26 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 17, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Extraordinary eff orts in extraordinary times
Th e longest government shutdown in
American history has entered its fourth
painful week, and some 800,000 of our
fellow Americans are paying the price for
political insolence.
Since President Ronald Reagan famously
declared government to be “the problem”
THE QUEENS
editorial
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VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
BOB BRENNAN
ROBERT POZARYCKI
NIRMAL SINGH
EMILY DAVENPORT
JENNA BAGCAL, MARK HALLUM, KATRINA MEDOFF,
CARLOTTA MOHAMED, ALEJANDRA O'CONNELL-DOMENECH,
BILL PARRY
CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI
DEBORAH CUSICK
CELESTE ALAMIN
MARIA VALENCIA
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS
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STORY: U.S. Postal Service installing the ‘Cadillac of Mailboxes’ across
northeast Queens to stop mail theft
SUMMARY: Plans to replace regular blue mailboxes with high-security
collection boxes are underway in the confi nes of the Bayside-based
111th Precinct.
REACH: 14,210 people reached (as of 1/14/19)
in his 1981 inaugural address, it’s
been popular to think of government as
this soulless, all-consuming entity that
does nothing but spend our taxpayer dollars
and get in the way of progress.
How easy it is to forget, however, that
government is, as President Abraham
Lincoln famously said, “of the people, by
the people, for the people.”
Who are the people? Th ey are airport security
agents, law enforcement offi cers, parks
service personnel, bank regulators, food
inspectors and so much more.
Th ey are, in the end, people who work
hard, have families to support, have bills to be
paid. Right now, they’re caught in the middle
of a political game and going through great
fi nancial diffi culty. Some are furloughed and
stuck at home, while others are still at work
— but without compensation.
While the obstinance in Washington continues,
ordinary civilians are stepping up
to do extraordinary things to their fellow
Americans get through this diffi cult time.
We see it right here in Queens, with vendors
at Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports
off ering free meals to Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) agents for the shutdown’s
duration. Several local charities are
also pitching in, holding food drives and distributions
to help federal workers feed their
families while they go without a paycheck.
It’s no surprise that the generosity of
Queens residents and others across the
country comes through in the end, to
make a grim situation a little brighter.
Th at’s the spirit of who we are as a borough,
as a city, as a state, as a country.
Of course, this shutdown is an unnecessary
situation. Th ere’s no logical reason
for its continuation.
Th e House Democrats have passed no
fewer than six bills, versions of legislation
overwhelmingly approved by the
Republican-led Senate in December, that
the current Senate now refuses to take up,
and the current president refuses to consider
because it lacks the funding for an
unpopular and unnecessary border wall.
Th e 800,000 federal workers harmed by
this shutdown must no longer be held hostage.
Th ey must be restored to a paying basis
immediately. We can only hope this fi nally
happens sometime aft er this paper went
to press, and that government fi nally reopens
sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, we’re grateful to all
those who’ve done what they could to
help local federal workers get a bite to eat
and support their families in the midst of
this endless shutdown.
It’s truly a demonstration of the greatness
America has always had.
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