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democratsunited-blog · 6 years

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Political Scene: Politically energized women running for office in record numbers - News - providencejournal.com

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=5545

Political Scene: Politically energized women running for office in record numbers - News - providencejournal.com

This month’s endorsement controversy has emboldened the movement to elect more women, already galvanized by the election of Donald Trump, the Women’s Marches here and across the country, election gains in 2016 and the #MeToo movement.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Long before Democratic Party leaders endorsed a Donald Trump voter over one of their own incumbents, and before the party’s Women’s Caucus met in a local bar to escape the watch of party minders, a movement to elect more women to the Rhode Island General Assembly — progressive women in particular — had begun.

It was energized by Trump’s victory, shaped by the Women’s Marches here and across the country, encouraged by election gains in 2016 and hardened by the #MeToo movement.

Women are running for office in record numbers across the country this year and Rhode Island is no exception.

Out of the 274 candidates who declared for statewide office, Congress or the General Assembly at the end of June, 79 of them, or 29 percent, were women. There are 37 female office-holders now, including 23 state representatives, 13 senators, Gov. Gina Raimondo and Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea.

Whether 29 percent is a lot depends on your perspective. It’s still less than a third of all Rhode Islanders running, but it’s the most since digital statewide records of declared candidates became available in 2006. The previous high-water mark was 75 women in 2010, which was 20 percent of all candidates that year.

In April, state Rep. Moira Walsh organized a gathering outside the State House to encourage more women to run, drawing more than a dozen people including Democratic candidates Justine Caldwell, Bridget Valverde and Melanie Dupont.

“I think this is a really great start,” Sulina Mohanty, chairwoman of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, told Political Scene last week about this year’s slate.

“What happened nationally really sparked a lot of energy locally where people were able to build networks, make connections and encourage each other,” she said. “That contributed to the number of women running.”

The real test, she said, is how many can get elected.

Even before a vote is cast, the Women’s Caucus is in good position to pick up a House seat in Pawtucket where Karen Alzate is the only declared candidate to replace Rep. David Coughlin, who is not seeking reelection.

Of the 79 women running this year, 58 are Democrats. Even more so than usual this year, the push for political gender parity in Rhode Island has been linked with the Assembly’s progressive lawmakers, who waged campaigns for pay equity, abortion rights and new laws to combat sexual harassment.

None of the legislation they backed on those issues cleared the Assembly as establishment and liberal Democrats clashed, culminating in this month’s endorsement controversy where the party backed the primary opponents of three female incumbents (including Walsh) and several other progressives.

Brown University political science professor Wendy Schiller said leadership’s pushback, and the stinging national media attention its received, could ultimately help Walsh and fellow progressives by making usually low-profile Assembly races a “cause célèbre” among liberals.

“I think that is a huge mistake in 2018, even in a Democratic state,” Schiller said of the party endorsement of Walsh challenger Michael Earnheart, a Trump-voter who was a Republican until last December. “I think it helps the progressives in that it mobilizes people working on progressive campaigns.”

In addition to Walsh herself — who received shoutouts from celebrities and may get a fundraising boost — Schiller said the endorsement flap could increase Democratic turnout and benefit progressives like lieutenant governor candidate Aaron Regunberg.

At the same time, the progressive campaign to elect more women could help Raimondo blunt primary challenger Matt Brown’s appeal to liberal female voters, Schiller said.

“These endorsements showed how out of touch the Rhode Island Democratic Party is — more concerned with maintaining and wielding power than the interests of every day Rhode Islanders,” said Georgia Hollister Isman, state director of the Rhode Island Working Families Party, which backed Walsh and the two other female Democratic incumbents who did not get their party’s endorsement this year, Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell and Sen. Jeanine Calkin.

Rhode Island Republicans have relished this most recent round of Democratic infighting.

Despite the potential danger of an energized liberal base, GOP state party Chairman Brandon Bell, who is also running for a House seat in Cumberland, said the recent tempest gives Republican candidates more campaign ammunition.

“My grass-roots people do not appreciate unethical leadership and don’t like it,” he said.

