Official Communication from the UFA
Posted by Jim on April 12, 2018
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Official Communication from the UFA
Posted by Jim on
April 11th
NYS HONORARY FIRE CHIEFS COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP
Applications for the NYS Honorary Fire Chiefs Memorial College Scholarships are now being accepted. Two scholarships each worth $2,500 will be awarded. The scholarship is open to all active UFA members who are currently enrolled in college (2018). Applicants must submit a letter explaining why they are deserving of this scholarship (i.e. seeking credits for promotion, completing courses toward a degree, etc.); in addition to the college you are attending. Please include a cover sheet with your name, assigned company, work location (if different) & contact information. Applications are due by May 25, 2018. Please send to: UFA, 204 East 23rd St NY, NY 10010 Attn: LeRoy McGinnis.
HIGHER EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP DRAWING
The Holy Name Society, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island, will hold a Higher Education Scholarship Drawing at the annual Communion Breakfast on April 29, 2018. The Higher Education Scholarships consist of two $1,500 awards, payable to any college or trade school of the winners’ choice. Members must be in good standing in this society and the winners are in their twelfth year of education. Members must be present at the breakfast to win and have submitted an application. Applications can be obtained from Scholarship Chairman, Bill Meade, P.O. Box 525, Maspeth, NY 11378, telephone 917-716-1074. Completed applications must be returned by April 20, 2018, to be included in the drawing.
SILVER SHIELD COLLEGE AWARD
The Silver Shield Foundation is honoring the service of uniformed members of the FDNY to the New York community by awarding one member’s college-bound daughter or son – chosen by lottery – a college scholarship in the amount of $5,000, renewable annually for up to four years. Eligibility: To be eligible, a student must be the natural or adopted child of an FDNY member currently serving as a Firefighter, Fire Officer EMT, Paramedic, EMS Officer, Wiper, Engineer, Pilot, Fire Marshal or Supervising Fire Marshal. Grandchildren and step-children are not eligible. The children of retirees, deceased members or civilians (including Fire Prevention) are not eligible. The student must have graduated from an accredited high school in the current year (2018) and be accepted at an accredited four-year college to matriculate in the summer or fall of 2018. Selection: The scholarship winner will be chosen by lottery. To be considered, the student should write his/her first, middle and last name, name of high school and graduation date, name of college and start date, and name of FDNY parent on a piece of paper, and sign the page. The paper should be sealed in a plain white envelope with no address or markings. It should be enclosed in another envelope addressed to: Captain Thomas Coleman, Executive Officer to the Chief of Department, 9 MetroTech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Write the parent’s FDNY reference number across the seal of the outer envelope. Only one entry will be accepted per child. Envelopes must be received by April 20, 2018.
City Bar on the 20th Anniversary of Belfast Agreement
Posted by Jim on
“Members of Congress interested in Irish affairs will want to take note of this important statement by the New York City Bar.
United Kingdom Should Prioritize Peace Process in Northern Ireland,
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Marking the twentieth anniversary of the Belfast Agreement, the New York City Bar Association has sent a letter urging the United Kingdom “to more fully realize its commitment to the peace process in Northern Ireland by prioritizing the formation of a comprehensive and inclusive set of mechanisms to effectively investigate all allegations of human rights violations relating to the past through impartial and independent examination.”
Signed by City Bar President John S. Kiernan and Chair of its International Human Rights Committee Anil Kalhan, the letter notes that, in order to be effective, “these mechanisms must receive sufficient financial and other resources to ensure their ability to operate through to the completion of their investigations.” Further, “in the current absence of progress on a comprehensive process,” the letter urges the UK government “at a minimum and without further delay, to ensure adequate funding and personnel for legacy inquests as required under both domestic and international law.”
The letter notes that soon after the Belfast Agreement was signed, the European Court of Human Rights determined that the government must provide prompt and effective remedies in cases involving allegations of unlawful killings including where there is use of lethal force by agents of the state. However, “as acknowledged by the parties in the Stormont House Agreement in 2014, the legacy inquest process has not “provid[ed] access to a sufficiently effective investigation within an acceptable timeframe.” It has been reported that there currently remain over fifty legacy inquests outstanding (concerning over ninety deaths) and as many as seventy-two additional cases awaiting consideration by the Attorney General.
Despite a longstanding proposal by the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Declan Morgan, to clear the backlog of inquest cases within five years, the legacy inquest process has stalled. As a recent judgment of the High Court of Northern Ireland makes clear, “the lengthy, ongoing delay in conducting these legacy inquests infringes upon rights under both domestic and international law.” “We are encouraged,” the letter notes, “that the High Court’s judgment directs reconsideration of the provision of additional funding for legacy inquests.”
Remarking on the growing sense of hope at the prospects of achieving lasting peace, the letter concludes that “[o]n this important anniversary of the beginning of the peace process, we urge the government of the United Kingdom to ensure that this vital component of that process moves forward without continued delay by ensuring that sufficient resources are devoted to the inquest system.”
About the Association
The New York City Bar Association, since its founding in 1870, has been dedicated to maintaining the high ethical standards of the legal profession, promoting reform of the law and access to justice, and providing service to the profession and the public. The Association, through its 24,000 members, continues to work for political, legal and social reform, while implementing innovative means to help the disadvantaged. Protecting the public’s welfare remains one of the Association’s highest priorities. www.nycbar.org
Bill Clinton: Northern Ireland in danger of going back to hell instead of going into a future
Posted by Jim on April 10, 2018
Voters in Northern Ireland have to stop punishing politicians who compromise, former US president Bill Clinton has said.
He linked political paralysis to the rise of authoritarianism and warned that the 15-month stalemate at Stormont would eventually reach its limit.
The ex-president said it was easy to under-estimate the fragility of the system following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which he helped create.
He told a Dublin audience: “No one will drop off the face of the Earth with any of the reasonable compromises that have been discussed.
“The only thing that would be calamitous would be to let the whole thing die. To confine ourselves to purgatory or go back to hell instead of going into a future.”
Mr Clinton conjured an image of a political purgatory of broken hopes, and a sea of lost chances.
“If you do that, slowly you will begin to lose your democracy in the North.”
He added everybody could step back and make a new beginning.
“You have to be willing to give.
“Compromise has to become a good thing, not a dirty word and voters have to stop punishing people who make those compromises and start rewarding them.”
Mr Clinton said inclusive groups made better decisions than homogeneous ones and too much paralysis meant voters began to elect those who would be the best boss, an allusion to the strongman dictatorships in other parts of the world.
“The most important thing is that the peace is held and nobody has questioned democracy.
“There is a limit imposed by constant paralysis because even if the economy stays static, the politics don’t.
“That is the challenge that every one of us faces today who cares about this.
“There is simply a limit to how long people can go on. It is about the people who live there and their kids and grandkids.”
Mr Clinton has bolstered peacemaking in places like Colombia.
Drawing on lessons elsewhere, he added: “There is a limit to the elasticity of inertia, of paralysis.
“You should celebrate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement not for what happened but for what can happen.”
Mr Clinton visits Belfast on Tuesday to receive the freedom of the city alongside his former special envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell.
He recalled staying up into the small hours the night the deal was struck, getting only a couple of hours sleep as he conversed with his special representative in Belfast.
He concluded: “In his Nobel Prize speech Seamus Heaney also said of WB Yeats that his intent was to clear a space in the mind and the world for the miraculous.
“Twenty years ago tomorrow, 17 hours late, everybody impatient, some brave people cleared a space for the miraculous – you should fill it.”
Official Communication from the UFA
Posted by Jim on April 9, 2018
April 9th
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