FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com JUNE 2, 2016 • THE QUEENS COURIER 29 oped letters & comments READER AGREES: QUEENS NEEDS A WOMAN’S STATUE IN KEW GARDENS I read your May 12 article about the former location in Kew Gardens of the Civic Virtue monument, and was very sorry to see that a mundane and politically correct plaque is all that can be mustered as a replacement to recognize women of our borough who embody a greatness beyond gender. In the most ethnically diverse of all the boroughs, a signifi cant statue is merited by the prominence of that location of a subject recognized worldwide that inspires all human beings regardless of race, creed, religion, gender or national origin. It should also be of a time before the modern era to best avoid the controversy of passing and small-minded topical and political associations. For that reason, as important and notable all of the more recent Queens women your article mentions as candidates no doubt are in their fi elds, the standout to grace that location for all time for all the people easily ought to be Anne Sullivan (and Helen Keller), as their story stands for the great general principles of hope, persistence and selfl essness against all odds. Mitch Ross, Bayside APPEAL FOR FUNDING FOR QUEENS’ CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS Over the next week, the Mayor and City Council will be completing the NYC Budget for fi scal year 2017, and the Queens Museum and the entire cultural sector needs your help. The City Council has lead efforts to increase the city’s cultural budget by $40 million. This could mean a signifi cant increase in funding A LOOK BACK They used to call the intersection of Metropolitan and Flushing avenues in Ridgewood “Bohack Square,” as it was adjacent to the headquarters of the nowdefunct, but still beloved Bohack supermarket chain. Bohack faded into consumer history in 1977, but its remnants can still be seen on the smokestack of one of its former buildings at the intersection. Send us your historic photos of Queens by sharing them on our Facebook and Twitter pages, emailing them to [email protected], or mailing printed pictures to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you upon request. to the Queens Museum. It would also mean additional opportunities for artists, and arts groups big and small throughout the city. The Queens Museum also has a signifi cant request in for capital funds to realize Phase 2 of our expansion, including new classrooms, the branch of the Queens Library at the Museum, art storage and other crucial elements of front and back of house operations. We have requested $2.5 million from the Council and $2.5 from the DCA. You can help all of the aforementioned become a reality by calling any council member with whom you have a relationship and thanking them for their efforts and encouraging them to keep up the fi ght during the next week. If you can’t reach them personally, leave a message expressing your feelings. The key players on the Council side are Jimmy Van Bramer (718-383-9566), Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (718-651-1917) and Karen Koslowitz (718-544-8800). The key player on the administration side is First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris (212-788-3000). Thank you for your support. David Strauss, director, Queens Museum GOING TOO FAR WITH MASSAGE PARLOR BUSTS What exactly did they crack down on? One happy ending and three women giving massages with no license. Anyone have any idea what it takes to get a massage license? It puts the cost massages out of reach for 99 percent of the people. This is a crime similar to jay walking. And yet we get this sensational headline. What a waste of taxpayer dollars. A more useful allocation of resources would be to stop all that speeding down private streets where our kids walk home from school. QNS user Michael Scott New challenges for parents of children with autism disorder BY SANDRA ALBANESE Recently, I attended a conference for families of individuals with autism aging out of special education services funded by school districts. This transition is ominously referred to as “falling off the service cliff.” The speaker discussed the need for more 24/7 residential beds. Behind me a mother in tears reached out, saying, “What am I going to do with my son? He needs someone to take care of him. The residential beds are not being built for him. I have no family to take care of him after I’m gone. What will happen to him?” What will happen to him? How do we answer this? I feel this mother’s fear. My son Matthew is 19 years old and has autism. He lives in our warm and loving home. We take care of him, prepare his meals, do his laundry and take him to the movies. He has a pretty good life. He knows nothing else and cannot anticipate or imagine a life without us. But we know better. As a parent of a child with a disability, I’d like to think that I’ll never get sick and I’ll live forever. But realistically, I know that one day I won’t be around. I fear that my beloved son won’t always be so happy and have the quality of life that he enjoys today. I’m not asking for your pity. Many parents face the same fears. Surely, an adult with a developmental disability won’t go homeless and wander the streets. We believe that when we are gone the government will step in, provide housing, funding daily programs or supporting independent living. It is more likely that they will have food, shelter and nothing to do — the minimum level of care, not the quality we’d like for our loved ones. Many years ago, parents were urged to put their children into institutions, to spend their lives shut away. As a society, we have moved away from this idea. Through the years, the laws have changed and there are more choices. This is a good thing. Today, the mission of the Offi ce for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) is “… to help people with developmental disabilities live richer lives. The agency’s vision is to ensure that people with developmental disabilities enjoy meaningful relationships with family, friends and others in their lives; experience personal health and growth; live in homes and fully participate in communities of their choice.” Its 2015-2016 budget of approximately $4.4 billion supports a comprehensive system of care that serves 126,000 New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Recently, New York State’s policies seem to refl ect a fear of expensive lawsuits, not the safety and wellbeing of the individual. Families are confused when faced with taking care of their adult children when no safe program is available, the safe program they’ve been in for years is marked for elimination or the appropriate program is ineligible for funding. Let’s remind our policymakers that the mission of OPWDD is to assure that individuals with special needs have the broadest choice when faced with how they live their lives. That they are provided with the right level of care is vital to their well-being. The argument that a person be forced to integrate into the community may be appropriate for some but not all. We need to write our representatives on the federal and state levels, such as Senator John Flanagan, majority leader in the NY State Senate, to remind them of the mission when making sweeping changes to the policies that keep individuals with developmental disabilities safe while providing a quality of life.
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