Among the female lawmakers frustrated at the end of the 2018 legislative session was Sen. Gayle Goldin, who spearheaded the push for the stalled pay equity legislation.

In the late-night hours of the year’s final Senate session, Goldin highlighted another area where women are under-represented: only seven of 45 public buildings, infrastructure and monuments are named after women.

“So I thought I would use this as an opportunity to make sure next year when we are naming things we put some thought into that,” Goldin told fellow senators.

A third candidate

Who is William Beeley?

The newest entrant in this year’s closely-watched Democratic primary race for lieutenant governor, of course.

A Johnston resident, Beeley, 42, has never run for public office before, but says he jumped in this year after becoming frustrated at the State House status quo.

“No one cares up there,” he said in a Friday phone interview about Smith Hill.

The owner of a fast food franchise, Beeley’s agenda includes legalizing recreational cannabis to fund property tax cuts and repairing schools.

If he can collect the 500 nomination signatures he needs to get on the ballot, Beeley would face the incumbent Lt. Gov. Dan McKee and state Rep. Aaron Regunberg in a Democratic primary clash pitting the party’s conservative and progressive blocs.

Beeley says he is on the conservative side of the Democratic political spectrum. He won’t say who got his vote in the 2016 presidential election.

Introducing a third candidate to a race often splits the anti-incumbent vote, but Beeley could just as well take votes from McKee as Regunberg.

Beeley said no one in the political world had recruited him and he does not personally know Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena, who lives just down the street and has been a vocal Regunberg critic.

Spicer back in R.I.

Barrington native — and former White House press secretary — Sean Spicer is returning home to Rhode Island on July 28 to pitch his book “The Briefing: Politics, The Press and The President.”

He is scheduled for two book-signings hosted by Barrington Books — at its Barrington (2-3:30 p.m.) and Garden City (5-6:30 p.m.) locations — coupled with “moderated question and answer’’ sessions. The moderator: former Providence mayor — and current Democratic National Committee-member — Joseph Paolino Jr.

Constituent Coolman

More than a year before Providence College theology teacher Holly Taylor Coolman launched her campaign to unseat Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell in Providence’s House District 5, she launched a failed campaign to try to change the freshman lawmaker’s mind about abortion.

The subject line for Coolman’s Feb. 2, 2017 email to Ranglin-Vassell read: “Please rethink this abortion advocacy.”

Referencing legislation signed by more than a third of the lawmakers in the House — including Ranglin-Vassell — to enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade in state law, Coolman wrote:

“I am DEEPLY DISTURBED by the extreme position you have taken on abortion. Because it is possible that you may not have read or understood what you signed on to, I will walk you through it.”

“Amongst other very serious issues the bill would: Prohibit the state of Rhode Island from banning any “method” of abortion, even PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION,” she wrote. “The bill amounts to a virtually complete deregulation of the abortion industry in Rhode Island.” (Backers of the bill disputed these characterizations.)

“As your constituent, I urge you to immediately inform Speaker Mattiello AND THE MEDIA that you have reconsidered your position and are withdrawing your co sponsorship. And I expect that you will call me or email me to explain how it is that you signed on to this bill in the first place.”

Ranglin-Vassell’s response to Coolman that day: “Thank you for your email and your thoughts. I want you to know that I would never sign a bill that I did not believe in. I strongly believe that women — all women have full and total control over her body.”

Coolman responded on Feb. 18, 2017: “I understand the concerns about women’s control over their bodies — especially in a society that often devalues women … My concerns about H5343, though, are not simply that it is a pro-choice piece of legislation, but that it is so extreme … Even if you yourself believe abortion should never be restricted for any reason, it’s important to note that the majority of your constituents, and a majority of the American people, do not feel the same way.”

“Why introduce this divisive piece of legislation, one that completely ignores these views?” she argued.

The two women now face each other in the September Democratic primary. In a recent blog post, Coolman stressed that she is not a one-issue candidate.

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nofomoartworld · 7 years

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Hyperallergic: Chicago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Its Picasso Sculpture, a Gift Many Residents Didn’t Want

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

CHICAGO — A baboon with wings, a bull-moose hybrid, an Egyptian revival sculpture, and even a vampire.

