FROM THE MAYOR’S OFFICE – On The Radio

Every week I have the opportunity to discuss the activities of the Village’s Sesquicentennial on the radio thanks to WTBQ Radio – 93.5 FM. The Show is called “Warwick at 150” and airs every Thursday at 11:00 am. My co-host is Mary Collura who is the Creative Director of the 150th Anniversary celebration year. The guests are usually specific to the current events on the Sesquicentennial Calendar. This past week we had as our special guest Daniel Alquezada Madero or as we know him, Danny the “Kid Mayor” of the Sesquicentennial Year. Danny’s been on the radio with us before and it’s always fun and insightful to see the world through the eyes of a 6 year old. It’s the combination of innocence, surety, curiosity that is quite disarming, especially coming from such a young person. This time our radio conversation led to discussing qualities of being a good person. Danny was very clear about what that meant. He told us that a good person was kind and generous – sharing pizza, inviting someone to your home, being a friend. To a six year old it’s pretty clear. I furthered our conversation by asking, “What makes a good Kid Mayor” and his response was about the qualities of kindness that a good Kid Mayor should have and that he looks forward to other kids being Mayor. He thoughtfully added that since he was a boy kid Mayor the next should be a girl.

After a week of incidents of violence in our country and shocking reports of bigotry and racism it was grounding and assuring to be on the radio with this young Mexican American speaking of human respect and decency and what it means to be kind. As we were talking, I felt such admiration for this very young, but very old soul who left me with a sense that there is hope and that the great decency and respect we share as Americans is intact.