By Shirley Diglio-Guerrette
Upon the newly elected New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, coming into office, Derby High School staff were asked a series of questions about whether they believe he brings hope to people and if he is a turning point for citizens in the U.S.
My first question was: Are the people hopeful about having him as mayor?
Special Education teacher Daniel McNamara: “I think he gives hope to the people for various reasons. For one, he’s a young guy who was relatively unknown until now. I think he was an assemblyman in the state government, and I think since he’s young, that’s kind of different than some of these establishment politicians. So, yeah, and he’s very charismatic and very progressive at the same time, so I think a lot of people are excited about him.”
SDG: How did it make you feel when he got elected?
“I’m excited,” Music teacher Nick Ruel said. “I think my initial reaction to it was that there’s going to be a huge political divide in this election, because there are Republicans who think he’s like a communist or a socialist, and there are Democrats who think he’s like the second coming of Jesus Christ. And I don’t think either is true, right? We kind of live in this really weird role of politics where there’s this strong duality… It’s either this or that. There’s kind of no in the middle. I was kind of excited because I actually think he’s more riding the middle line. I don’t think he’s as much of a socialist, or I don’t really think he’s a communist, like the right wing seems to think he is. A lot of ways to talk about it are just saying, hey, our standard of living is getting really bad.”
Mayor Mamdani is the hope that NYC people need. His ambitious progressive agenda, focused on making New York City more comfortable and giving power back to the working class, will strongly benefit not only New York but potentially the rest of the country.
The Raider Press 