Fifty years after its public unveiling, the untitled Picasso sculpture that sits in the center of Daley Plaza continues to elicit a wide range of interpretations from mystified passersby. The 50-foot-tall steel figure certainly caused a ruckus when it was first dedicated on August 15, 1967: Many people were simply baffled by the abstract sculpture; others showed up with signs that deemed it a “colossal booboo” and “an insult to Chicago’s greatness.” One urged, “Let’s give it back now!!!” Not exactly an ideal welcome for what the modernist master intended as a gift to the people of Chicago.

Protestors at the 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

No protestors turned up yesterday afternoon (though that would have made for a fun spectacle), when the city restaged the sculpture’s dedication to celebrate the 50th anniversary of an oddity that’s gradually grown into a beloved Chicago icon. The aforementioned interpretations were among those I received from individuals in the crowd, which numbered in the hundreds — just a fraction of the approximately 50,000 people who packed the streets in 1967.

Among them was Bonnie Diamond, who was a little girl when her parents took her to what was then known as Civic Center to witness Mayor Daley pull away the giant, blue veil with a grand flourish. She had appreciated the sculpture upon first sight.

“It was very exciting,” Diamond told Hyperallergic. “It was just wow. We didn’t really know what it was and had never seen anything like it. Now I’m not sure what I think it is, but I always thought it was a horse with angel wings.”

Unveiling of the Picasso in 1967 (photo courtesy Barbara Bogosian, used with permission)

Much of the anticipation back then stemmed from photographs of the statue and its maquette that the press circulated widely as part of the city’s publicity campaign. Everyone, it seemed, had an opinion on the Picasso — a hulking, modernist vision that had no apparent connection to Chicago or its history, unlike other commemorative statues that dotted the city streets. The choice must have seemed particularly curious considering the Spaniard had never set foot in the Windy City.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby Hyperallergic)

Readers of the Chicago Tribune wrote in days before the dedication, with a number calling it a “monstrosity” and some decrying the city’s showing of the work of a Communist. Others were enthusiastic and even proud, although many fixated on what exactly the stern-faced creature was supposed to be.

“The Picasso piece depicts a baboon, without a doubt,” a skeptical Helen Mckee wrote. “Picasso has perpetrated a hoax.” One Mrs. Joseph Savler suggested that the piece represented a phoenix, “the bird which like Chicago was consumed by fire and arose from its ashes in renewed beauty and freshness.” And area person P.K. Thompson was adamant about their guess: a giant sea horse.

Still others believed it represented Picasso’s pet Afghan hound, Kabul, an argument that photojournalist David Douglas Duncan laid out in a Chicago Tribune Magazine article. It was published months after the dedication and illustrated with an elegant portrait of the long-nosed canine.

Today, most people believe that Picasso meant for the figure — with its knob-shaped face, eyes and nostrils like donuts, core of radiating lines, and gradually widening stem — to represent an abstracted woman. What is certain, however, is that his sculpture paved the way for modern art to play a significant role in Chicago’s city planning, which had until then largely focused on functional public structures.

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

“The Picasso really changed the way public art began to appear within the city,” public historian Paul Durica told Hyperallergic. “What’s interesting is that, over the past 50 years, it’s more or less become part of the city’s built environment — people don’t really look at it as a work of art anymore. This anniversary is an opportunity to once again try to approach it as a work of art and think about its meaning and value to the city.”

Durica conceived of the dedication restaging, which also celebrated artists and cultural organizations in Chicago. The 1967 program had featured performances, readings, and speeches, and for yesterday’s event, locals stepped in to represent them with largely new material. Participants included the Chicago Children’s Choir, artist Avery R. Young, and Gwendolyn Brooks’s daughter, who recited the poem her mother had read 50 years ago.

