The following letter was address to columnist Tom Allon:
Your article, “You are either with us or against us” made me realize the vital importance and many meanings of the slogan, “If you see something, say something!” I have heard it used to apply to suspicious-looking backpacks and other packages which might be carrying bombs or other explosives left alone on streets or subway seats. However, this slogan can also be applied to many of the other horrors going on today.
News broadcasts and papers today are full of reports of sexual abuse and child abuse that have not been reported nor stopped for years or until it is too late. Abuse ranges from producers and movie stars abusing would-be stars and fellow performers to teachers and coaches abusing their students and even an Olympic coach fondling the girls he was supposed to be coaching. Somebody must have seen something but nobody had the courage or concern to report it.
I think that one of the most obvious but seldom reported abuses in our society is child abuse. I am appalled whenever I read or hear stories of 2 or 3-year-old children beaten to death by a parent or a mother’s boyfriend. Most of these children have been known to and been seen by overworked social workers who left them unprotected in their abusive homes until they died. Somebody, a friend, neighbor or a teacher must have seen something but never reported it.
“if you see something, say something” also applies to animal abuse. Animals have rights too! No owner has the right to abuse or neglect a trusting pet. Nobody has the right to force pit bulls or roosters to fight each other until they die or are badly mauled. No wild animal should be beaten until he learns to perform in a circus. Every animal deserves a safe, loving environment suited to his breed and temperament. Jungle animals deserve to be left alone in their own natural environments. They don’t deserve to be abused, caged or trained to do tricks to please humans.
As for the politicians in Washington, D.C., this is another problem. We citizens need to be very careful whom we vote for and, if we see improper behavior among our elected officials, we need to say something and do something no matter how rich or powerful that person is. Everybody, including billionaires, needs to have decent moral values and concern for people less well off then they are, including immigrants. Even at the highest levels of government, “If you see something, say something!” Nobody is above the laws, legal and moral, and no one, no matter how powerful, should believe he is above the rest of us. Let us all try to find solutions for the corruption and lack of morals in our society and not become part of the problem by ignoring the pain and injustices going on all around us.Elaine Kirsch
Gravesend
New span is grand
To the editor,
A little bit of Brooklyn passed into history this week as the orange cones were removed, and the eastbound lanes on the new Mill Basin Bridge opened. Earlier in the fall season the westbound lanes of the Belt Parkway were transferred to the new bridge. Now with the opening of the eastbound lanes, the new roadway, towering over the old drawbridge, affords drivers and passengers a vista view of the New York harbor and of course, the New York City skyline.
The Belt Parkway has come a long way over the past decade and now, for five miles or so, from Cross Bay Boulevard to Sheepshead Bay, we are experiencing a world class ride, with no teeth jarring potholes!
As the three-quarters-of-a-century-old Mill Basin Drawbridge is dismantled to make way for the final lanes of the new bridge, I am sure us old timers will remember, maybe not all too fondly, the traffic delays experienced by the opening of the old bridge. But I will always remember watching drivers and passengers leave their cars to peer over the railing, to catch a view of the boat passing underneath, and enjoy a modicum of fresh sea air along the way.
Robert W. Lobenstein
Marine Park
Face facts: Pols failed
To the editor,
Facts skewed can affect our mood, as can cherry-picked data.
Chuck Schumer represents Chuck Schumer. Whatever he does openly, covertly, legally, illegally, honestly, underhandedly, tearless or tearful, is designed to benefit Chuck Schumer. I must admit, though, the “tears-with-props” performance was worthy of an Oscar.
When Donald Trump became President, he thought he took over a private corporation and placed the brightest people in key positions. He was wrong; I cannot think of one of President Trump’s cabinet nominees that I agree with, especially Sessions and DeVos. Additionally, Trump did not consider America’s internal enemies whose agenda is to insure that Trump fails and the hell with America.
Our national debt is at about $20-plus trillion — about $25 trillion is the point of no return. When Barack Obama took office, the debt was about $9 trillion and when George W. Bush took office we had a surplus. Debt should be compared to Gross Domestic Product (Debt:GDP), being mindful of extraneous circumstances.
In 1929 our Debt:GDP ratio was 16 percent (market crash); in 2000, 54 percent (welfare due to 35 years of liberal policies); in 2008, 67 percent (war on terror under Bush); in 2016, 105 percent (corporate and individual welfare run amuck under Obama); in 2017, 104 percent (the trend is seemingly reversing under Trump).
Generally, the recession under Bush can be equally attributed to W’s incompetence and to the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that repealed the 1933 Glass-Stegall Act that was enacted to regulate financial institutions after the 1929 market crash. Additionally, Bushwe’re seemed oblivious to radical Islam. Mohamed Atta, et al came to the U.S. during Clinton’s watch and set up shop for their 9-11 carnage. In 1999, CIA operative Henry Crumpton had bin Laden in his sights in Afghanistan, but Clinton refused to give the “kill shot” order. Had Clinton done his job of protecting America instead of doing a job on Monica, Gennifer, Paula, et al., the World Trade Center might be standing and we might not have entered Afghanistan and Iraq. When Bush took office, he should have ordered the completion of Crumpton’s mission.
Trump’s tax plan is a band-aid on an on-going liberal spending debacle. Tax cuts must be accompanied by key spending cuts (especially in handouts) along with reduced regulations – a la the 1980s initiatives of both Ronald Reagan (and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher). Had politicians worked for America, instead of themselves, today we would not have been plagued with illegals, legal immigrants with straw sponsors, and the threat of terrorism. A degraded America caused Donald Trump to run and win. I still don’t understand voters’ mindsets who voted for a Sing Sing-worthy candidate? We spend about $338 billion to support illegals.
As a minor financial point, the Trump White House uses 100 fewer employees than Obama’s, resulting in a much lower White House budget. Melania has five staffers, while Michelle had 24. The major significance is that Trump cares, while Obama did not; hence, more money spent than received.
Forget tax reform Ms. Kane; just let us keep the money we earn — and by the way, the rich that you deplore so much pay more than 80% of the nation’s personal income taxes – and “trickle-down economics” works; it’s called “supply-side economics.”
For more than a half century Democrats have been damaging our country while Republicans have been too incompetent to stop them — and don’t forget the crooked politicians aptly addressed by Mark Twain’s quote: “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.”Elio Valenti
Brooklyn
Keep subways open!
To the editor,
Having heard the latest of closing the MTA during evening hours from 10 pm to 4 am to repair tracks, this will cause much malicious mischief for the city’s residents.
This will cause many people to be laid off from their jobs, increase air pollution if substituted by buses, and cause crime to escalate.
If the MTA were to provide limousine service or have alternative routes, this would be preferable. Having resided in Dade County, Fla. for six years from 1961 to 1967, while it did not have a subway system, I had to rely on buses.
I remember once going to a show in Miami Beach and (trying to catch a bus) back to Biscayne Boulevard but because it was 12 midnight (and) the number 6 and number 30 buses were suspended until 6 am the next day, I had to walk 16 miles to get home.
As it is (here in New York) , leave things the way they are. I would just be interested to know whether this is the first time this would be done in New York City history.
Elliott Abosh
Brighton Beach
