To the editor,
What does one call a gathering of people where shootings, stabbings and mayhem reign? A hip hop concert. What does one call a gathering of millions of people of every race, color, and creed where peace and happiness reign? A blessed event!
Heartfelt thanks to Pope Francis for lifting the spirits of so many New Yorkers, Catholic and Non Catholic alike!Robert W. Lobenstein
Marine Park
• • •
To the editor,
After Pope Francis’s visit, I hope that each and every member of congress will develop a open heart and do the right thing for the sake of humanity. Enough of these deniers who think global warming is a farce. What more do they need to know, in order to see how Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy caused massive floods and loss of life? Even today many people still have not recovered from both storms.
Pope Francis is a man of the people who is willing to eat with the homeless, wash their feet, and mingle with them with such compassion. He is a man of true favith and a world leader. He not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.
We really need more world leaders to speak up for world peace, a clean environment, and no more wars. There’s a real chance to make it happen now.Jerry Sattler
Brighton Beach
Reader v. reader
To the editor,
Ed Greenspan’s letter (“Rite is wrong,” Sound off to the Editor, Sept. 25) had me up until to the point he said, “Your anti-ritual outburst promotes anti-Semitism.”
Maybe the activists and his cohorts are not self deprecating Jews. Maybe they are humanitarians. Maybe they heard the Pope who is promoting forgiveness in the Church’s old doctrines say, “It would also be mistaken to view other living beings as mere objects subjected to arbitrary human domination.”
As far as the tradition of swinging live chickens, go to a butcher and select one that has been killed already. I am sure God won’t mind.
Frances Stackpole
Marine Park
No jubilee-ation
To the editor,
In response to Francis Gerber’s letter to Councilman Chaim Deutsch (“Reader sounds off to Chaim Deutsch about Brighton Beach,” Sound off to the Editor, Sept. 11), I too am a senior citizen who has lived in Gravesend for 37 years and have frequently made trips to Brighton Beach.
I used to look forward to the Brighton Beach Jubilee every August. However I always come home from this event with either a twisted knee or ankle, and many other aches and pains from trying to climb over the potholes in the streets to get to the vendor tables. Every year I arrive at the jubilee with the hope that the streets have been fixed, but the roads keep getting worse and worse. Visitors come to the jubilee from every borough. Isn’t it an embarrassment to the officials of Brighton Beach to have visitors stumbling around in cracks and potholes? If the powers that be won’t fix the potholes for the residents, at least fix them for visitors.
There is almost a year to go until the next jubilee. Please, please fix the streets before next August, sooner if possible, so that I and my fellow seniors, and visitors can walk the streets of Brighton Beach in safety and comfort.
I would like to come home from the next jubilee without aches and pains from potholes, happy after a delightful day and looking forward to the next jubilee!Elaine Kirsch
Gravesend
English, first
To the editor,
For the first time in three or four years I recently walked over to Kings Plaza near E. 55th Street and Avenue U. Macy’s, Best Buy, and loads of other stores call the area home, but to me it’s another world. Now that I am retired, I rarely shop for clothes.
I had three gift certificates for Macy’s given by a dear friend, and I was determined to try to use them up. Okay, I walked the four blocks to get to Macy’s. Fine. Once inside, I felt like a foreigner. Everyone was either speaking Arabic or Chinese. I swear this. Even the cashiers were mostly speaking Arabic, with broken English, when necessary.
I looked through the clothes and nine out of 10 blouses had an Arabic motif — I kid you not. Don’t get me wrong, I like ethnic clothing, but I want diversity when I shop for a blouse or three. Between the clothes and the languages spoken, I couldn’t believe I was four blocks from my home.
In my opinion, diversity sucks. You come to America, at least try to speak English. Don’t make me sway to your side. Diversity is perversity, in my opinion. Speak your ancestral languages at home, please, but in public speak English! We need unity, for we are the “United” States of America.Name withheld upon request
Wild West
To the editor,
The news reads, “Another violent weekend” in the city….” Blah, blah, blah about black males and the gun problem.
The governor’s aide is dead because he got caught in the middle of a shoot-out between gang members in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Gang members and the powers that be are allowing this to happen. Gang members with guns are taking over the streets and ruining the quality of life in all communities across the city and the country.
This lawlessness needs to be stopped, but nobody is doing anything about it. Nobody.Sherry Peters
Canarsie
Missy’s ‘hypocrisy’
To the editor,
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito is the worst kind of hypocrite. She advocates to the Pope for convicted Puerto Rican separatist terrorist leader Oscar Lopez Rivera, and endorses Hillary Clinton.
Mark Viverito was in Puerto Rico with Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month pushing for U.S. taxpayer-funded federal aid for Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis “to help our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters before it is too late.”
Viverito’s hypocrisy is palpable. As the number two elected official in the city, she begs for a financial bailout of Puerto Rico from our federal government as she advocates a second presidential clemency for Lopez Rivera, who claims as his goal Puerto Rican independence from that very government.
Lopez’s FALN group murdered my father, Frank Connor, and three others in the 1975 Fraunces Tavern bombing, and arrogantly refused President Clinton’s 1999 presidential clemency. This Puerto Rican terrorist that Viverito sees as a “freedom fighter” was so dedicated to his cause that he chose to remain in prison over freedom.
Viverito claims to support Puerto Rican independence, despite the fact that less than five percent of Puerto Ricans have ever voted for independence. As recently as 2012, 60 percent voted for statehood. Incredibly, now Viverito begs for a bailout of Puerto Rico’s debt crisis from a federal government whose enemies she supports, whose national anthem she has refused to salute, and to whom she refuses to pledge allegiance.
So which is it Ms. Viverito, are you truly a champion of terrorist Oscar Lopez and his murderous vision for Puerto Rican Independence? Or are you just another fraud politician feeding at the hand of the government at which you snarl, using Lopez and the Puerto Rican people when it suites your political ambitions? Pick your poison.Joseph Connor
Glen Rock, N.J.
Class chaos
To the editor,
Years ago as a substitute school teacher, I learned there was no in-house substitute training. In my first teaching assignment I had no idea I needed to take attendance, neither did I know about lunchtime. Lucky, that day, the teacher took care of everything for me. When I came home I was so physically exhausted that I wondered about my future.
As I was a substitute, some students decided to play games with me, such as phone pranks and worse. I developed anxiety attacks, although overall I would say that I had good experiences most of the time.
Many politicians blame the teachers for the faults of the students. Many children come either from broken homes or have emotional problems that they bring into the classroom. The teacher is not a social worker, a therapist, or a psychologist. I dare anyone who thinks a teachers job is easy spend a week in front of a class, and then we’ll talk.
Solomon Rafelowsky
Brighton Beach
