14 MARCH 9 - MARCH 15, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
EDITORIAL A LOOK BACK
WHOSE SIDE ARE THEY
REALLY ON?
Wednesday, March 14, marks the one-month anniversary
of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting — and
despite the horrors inflicted there, our elected officials
have done next to nothing to keep our kids safe in school.
The ineptitude is not just limited to Washington —
where the NRA’s cash-fueled influence over Republicans
seems impenetrable — or Florida, where the state legislature
rejected an assault weapons ban as Parkland
students watched from the gallery.
Here in New York, the bastion of progressive politics
on the East Coast, our State Senate defeated attempts at
meaningful gun regulation as Republicans on February
28 blocked votes on several gun control bills, including
one to boost background checks for gun buyers.
It begs the question: Whose side are these Republicans
really on?
After last week’s vote, State Senate Majority Leader
John Flanagan said he wants safer schools and rattled
off a list of ideas: money for security cameras, hardening
school doors, assigning armed officers at every school,
panic buttons in the classrooms, better response plans
and increased mental health services.
“Every responsible option is on the table,” Flanagan
said. However, he mentioned “every responsible option”
but one: better gun laws that would keep firearms out
of the wrong hands.
His ideas are oddly similar to what the NRA has been
saying since Parkland — the old “guns don’t kill people...”
argument, reinforced with a half-hearted appeal for
more armed patrols in schools. More guns, as always,
is the solution to our gun problem — even though it’s
quite clearly the cause of it.
Newsday reported that the NRA has poured $175,000
over the last decade into the state Republican and Conservative
14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12, 2014
editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by
GO BACK TO THE
DRAWING BOARD
parties and candidates. Flanagan and party
spokespeople responded that such contributions had
nothing to do with decisions made in Albany.
It’s becoming clearer by the day that if we want to
effect real change, we the people will need to make the
change ourselves.
We must all demand that our elected officials fight for
tougher gun laws and safer schools. If they won’t make
that happen, then in November, we have a responsibility
to vote them out.
HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS
Change (Estab. 1953)
to
2015
▲
▲
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/file photo
Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein
(USPS 248.800)
9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209
Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps
Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein
Telephone 718-238-6600
Fax 718-238-6630
E-mail editorial@homereporter.com
Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc.
Single copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay
Ridge Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay
Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
Home Reporter and Sunset News
9733 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11209
Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
All letters sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing.
Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available,
as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld
on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S
POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising
beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
unless paid prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or
reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser
agrees to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all
cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording
placed by the advertiser or any reply to such advertisement.
OP-ED
Photo by Gardiner Anderson
And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which
has provided the backdrop for many movies
and television shows over the years, from
“Blue Bloods” and “Saturday Night Fever” to
“Mad Men” and, in 2006, to “Then She
Found Me,” starring Helen Hunt and Bette
Midler, seen above in a September, 2006,
Home Reporter photo taken on location on
Shore Road at 77th Street. Midler performed
at the most recent Oscars, singing “Wind
Beneath My Wings” during the awards
show’s In Memoriam segment. “Then She
Found Me,” which also starred Matthew
Broderick, was also shot inside a historic
home on 88th Street.
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
BY STATE SENATOR
MARTY GOLDEN
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
Community Leaders has become an important ally. The
coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over
the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs
at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility.
The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It
will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of
Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith
leaders and members of the community will participate
to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn
and call attention to the threats it faces.
You can take part in the fast or find out more about it
by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to
Brooklyn@uupmail.org.
We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in
the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations
to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation must
affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching
hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s only
teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way for
the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary.
We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings
lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,”
a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health
care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and save
several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn,
including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Long
Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center. You can see the proposal online at
http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org.
It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory
care centers, and would be controlled by and affiliated
with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. Downstate would
be the network’s hub, educating and supplying physicians
and medical staff to the care centers and working
with doctors at the other hospitals.
It’s a simple, effective plan and, if given a chance, it
will work.
New York has a responsibility to provide for the health
care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Hospitals Safety
Net Plan—our plan and the community’s plan—is a
viable, workable option for long-term health care in
Brooklyn.
That’s something that Brooklyn residents desperately
need.
Frederick E. Kowal is president of United University
Professions, the union representing 35,000 faculty and professional
staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including
SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers
in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse.
With the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and public
BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
Entire contents copyright 2016 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
In a solemn scene inside St.
John’s Episcopal Church, aka
the Church of the Generals, a
service is in progress in this
photo from the files of this
newspaper. The picture clearly
dates to the 1960s when the
Vietnam War was being fought.
Note the “Stop the War” placard
clearly visible at the center of
the photo, in front of a table
containing a military hat and
medals. The church, closed since
2014, and on the market, has
much history associated with it,
the Vietnam War protests among
them but also the fact that many
notable military figures such as
General Matthew Ridgway but
also Robert E. Lee and Stonewall
Jackson (both controversial)
are connected with it, hence its
nickname. Just last summer, two
plaques referencing Lee were
taken down outside the church
after protests erupted over their
presence. They will be preserved
in the Episcopal Diocese of Long
Island’s archives.
Compiled by Helen Klein
NEW YORK SCHOOLS NEED “SMART” SCANNERS TO
HELP PROTECT STUDENTS
We all know the names.
Parkland, Las Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook,
Aurora.
These mass shootings are forever
burned into our brains. The horror and
suffering. The images of crying mothers
attending memorial services.
These names and images cannot
be forgotten. We should not let the
deaths of innocent people be in vain.
We need to do everything we can to
prevent the next mass shooting.
That is why I am calling on Governor
Andrew Cuomo to include
funding for both threat detection
systems and law enforcement
officers for every school statewide.
The new scanning technology is far beyond
traditional metal detectors, which are slow, bulky
and inconvenient.
These “smart” scanners allow for different
levels of sensitivity for different situations. In
fact, this scanning system has the ability to detect
objects with iron, nickel, cobalt, their alloys and
metals such as copper.
These systems are unobtrusive, and have the
ability to detect other high-risk items in addition
to firearms, such as knives, brass knuckles and
improvised weapons.
When I recently visited the school in Parkland
and spoke with alumni and students, it highlighted
the need and urgency for this technology to
be installed in New York State’s schools
before we face a tragedy.
Sadly, schools have become soft
targets and current security protocols
are not working to protect
students. By putting this technology
in our schools, along with a member
of law enforcement, we will be giving
parents and students peace of
mind. It is important to utilize ever
improving security to protect
our teachers and students.
When you compare these
scanners with traditional metal detectors, the
difference is like night and day.
We need to protect our students without making
them feel as if they are passing through a TSA
checkpoint on their way to class. This technology
accomplishes just that.
Please share your thoughts about smart scanners
and law enforcement in our schools. Email
me at golden@nysenate.gov.
State Senator Marty Golden represents the 22nd
Senate District in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst,
Gravesend, Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park and
parts of Boro Park, Midwood and Sheepshead Bay.