by Carlos Ramírez
I am Carlos Ramírez, an immigrant, and a very lucky man. I am blessed with a caring and loving family. I have a smart and beautiful wife, Betty, and I am the proud father of Ryan Ramírez, a Scarsdale High School Graduate ‘16, now attending SUNY Purchase as a freshman. I have been living in our beautiful
village of Scarsdale for 13 years. I consider Scarsdale a place where most people in the world would love to live in.
Things were not always this good for me. I grew up in Peru in a time of violence, international conflicts and
economic uncertainty. At times, there was so much fear of terrorism by extremist groups, chaotic fiscal policies and inflation, and alternating fascist and populist governments, who did not think twice about torturing and massacring their own citizens. Unlike many lucky people in the US and Europe, I have never taken democracy for granted. To me, democracy is about allowing us, the people to express our content or discontent with policies and processes that affect every aspect of our lives, to allow our open participation in government and to exercise our right to ask, to be listened to, and to get a response from
our elected officials in a transparent and accountable way.