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Brooklyn Daily
To the editor,
I’ve been reading and even attended a debate between Councilman Domenic Recchia and Rep. Michael Grimm, and want to know why as of today there are two debates in Bay Ridge, one is scheduled for Dyker Heights, debates have and will be held on Staten Island, and yet there are no debates scheduled for Gravesend and Coney Island, even though we’re part of the 11th Congressional District.
Volunteers for both candidates run around asking store keepers in these neighborhoods to put up their signs, call asking for our votes and or donations, yet when it comes to telling us where they stand on issues that affect us, we get ignored.
As a resident of this part of Brooklyn and the 11th Congressional District, I ask that a debate be inserted into the schedule in both Coney Island and Gravesend to give the voters in these districts a chance to hear where both candidates stand on the issues that affect our lives.Rosalie Caliendo
Gravesend
Sar-sour on activist
To the editor,
I am concerned about security in America for Americans, and at a political debate last week I asked Rep. Michael Grimm (R–Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Staten Island) and his challenger Councilman Domenic Recchia (D–Coney Island) about the full body masks that Muslim women wear, and letting folks into America from Africa where the ebola threat is growing. Both men jumped up and said that they considered the questions inappropriate, and immediately started on freedom of religion, while neither question had anything to do with religion! My concerns were about the security of Americans from threats to us. Why were my questions inappropriate? Because Arab activist Linda Sarsour was sitting there? What about our feelings, worries, and concerns? Guess they don’t count.
Sarsour has caused dissent in our neighborhood (“Crazed vagrant threatens to behead Arab community leader,” online Sept. 9). She couldn’t have an incident and just let the NYPD handle it. No, she had to get her name splashed all over the place as usual. Sarsour has a habit of coming to the fore every few years, and it’s always about how the poor Muslims are being treated here in Bay Ridge. As usual, she just doesn’t understand why. So I’ll try again. I have so many Muslims that I do love and care for, none of whom hate my country or my flag, so this letter is hard for me to write because I wouldn’t want to hurt a single hair on their heads.
Until September 11, 2001, myself and everyone I knew lived a mostly decent life. For the most part, we feared nothing. We woke up, did our day thing, came home, and went to bed. Never gave Muslims a thought. On September 11, being as I was on Church Street at the World Trade Center, all of a sudden, I’m getting Muslims forced down my throat. They don’t like this, they don’t like that, they won’t take liquor or dogs in their cabs, etc. etc. etc. After I was rescued from certain death (I went into shock upon seeing the second plane hit), I walked up to Broadway and Dey Street, and was greeted by smiling, happy Muslims. I was devastated and they were happy! I returned to Bay Ridge at 6 pm, after having walked from the World Trade Center to 57th and Madison for the express bus. When I went to get off the bus on 69th Street, I hesitated. I was in a neighborhood filled with Muslims — of the same faith as the people who had just rammed two giant airliners into the World Trade Center. I later found out that they were celebrating the deaths of thousands of our people only one block away. I remember weeks later walking on Fifth Avenue and passing a woman with area rugs with pictures of the burning towers! I glared at her. She just smiled while selling one to a passing Muslim. A ball gown store on Third Avenue was gone. Several other Muslim stores were gone. Poof! Just like that.
My life and those of my loved ones, friends and acquaintances had changed forever, and Muslims were the cause of it all. It took me a long time to realize that all Muslims were not alike. Years. But Sarsour causes trouble, and I have no patience for people like her. If you don’t like it here, if our NYPD doesn’t come fast enough for you, you could leave and go anywhere else in the world. But you won’t. You have it too good here. You folks don’t like our flag or our culture, but you sure love our benefits. If we went to your country, would your people treat us as good as you are treated here? Not on your life.
No one in this country wears masks. In my 70 years on this earth, the only people who wore masks were super heroes. No one walked the street masked. Now, I see your women, or I think they are women under there, eyes only can be seen. You can’t tell what’s under that mask. That could be a man. There could be a rifle or an Uzi. Who would know?
