To the editor,
I agree with Elliott Abosh that there is a desperate shortage of doctors and other medical personnel in Veterans Administration hospitals and clinics as well as in most public and private civilian hospitals and outpatient clinics.
I have friends who are veterans who have to wait months for an appointment to see a doctor at the Veterans Administration outpatient clinics or to get hearing aids, eyeglasses or whatever other medical services they desperately need. I definitely think the Veterans Administration or Congress should finance medical schools or build their own schools for qualified students who could receive some of their training in Veterans Administration facilities and serve veterans for several years after they complete their studies. They would then be free to serve in civilian facilities if they wished, or to open their own offices.
I fervently wish that all medical schools would teach future doctors compassion, not just medical diagnoses. I would love to see a doctor whose first question would be “How do you feel?” not, “What insurance coverage do you have?” I’d like a doctor who wouldn’t rush me out of the office in 10 minutes so he could see his next patient. Dare we hope that, if the Veterans Administration or the federal government opens its own medical schools they would teach future doctors to put patients’ needs ahead of money. It isn’t enough for patients,whether veterans or civilians, to get to see a doctor within a reasonable amount of time. We need and want to see a doctor with real concern for our needs and feelings, one who is willing and able to take enough time to give us all the care and attention that we need.
Elaine Kirsch
Gravesend
No need for Tweed
To the editor,
David Podesta’s letter, from my Marine Park neighborhood, hits the nail on the head. [Mill-Marine Courier, Oct 20-26].
After reading in the Courier that special Russian translators will be at the polls to help (direct?) voters makes for an interesting turn of events. Back when Boss Tweed was in charge of New York’s Tammany Hall Democratic machine, he did the very same thing. His band of tough’s would “help” voters and direct them to vote Democrat all the way. No doubt, as the present-day influence of our German, Irish and Italian citizens wane, the newest groups will be influenced all too well. I have no doubt that after elections; the Democrats will smugly take their seats and once again help their constituents and, of course, help themselves as they line their own pockets as well.
Robert W. Lobenstein
Marine Park
Time check
To the editor,
Just wondering if anyone knows why all of the next train countdown clocks at the 86th St. R station only show when the next 95th St. bound trains (next and last stop) are arriving? I can almost bet 99.9 percent of passengers at this station are heading in the opposite direction toward lower Brooklyn and Manhattan. Does it have something to do with 95th Street being the terminal and one stop away? Richie Hecht
Bay Ridge
Ballot’s the way
To the editor,
It seems like yesterday when the old phrase “You can’t fight City Hall” that was true in the 1960s and 1970s until the public got tired of the same old same old politics. They fought time and after time, not always victorious but more energetic in their victories. One main thing that bothered many voters (was that) these so-called politicians were there to represent the general public but instead only had concern for their lifelong political careers. So these do-nothing politicians were more like dead wood (and) needed to go. When term limits came up, where the city Council members would hold office for two terms, the upside (was) the dead politicians would be gone, the downside (was) many of the good politicians would also be gone. I guess that’s the price one pays for change.
So when you choose not to vote in either the mid-term or general elections, you have given each and every politician control over your lives. Just remember that the power really lies in your hands alone. After four years if a local politician refuses to help you, go to the polls and vote him or her out of office. Find a way to get involved; if not don’t complain when nothing gets done.John Snow
Brighton Beach
Pols may say no
To the editor,
After I read the “Midwood City Council candidate proposes new street-cleaning system,” article the first thought that came to my mind (was) will New York City be eager to implement that system?
Because the city will lose a lot of millions it is making now issuing tickets to cars (that are) not moved during street cleaning. Despite all the common sense New Yorkers that will eagerly support it, do you think New York City bureaucrats will allow that system? I’m laughing!
Ramon
Sheepshead Bay
Oust the unruly
To the editor,
Each day we read about terrible things that teachers have done to students. If these charges are true, the teacher should be appropriately punished. I would like to know why the media never reports when something horrible is done to a teacher by a student. The media seems to have declared war on teachers and with the weak union we have, we find it almost impossible to respond.
Case in point: Last Thursday, my friend’s friend, a teacher in another borough high school, was assaulted by two students who were fighting near a stairwell. The teacher fell and hit his head on the ground. When he managed to get up, one of the fighting students hit the teacher a second time. The pedagogue required hospitalization. Luckily, there was no brain injury or concussion. However, this person will now require major dental work. How come these incidents are never reported? Why are we afraid to speak out against continuous school violence and disruption occurring on a daily basis in our schools?
Perhaps, the Chancellor should investigate these incidents and visit the troubled schools to get a first-hand view of what is really going on in the New York City school system. Let’s stop making excuses for why students are not learning. You cannot learn in an environment where disruption and violence are constant issues. Our elected officials are tone deaf to these issues. If a child cannot conduct himself in school, they belong in a specialized school. Stop with the nonsense of cooperative learning, school redesign and other inane ideas. Nothing will work when you have so-called students who are there only for the free lunch and to fool around by fighting, roaming the hallways, cursing, screaming, and causing havoc inside the classroom.
The United Federation of Teachers has been out to lunch for years on this issue. Folks, this is not a racial issue. Regardless of religion or race, if you can’t control yourself in school, you belong in an alternative setting.Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Push comes to Gov.
To the editor,
When will Gov. Cuomo deliver the outstanding $5.8 billion balance toward his original $8.3 billion pledge, plus his most recent new commitment of an additional $1 billion, to fully fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $32 billion 2015 – 2019 Capital Plan? The construction cost for the new Gateway Tunnel connecting New Jersey to Penn Station is $29 billion. Cuomo committed to contributing 25 percent of the total cost, but has yet to identify the source of his $7.25 billion. Cuomo has yet to make public how the he will pay back the $1.6 billion dollar federal loan and $1 billion State Thruway Authority Bond which helped finance the new $3.9 billion Tappan Zee Bridge. Tolls will have to go up by double or more after 2020 to repay the borrowed $2.6 billion.
The real issue, which Cuomo is not dealing with, is how to find the additional billions of dollars needed to fund almost $100 billion in transportation project and programs he has promised. These funds are necessary to both keep existing transit systems in a state of good repair along with the many potential expansion projects.
Cuomo has never been brave and bold in calling for raising the state gasoline tax by a pennies per gallon. The same is true about a sales tax increase or bond issue dedicated to transportation.
Any of these actions could easily raise the billions necessary for maintaining a state of good repair for highways, bridges and mass transportation along with potential system expansion.Larry Penner
Great Neck
