To the editor,
Thank you to all who participated in the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association’s Thanksgiving Food Drive.
We purchased 18 frozen turkeys, and many Key Food gift cards, and collected several hundred cans and packages of food for distribution to needy families in Brooklyn.
The beneficiary was the long-established food pantry at Our Lady of Refuge Church at Ocean and Foster avenues.
Special thanks to the businesses who hosted our collection boxes: Michael’s Bakery, JoMart Chocolates, Mini Mart and Pronto Pizza, all on Avenue R at Nostrand Avenue; Tom’s Cleaners and Henry’s Deli on Avenue S at Nostrand Avenue; T and D Bakery on Avenue U near E. 23 Street; G and S Pork Store and Avenue U Fish Market, both on Avenue U near E. 27th Street; and Roosevelt Savings Bank at Avenue U and Nostrand Avenue.
The Key Food on Gerritsen Avenue allowed us to set up a very successful food collection table.
Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein (D-Midwood), state Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge), and Councilman Lew Fidler (D-Marine Park) all supported the event.
Ed Jaworski
The writer is presdient of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest-Civic Association.
Small biz Saturday
To the editor,
You can support small retailers by joining me and your neighbors on the second annual national Small Business Saturday on Nov. 24th.
Skip the national chain stores’ annual Black Friday Madness, which now starts early Thursday night.
Stay home and enjoy your Thanksgiving meal with friends and family. Get a good night’s sleep and instead come out and support Small Business by shopping local.
In these difficult economic times, it is especially important to patronize your neighborhood businesses. There are so many great options to choose from.
Remember these people are our neighbors. They work long hours, pay taxes, and provide local employment. If we don’t patronize our local community stores and restaurants to shop and eat, they don’t eat either.
Please join me and your neighbors in continuing to support our this newspaper chain.
Patronize their advertisers; they provide the necessary revenues to help keep them in business. Let them know you saw their ad.
This helps keep our neighbors employed and the local economy growing.
Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
Disaster relief
To the editor,
The disaster wrought by Hurricane Sandy calls for drastic thinking.
With thousands suddenly homeless and winter fast approaching this calls for FEMA and the city to create a modular home assembly line.
This solves two problems.
It quickly provides well-built safe warm homes for our storm-ravaged homeless, and it also brings jobs to here.
Another idea is use the steel-shipping containers that line the docks by the thousands.
They can be quickly turned into temporary living quarters that are strong and resilient.
The technology is there for the taking. We have to think outside the box.
We cannot settle for how we normally accomplish construction jobs. Quickly we must see to it that our storm-ravaged neighbors are housed in safe and warm quarters.
I believe Floyd Bennett field would be a good location because it’s close to the Queens and Brooklyn areas that have been devastated.
You could also use it to set up a trailer, shipping-container house community that could be secured by a fence and a neighbor security patrol.
With a Q35 bus stop there, our neighbors could get to work, school, or do shopping.
We could also set up a shuttle bus system to make living at this temporary community more user friendly.
M. Taeler
Marine Park
• • •
To the editor,
Mayor Bloomberg canceled Halloween due to Hurricane Sandy.
This way trick-or-treaters wouldn’t be meandering around in darkness, or avoiding fallen trees and other hazardous conditions from the hurricane.
While the safety of our children and parade participants is important, and while most people supported his decision, he has attracted the wrath of one devilish fellow, namely Satan.
You don’t upset the devil — especially on Halloween.
How the Grinch stole Christmas is one thing. How the mayor canceled Halloween is quite another story.
Let’s hope Thanksgiving traditions continue here in the city.
It seems the official residence of our ghoulish mayor, Gracie Mansion, is now swarming with poltergeists and Mayor Bloomberg is afraid to sleep there.
Kitchen nightmares have become a reality for our mayor. He’s called in a group of experts, including psychic mediums John Edward and Sylvia Browne, to rid his home of the ghostly entities in what he calls Operation Apparitions.
The Ghostbusters were unavailable, as they are powerless and stranded in Far Rockaway.
“No Halloween! This is unthinkable,” said Shelly Weiss, the great grand daughter of magician Harry Houdini.
Is it any wonder that malevolent spirits are raising havoc over at LIPA headquarters? Department stores, costume shops, small businesses that relied on Halloween sales, and places like Party City were not in very good spirits with Halloween being canceled.
Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, and Lindsay Lohan could not be reached for comment regarding Halloween.
No one and nothing is happy over these tough decisions. Even the pumpkins were not putting on their happy grins.
Just wait until the next witches Sabbath, you have no idea what tricks lie ahead for New York.
Beware!
Mark Lane
Douglaston, N.Y.
Stan and PBS
To the editor,
Stanley Gershbein doesn’t want government funding of PBS (“Stan says PBS isn’t worth funding,” It’s Only My Opinion,” Oct. 25).
Its funding is minute compared to other things in the budget.
Stan says we shouldn’t fund it because it is not necessary, so it should be cut to save money.
The public statioon PBS offers programming unmatched by any other network, such as science, history, arts, and kids shows that entertain and inform.
It covers controversial topics other networks won’t touch.
Its news shows delve into serious news. Other networks have newscasters who laugh, act silly, and joke around, while PBS newsmen like Bill Moyers talk about the toxic affects of fracking, and how the banks and wealthy are ripping us off, among other subjects.
These things are important for all of us to know about.
Other networks are afraid to cover topics like this for fear of offending a sponsor.
This country needs PBS.
The military budget last year was $700 billion. The Republicans want to add billions more, some of it to fund things the military says it doesn’t even want.
How about cutting those?
Jerome Frank
Coney Island
Classroom blues
To the editor,
An article recently appeared in the papers bemoaning the fact that pre-kindergarten children were being suspended in large numbers.
The public and our so-called educational leaders refuse to realize that if these children are allowed to get away with even minor infractions their behavior will get worse as they get older.
For once I would like to see Donna Lieberman of the ACLU be an advocate for children who come to school to learn and teachers who come to teach, but both can’t do this because other children are disrupting the classes constantly.
As for Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, he will never understand the issue because he never taught in a city classroom.
Heading a day-care center for two years does not make you an authority on teaching.
Where is the U.F.T and C.S.A. on this issue? Instead of demanding the restoration of the 600 schools for disruptive pupils, both groups divert the minds of their memberships by having them become actively involved in presidential politics and other issues.
Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Reach reporter Shavana Abruzzo at sabruzzo@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2529.
