Congressman Speaks to BPC Seniors, and Gets Earful of Fears for Country

Left: Rep. Dan Goldman, a Battery Park City resident, speaks to some 50 residents of the neighborhood's Sunrise Senior Living. Right: Bill Mitchell, one of those residents, tells Goldman he is seeing the country "destroyed" by the Trump administration. Photos: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

“This is one of the shortest commutes I’ve had,” Rep. Dan Goldman said, by way of introduction to his talk before a packed audience at Sunrise Senior Living in Battery Park City. “I live three blocks down the road at 2 River Terrace, so this was very easy.”

Less easy during the congressman’s 40-minute appearance at the senior residence last Friday was addressing the despair of many in the room over a president who, in the words of one resident, is “filling the role of a dictator.”

“Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues care more about their jobs than they do about doing the right thing,” said Goldman, whose 10th New York Congressional District includes Lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn. “And [Trump] is a bully. He operates, as we’ve seen, solely by threat and by extortion. And because he has captured so much of the Republican Party, those threats are real.”

“Since when did Trump get all this power and put the fear of God into every Republican and everybody else?” a resident asked. “I don’t know where that came from.”

“It will be studied in political science classes for decades,” Goldman replied. “If we still have political science classes.”

The seniors in the room, overwhelmingly Democrats, spoke of their fears for the United States, and for future generations.

“I’m seeing my country destroyed, the country I was born into, the country I was taught to love,” Bill Mitchell, 87, a former anthropology professor, told Goldman. “Now you see people being picked up off the street by plainclothes men, grabbing students, attacking the media. I want to leave to my grandchildren the country that I love, the one where we respect one another. And this is what’s happening.”

Goldman tried to reassure the group that, despite the current powerlessness of his fellow congressional Democrats, “there are a couple of good things that are happening.” He cited judicial decisions that have blocked “law-breaking” and “Constitution-violating” actions by the administration. “And we’re starting to see that people are rising up and protesting and calling and writing. And all of that matters.” 

According to Goldman, Republicans are no longer holding local in-person town halls “because they are getting yelled at so much.”

“So you know what we’re doing?” he said. “We’re going to hold the town halls for them in their districts to raise awareness of what they are trying to do, that they are coming after your benefits” by slashing health care programs and closing Social Security offices.

“As you can imagine, these programs that so many have earned over many decades in this country are very popular. And if they are voting to cut them, they are going to lose their election,” he said. “We are going to make them pay for it.”

Several residents said they were ready to take action. Some would be attending the Hands Off! demonstration the next day. Bill Mitchell said he wants to organize a political action committee among his Sunrise Senior Living neighbors. And Barbara Sprung, 91, a self-described “old activist,” said she’s ready to bring the fight home. “I want to demonstrate right outside this building,” she said. “And let’s do it soon!”