The only thing missing was the drama of the original event: the Picasso was not kept under any veil but left exposed and untouched as celebrations unfolded around it. Instead, artist Edra Soto led a symbolic unveiling, asking people to cover their eyes with pink fans she’d designed and then remove them after a few seconds. It was a creative alternative to what may have proved a complicated endeavor, but I imagine it would have been quite striking to see Rahm Emanuel (who was present) whip away a cloth and watch it slowly billow in the wind as the gigantic Picasso was revealed, glinting in the sun and gazing fixedly forward.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

The 162-ton work — which has turned from bright orange to dark gray, thanks to years of weathering — exists because of Chicago architect William E. Hartmann, who wanted to commission an artist to create a monumental work to serve as the focal point of the plaza. And he wanted none other than Picasso — Hartmann considered him “the greatest master alive.” He visited the artist at home in Mougins to propose the idea, which the city’s Public Building Commission had approved. To persuade Picasso, as well as familiarize him with Chicago culture, Hartmann brought along gifts including a White Sox uniform, a Native American war bonnet, a Chicago fire department helmet, and photographs of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg.

Picasso not only agreed to the task but also refused payment for it; he wanted his work to be a gift to the people of Chicago. He also gave the 42-inch-tall maquette to the Art Institute, where it remains on view today. His design was realized by the United States Steel Corporation at a cost of $300,000, which was covered by three different charitable foundations.

The theme of yesterday’s events was in keeping with the spirit of the artist’s generosity: “Everybody’s Picasso.” But that idea was briefly contested when the sculpture became the subject of a copyright controversy. In 1969, the Letter Edged in Black Press filed suit against the Public Building Commission, which claimed it had copyright on the sculpture. The art publisher had commissioned Claes Oldenburg to reproduce the Picasso and was fighting licensing fees, arguing that the sculpture was in the public domain, as the artist had given it to the people. The commission maintained that the deed of gift was a copyright grant that Picasso had given to the department. The next year, a judge ruled in the publisher’s favor.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

Today, even if you haven’t seen the Picasso in person, you’ve likely seen it on screen, thanks to cameos in films like The Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s become a marker of the city’s center, an unmistakable and familiar home base.

When the late Chicago Tribune arts editor Edward Barry wrote about the sculpture’s origin story days before its unveiling, he concluded with a grand premonition.

“For decades, possibly for generations, Chicagoans will dispute about this huge semi-abstract head of a woman — or is it something else? — which will be like a brooding presence in the center of the city,” Barry wrote. “It will be derided, defended, laughed at, and — who knows? — maybe eventually loved.”

From the array of people sitting on the Picasso’s granite pedestal and enjoying lunch to the children who slide down its sloping base every day, you can see that he turned out to be exactly right.

The restaging of the 1967 Chicago Picasso dedication (photo by Jake Silby/Hyperallergic)

Pablo Picasso, “Maquette for Richard J. Daley Center Sculpture” (1964), on view at the Art Institute of Chicago (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture, photographed by Robert W. Krueger (photo courtesy Chicago Public Library – Northside Neighborhood History Collection)

The 1967 dedication of the Picasso sculpture (photo courtesy City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs)

The post Chicago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Its Picasso Sculpture, a Gift Many Residents Didn’t Want appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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longislandweekly-blog · 7 years

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Diocese of Rockville Center Bishop John Barres blesses Pfeifer’s coffin. (Photo by Frank Rizzo)

In one of his last phone calls from the Port Washington hospice where he lived out his final days, Ray Pfeifer of Hicksville dialed Jon Stewart’s cell phone. The retired NYC firefighter had one final request for the comedian: deliver the eulogy at his funeral.

And so it was that on the first Friday in June, at the Holy Family Church in Hicksville, Stewart stood at the lectern and moved and entertained those mourning Pfeifer, 59, who died from 9/11-related cancers on Sunday, May 28. Pfeifer had spent many months at Ground Zero, which we now know was toxic, and has claimed more victims with each passing year.

Pfeifer and the comic had partnered to successfully get an extension of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act past a recalcitrant U.S. Senate in 2015. The act funds medical treatment for responders and survivors who have and will experience 9/11 health complications. It had passed in 2010 and signed into law by President Obama in 2011, but it had sunset provisions. Stewart, through his Daily Show, was given credit for helping to pass the original law when it stalled in Congress.

