Kesten Hosts First Coalition Forum Focusing on Political Change
By James Miranda
It didn’t take long for Robert Kesten to resume fighting for issues that he cares deeply about.
Kesten hosted the first community forum for Coalition New York in Sleepy Hollow on Dec. 10 that brought community activists together to start a conversation about how best to influence change.
Coalition New York, which formed out of Kesten’s unsuccessful candidacy earlier this year for the Democratic nomination for the 40th state Senate District, aims to give people “ownership” of the political process instead of through other organizations, he said. The meeting was scheduled to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in hopes of initiating community discussion on how to produce change on the local, state and national levels.
“The whole declaration’s reason of coming about is because people have to be thought of before politics, before economics, before all the other things that we’ve seen get placed in front of people, which have led us to a world that is really not sympathetic to humanity and human dignity,” Kesten said. “The hope is that local people will take it over in their own communities. The idea of it is to form coalitions, so that people can work together.”
Bringing the community together in one room to search for ways to unify and take control of the political process was one of the goals of the event.
“I think people need to take a deep breath and pay attention to what’s going on (in the world),” said Sr. Bette Ann Jaster, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Hope in Ossining. “It’s such a unique idea to reach out to people who aren’t in your neighborhood, culture or financial area. Everyone has something to offer.”
Following a brief reading of the UDHR, Kesten asked the roughly 50 people who attended the forum to reflect on the 30 articles within the UDHR – which was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948 – and discuss ones they felt have been violated in their lives.
Much of the ensuing discussion during the two-hour meeting centered on why America is polarized. Unifying society is difficult if not impossible, according to Kesten, but part of forming Coalition New York was to start looking at why there hasn’t been greater traction in making change.
“[This event] was a good starting point for getting a large group of progressive people to attempt to redirect how New York state is going to govern,” said Baila Lemonik, a Mahopac resident. “I think we have to come together and get rid of all the hate in this country that’s emanating from Washington and making people so polarized.”
Kesten ended the event by asking the audience to consider three ways they would recommend to help bring people together.
The next Coalition New York meeting will discuss those topics and be held sometime after New Year’s.
For more information, visit the Coalition New York Facebook page.
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