To the editor,
This is to the woman driving a silver Nissan on Avenue W on Sept. 17 at 5 pm — you didn’t even bother to get out of your car after you hit my dog, which was on a leash!
You opened your passenger window to scream at me, but didn’t care enough to get out of your car to find out if she was okay or not — she wasn’t! You macerated her and broke her tail!
Did you find her blood on your tire? Did you think to try and help her or me? Just remember that God and St. Francis saw you!
What a wanton disregard for life! What comes around goes around — just remember that!Judith Mandiberg
Sheepshead Bay
Race war
To the editor,
We keep hearing from notorious race-baiters Al “all Greeks are Homos” Sharpton and Jesse “Hymie Town” Jackson that we need to have a conversation regarding race. Sure, if the discussion was two-sided they might have a valid point. However, in the National Basketball Association we had 81-year-old Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling — suffering from dementia and spewing racist remarks in the privacy of his own home — black-balled from the league after being secretly taped by his gold-digger girlfriend. Earlier the month, two white, front-office bigwigs from the Atlanta Hawks organization landed in hot water over diversity-related comments that were deemed racially charged. Majority team owner Bruce Levinson resigned over remarks he made which surfaced after two years, while Hawks’ general manager Danny Ferry was ordered to attend sensitivity training.
Meanwhile, basketball “legend” and broadcaster Charles Barkley constantly shoots his mouth and never receives as much as a slap on the wrist. Barkley once spoke at a press conference and angrily responded to a reporters question by blurting out, “This is why I hate white people!” Of course, he faced no ramifications for his outburst, as laughter erupted and those in his inner circle claimed, “Oh, that was Chuck just being Chuck.” Yeah right. Can you imagine if a white person, at a press conference no less, shouted “This is why I hate black people!” I think it’s a safe bet that he would have been crucified and had his career terminated prior to exiting the podium!
Talk about a double standard. Former Brooklyn Nets minority owner and rapper Jay-Z screamed, “No more white lies, my president is black!” while performing a concert at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. No one cared. Jay-Z was also frequently visible court-side last season at Nets home games wearing a gigantic gold medallion around his neck. The jewelry was worn in support of an organization known as “Five Percent Nation,” an offshoot of the Nation of Islam. The gaudy necklace represented white people as being “weak and wicked” and black men akin to God. Nets starting Center Mason Plumlee, who is white, must have cringed every time he dribbled within an arms length of the despising rapper.
Basketball superstar Lebron James was so ticked off by Sterling’s remarks that he demanded to find out if there were other racist owners in the league, so they could be held accountable as well. It wasn’t too difficult with today’s technology for me to uncover dozens of photos of James and Jay-Z buddying-up at various functions together, making me think it was only white bigots he was concerned about.
Sadly hypocrites, such as James, National Basketball Association commissioner Adam “white guilt” Silver and our wonderful liberal media, refuse to acknowledge that racism works both ways in America. Rick LundbergSheepshead Bay
Eco-Bam
To the editor,
I am pleased that the Obama administration is leading the effort to conserve the greater sage-grouse, one of the most iconic and imperiled bird species of the American West. However, according to a scorecard released by conservation groups, the administration’s plan for grouse in Wyoming does not comply with the best available science or with standards necessary to protect grouse populations.
I feel strongly that the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Agriculture need to follow the measures called for by agency scientists to conserve the species. These include recommendations to limit future oil and gas drilling and mining, better grazing practices, and the creation of protected areas.
Conserving the greater sage-grouse will require protecting large areas of habitat. Most priority sage-grouse habitat is already heavily degraded and grouse are only persisting in large, relatively undisturbed blocks of habitat. Protecting the remaining large expanses of important sage-grouse habitat will also help stem the decline of many species of wildlife and preserve the wide-open spaces of the American west for future generations of Americans.George Zoulis
Dyker Heights
Food for thought
To the editor,
The debate on genetically modified organisms is much too kind to the industry. More than 26 nations ban genetically modified organisms, including Italy, Russia, China, India, France, and Germany.
Supporters argue that if we don’t want to take a chance on eating engineered food, we can always eat the organic kind. Really? What right does the genetically modified industry have to put this garbage into our food supply? At the very least, we have the right to know which foods are genetically modified.