Stewart detailed how Pfeifer, in failing health and getting around in a motorized wheelchair, persuaded reluctant politicians to extend the legislation.

“Because it wasn’t about him,” Stewart pointed out. “It was about service to others. Always do the right thing.”

“I remember how at the end of our lobbying efforts I felt beaten and disgusted by what I had witnessed,” Stewart related. “All I was getting [from senators or aides] was business cards. And I said to Ray, ‘If I get another business card, I’m going to scream.’ And Ray said, ‘I’m OK.’ And I said, ‘How, Ray? How do you maintain your cool in all of this?’ He patted his chest. And he reached in and pulled out prayer cards (from 9/11 firefighters’ funerals). Hundreds of them. He said, ‘I got all the cards I need.’ ”

Here, Stewart’s voice broke as he concluded, “And now, Raymond, I got one (pulling out Pfeifer’s Mass card). And it’s going to teach me how to do right. Thank you.”

NYC Mayor Bill DiBlasio and Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro were among those who joined Pfeifer’s widow Caryn, son Terence and daughter Taylor, sisters Maryellen, Noreen, Patricia and Kathleen, and brothers Joseph and Daniel.

Words of Remembrance were given by Pfeifer’s sister, Maryellen McKee, who noted, “Those who knew Ray well knew he was a pain in the neck—been that way all his life. And yet look around. Look at all of us here. We’re here to celebrate a man who would have done anything to help anyone.”

Former NYC Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said that Pfeifer spent countless hours at the site, and “when he wasn’t at the site, he was helping take care of the families of the members of the firehouse, Engine 40-Ladder 15. He made sure their holiday season was a little better than it could be,” Cassano said.

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Ray Pfeifer shows off his “Keys” to New York City after a ceremony in January 2016. (Photo courtesy of NYC Mayor’s Office)

Pfeifer standing in his dress uniform. Born in Queens, he grew up in Levittown—graduating from Division High School—and lived in Hicksville. (Photo courtesy of NYC Mayor’s Office)

After the presentation of the Key to the City, Pfeifer poses with, from left, comedian Jon Stewart, son Terrence, wife Caryn, and daughter Taylor. (Photo courtesy of NYC Mayor’s Office)

Pfeifer got to fulfill a bucket list item when he and Caryn laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this year. (Photo via Facebook)

The 27-year firefighter was thrilled when he got to sponsor a van for the FDNY Family Transport. It was put to use at his funeral on June 3, transporting family members to the church and the cemetery. (Photo via Facebook)

Pfifer also found time to be a volunteer with the East Meadow Fire Department, where he once served as a captain. His helmet and jacket are placed on the FDNY antique carrying his coffin to his final resting place, Holy Rood Cemetery. (Photo by Frank Rizzo)

NYC Mayor Bill DiBlasio greets Caryn Pfeifer, center. (Photo by Frank Rizzo)

“When we found out that Ray was stricken with cancer, we were all devastated,” said Cassano. “He was larger than life. The go-to guy. How could this happen with him? Well, Ray handled illness with courage I’d never seen before, much better than we could have. He was always upbeat, and after you talked to him, you were in a better place.”

Cassano noted, “He liked to call himself the ‘Poster Boy’ [for the 9/11 illness movement]. I liked to call him the ‘Ambassador.’ He did what was needed to be done, whether being a bulldog and chase after some elected official—which was a funny site to see—or be a big teddy bear, with that infectious smile to win over some [official].”

“Today, the FDNY family is hurting, the East Meadow Fire Department family is hurting, the entire firefighting community is hurting at Ray’s loss,” Cassano concluded. “Rest in peace, Ray. Your legacy lives on forever.”

For his efforts in aiding fellow 9/11 survivors, Pfeifer was awarded the “Keys” to NYC in 2016.

“I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more than Ray Pfeifer,” Mayor DiBlasio said at the Jan. 9 ceremony. “The key to the city was made for people like Ray Pfeifer.”

