A GREAT LOSS
The Liberal Party of NY State lost one of its leaders when Louis Dvorkin, State Vice Chairman and Chairman of Queens County for more than 30 years, passed away at age 88 on August 4, 2010.
Though a graduate accountant from CCNY, who worked for New York City before retiring in 1976, Lou' s thoughts and essence were that of a working man - someone who worked for many years to earn his living and raise his family. That essence of 'working man' marked his political leadership - filled it with energy and direction and yes even passion.
Lou believed in New York and in America - he believed that a liberal country could provide opportunities for everyone - and he supported that belief with years and years of meetings and discussions and the hard work of political campaigns.
Through its successes which delighted him and its failures which he mourned, Lou always believed that the Liberal Party's policies and programs best expressed his own beliefs in what politics and government could do to help people.
His leadership and the close group of hardworking men and women who were the Liberal Party in Queens County, elected those politicians who could best meet the requirements the leadership had set. As he celebrated the victories of friends, he never took his eyes off those he considered our enemies.
As he grew older and his full white beard - which gave him a somewhat Moses-like look full of wisdom and grace - became a trademark of his devoted presence at our many meetings, Lou's passion for truth and justice remained.
In a country which became more and more passive, which began to lose the liberal qualities which Lou had worked so hard in his mid-years to develop in America in the 1950's and 60's, Lou assumed a righteous outrage, refusing to accept where we were heading as a country - and even as a political party in New York State.
Lou had lots of stories to tell. At their best, they reminded us of what we represented and what we needed to achieve. Because for all the words and all the experience, Lou Dvorkin never stopped caring for people…stubbornly, proudly, fiercely cared about people - and in what government should do to help them.
Lou was a genuine liberal. And those of us who worked with him, knew and respected that.
And cared for him a great deal and will miss him very much.
Martin I. Hassner
Executive Director
August 6, 2010
ISSUES
The symptom is money. But the disease is public office as a fulltime job. As long as public office can be a career, a livelihood, a lifetime's work, the need for more and more money to win reelection and to stay there at all costs, will continue unabated, subverting the political system in which we live.
Systems which control important areas of our lives like education, healthcare and employment, are the foundation of our society. Years have taken their toll and these and other systems are in failure. Unless we reform them, they will continue to fail us. Reform will return their control to the community being served and remove them from those more concerned about their own needs than ours.