I also think that federal, state, and city benefits should be halted immediately. Under the current circumstances with all these maniacal terrorists running around killing, beheading etc., the time for being tolerant to these customs must stop. I don’t care what the unity task force thinks. I think its members are terribly misguided. The only people who agree with them are those who attend those meetings. The rest of us don’t.
I am really tired of all the complaining that comes from Sarsour and her ilk. Just do what we do. Just live your life in this beautiful country that gives so much. Stop trying to change it. We don’t want our country to change. That’s another big problem we have with people who complain all the time. If you don’t like it here, please leave. We don’t need any more stress that people like Linda Sarsour give us.Diane Hunt
Bay Ridge
‘As of wrong’
To the editor,
I am dumbfounded over the closure of what I thought was a neighborhood staple — the Trump Village Shopping Center.
The closure is as yet unannounced, but apparently no new leases would be written to the dozen or so businesses — businesses that poured in their money to repair their property and continue their trade after Hurricane Sandy. They will lose their business, and the business of hundreds of people who badly need this shopping center. Senior citizens, disabled, retirees, and everyday working people will have to leave the neighborhood for their shopping.
The closing will affect a CVS, a cleaner, an electronic store, a department store, a pizza store, and a Chinese takeout restaurant, among others. Already two former tenants, a gym and restaurant, have been boarded up indicating the developer, whoever he is tends to go ahead with his plan to devastate the neighborhood.
Unfortunately his “as of right” gives him the right to do this wrong to our neighborhood.Siegbert Loeb
Trump Village
Nick’s kindred
To the editor,
Sorry for Nicholas DiSanza’s loss (“Reader’s double dose of grief over late wife and dog,” Sept. 19, Sound Off to the Editor). We can never replace our beloved pets. I, too, just lost my sweet girl. She was eight years young, within 10 days she was gone. I am totally heartbroken.
We could never replace them, but the only thing we could do is fill the void by getting another. Go to the city shelter and adopt, or try adopting or fostering for a rescue called N.Y. Abandoned Angels. This is a wonderful rescue that continues to pull from the city shelter, no matter what age or health issues the dog has. If down the line you can no longer keep the dog, you just contact them and they will take the dog back.M. Deman
Bensonhurst
Food for thought
To the editor,
In these difficult economic times, it is especially important to patronize your local neighborhood restaurant during Italian Restaurant Week — October 10-17. There are so many great Italian restaurants in Brooklyn to select from.
My wife and I don’t mind occasionally paying a little more to help our local restaurants survive. Don’t forget your cook and server. We try to tip 20 percent against the total bill, including taxes. If it is an odd amount, we round up to the next dollar. If we can afford to eat out, we can afford an extra dollar tip. When ordering take out, we always leave a dollar or two for the waiter or cook. It is appreciated.
Remember these people are our neighbors. Our local entrepreneurs have continued to create new employment opportunities without the assistance of federally-funded taxpayers’ stimulus dollars. They work long hours, pay taxes and provide local employment. If we don’t patronize our local restaurants to shop and eat, they don’t eat either.
Please join me and your neighbors in continuing to support this newspaper chain. Patronize its restaurant advertisers. They provide the necessary revenues to help keep the newspapers in business. Let them know you saw their advertisement.Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
L’Chaim Deutch
To the editor,
Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D-Brighton Beach) is to be congratulated for having four pedestrian walk sings repaired on Coney Island and Brighton Beach avenues. I reported the first two, going west to east at Jowl Samuels Plaza, crossing from the west side to the east side of Chase Manhattan Bank. The other two were on the northern side of Coney Island Avenue.
Mayor DeBlasio said that the city’s objective is to have zero fatalities, and he reported that there has already been a 20-percent drop since last year — a great incentive for the councilman to build on. Perhaps one day New York City will become New York Safety City.
Elliott Abosh
Brighton Beach
Teacher breachers
To the editor,
Accused sex predator Sean Shaynak, a teacher at Brooklyn Tech High School, gives a bad name to the once-respected teaching profession.