DiBlasio went on to note, “People asked him why he stayed [at Ground Zero]. His answer was painful but simple—to find his friends. And that determination, that single-mindedness, that was inspiring. It was inspiring to everyone around him and it was a reminder of what commitment looks like and you can see it in the months and years after, as he fought cancer, and you could see it in the halls of Washington. There is a famous saying about Ray, that he walked 140 miles through the halls of Congress—that’s how relentless he was. It didn’t matter if he was in pain, it didn’t matter if it was a difficult task, it was something he felt he had to do for an entire generation of first responders and survivors.”

Pfeifer got good news before he died: His son Terrence, who joined the FDNY as an EMT in 2015, had scored high on the latest FDNY exam and was slated to join the FDNY Academy’s next class of recruits.

His daughter Taylor is slated to join the Suffolk County Police Department.

Day of Infamy

Pfeifer’s helmet and jacket from the FDNY Company 40-Ladder 35. (Photo by Frank Rizzo)

On Sept. 11, 2001, Pfeifer, who joined the FDNY in 1987, was playing a round of golf with fellow firefighters on his day off. When word came that a plane had slammed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center, Pfeifer and the others rushed to the WTC. He was a member of Engine 40-Ladder 35, near Lincoln Center. According to sources, the firehouse lost 12 members at the WTC that day. Pfeifer himself reportedly barely escaping the collapse that afternoon of World Trade Center 7.

Pfeifer spent eight months at Ground Zero, searching for remains. He often slept in a firetruck or at the firehouse. This devotion ultimately cost him his life.

He first developed what was called “9/11 cough,” and in 2009, doctors discovered that a “baseball-sized” tumor had broken his hip and he was diagnosed with Stage IV renal cancer. He had surgery to remove his hip and part of the femur and soon after had one kidney removed. In subsequent years, the cancer spread, and in May 2014, chemotherapy treatments had so weakened his heart that he suffered a heart attack.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the most common certified cancers suffered by people in the World Trade Center Health Program were non-melanoma skin cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, melanoma and thyroid cancers. Before cancers were added to the list of certified ailments in September 2012, Pfeifer had to go into debt because of the enormous uncovered medical expenses. For him and thousands of others, extending the Zadroga Act was a crucial event. According to one report, 127 NYC firefighters have died of 9/11-related respiratory illnesses and cancers.

The CDC website lists among the top 10 certified conditions reported by WTC first responders as respiratory illnesses (6,627) and cancers (5,618).

After being assigned to desk duty, Pfeifer finally retired from the FDNY in September 2014.

“I’m being poisoned, and I’m dying, every single day, because of terrorism,” Pfeifer told an interviewer in 2014. But he added, “I’m a very lucky man. My friends were murdered on 9/11, From that day on, I’m still here. I’m very lucky. I got to watch my kids grow up.”

He had, he once said, spent “27 years, 220 days and nine hours” as a member of “The Bravest.”

“Ray Pfeifer was a true fighter who bravely battled fires as a New York City firefighter and fought tirelessly for all first responders who—like him—suffered from World Trade Center-related illness,” FDNY Commissioner Nigro tweeted. “The entire FDNY family deeply mourns his loss.”

New York Senator Chuck Schumer tweeted: “Just learned that Ray Pfeifer has died. You meet very few truly great men in your life. Ray was one of them.”

“With the death of Ray Pfeifer, New York City has lost a hero and an inspiration. My prayers are with his family and all of the FDNY,” tweeted Mayor DiBlasio.

The East Meadow Fire Department hosted a wake for Pfeifer, an ex-captain. His father Joe Sr., who passed away in 2014, was a 52-year member of the department. Born in Queens to Joe and the former Helen McAdam, Pfeifer grew up in Levittown and graduated from Division High School.

Thomas F. Dalton Funeral Homes handled the arrangements. The Mass was led by Reverend Gerard Gentleman, pastor of Holy Family Church. The Prayer of Commendation was given by Diocese of Rockville Center Bishop John Barres. Pfeifer’s goddaughters, Maggie Manusama and Katherine Aspenleiter, did the readings. The Prayer of the Faithful was read by Pfeifer’s father-in-law, Richard Baldassano.

