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LETTERS: Sound Off to the Editor

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Brooklyn Daily

To the editor,

Carmine Santa Maria, thanks so much for the kind words that you wrote about my second cousin, Father Vincent Termine, who passed away in December (“Carmine says goodbye to a few friends,” Big Screecher, online Jan. 11).

He was related to my grandfather, Nicholas Fiore. I believe that Father Vincent’s mother Mary was his niece.

During the early 1900s, all the Fiores and Termines lived in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, which is now the fancy Dumbo area. Although I lived for many years in Bensonhurst, I never got the chance to meet Father Termine, so I feel cheated in some way. I guess my mom and dad didn’t know where he was, and in general life just happens.

My sister Ann told me that her late husband met Father Termine in Fort Greene. It seems he ran a youth center there. I also read his biography and was awed by his accomplishments.

The good news is that I did find him last year and wrote him several letters to which he responded. I found him during my research of our family tree on Ancestry.com. He was retired and living in South Carolina with his brother John. Better late than never, they say.

I enjoy reading your column every week. It makes me feel close to my Italian roots, but also makes me miss the good old days with my family. Keep screeching!Domenica Militello

Brooklyn

A-plus for Ed

To the editor,

I applaud the fact that Ed Greenspan likes the idea of bringing vocational education back into our classrooms (“Carmen’s to-do list,” Sound Off to the Editor, Jan. 17).

As an educator and community activist, I think it would be wonderful to create a vocational education model that focuses on training kids for the workforce, beginning in kindergarten and going through the college years. It’s all about creating a pathway to education, where there’s a connectedness between the different levels of education, and the schools work hand-in-hand with each other.

We are starting our students early on the basics of life and career readiness skills. This journey of education doesn’t stop at the college level. How about having companies that are involved with technology, computer science or architecture go into various schools and pick out qualified students?

It’s all about setting the stage and creating a strong foundation for our students. When we think of the big picture, let’s look at the whole child. Scott Krivitsky

The writer is a teacher at PS 188 in Coney Island.

Parenting 101

To the editor,

All the best to new Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina. I think she was a good pick and well qualified.

I hate to be a pessimist, but I don’t think anyone can fix this school system until the parents of the students change. Parents must realize that their responsibility starts before their child goes to school, and again when they get back home.

Parents must send their child off to school with a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast. They must teach their children to respect their teachers, be quiet in the classroom, pay attention, and do their homework. After school, children must have someone there to ask how their day went, and to make sure they do their homework.

Parents — yes, parents in the plural — should answer calls from the teacher and attend open school meetings. Stop blaming the teachers, the principal, the aides, the paras, the system, the school, and the price of potatoes in Hawaii.

If you can’t take care of your child and be there for him or her, and if you don’t stand by and support the teachers, then don’t complain when your child fails. Take a good look in the mirror, that’s who is to blame.Maureen Parker

Sheepshead Bay

Broken system

To the editor,

Overbearing, partisan talking heads are in the news, taking on the Benghazi terror attack in Libya on one side, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” on the other.

I care not to assuage the importance of either issue, but both are distractions from the far larger issue of governance, and the electoral and political systems that have been hijacked by corporate and monied interests at the expense of the electorate.

Political bullying is hardly a new issue, nor is governmental ineptness when it comes to war, protecting foreign diplomats and facilities and such. There are distractions and obstruction from both sides of the aisle! It’s like talking about managing distribution of power resources while the suppliers are destroying our resources, be it our potable water supplies or our fertile soils.

Our system is broken and that needs be addressed before most anything else. Without potable water we are all dead.Barry Brothers

Homecrest

Cat coincidink

To the editor,

I had just finished writing a short story about a cat named Harmonica. The cat’s owner in the piece used to play the harmonica, until he bartered it to get the feline.

Then I went down to the laundry room in my apartment to check on my clothes. Who do I see in the laundry room, but a cat who I have never seen there before. Two minutes later, I’m waiting for the elevator and when the doors open there are eight people on it and it’s cramped, so I said I’d wait for the next elevator.

But one man would have none of that and he said they’d make room for me, which they did. The doors closed and just as we started to go up, someone took out a harmonica and began playing.Alan Magill

Midwood

August teaser

To the editor,

It is true that Aug. 2014 will have five Fridays, five Saturdays, and five Sundays (“Magical 2014,” Sound Off to the Editor, Dec. 20, 2013). But to say this happens once every 823 years is untrue.

