Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) held their 2nd Annual Veterans’ Memorial Flagging event at the Bronx Victory Memorial, located on Mosholu Parkway in Bedford Park, on Saturday, May 13, 2023, ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

 

A flagging event is an occasion when residents visit the grave sites or other memorial sites dedicated to veterans and place American flags there in memory and honor of those who served and died for their country. Sometimes, the names of veterans are read aloud and poems or songs are recited/sung.

 

Those in attendance on the day included Karla Cabrera Carrera, recently appointed Bronx CB7 district manager, Chad Royer, Bronx CB7 veterans committee chairman, Anthony Rivieccio, veteran and founder of Northwest Bronx Democrats, and Barbara Stronczer, Bedford Mosholu Community Organization president.

Among others in attendance were Yajaira Arias, Bronx CB7 chair, Jerry Landon, vice president of the 52nd Precinct Community Council, Jason D. Williams from the Bronx veterans center, Shenaz Kapasi of Project Welcome Home Troops, Lorita Watson, veteran and member of Friends of Mosholu Parkland (FOMP), and Norwood resident, AJ Ramos.

 

Addressing those gathered, Royer said, “I want to thank you all. I would like to introduce Barbara Stronczer as she gives us a brief history of the World War I monument and how we got to this point.”

 

Stronzer then recalled a time around two decades ago when the Bronx Victory Memorial site, along with other similar sites across the City, underwent a renovation. “I remember when I first moved into the neighborhood, on the other side of the monument, you had the planted trees there on what they called Armistice Day,” Stronczer, who is also the Bronx CB7 parks chair, said. “Now it’s called Veterans Day, Nov 11, 1925.”

She added, “As years went on, we lost a lot of veterans from World War I and World War II in the neighborhood,” she said. “Some died, some were [inaudible] and things got very quiet.”

 

She continued, “We [CB7] were chosen as one of the monuments [for renovation]. I was at that ceremony when they rededicated the monument. We had the City parks chair Henry Stern there. We had the Bronx borough president…then was [Fernando] Ferrer, and we had a company called Grand Marnier’s president. It was a French liquor company that paid for the renovations of the statue.”

 

Stronczer went on to describe the unveiling at the time, saying a stage similar to the one used for the Bronx CB7 year-end, annual, tree-lighting event on Mosholu Parkway was brought in, local elected officials were present, there were a lot of speeches, and a new tree was planted at the monument.

“There was a huge [inaudible] covering over the top of the monument and as they pulled that down, the ceremony began,” she continued, adding, “Over the years, we’ve had more than a few different types of ceremonies.”

 

For her part, Kapasi said her organization had brought a lot of relief to veterans in terms of addressing their mental health and other needs, including helping with PTSD. She later told Norwood News, Project Welcome Home Troops, (PWHT.org) offers “SKY resilience training” to veterans and their families.

 

“This is a 5-day workshop which teaches veterans controlled and rhythmic breathing that has proved to relax and calm the mind. Veterans across the U.S. are raving about it as a must for all pre and post servicemen and women. Leslye Moore is the director of PWHT and I am their Bronx NY facilitator.” She added, “The signature breath is sky breath and sky breath is the rhythmic breathing pattern that brings about a very healing, calming effect.”

 

Those gathered for the event, including some children, used the occasion to sing some songs together and to place flags around the memorial site.

Ramos, as reported, had previously requested the raising of a Pride flag at several Bronx CB7 committee meetings. The Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee gave him an opportunity to present the request to the committee. The committee then put a motion on the floor for a vote, as is the defined process for such matters.

 

Bronx CB7 had previously considered a motion to fly a Pride flag at the Bronx Victory Memorial site during Pride Month. Ramos had raised the matter in efforts to honor members of the military who belonged to the LGBTQ+ community. According to Human Rights Campaign (hrc.org), in 1994, the U.S. adopted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT)” as the official federal policy on military service by lesbian, gay and bisexual people. “The rule was discrimination in its purest form and prevented service members from being openly queer without threat of being discharged,” an extract from the site reads.

 

“DADT was based on the false assumption that the presence of LGBTQ+ individuals in any branch of the military would undermine the ability of people to carry out their duties,” the extract continues. “Over the course of the policy’s life, thousands of brave service members were discharged simply for who they were and whom they loved.”

 

After a long, hard-fought campaign, DADT was repealed in full on September 20, 2011. Service members previously discharged for their LGBTQ+ status were offered re-enrollment and future recruits no longer faced discrimination when trying to serve their country, according to HRC.

 

When Norwood News attended a veterans wellness summit held in March at Manhattan College, we asked Jenny Pacanowski from the Women Veterans Empowered & Thriving organization, which operates online to be more accessible to veterans who are parents, if she knew how many female veterans there were in The Bronx or in New York City as a whole. “I’ve no idea,” she said. “I’m not good with statistics, but I know there are a lot of us, and we don’t usually self-identify so whatever number you do find is probably too low.”

 

While the previous motion to fly a Pride flag at the Bronx Victory Memorial site during Pride Month was unsuccessful, as was another to fly a Pride flag at the 52nd Precinct stationhouse during Pride Month, which had also been suggested by Ramos for consideration by CB7, the board has since voted on a separate motion, in the meantime, to fly a Pride flag somewhere during Pride Month in Bronx Community District 7.

 

As reported, Ramos did not hold back voicing his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the first two suggestions, nor with the wording of the latest motion which did not include a specific location in the district for the flying of the Pride flag. He alleged “homophobia” as one reason for the board’s denial of the motion to fly a Pride flag at the Bronx Victory Memorial. During the public session of the April 27th board meeting when he shared his views on the topic, Ramos highlighted the discrimination experienced by LGBTQIA+ service members who have fought for the country.

 

“If not at the Bronx Victory Memorial, or at the 52^nd Precinct station, please keep the pandering gestures to the LGBTQIA+ community to yourself at a minimum and simply vote no,” he said at the time. Cabrera Carrera thanked Ramos for his comments which she said should really have been raised at committee level. The district manager committed, nonetheless, to following up on the issue.

 

However, since at that stage only two general board meetings remained before the end of Pride Month in June, it was not certain a permit for the still-to-be-decided location would be obtained in time to fly a flag this year.

In reference to the topic, Bronx CB7 chair Yajaira Arias later told Norwood News, “CB7, the district, the board members, this board, the staff, we are not homophobic. We want to be inclusive of everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, creed, religion, regardless of who they are, and what they express themselves to be. We want to be inclusive. Definitely, we are not homophobic at all.”

 

Arias said she was glad that Ramos had raised the matter of the Pride flag. “This is good. It’s a topic of conversation. We’re having those conversations. We want it to happen. This is what residents should do, come to the board meetings, express things, express how they want certain things to happen, and we will go through the process of how we operate, and we put it in an agenda, we put it to committee, committee talks about it, discusses it, and we vote on it as a collective group because that’s what we do.”

 

She added, “We’re an advisory group. The fact that this is something that is being brought up is great. We want to make it happen. The logistics is a little complicated in itself but we want to make it happen. We’re inclusive of everyone. This is a good thing that’s being brought up. It’s going through it’s process and we are going to see how we can make this happen for the future, if not for now, for the future.”

 

Members of Bronx CB7 attended another flagging event at Woodlawn Cemetery on May 24.

 

Editor’s Note: This latest version of the story clarifies a little further the role of Shenaz Kapasi of Project Welcome Home Troops. The story has also been amended to reflect the fact that community residents, themselves, cannot put forward motions but rather they can make a request to be given the floor to speak on an issue or a matter which may or may not be considered by the board and potentially voted on.