“Make no mistake, Ray Pfeifer died in the line of duty,” Stewart said in his eulogy. “But more importantly, Ray Pfeifer lived in the line of duty. Now and forever. That’s what I remember most about him.”

Feal Remembers

The firetruck carrying Pfeifer’s coffin was part of a long procession on South Broadway in Hicksville. (Photo by Frank Rizzo)

After the funeral Mass, Long Island Weekly spoke with John Feal of the Feal Food Foundation, whose aim is to help responders affected by 9/11 illnesses.

It was Feal who partnered Pfeifer with Stewart during the effort to extend the Zadroga legislation.

“I met Ray nine years ago, and felt an instant bond. Ray had an aura about him,” said Feal. “He made people gravitate towards him because of the way he lived his life, with dignity and class. You couldn’t help falling in love with Ray.”

Feal spent several hours with Pfeifer in his hospice room eight days before he died. Pfeifer was asleep at first, but when he woke up, Feal ordered dinner for his friend.

“He had beef stew,” Feal related. “He ate the whole thing. He ate it quick and he ate it all. And then he had two peanut butter cookies.”

They talked until Pfeifer’s sister Noreen came into the room and then said their goodbyes.

There was one final thing that Feal would do for Pfeifer.

“I gave him Jon Stewart’s phone number,” Feal. “He wanted me to ask Jon to give the eulogy, and I said, ‘No, Ray, here’s Jon’s number. You call him. I want you to do it.’ The most important thing he said to me that day was, ‘Don’t wait to do the bucket list. Don’t wait until the end.’ ”

In addition to getting an extension of the Zadroga Act, other items on Pfeifer’s bucket list included laying a wreath at Arlington Cemetery (which he and wife Caryn did this past spring) and sponsoring a FDNY Family Transport van (used to carry family members at funerals and other events). Feal’s Foundation and the Pfeifer family sponsored a fundraiser at Mulcahy’s in Wantagh. Stewart made a special appearance at this event.

The flier stated: “The FDNY Family Transport has been a lifesaver for Ray and his family. It has been Ray’s vision to provide a handicapped accessible van to the organization that would benefit other families in need.”

But Feal, wanting to make sure that Pfeifer saw something tangible as his illness worsened, went ahead and bought the van before the fundraising effort had been completed.

“To see his face when he saw the van…it was like a kid opening a present on Christmas morning,” related Feal.

The 9/11 survivors advocate saw his friend go from walking with a limp, to walking with a cane, to finally needing a motorized wheelchair, donated to the Feal Good Foundation by a widow of a firefighter who had died from 9/11-related brain cancer.

The foundation was part of the lobbying efforts, and Feal said he, Stewart, Pfeifer and their cohorts walked countless miles as they pounded the halls of Congress.

“And there was Ray asking, ‘What do you want me to do, John? Where do you want me to go?’ ” Feal said.

Pfeifer told his friend he was ready to face death, though he had put up a brave fight against the disease Feal labeled as “the devil.”

“He never complained. He never said, ‘Why me?’ He was always asking about someone else,” said Feal.

Feal got Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to fly a flag over the capital the day after Pfeifer’s death. Then he had her office deliver it overnight so he could present it to the family.

“Ray didn’t invent patriotism, he perfected it,” Feal pronounced. “But I think it belittles Ray, because there’s not a word yet invented that best describes that man. He’s everything that’s great about this country, and everything that’s best about humanity.”

Asked what he thought Pfeifer’s legacy would be, Feal responded, “That he touched so many lives. Those who knew him? They were spoiled. And those who didn’t? They should be jealous, because they did not get to know him.”

Retired East Meadow Fire Department firefighter Ray Pfeifer, who passed away on May 28 from 9/11-related cancer, left an enduring legacy behind. The Hicksville man spent his last days at a Port Washington hospice. Jon Stewart gave his eulogy at Holy Family Church on June 2. In one of his last phone calls from the Port Washington hospice where he lived out his final days, Ray Pfeifer of Hicksville dialed Jon Stewart’s cell phone.

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