26 The QUEE NS Courier • may 1, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com editorial “Identify This Place” to find out where this is letters IDENTIFY THIS PLACE Go to www.queenscourier.com and search Raccoons a problem in Whitestone I think something that is wrong in my neighborhood is that there are too many raccoons. I think this is a problem because they eat through the garbage and it gets everywhere. I think the city should try to find a new home for the raccoons to live. Raccoons also eat all of your plants that you put in your garden. I think raccoons shouldn’t be here anymore and should go somewhere else. Dylan Denicker Holy Trinity School, Whitestone Water rates a hidden tax While acknowledging the need to pay for our City’s water infrastructure, it is totally unfair that the water fee paid has become greater than the amount needed to maintain the former system. The water rate increases, amounting to a hidden tax, have placed an unfair burden on middle class New Yorkers, homeowners and small businesses. These costs have a residual effect on thousands of rent-stabilized families! I urge Mayor de Blasio to hold fast to his campaign promise: that customers should only be billed for the actual cost of paying down the debt for the City’s water infrastructure. Excessive water fees have been a burden on the middle class for too long. It needs to stop now! Mohammed Hassan President, Kew Gardens Hills Tenant Association U.S. should stand up to Putin Vladimir Putin is devious and duplicitous. He is defining reality to support his illegitimate claims and justify aggression. If this was the 1930s we could substitute the name Hitler for Putin and find the same actions. The Ukraine is an independent nation. It has been such since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Crimea became a part of the Ukraine when the Soviets transferred the territory to it. The eastern part of the Ukraine has always been part of the nation. The Russian speakers in the Ukraine—who Putin publically uses as a pretext for annexation— are Ukrainian. They are not citizens of Russia. Yet Putin has threatened military action to “protect Russian citizens” who act as proxies for the Russians and have seized Ukrainian government buildings. The Kiev government is lawfully acting to regain control of the organs of government held by these Russian Fifth Columnists and what purportedly are Russian soldiers hiding their identity. The agreement by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart to end the crisis was simply a Russian farce. Putin had no intentions of removing his provocateurs or releasing the seized buildings or acknowledging the integrity of Ukrainian borders. Europe is frightened to act due to its dependence on Russian gas. The U.S. can only react with sanctions that appear laughable. Neville Chamberlain confronted similar limitations and fear when confronting Nazi aggression. His capitulation to Hitler insured the second world war. If the US and Europe fail to act ending Russian aggression Putin will demand more, take more and push the limits until the bombs begin to fall. Therefore Putin is not in question. The question is when courage to act will arise: before or after bloodshed. Edward Horn Baldwin A call for more teachers I think schools should hire more teachers. This can help our school grow and can help the community. Hiring more teachers means more possibilities for extra special activities or more room for an extra class in a grade with too many kids. Education in very important because this makes us smart and allows us to get good jobs so we can help people in need, like the disabled or elderly. Kids may have trouble in school. So when we hire teachers, they can be tutors. This helps kids get better at a certain subject. Having a tutor is just like having an extra teacher at home. Students who tutor other students can get the feeling of being a teacher while working their way toward that goal. Some people may disagree with this idea, but education is very important for our whole life. School is here for a reason, you know. Fiona Wensek Holy Trinity School, Whitestone VISIT THE QUEENS Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Bob Brennan William J. Gorta Amy Amato-Sanchez Nirmal Singh Graziella Zerilli Stephen Reina Ron Torina, Jennifer Decio, Cheryl Gallagher Liam La Guerre, Cristabelle Tumola Angy Altamirano, Katrina Medoff Cliff Kasden, Samantha Sohmer, Elizabeth Aloni Cristabelle Tumola Maria Romero Louise Cavaliere Celeste Alamin Maria Valencia Daphne Fortunate Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Publisher & E ditor Co-Publisher Associate Publisher Editor-In-Chief VP, Events, Web & Social Media Art Director Assistant to Publisher Assistant Art Director Artists Staff Reporters Contributing Reporters Web Editor Events Manager Senior Acc ount Executive Classified Manager Controller Office Manager President & CEO Vice President Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 website: www.queenscourier.com e-mail:[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2014 by The Queens Courier All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER 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 QUEENS COURIER. 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 QUEENS COURIER within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications 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 Quens Courier 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 any such advertisement. QueensCourier.com HAPPY ENDING It will be a happy graduation after all for the fifth-graders at P.S. 117 in Briarwood. Several weeks ago, Liam La Guerre reported that the kids at the school were going to be denied a traditional graduation — no dance, no yearbook, no regalia — after money went missing from the accounts of the school’s Parent Teacher Association. But big-hearted Queens residents (are there really any other kind?) dug deep and raised the money so the children could have a proper send-off to middle school. Kudos to Jack Friedman and the Queens Chamber of Commerce and to the Briarwood Latchkey Generation Facebook group for spearheading the effort. The Courier salutes the Melrose Credit Union, New York Community Bank, TD Bank, Plaza College, Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, Thermos & Thomiavia, P.C. and all the other donors who contributed. LETTER PERFECT The Courier is happy to publish on this page two letters from students at Holy Trinity School in Whitestone. Dylan Denicker and Fiona Wensek were kind enough and concerned enough to share their thoughts with The Courier and our readers. They raise serious issues and we thank them for bringing them to our attention. On the page opposite, in the Op-Ed space, The Courier is proud to bring our readers advice from Isabella Taxilaga. Isabella, a first-grader, won the grand prize in the Be Kind People Project’s national student writing contest even though most of the competitors were much older than she. Give her piece a read; her tips for surviving first grade apply as well to the lives of older children and adults. TAKING A BATH We have heard much rejoicing that the water rates are only increasing slightly more than 3 percent or so this year. Well, as City Councilman Rory Lancman was kind enough to point out to us, the rates will yield about $150 million more than is necessary to service the relevant water and sewer infrastructure debt — and that extra revenue goes into the city’s general fund — just like your tax dollars. Mayor Bill de Blasio made a fuss decrying hidden taxes, including spiraling water rates, when he was the public advocate and a mayoral candidate. While The Courier recognizes the need for some taxes, we also applaud honesty in dealing with the people who pay them. De Blasio proudly ran for mayor as a classic tax-and-spend Democrat. Why is he now ashamed to admit that the water rates are simply another tax?
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