....February 18, 1:38 AM
 
 
   
It’s The Tribune’s 35th Anniversary And You’re Invited To Celebrate!

THIRTY FIVE YEARS OF QUEENS HISTORY: The first Tribune published in February 1970 and last month’s Official Guide to Queens marking 35 years of continuous publication by the Queens Tribune, the paper of record of Queens County, New York. You’re invited to
By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Thirty-five years ago, little Gary Ackerman launched the Flushing Tribune from the rear of a real estate office on Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills. Soon, along with his dream, the Trib moved to a store front – and then a second store front – on Kissena Boulevard in Flushing. For its first decade, Gary pioneered community newspaper publishing offering his readers a combination of community advocacy and a mirror to watch history in their borough unfold.

Twenty-five years ago, Gary answered another calling winning his first of more than a dozen elections to public office, and handed the Tribune and its vision to me. It was one of the most rewarding moments of my life. Shortly, I relinquished my educational career retiring as a principal of a New York City school to steer the Tribune – something I’ve been doing for a quarter of a century.

Guiding the Queens Tribune’s growth to a dominant boroughwide chain which impacts the life of a borough of more than 2 million people, while being innovators in the industry of community journalism and maintaining journalistic integrity, has been a challenge I’ve relished each day of the past 25 years.

It has been an amazing trip.

And that trip – the Tribune adventure – will be celebrated in our very special glossy-bound 35th anniversary edition to be published March 31.

We are going to be celebrating with an in-print anniversary party. And you’re invited to participate.
If you’ve written for the Trib, worked for us, been part of the news, or just a loyal reader or advertiser, you’re invited to submit approximately 250 words and a photo (jpgs preferred) telling your version of the Queens Tribune story. Please include name, dates and contact phone number.

An old news photo or event, a memory of the Tribune and the news it covered anytime in the past 35 years, or a current commentary is welcome. Perhaps you have an old story or a personal memory to share. Along with the 250 words, please also include a paragraph about who you are and your connection to Queens.

We prefer electronic submissions to editor@queenstribune.com – please make sure that the subject line says “Trib 35” and all files sent begin with your last name. You may also submit by mail to “Trib 35, 174-15 Horace Harding Expressway, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365.”
A celebration is more joyous when more participate. If the Trib has touched you in the past 35 years, please take the time to touch us back.

Our 35th Anniversary celebration is of our borough and its people.

Please share with us.



Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.

Park Renaming Does Weinstein Justice

Trobiano’s No Longer A Kitchen Nightmare

Young Voters Show Big Numbers In Queens

Queens G.O.P. Gaga Over McCain

Hospital Lives On, Continues to Fight

Maltese Loses Key Ally In Seminerio

Stadium Memorabilia Selling Fast

Fugitive Convicted In 2001 Murder

Rally Howls For Affordable Housing

Sikhs and Arab Still Suffer Since 9/11

Queens’ Latin Jazz Coalition Finds Rhythm

Going From Here to There — Got Ideas?

Protest To Keep School Bus Routes

Rival Term Limits Bills Approach Council Floor

Stolen Torahs Returned

Seminerio Arrested For Mail Fraud

Teen Pleads Guilty To 2006 Park Murder

Mayor Endorses Maltese In Senate Battle

Stavisky Wins

Huge Turnout Gives Huntley Win In Jamaica

Memories of Shea

On 9/11, Some Wounds Still Unhealed

Women’s Hospital Breaks Ground

 
 
Tongue Tied On Local Language Laws

By RON ISAAC

Spider-holes are the ad hoc penthouse of fugitive New York City politicians. Councilman Dennis Gallagher, on the run from charges of racism, would be well advised to secure a loft with a lengthy lease and an attached detail of National Guardsmen. He is being beset by mobs of curse-chucking hustlers who aim to shoot down his career because he opposes the proposed Education Equity Act. If enacted, this bill would mandate translation into at least nine languages, within 24 hours, of school toilet passes, detention slips, and heaps of other documents spawned by the educational ministry.

This legislation would no doubt eventually extend to all official documents of government and be binding on private contractors hoping to make successful bids. This crazy quilt of patois will be institutionalized so that street signs, parking tickets, and applications for free social services, euphemistically called “face to face letters,” will be in as many grammars as there are neighborhoods in New York.

The Education Equity Act is not about education or equity. That is why we know it is aptly named. Politicians like to obscure their mischief by giving their true designs false titles. This pilot project lends itself ideally to cross-purposes.

Councilman Gallagher’s vilifiers, many of them of iffy immigration status who are indulging their first taste of a decent quality of life and standard of living courtesy of the American spirit and tax rolls, do not recognize English as a sufficient and unifying language. As Gallagher was serving them coffee in the raw wind on the road outside his office, they called him “nazi” and “racist.” This politician is a levelheaded traditionalist, but in the current climate, any purveyor of common sense and mild patriotism is fair game.

In fairness to both Dennis Gallagher and his accusers, his aversion to the Education Equity Act is based on more than money. He argues that “Great nations, no matter how ethnically diverse, have a common bond that unites its people…That common bond is language, and we shall do everything in our power to encourage that commonality rather than destroy it.” If that is inflammatory, then it is the flame that welds brotherhood.

Gallagher’s view is unchallenged by cultural historians or anyone else immersed in global reality. For many years, English has been the preeminent language of the earth. On every continent, educated people are fluent in it. It links Nairobi with Lima and Shanghai with Spitzbergen. Nobody feels insulted or threatened by that fact of life. Nobody interprets it as a defamation of their heritage or slur to their honor. The only resistance can be found among the bellowers outside Gallagher’s office.

Their voices are loud and clear but there is little volume or clarityto their grasp. Andrew Friedman, co-director of Make the Road, an advocacy group pushing the Education Equity Act, correctly notes, “One of the core indicators of a student’s academic involvement is parent involvement.” He then suggests that it “will help make parents allies in the process of education.” Would it not be so otherwise? Is this alliance being held ransom? Should it prefer the unfastening or the tightening of the common bond of language?

Embracing English was the ardent and unequivocal choice of an unbroken chain of generations before the current rumpus. We will fall from quandary into quicksand if we give in now. The hands of all nations in our society must help Councilman Gallagher to hold high our single torch.

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato
Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.