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Meeling Eng - City Council Candidate

By Jose B. Rivera

Picture of Meeling EngEast Harlem - June 9th, 2001 Current Community School Board District # 4 Member, Meeling Eng has jumped into this years East Harlem city council race. As I will do with all East Harlem city council candidates, Meeling has decided to write about herself and her candidacy (below):

Meeling: In her Own Words
As it is known now, for me it will always be El Barrio!
Let me tell you about myself. I was born in El Barrio 56 years ago and am proud to be Puerto Rican. My mother is Puerto Rican and my father is Chinese. My father would always tell me “Do what is right” and “Remember you will never lose any sleep over anything!

I lived at James Weldon Johnson Houses for the last 30 years. In those 30 years I have accomplished a lot. I was educated in El Barrio. I too attended El Barrio’s Public Schools. I have also chosen to work in my community, assisting Senior Citizens. I have been working with Seniors for over 20 years in various agencies. I am now working with the Theater Art Senior Nutrition Program at 120 East 110th Street.

School Board Member
In addition to working with Seniors, I have also started working with children. My work with children prompted me to run for election as Community School Board District # 4 member. I have been a school board member for the past 12 years. I believe I have a good job working with the Seniors and the children.

Working on the School Board I have strived to better the community, to help people deal and cope with some of their problems.

1989 - 1993
My I worked closely with teachers and administrators to rid our schools of drugs and weapons.
I am currently working hard to improve our children’s learning and to increase test scores.

1993
Those who voted for me had at least one school board member who didn’t own anything to anyone. A vote for me was a vote for parents, not politicians.

1996
In 1996 the political bosses ran slates of candidates. They even disqualified three good board members during the election process at the board of elections. But parents were not fooled and voted the three board members in via absentee ballot! The political bosses thought they could control the school board, but in the end, they did not.

1999
Listen to the children, what are they talking about? Parents, you are our eyes and ears in the schools and the home. And I have not forgotten about Special Education. Children and Parents must be included in policy making, not excluded.

What I believe
My theme for the city council election is “Different faces, Different faces, unite the human race.” This is what our community is about. I offer no promises, but I will fight for what is right. Dignity for a human life. I can’t afford to cater to certain ethnic groups as some would have you believe. I will support and defend all groups, partly due to my family heritage. And lastly, because catering to any group is just plain wrong. I say cut the pie equally. I stand for joining forces and uniting races to work and collaborate for the good of the community.

Presently there are hardly any programs for youth, adults or our seniors. The scaling down of social programs has had a great impact on our community. What do we do? How can we help?

We educate them, that’s what we do as Parents, adults, grandparents, family and friends .. We need to educate everybody equally both young and old everybody, both white and black everybody

Teachers need to be retrained to be more sensitive to our children

Children need to be re-taught to be more sensitive to our teachers

We all need to take a course in Sensitivity!!! And back to basics
In closing.

The community needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Take a look around as we are walking to the train station at 103rd Street, 116th street and 125th street. What do you see? Old dilapidated buildings. The Board of Education needs to renovate PS 109 and give it back to District #4. Children, adults and seniors are hanging out with nothing to do? What do we do about it? Who do we complain to? I’ll tell you who! The local Politicians. We need to get together and with one voice remind our elected officials that we are still here and that many problems remain unsolved. And we need to get out and Vote. Remember me when you vote in September’s Democratic Primary.

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