Among other things, how did this person get appointed to the prestigious school to begin with? While other teachers languish in schools filled with unruly discipline problems and unable to transfer, how was this guy able to waltz into such a plum position? Evidently, he knew someone, so politics as usual played a keen role.
It’s just always not what you know, but rather who you know. Let’s go back to appointing people based on ranking lists of examination results. Right now everything is based on favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism.
I remember the old days when the transfer lists would come out and each year they would say that Districts 21 and 22 had no teaching vacancies. Yet, if you went to a school board meeting in those districts in June, retiring teachers were being honored, Yes, it became the old game of hiding positions for friends, relatives, and people the politicians wanted in.
In 2005, United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten gave up seniority transfers. Now, it’s called the Fair Market system, and it’s anything but fair. Principals, school teams, and others routinely choose the people they want, and ability rarely if ever counts. Let’s return to a civil service merit system in education.Ed Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
Rainbow Brooklyn
To the editor,
The euphemisms being used that relate to the changes in Flatbush can be equally identified with so much of Brooklyn. When I attended Midwood High School, from 1950 to 1961, the socio-economic-racial-dividing line was Empire Boulevard and Eastern Parkway into the Interboro Parkway to the Van Wyck Expressway. White flight began and the lines moved more easterly towards the Belt Parkway, with new demarcation being Caton Avenue and Linden Boulevard to Pennsylvania Avenue.
The last changes I saw before departing Brooklyn for Long Island was Church Avenue to Rockaway Parkway to the Belt. I now live in the Boston, M.A., area and have returned to Brooklyn over the last 10 years to visit friends and attend baseball games in Coney Island, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Speak about changes, I’m surprised that Putin isn’t seeking to annex most of Brooklyn for the large Russian speaking population that is not only in Brighton Beach, but through to Kings Highway and Avenue J.
Brooklyn has always been a melting pot of the world. The first inhabitants were native Americans. Then the Dutch after the Manhattan “garage sale.” Then Eastern Europeans, Irish, British, Caribbean Islanders, Africans, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Japanese, and countless others. Each time there were changes, those growing up in such an environment were learning so much about the culture in our world. Students didn’t travel around the world to study abroad, but instead learned so much from the different neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Whatever the color of Brooklyn, just allow it to evolve, prosper, grow with people sharing, learning, and leaving peacefully together.
So much has changed in Brooklyn since I moved away in 1988. More people want a Brooklyn address than Park Avenue. Park Slope is a changed area. Columbia Street is no longer looking like Berlin after World War II. Red Hood and the Gowanus have become proud areas to be part of. Grand Army Plaza on a Sunday is a beautiful place to be alone or with your family. Strolling along Flatbush Avenue from the bridges or Prospect Park to the Barclays Center are delightful. Be proud of what you have as you cannot find a piece of Brooklyn in Boston, Des Moines, St. Paul-Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Worcester, Albany, New Orleans, Cleveland, Austin, Seattle, San Diego, Denver, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Hartford, Providence, Paris, London or many other places. I’ve been to these places and not even the bagels are real.
Change is hard on many, but keeping Brooklyn diverse is better than being black, white, yellow, red or any other color of the spectrum.
Bill Funk
Acton, M.A.
Speed demons
To the editor,
Time after time I’ve either read or heard about many hit-and-runs by cars where someone was usually killed. It was no surprise about a women hit and killed by a biker in Central Park. I feel sorry for the family that lost a wife and mother. The down side about Brighton Beach is some bikers think the Boardwalk is a place to speed. We’ve got seniors, and children who use the boardwalk, and in my heart I hope neither gets hit by some out-of-control biker.
