To the Editor,
To respond about “Pols must fight
climate change now,” Bay News,
March 1–7, had I not been a Buddhist,
I would be so happy if the grandchildren
of these deniers would suffer
lack of clean air, poisoned water, and
spoiled food. As a human, I cannot
blame the grandchildren for the lack
of awareness that these deniers negate
time after time. Wild fires on the
West Coast, floods on the West Coast,
heat waves where year after year
there is an increase in temperature.
One must be living like an ostrich
with his or her head covered
with sand or like the three monkeys
See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no
Evil. Soon enough we will eradicate
the ocean of fish and slaughter all the
wild animals — except, we’re really
the wild animals. I suppose the only
animal we will see is Tarzan and the
Chimp on TV or the movies.
Jerry Sattler
Brighton Beach
To the Editor,
As a senior citizen, I am just as
frightened about climate change as
the young people who wrote letters
last week, “Pols must fight climate
change now,” Bay News, March 1–7.
Senior citizens hope and pray for a
“Green New Deal” just as much as
you younger people. Although we
might not be here in 11 or 12 years, we
are very much concerned about the
health and welfare of our sons, daughters,
grandchildren, and our planet,
as well as those of you who are just
starting to create lives of your own
and fear for your own survival as our
planet and climate deteriorates.
I believe that the first step towards
creating a “Green New Deal” must be
to vote Donald Trump and all the politicians
who support him out of office.
We cannot hope to get any help from
politicians who are being supported
and funded by the very corporations
who are polluting our environment
and causing climate change.
I don’t know if any of you millennials
remember Al Gore. Al Gore was
Bill Clinton’s vice president. Mr. Gore
was and still is deeply involved in the
campaign for a cleaner environment
and a green planet. In 2000, he ran
for president against George Bush.
He won the popular vote but lost the
election because of a foul-up in ballot
counting in Florida, which cost him
the votes he needed in the electoral
college. I have never understood why
we have an electoral college. Shouldn’t
the President of the United States be
elected by a majority of the voters
all over the country, and not by individual
states? Donald Trump, a man
who will do nothing to fight climate
change because he is in the pockets
of the big businesses who are polluting
and changing our climate and environment,
lost the popular vote but
won the electoral college.
Therefore, I believe that, before we
can create a “Green New Deal,” we
need to abolish the electoral college
and the entire concept of red and blue
states and elect a president by popular
vote. We need to do this before November
2020, so that we can elect a president
of our own choice, a candidate
who is not controlled by big money
and will do everything he or she
can to prevent and alleviate climate
change and will be willing and able
to cooperate with other world leaders
to bring this about. We must also vote
all other climate deniers out of office
and elect honest politicians who are
not controlled by the big business corporations
that are polluting our environment
and causing climate change.
Elaine Kirsch
Gravesend
To the Editor,
Starting in November 2019, New
Yorkers will have nine days of early
voting before every election. This glorious
change was long overdue — 37
other states had already introduced
early voting to make it easier for residents
to make their voices heard.
But for early voting to succeed,
the state must provide funding to
counties to cover start-up costs and
ensure a seamless process. I call on
elected officials in Albany — including
my representatives, Assemblyman
Robert Carroll and Sen. Kevin
Parker — to fund early voting in this
year’s budget.
This was a hard-fought victory.
Early voting expands access to democracy.
Let’s give it the funding it needs.
Early voting is a necessary and
important move forward for New
York, but it cannot work without
proper funding. We need full funding
for early voting in the state budget
now! Mary Jean Babic
Park Slope
COURIER L 30 IFE, MARCH 15–21, 2019 M BR B G
To the Editor,
Crazy Bernie came to Brooklyn
College on “Flatbush Street,” (the national
media couldn’t even get the Avenue
correct), to whip up support for
his communist leaning presidential
bid (“Weekend with Bernie: Sanders
returns to Bklyn for first rally of his
2020 campaign” by Colin Mixson, online
March 5).
Looking at the faces of the mushminded
students, taking in every
word as if spoken by a god, speaks
volumes about the educational system
and where the country is headed.
Bernie spouted the standard line
about the government taking care of
your every want and need. Free college,
free healthcare, and free money
for anyone not willing to work. As
he droned on about the new “green
deal” that would grind this nation to
a full halt, they kept on blindly smiling
and cheering.
I don’t understand why they are so
enthusiastic about this as if the communist/
socialist bent does take over
government, just why are they attending
college in the first place? Capitalism
will have faded away, everyone
would be deemed the same in work
and stature, and the sheepskin they
worked for will not be worth the recycled
paper it is printed on. I guess
that the party of the left truly wants
the uneducated — PhDs included —
to be the sad future of this country,
dancing in lockstep to proven failed
policies of the last century.
Robert W. Lobenstein
Sheepshead Bay
To the Editor,
Let me get this straight, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez claims that it’s
unfair to single out Rep. Omar for
what she has said. Yet, it’s all right
for Omar to single out the Jewish
people for abuse.
How I wish Cortez had been in my
eighth-grade social studies classes
at either the former IS 320 or IS 228.
I taught in both schools for a total
of 33 years. My 8P-7 class at 320 and
8-1 class at 228 would have run rings
around Cortez. The latter didn’t even
know the three branches of government.
How on earth did she ever pass
the history Regents?
Shame on the Democratic Party
for not directly censoring Omar and
removing her from the Foreign Relations
Committee. Are they so beholden
to the ultra-leftists that they
cannot do the decent thing of condemning
her actions? Oh, yes, Alexandria,
the three branches of government
are legislative, executive,
and judicial. Now, do you understand
their specific functions?
Ed M. Greenspan
Sheepshead Bay
To the Editor,
Today’s generation in Congress,
along with members of the New York
State Senate, Assembly, and Council,
could learn much from the late Idaho
Republican Sen. James A McClure,
who passed away eight years ago on
Feb. 26, 2011. His claim to fame on
Capitol Hill was for 18 years, he read
every word of every bill before voting
on it. For many years, he signed his
own mail.
Fast forward to today, did members
of Congress take an Evelyn Wood
speed-reading class to absorb the
hundreds of pages contained in previous
temporary Stop Gap spending
bill, along with other so called “emergency
legislation” passed in the dead
of night? They received these with
only hours before being asked to vote
up or down. Only lobbyists, key Congressional
staff members employed
by the House and Senate leadership
teams who actually wrote the fine
print within the hundreds to several
thousand pages on behalf of their
bosses, had any idea of the details
buried in the actual contents. There
should be a seven-day minimum
time-out period. This would provide
adequate time for members of any
legislative body — but also ordinary
citizens, the media, and independent
good government watchdog groups
— the opportunity to understand
all of the contents contained in any
proposed bill. Everyone would also
have the opportunity under an open
process to comment and discuss the
merits or consequences before others
vote up or down for adoption.
Ditto for reading the thousands of
daily automated robo letters sent to
constituents, who have taken their
own personal time to write. Liberal
or conservative, Democrat or Republican,
we would all be better off
if members of Congress, the State
Legislature, and Council members
would take time to actually read, line
by line, and openly debate in public
any proposed legislation before voting.
Their legislative actions impact
both our economic and civil liberties.
Future generations have to pay for
and live with the consequences.
Larry Penner
Great Neck