241
1 liberator, an emancipator, someone who fought for
2 moral values and the moral high ground at every
3 single step of his life, because he knew what it
4 meant to be in bondage. He knew what it meant to
5 be oppressed. He knew what it meant personally
6 to have every single fathomable right stolen away
7 from him.
8 And so he led. And following his
9 escape from bondage in Maryland, he went to
10 Massachusetts, worked with an abolitionist in
11 Massachusetts, moved across the north as an
12 orator, a great orator, finally publishing a book
13 which was met with great regard, a bestseller,
14 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
15 American Slave, and it told his story. And it
16 sold so well in 1845 that he had bodily harm and
17 threats consistently, and those slave hunters
18 from the South threatening to steal him back to
19 Maryland.
20 And so he fled. He fled to Western
21 Europe -- to Ireland, to England, to Scotland.
22 In Ireland, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick,
23 Wexford, Waterford, and other areas. He
24 befriended Daniel O'Connell. Daniel O'Connell --
25 if you're in the streets of Dublin, the nation's
242
1 capital, today there's O'Connell Street, and high
2 up on O'Connell Street there stands a beautiful
3 statue of the Great Emancipator. The Irish
4 referred to Douglass as the Black Emancipator.
5 He befriended O'Connell, and they learned from
6 each other. They learned how to fight the
7 oppression. They linked the oppression happening
8 between the Catholics and the Protestants in
9 Ireland to the blacks and the whites here in the
10 United States.
11 And so upon returning back home in
12 early 1846, Douglass incorporated much of what he
13 learned and strategies that he learned, and the
14 vision that he learned as well, into the
15 abolitionist movement here.
16 I tell this story not only because I
17 was called out by Senator Sanders, but also
18 because I think it's important. These are
19 American figures. Frederick Douglass, a New York
20 hero, an American hero, an international hero.
21 These are individuals that came from the bottom
22 but rose in the highest regard of society across
23 the globe and through their words, through their
24 actions, through their bravery and courage,
25 literally changed the face of society. Always
243
1 promoting freedom, always promoting the rights of
2 individuals.
3 And we have a moral obligation not
4 only to recognize them -- and again, I give my
5 colleagues great credit on this, the 200th
6 anniversary, the 200th anniversary of the birth
7 of Frederick Douglass. We remember what an
8 extraordinary individual he was, and we can only
9 imagine, we can only imagine what he had to go
10 through to achieve the greatness that he did.
11 But what an inspirational figure, someone we
12 should all try to emulate, not just through our
13 words but through our actions as well.
14 Thank you, Mr. President.
15 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Thank
16 you, Senator Kennedy.
17 Senator Benjamin on the resolution.
18 SENATOR BENJAMIN: Thank you,
19 Mr. President. I also rise to say a few words
20 about Frederick Douglass.
21 If you come to the lovely village of
22 Harlem today, 110th and Eighth Avenue, you will
23 be on 110th and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.
24 And that takes you all the way to 155th Street.
25 I'm on Frederick Douglass Boulevard almost every
244
1 day, except when I'm in Albany.
2 And one of the things I want to
3 commend Senator Funke on is that when I heard the
4 quote he used -- I was actually planning not to
5 say anything, because I knew my colleagues would
6 well speak on this issue. When I heard his
7 quote, "I would unite with anybody to do right
8 and with nobody to do wrong," it occurred to me
9 that that's my favorite Frederick Douglass quote.
10 And, you know, when you think about
11 his legacy and who he was, he believed in working
12 across party lines, ideologies, everything under
13 the sun. And I think it's interesting that even
14 though we are from different parties, we can
15 acknowledge someone great for the same thing.
16 And so as we move forward with the
17 rest of session, I hope we think about one simple
18 thing. Frederick Douglass was a slave. A slave
19 not in mind, according to my colleague Kevin
20 Parker, but he was enslaved. After slavery, he
21 had no issues working with slave owners in order
22 to get rid of slavery. This was a man who said
23 it's not about my personal hatred or personal
24 issues with something and people who have done
25 something to me, it's about the bigger goal.
245
1 And I know for myself I can get
2 petty at times, and I can be upset with people
3 and choose not to speak with them and let my ego
4 get in the way. I know we all can. We're
5 elected officials; I know everyone here can do
6 that. But I think we should take Frederick
7 Douglass's heart and mind and who he was as a
8 person while he was on this earth to recognize
9 that it's bigger than all of us and it's about
10 what we're fighting for.
11 And so I commend Senator Funke,
12 Senator Robach, and I commend the life of
13 Frederick Douglass. Thank you.
14 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Thank
15 you, Senator Benjamin.
16 The question is on the resolution.
17 All in favor signify by saying aye.
18 (Response of "Aye.")
19 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: Opposed,
20 nay.
21 (No response.)
22 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: The
23 resolution is adopted.
24 Floor Leader.
25 SENATOR RITCHIE: This resolution
246
1 is open for cosponsorship. If you would like to
2 be on the resolution, please see the desk.
3 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: The
4 resolution is open for cosponsorship. Any member
5 wishing to be a cosponsor should notify the desk.
6 Floor Leader.
7 SENATOR RITCHIE: Mr. President,
8 can I announce that immediately following
9 session, in Room 711 in the LOB, the
10 Transportation Committee will be meeting. And
11 also in Room 124 of the Capitol, the Health
12 Committee will be meeting.
13 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: There's
14 an immediate meeting of the Transportation
15 Committee in Room 711 of the Legislative Office
16 Building. There will be an immediate meeting of
17 the Health Committee in Room 124 of the Capitol.
18 SENATOR RITCHIE: Is there any
19 further business at the desk?
20 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: There is
21 no further business at the desk.
22 SENATOR RITCHIE: I move that we
23 now adjourn until Monday, January 22nd, at
24 3:00 p.m., intervening days being legislative
25 days.
247
1 ACTING PRESIDENT AKSHAR: On
2 motion, the Senate stands adjourned until Monday,
3 January 22nd, at 3:00 p.m., intervening days
4 being legislative days.
5 (Whereupon, at 12:46 p.m., the
6 Senate adjourned.)
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25