by Dr. Carla H. Woolbright, Ed.D., LCSW

On Wednesday. June 5^th, 2024, I pre-registered and attended a scheduled Congressional Candidate Forum sponsored by Seven NAACP Branches located within the 16^th Congressional District. Five were Westchester County Branches of the NAACP consisting of Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Port Chester, Rye, White Plains and Yonkers. Two were New York City NAACP Branches consisting of the Co-op City Branch of the NAACP and the Bronx Branch of the NAACP. Incumbent Congressman Jamaal Bowman and his opponent, sitting Westchester County Executive George Latimer, were both invited and both accepted the invitation to attend.

I looked forward to hearing from both candidates. In particular I looked forward to hearing from County Executive George Latimer with his reason for challenging the first African American Congressman representing the 16^th CD.

County Executive George Latimer was a no show at this event. My understanding is that he had his representative call at 5:30 pm that evening to indicate that County Executive Latimer was ill and would not be in attendance at the scheduled 7pm forum. Of course, illness is taken seriously by most people, especially post COVID. Then I learned that County Executive George Latimer was present at two previous engagements that day showing no sign of illness. One event involved him shaking hands and greeting commuters at the Pelham train station. The other event was at a luncheon at the Fordham University Campus in Harrison New York.

I also learned that he attended an afternoon luncheon the following day June 6^th, 2024 at the Rye Chamber of Commerce where he was honored. This certainly feels to me that County Executive Latimer intentionally snubbed the organizers and members of the NAACP. I am certainly disappointed by his apparent lack of respect for the audience present, notwithstanding the fact that many of us voted for him in his run for County Executive. We all wish him good health, but when I learned that he declined to even participate via Zoom even for 3 seconds to offer an apology for his absence, I felt that unless you are on your deathbed, you should be able to rally enough energy to offer a personal apology to those present at the forum by joining the Zoom chat for at least 3 seconds with your apology. The venue was filled, and there were at least 100 viewers participating electronically via Zoom.

Many people left the forum verbalizing their concern about being disrespected. Sentiments written in the chatroom during the Zoom call indicated that County Executive George Latimer’s absence sealed their decision about who to support for the 16^th Congressional seat. The day for others to choose our leaders for us has come and gone. It is imperative that we all come out and vote for the representative that you feel will best represent your concerns. 

Dr. Woolbright is past President of the New Rochelle branch of the NAACP.