12 MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP EDITORIAL 14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12,editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS Change to 2015 ▲ ▲ Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein (Estab. 1953) (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 [email protected] 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. 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. 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 [email protected]. 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 teaching hospital. Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way 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 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 http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org. It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory care centers, and would be controlled by and 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, 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—viable, workable option for long-term health care 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 BY ISMA CHAUDRY WHAT IT MEANS TO CELEBRATE FREEDOM Thousands of Brooklyn residents will celebrate Memorial Day this weekend at parades and ceremonies honoring those who fought and died through the decades to protect this country and its freedom. As we do so, let’s keep in mind that freedom cannot be defended by arms alone. We have a responsibility to one another to promote what President Franklin D. Roosevelt described as the “Four Freedoms” that hold our society together — the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want and the freedom from fear. As a colony, we fought for freedom to choose our own destiny independent of rule by a foreign kingdom. As a nation, we fought a civil war to grant freedom to slaves who were treated as property rather than people. We would protest and work legislatively to secure the right to vote for women and minorities. We would fight across the globe in two world wars to protect our freedom from fascist dictators and restore freedom to people subjugated by those oppressors. We would go to great lengths in the late 20th century to protect freedom, coming at times close to a nuclear holocaust with the Soviet Union, our communist rival that eventually collapsed when its own people desired to be free. The United States has always been a nation dedicated to freedom. Our reputation as a defender of freedom has helped welcome in generations of people from every corner of the globe. We must ensure that our elected officials protect our freedom to speak, think, worship and assemble — and that they never go out of their way to deny it to our fellow Americans in any shape or form. Hate and intolerance have no place here, and must be rejected always. We must advocate that the government we elect defends our freedom to pursue the lives we want to lead with limited government intrusion — and without creating policies that throw massive financial obstacles at those who cannot afford to overcome them. Let us celebrate our nation’s sacrifices by doing all that we can to advance the cause of freedom every day here at home — and remind our elected officials that they must do the very same. A LOOK BACK This photo from 1938 shows just a few of the 2,500 people who participated in the annual memorial service of the Pvt. First Class Robert I. Porter Post, VFW, at Barkaloo Cemetery. The tiny cemetery on the corner of Mackay Place and Narrows Avenue is the burial spot of Lt. Harms Barkaloo and Simon Cortelyou, who fought in the American Revolution. By 1929, the site was surrounded by weeds and debris until Lucia Leahy, a resident of Mackay Place, and other residents sent a petition to the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, after which the cemetery was placed in perpetual care. At the 1938 ceremonies, Magistrate Matthew Troy said, “The greatest danger today is that we are breaking faith with the men who died” and he warned that “we must keep that spirituality which our forefathers have given to us.” BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/file photo GUEST OP-ED MUSLIMS WELCOME THE MONTH OF RAMADAN O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint.” (Al Quran 2:183) In the Islamic tradition, the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is considered a month of blessings, charity, prayer and submission to God. This year, Muslims from all over the world will start observing the month of Ramadan on Saturday, May 27. The fundamental aspect of fasting is to establish our focus back from extravagance and self-indulgence to the needs of the less fortunate and underprivileged around the world. It is the time for transformation, to reassess and to reprioritize our life, with compassion, morals, ethics and humanity. God consciousness, charity, spirituality and prayer are the fulcrums of this month. The typical day of fasting starts as Muslims take an early breakfast and make the intention of fasting for the whole day. The aspiration is not just to stay hungry, but to be very conscious of their social and civic responsibilities, making sure that they are mindful of their obligations as an individual and as a member of the society, and being cognizant of their spiritual and religious obligations of remembering God, prayer and submission to God. They break the fast at sunset, do the prayer and have dinner. At night, every mosque has a congregational prayer, with Quranic recitations. Typically, Muslims break the fast with dates, which is from the tradition of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) . According to the Islamic tradition, the process of revelations, to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was started in the month of Ramadan. Muhammad (pbuh), was born in 510 CE Mecca, Saudi Arabia and at the age of 40, he received his first revelation of the holy scriptures (Al Quran) through angel Gabriel. The process of revelations continued for the next 23 years of his life and he died in 632 AD. “Say: We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them." (Al Quran 2:136) Isma H Chaudhry, M.D., M.P.H., is president of the Islamic Center of Long Island, Westbury, New York. She can be reached at Isma.h.Chaudhry@ gmail.com
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