On the recordJanuary 17, 2018
I want bring up one thing I forgot to mention. I was the young mayor of the city of Glen Cove in 1994, and we had day workers from Central and South America gathering on the street corners seeking work. The community was divided. This was 1994. Just think how long ago this is now, 23 years ago. One group saying: Get those people out of here. And other people saying: These poor guys are trying to live the American Dream the same as your family did. I ended up setting up the first day-worker gathering spot anywhere on the East Coast of the United States of America in 1994. It was one of the first things I did as mayor. We ended up bringing them indoors. If you didn't get hired for the day, you could learn a skill, you could learn to speak English, you could learn about the cultural norms of our community. We said: If you play by the rules, we are going to help you. If you break the rules, you are going to get in trouble. The same guys that were on the street corners now have their own businesses, they own their own homes, and their children go to school with my children. That is the American Dream. We have so much potential in this country if we could unleash it for people who want to work 6 days a week and go to church on Sunday, if only we could remove this anxiety and this threat that we are pushing people underground and forcing them into an underground economy and underground communities. If only we could lift this back up again, we could accomplish so much.
