Our good friend Phil Reisman, the star feature columnist of Gannett’s Journal News newspaper did a very unsettling column about some longtime employees of the American Yacht Club in Rye who were let go following a surprise visit to the club by Homeland Security. 

I’ve known most of these wonderful people for years and Reisman’s column really set me to thinking about all the essential contributions immigrants – “legal” or otherwise – make in our lives. 

They cook our meals,  set our tables, wash our dishes, scrub our floors, haul away the garbage, weed our gardens, plant our flowers, cut our grass in the spring, rake our leaves in the fall, shovel our sidewalks in the winter, iron our shirts, wash our laundry, clean our toilets, style our hair, cut our toenails and buff our fingernails, baby-sit and pick up after our kids (and our pets), walk our dogs, fumigate our houses, tote our bales, shine our shoes, sell us Lottery tickets, drive our school buses,  sow and harvest our fields, grow our vegetables, muck our stalls, cobble our shoes, tend our vineyards, sweep our streets, pick up our litter, gas up, wash and fix our cars, repair our roofs, carry our golf bags across Westchester fairways, manicure the greens at our country clubs, haul boats at our yacht clubs, hoist our banners, flags and club burgees, stir our cocktails and pour our drinks, stack our plates and bus our tables …

In addition to the services they provide, they also enrich our culture and our lives.

Contact:
William O’Shaughnessy
914-235-3279   wfo@wvox.com