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How I Came to Love Power Malu

 I will be the first to say that I'm not the one to talk about immigration.  All I can talk about are feelings and people.  Those things, I think and know, I'm an expert on.  

I keep my company's front lobby television feed on the national CBS News channel.  That channel regularly runs a commercial for a CBS documentary about the immigration "crisis" in New York City and it features a man.  

The man is welcoming people off a bus.  He talks to each person and makes a point of putting a hand on their shoulders or their backs.  One can tell that he is trying to make them feel welcome, and above all, safe.  

He looks at a man walking off a bus carrying a toddler.  It looks to me like he is saying "hi baby" as he reaches out and touches the child.  (I watch the video more closely and see that he is greeting the child in Spanish and not saying "hi baby" precisely but the sentiment is the same.)  He also steps onto the bus and speaks to the riders in Spanish welcoming them to America and to New York City. 

This makes him my new hero and I fall in love a little bit.  

After seeing this unknown aid worker on the commercial numerous times, I work to find out who he is.  First I learn that the aid effort is being run out of the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC.  This historic marker, once a fancy-pants hotel of the 1920's, is now being used specifically for asylum seekers in the city.  However, the hotel and the city itself, is running out of space and resources for this huge influx.

The aid effort, I soon learn, is called Artists Athletes Activists and it was founded by the man I fell in love with in the documentary, Power Malu.  

My research teaches me that he was "born and raised in Manhattan's lower East Side".  He has worked in talent and production, but above all, is an activist.  

But to be honest, I don't want to get all into what he is or isn't.  I don't even want to debate about immigration and the increasing homelessness of NYC and the rest of America.  I just want to be grateful.  Grateful for just one moment for this man, who for whatever reason or motivation, stands outside in the heat and the cold and welcomes these folks.  He puts a hand on them.  He makes them feel safe and accepted.  He makes them feel loved.  Right down to the babies they are carrying.  

I don't know much about politics, city economics or planning, but I do know something about love and what it looks like.  And this, this man right here, is the real thing.

FYI, New York City has a "Right to Shelter" mandate.  According to some scholars and city officials, this mandate is what is causing the city to run out of room.  In July 2023, Mayor Eric Adams famously said "our cup has basically runneth over....we have no more room in the city".  I would encourage readers to do more study on the migration laws and issues in America.  I won't pretend to be an expert here.  Click on links to Artists Athletes Activists to support their cause and learn more about their work in Manhattan. 

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