Mark Fang, Yonkers Exec. Director of City Commission on Human Rights
The Salvation Army Yonkers Citadel Corps, held its annual dinner on October 12th, at the Dunwoodie Country Club, honoring Yancy Carrasco, a technical project manager at Akamai Technologies, and Wilson Soto, a police officer with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Carrasco and Soto were chosen as this year’s honorees based on their years of service to the community. Carrasco has volunteered hours of service to several organizations, including Fordham’s Campus Ministry, Habitat for Humanity and Circle K International. Soto has been an MTA police officer for the past 28 years, and is the head advisor to the MTA’s Exploring Youth Program.
The dinner was well attended and hosted by Geoffrey and Marisabel Swires, both Majors in the Salvation Army and leaders of the Salvation Army’s Yonkers office. Mayor Mike Spano and Assemblyman Nader Sayegh were in attendance and gave proclamations to the Citadel Corps and the honorees.
The keynote speaker for the evening was Mark Fang, executive director of the City of Yonkers Commission on Human Rights and a former Director of the Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection and the County’s Human Rights Commission. Fang, a veteran and Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserves, praised the faith-based work of the Salvation Army and likened his years as an Army reservist to the work of the Salvation Army corps:
“I have loved being a soldier in the Reserves for basically my whole adult life, and I bet you as well love being soldiers. As the Reservist is a Citizen-Soldier, you are all Christian-Soldiers, Fang said.”
In his speech, Fang reflected on the March 2021 hate crime attack in which an elderly Asian woman was badly beaten in the vestibule of her Riverdale Avenue apartment building by Tamil Esco, who called the woman an “Asian Bitch,” in the course of his relentless and brutal assault of her. Esco later entered a plea of guilty to assault as a hate crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 17 years, for which Fang praised Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah for bringing justice to Esco that was “swift and certain.”
Fang closed with a poignant and thought-provoking reflection on hate crimes and, more basically, the nature of hate: “What really sticks out most in my mind about this hate crime attack was what Mayor Mike Spano said on the steps of City Hall at a news conference with the Filipino Consul and other community leaders. What he said was something very profound, and clearly from the heart. What he said was to the effect of: “We can put more police on the streets; we can have special patrols; we can put up cameras; etc., but we can’t change what’s here (pointing to his heart). We can’t change the heart.”
“But what was the Mayor saying? What did he mean? What he was saying is that when it comes to hate and racism, of course law enforcement and bringing offenders to justice is important, but as a society it can only take us so far. We need to go beyond this.
“We need to build a society based on love, charity, grace, our common humanity, and if I dare say—on Faith. All of the things, that are cornerstone principles of the Salvation Army. Our world is obviously broken. We need to double down on our Faith, on the principles that have made the Salvation Army such an enduring organization. We need you more than ever.”
