28 The QUEE NS Courier • may 29, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com editorial letters The Pope’s Mideast trip ... a positive sign for peace? As Pope Francis prepares for his trip to the Mideast, let us hope that it will contribute to bringing much-needed peace and stability to a region that is on the verge of an all-out war. Israelis and Palestinians need to be able to sit down and deal with all of the serious issues that continue to divide them. Perhaps the Pope will add some impetus to this situation. He is a man of great vision and compassion, and he is well-liked all over the world. Our best wishes to Pope Francis on his Mideast pilgrimage. All the peoples of the Mideast and the world want to have peace and stability. John Amato Fresh Meadows Warning: Reform does not mean innovation What a word actually means can be less important than the way it’s commonly used. If the original intent of the word has been corrupted, you can ironically set yourself up for misunderstanding by using it as it was originally meant. That’s especially true of education “reform.” Be careful when messing with words. Be even more careful when not messing with words. You can incur the wrath of the dictionary revisionists. Mayor Bill de Blasio and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew both believe in true “reform.” Neither is pretending. Both are sincere. They have a vision that is genuinely united or at least aligned. Neither needs to sacrifice conviction to have a meeting of the minds with the other. It is actual, not stage-managed. But the most unscrupulous enemies of true reform are the wolves in sheep’s clothing who dub themselves “reformers.” They just want to annihilate public education. The champions of true reform will fight them. It’s war. And Mulgrew said so. For that the habitual snipers in the press and their lackeys in the charter sector blasted him. They said that after hoodwinking the City to get a contract, the UFT is thumbing its nose at the mayor. Of course the mayor knows better and said so. Mulgrew prefers the word “innovation,” used properly, rather than the word “reform,” used improperly. That makes perfect sense. It’s necessary to avoid the word “reform” because it lends itself to being twisted. Years ago I asked a bus driver in Munich, Germany, whether his route went to the Dachau Concentration Camp. He glared at me with eyes that could have pierced concrete. Well, I needed to know the directions, and in Roget’s thesaurus there’s no synonym for “concentration camp,” (though there is for “reform”) so how could I have dodged the term? Thirty years later I asked an official of the Consulate how I could have avoided offending the bus driver. He said that maybe I should have preceded “concentration camp” with the word “former.” We should all say what we mean and mean what we say, if we can. The teachers union knows how to use “reform” correctly and does so. The enemies of public schools could use it correctly but don’t because they don’t want to. They have hijacked the word and taken it hostage. The teachers union is fed up with that misappropriation. Philosophically and in the field, they are the real deal reformers. Or should we say what was “formerly” known as reform? Ron Isaac Fresh Meadows EDITOR’S NOTE The foregoing letter was inadvertently cut short in last week’s edition. We reprint it here in full. Other transportation options exist now Intelligent Long Island Rail Road riders are not waiting until 2021 or 2022 for East Side Access to begin actual service into Grand Central Station. They take advantage of existing options already available. Transferring at Woodside for the No. 7 express subway will take you to Grand Central Terminal in under 15 minutes. This is five minutes more than staying on to Penn Station or changing at Queensboro Plaza from the No. 7 subway for either the N or Q subway, which will take you to 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in even less time. LIRR passengers disembarking at either Hunters Point or Long Island City can transfer to the No. 7 subway and arrive at Grand Central Terminal in under five minutes. There is also a ferry at Long Island City with connections to 34th Street, Wall Street and other destinations. Another option for LIRR riders is to change at Jamaica for the E subway line. The E line will take you to 53rd Street and Lexington Avenue. You can also change from the E line to the F line at Union Turnpike. The F subway line takes you to 63rd Street and Lexington Avenue. You can also change from the E line to the R line at Queens Plaza. The R line will take you to 59th Street and Lexington Avenue. Larry Penner Great Neck IDENTIFY THIS PLACE Go to www.queenscourier.com and search “Identify This Place” to find out where this is OUT ON A LIMB Joyce Kilmer once wrote a poem that began, “I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.” Howard Beach residents might be tempted to end the line with “unless the tree is dumped in front of your house by the Parks Department.” As part of the MillionTreesNYC movement, Parks is planting trees in front of houses without consultation. There. It’s yours. Too bad. While this page is in favor of trees, we’re also in favor of responsive government. The Parks Department essentially thumbed its nose at homeowners, saying it was “willing” to listen to homeowners but adding that the plantings work “as a system” and allowing choice of site or species would “undermine the effectiveness” of its program. Undermine the effectiveness of the Parks Department? In a city where neighborhood parks are strewn with garbage and scarred by vandalism and graffiti, effectiveness would be a wonder beyond words. It seems to us more of a dogmatic adherence to a program and an ineffective way of serving the city’s taxpayers. HIGH SCHOOL ART We are delighted to report this week the success of several high school students in their artistic endeavors. Students at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside won first prize in a contest for their whimsical and imaginative representation of Alice in Wonderland using milk cartons. To them, our sincere congratulations. And several businesses in Glendale and Ridgewood are benefitting from an art project at a nearby Bushwick high school. Students at the Academy of Urban Planning are making captivating and entirely professional window ads for small businesses. Everybody is a winner here and we hope this marvelous phenomenon continues. GUN VIOLENCE We have seen enough gun violence in Queens to last us several lifetimes, but the massacre in California truly horrifies us. The ease of access to guns — particularly for the mentally ill — is a scourge this country repeatedly suffers. We support the efforts of our former mayor Mike Bloomberg as he seeks to restrict the rampant availability of deadly weapons. We mourn the victims of the senseless violence in California as we mourn all those innocently and needlessly killed by the plague of guns. PARADES A HIT Memorial Day parades flourished in Queens and we are particularly happy to see the success of the Little Neck-Douglaston parade, the oldest of its kind in Queens. The parade was in financial trouble but several benefactors, including Douglaston resident and businessman Carl Mattone, donated to save this neighborhood institution. We thank all the donors for their generosity. And, as we mentioned in previous columns, we remember with pride and gratitude the sacrifice made by the service members who gave their lives for this country. 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, Eric Jankiewicz Cliff Kasden, Samantha Sohmer, Elizabeth Aloni Cristabelle Tumola Demetra Plagakis 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. 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