Millions of dollars are spent to fool people into believing that if genetically modified foods were labeled that prices would go up. Experts have warned about lots of other problems with these types of foods being in our food supply, including pest-resistance on crops. Let’s not forget the Indian farmers who committed suicide because their genetically modified seeds failed to produce crops — note only farmers who used these type of seeds had problems.
The facts are in, and consumers need to demand genetically modified foods are labeled as such.David Raisman
Bay Ridge
Bam’s shams
To the editor,
One would think President Obama would spend more time at work, with all the current crises, including the spike in illegal border crossing, veterans not being treated, illegal Internal Revenue Service investigations, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, civil wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine, along with the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but he reminds me of the famous Mad Magazine character, Alfred E. Newman, who famously said, “What, me worry?” with a big smile on his face.
Did you miss President Obama’s most recent fundraising stops in Westchester County? One — at $32,400 per person — was at the home of Camilo Patrigani, the chief executive of Greenwood Energy, a subsidiary of Libra. This was hosted by George Logothetis, a shipping heir and chairman of the Libra group, along with his wife, Nitzia Logothetis, founder of Selenti, a nonprofit company which promotes mental health for women. The second — at $15,000 and more per couple — was at the estate of Robert and Carol Wolf. This was hosted by Robert Wolf, former chairman of U.B.S. Americas along with his wife, Carol Wolf, who manages special projects for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
How ironic that Obama visited at a time when 6.6 percent of New Yorkers are out of work (with another 7 percent given up looking resulting in a real unemployment rate of 13.6 percent). Is this the “change we can believe in” he promised on the campaign trail?
Obama continues to enjoy building his frequent flyer mileage with his dozens of political campaign fundraising events. Each trip on Air Force One costs taxpayers a fortune for logistics and Secret Service protection. We are stuck with the tab for police and traffic support. No previous President has spent so much time away from Washington to participate in a record number of fundraising events than Obama.
“Do as I say, not as I do” applies to him and Congressional Democrats. Bash the wealthy with one hand, but get the big bucks with the other hand. Those in attendance included the usual one-percent crowd, along with Wall Street, lobbyists, trial lawyers, real estate developers, Hollywood celebrities, special interest groups, millionaires and the pay-for-play crowd. At those prices, the 99 percent working- or middle-class people were hard to come by, except in the kitchen or serving. What is that tired old refrain about the Democratic Party being the friend of the working and middle class, while those nasty greedy old Republicans are the wealthy big-buck fat cats? Seems like Obama prefers hanging out with the one percent.Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
Obama’s JV
To the editor
The Obama administration is weak on terror. If we cannot even define our enemies, how can we defeat them? Makes you wonder if it’s ISIS or this administration that is the real junior varsity.Joseph Connor
Glen Rock, N.J.
Peace department
To the editor,
Prior to 1939 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler, thinking by signing a peace agreement war would be avoided. Little did the prime minister or the German people know about Hitler’s true intentions — starting World War II. In 1941 after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor America joined the war. So the only way to defeat both Germany and Japan would be hard power. As we’ve now seen hard power doesn’t work. What hard power does is create anger that affects people worldwide.
The question one must ask is why wealthy young adults shun privilege and feel an attraction to groups that want to hurt and kill people. I read the article about teenage girls in Austria wanting to take up arms against many countries. So instead of using hard power that doesn’t work, we should consider soft power. Instead of spending billions for arms we should think of peaceful means.
When the former Soviet Union took control of East Germany after World War II and put a blockade on the people, the Americans decided to airlift needed food and supplies to the East Germans. That was soft power.
History has taught us if we do the right thing we not only save lives, but we also develop friendship that have an everlasting affect. Hopefully we learn not make the same mistakes over and over again,
Instead of having a war department, why not a peace department? During the Northern Ireland conflict with Great Britain, women from both sides were tired of losing their husbands, sons, and daughters, and they realized that peace would be won when each women said, “Enough” to the killings. They put their own lives on the line to achieve this goal. I think we aught to learn a valuable lesson from these women.Jerry Sattler
Brighton Beach
