Mayor Gearity: She's the Woman for the Job

I have supported Victoria Gearity since her first campaign four years ago, when she became the first woman elected Ossining Mayor. It changed my life. Let me explain.

After she took office in 2015, Mayor Gearity asked me to be the Village Historian. It was not something I expected, but she knew of my passion for local history, and that my background in journalism might be an asset in this area.

I needed a mission in my life, and she gave me one. In the four years I have been Village Historian I have done my best to show, in images and words, how our village evolved to become what it is today: a place of 25,000 people who come here from everywhere, to this gorgeous and welcoming spot on the Hudson River. I do it for free, and I do it because I’m always learning something, too.

The position of Village Historian opened new doors for me. As a board member of the Sing Sing Prison Museum, I believe this village can help be part of the solution to the issues of mass incarceration. It is an exciting project that could be a real game changer on many levels.

For the past four years I’ve watched Victoria in action. Personally, I don’t understand how she does it. Being mayor is stressful. You have to pose for photographs all the time, and go to every event in town when you’d rather be home in your fuzzy slippers eating ice cream (no wine; she doesn’t drink). You have to put yourself out there. You are exposed. People say mean things about you on social media and heckle you at meetings. You have to stand up for what you believe in and take the blows as they come. Did I mention she makes all of $15,000 a year (plus benefits)? I would want at least six figures to endure the crap she puts up with, with grace and steely determination.

Ossining Mayor is supposedly a part time job, but it’s a full time commitment.

She is also a woman of quiet faith. Quakers follow the tenets of “integrity, equality, simplicity, community, stewardship of the Earth, and peace.” She embodies those values with all her might.

Victoria also got me into local politics. I was so energized by her first campaign I became a Democratic district leader. I see how the local political sausage is made. I know why Victoria and not her opponent received the Democratic Committee’s endorsement. I am not asking you to vote for her because she's a woman. I'm saying, as the Democratic Committee did, that she is the best person for the job right now.

Victoria Gearity loves this village. As do I. As do we all. A place as diverse as the village of Ossining means that we residents look at issues through different lenses. We live very different lives, almost side by side, ideally with tolerance and respect. I have traveled all over Westchester County on assignment, and I have never found another place I’d rather live than the village of Ossining.

Some people say those who are “from” Ossining understand it the best, but we are a village of immigrants: first from England and the Netherlands, then from Ireland and Italy and Germany, followed by Portugal and Latin America and the Caribbean. Many African American families came here during the Great Migration to escape the Jim Crow South and put down new roots. Today, young families move here from the five boroughs for the great schools and easy commute to the city.

“Nobody’s from Ossining,” someone said to me recently. “We all come here from somewhere else.” Maybe a few generations ago, but we’re all from somewhere else.

Mayor Gearity has worked hard to earn another term. I have heard many longtime residents say the village is the best they’ve ever seen it. Again, this perspective depends on the lens you’re looking through. From where I’m looking, there is no problem we can’t solve together.

I thank Mayor Gearity for having faith in me. She has faith in all of us to do the best we can for our village.

Please join me in voting for her on Thursday, September 13.

Dana White

Ossining Village Historian