This cycle happens every August when the first of the month falls on a Friday. It happened in Aug. 2008, 2005, 1997, 1986, 1980, 1975, and 1969. I figured all of this out in my head.Eugene Fellner

Bergen Beach

America first

To the editor,

Here’s something interesting you probably didn’t read in any 2013 year-end wrap-ups, according to Roger Simmermaker, author of “How Americans Can Buy American” and the award-winning “My Company ‘Tis of Thee: 50 Patriotic American Companies American Consumers Should Know About.”

“Our U.S. Government spent over $1.5 billion of our U.S. tax dollars with foreign apparel producers in 2013, so we could turn around and import clothes for U.S. forest rangers, airport security workers, and even for our troops on military bases.

And that’s just the beginning. Here are other ways our tax dollars were supporting foreign apparel markets, instead of supporting our own: If you visited the Smithsonian Institution in 2013 and bought clothing, it was likely made in Thailand. Cambodia made much of the clothing sold by the U.S. Army and Air Force. If you work for the General Services Administration, you have Bangladesh workers to thank for your uniforms — they supplied many of them. Haiti factory managers are looking forward to 2014 because they’re hoping to double the number of camouflage pants, shirts, and jackets destined for U.S. military bases.

“It’s a great strategy to buy American-made goods whenever possible as consumers, but the missing link in a well-rounded, and more extensive. The “Buy American” strategy is to voice your thoughts and opinions to our legislators. Let them know that we don’t want the tax revenue that we send to Washington spent overseas with foreign producers in foreign countries. After all, funding factories in foreign lands only makes it harder for our own domestic producers to compete in what is already a cut-throat global economy.

“Why should legislation, passed by our Congress, cause clothing makers and apparel companies abroad to hire more workers simply because we are showering them with federal contacts and orders? Why not shower our home companies with those orders and contracts instead, and cause American companies to hire more workers here in this country?

“Some advantages, already so clear to many patriotic-minded Americans, are more American jobs saved and created. More tax revenue spent according to the wishes of the people. More economic growth here at home. More trade surpluses (and fewer trade deficits) with our trading “partners.” A lower unemployment rate. Fewer Americans dependent on government support. And more Americans with money in their pockets ready and willing to spend.”Joan Applepie

Mill Basin

GOP lameducks

To the editor,

Councilmember Vincent Ignizio (R–S.I.) will be elected as the new City Council Minority leader, beating Queens’ last Republican Councilmember Eric Ulrich.

This result is based on the fact that two of the three last Republican councilmembers are from Staten Island, while Eric Ulrich has no one to vote for him. This is the political equivalent of a eunuch in a whore house.

City Democrats have gerrymandered City Council district lines for more than 50 years. At one point, after the boroughwide councilmember-at-large positions were abolished in 1982, there was only one Republican councilmember left — Susan Molinari of Staten Island.

During the 1990s, the GOP elected Charles Millard and Andrew Eristoff in Manhattan, Martin Golden in Brooklyn, along with Mike Abel, Tom Ognibene, and Alfonse Stabile in Queens, and Fred Cerillo of Staten Island. This resulted in their caucus growing to a record seven members.

Flash forward to the 2013 general election results. Councilman Vincent Ignizio will be accompanied by fellow Staten Island-Brooklyn Councilmember Steven Matteo, and Eric Ulrich from Queens, for a total of three GOP councilmembers. As minority leader, Ignazio will have a larger office than some other councilmembers. The other 48 Democratic councilmembers will meet behind closed doors to elect a council speaker. As a newly elected councilmember in 2001, Democrat David Weprin said, “The Office of City Council Speaker is too important to allow the handful of Republican councilmembers any say in the selection process.” It will be the same in 2013. The Democratic Council’s 48-member caucus will determine the next council speaker. Whoever becomes council speaker will give the three last remaining Republican councilmembers whatever crumbs fall off the table. Each will receive a lulu for chairing a council committee and some token amount of pork-barrel, member-item spending, after the Democratic councilmembers first finish rewarding themselves.

To the victor belong the spoils of office. Without a Republican mayor to work with, Ignizio, Matteo, and Urlich will be next to useless.

Larry Penner

Great Neck, N.Y.

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