When you bike down Emmons Avenue and make a left turn, there are bike lanes going from south to north, and on the other side of the street the lane goes in the opposite direction. Crossing over Coney Island Avenue going west there is a bike lane, and once again on the other side of the street there is a bike lane which ends at Neptune and Coney Island avenues as well. What do we consider a sidewalk? Not a place for anyone to bike ride, but for people to walk on. Being courteous of walkers should be the theme and concern every day.Jerry Sattler
Brighton Beach
Vote smart
To the editor,
Know a candidate’s public record, if you really want to be an informed voter. Go to votesmart.org, where you can find a report card by a group that takes no stand on who to vote for. Highly praised by all, the only aim of this group is to make every voter informed on candidates running in an election. No longer need we depend on TV commercials or smiling faces in a newspaper. Now we can get the facts just by going to votesmart.org. Truly the 21st century is here.David Raisman
Bay Ridge
‘Flawed’ system
To the editor,
The American system is extremely flawed. Virtually everything we, as school students, were taught academically is made up of bull. The school system does not teach us how to be independent thinkers, but instead it teaches us how to be dependent drones. The employment workforce is, and always will be, racist and sexist. Society is biased against gays, but too chicken to even attempt to investigate the massive corruption that takes place behind the walls of the federal government.
The Catholic Church is guilty of all of the above. Its members secretly molested young boys, then dictates to gays about how they should live. They don’t say a word about the genital mutilation of young African girls. Pompous, holier-than-thou believers. See them, don’t wanna be them. Everyone is too busy and too content worrying about what someone else has or what someone is wearing. People should mind their own business.Sebastian Casalenova
Bensonhurst
Republi-con Party
To the editor,
It is amazing that today in the U.S. we have so many people who argue against science, and argue against higher-order thinking skills. One of the planks in the Texas Republican platform is to remove classes in critical-thinking skills from college curriculums. The ability to use our senses and apply logic is greatly to the benefit of people, yet there are people who prefer to not only refute facts, but to deprive others from being exposed to this information.
We forced stupid to obey back in the 1960s when we forced school integration and changed several laws. The national guard was required to escort some students of color into their new schools to enforce the new law. Several decades later, these laws were so successful some folks began to ask whether we still needed carefully enforced anti-discrimination laws, and even some sane people had to wonder whether it would always be appropriate to give special placement to people based on their race. But the bigots were still alive. They had just been keeping silent (to some degree) in public settings, since sentiment had turned against them.
In some pockets of the country there were lots of repressed haters, and the conservative one percent (who also own the media) did everything they could to attract the haters, and fan the fire of that hate, to distract them from focusing on the fact that the rich were taking all the profits of enhanced digital productivities, and were engaging in class warfare in a never-ending attempt to drive down costs in the name of increasing profits. And they used their increased profits to “back” (purchase) legislators and to create legislations that were more profitable to the corporations who wanted those particular laws. And some people joined the hating, because the incentive of joining a group of haters so you can feel better about yourself is the same as it ever was.
The Republican Party is shamelessly aligned with corporations (business), and cares much more about business profits than it does about workers (people). Republicans fight against fair-pay laws, propose and implement legislations to do away with a minimum wage, try to outlaw unions, and try to reduce or eliminate taxes for the wealthy and corporations while taking the money from programs that support the public, especially the middle and lower classes. Also, because the causes Republicans represent would not appeal to the general public, they adopt strategies of using propaganda to misinform and mislead, defaming their opponents rather than debating them. Republicans support and try to appeal to the extremist fringe groups, including religious extremists, homophobes, misogynists, and xenophobics. Republicans strategically attempt to create an atmosphere of fear and distrust among the public so they constantly make up conspiracy stories, which occupy the news programs and divert attention from the corporate control of government. Nasty, selfish stuff. In fact the current Republican selfishness is so extreme that they have consciously adopted a strategy of blocking all progress for America if they are not the elected party in office. They will not pass bills benefiting America unless Republican goals of further increasing the wealth of the wealthy (by cutting programs helping the public, like Social Security, food stamps, and Medicare) are included. They are essentially trying to hold America hostage.
And that is why we should boycott the Republican Party, and urge our friends to do that too. We need a legislative body that represents the people of our country, and is less controlled by business interests. Paul Fox
Bay Ridge