34 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 25, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com editorial THE QUEENS VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH GRAZIELLA ZERILLI STEPHEN REINA RON TORINA, JENNIFER DECIO, CHERYL GALLAGHER LIAM LA GUERRE, CRISTABELLE TUMOLA, ANGY ALTAMIRANO KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA, ALINA SURIEL CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI CRISTABELLE TUMOLA DEMETRA PLAGAKIS LOUISE CAVALIERE CELESTE ALAMIN MARIA VALENCIA VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS PUBLISHER & EDITOR 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 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE CLASSIFIED MANAGER CONTROLLER PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 www.queenscourier.com editorial e-mail: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2015 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 offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, 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 fi ve 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 QUEENS 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. How do you plan on spending your Fourth of July weekend? “Probably not doing too much, maybe a barbeque in my backyard.” Christine Campbell BY BROOKE RUTMAN “I plan on seeing my granddaughter. It’s her birthday.” Frank Fierro “Just working. I have a 24/7 job.” Lina Maria “I don’t celebrate it too much, maybe going to Coney Island for fi reworks. They’re having an event for 3-4 weeks on Fridays.” Lucy Lee “With my friends, watching the fireworks.” Victor Shulberg “Family oriented with a barbeque. I wish I was at the Bahamas!” Marie Alfonso street talk “Barbecuing with friends in our backyard. And taking my kids to a museum.” Helen Wang “Going to DC with my mom. I’m meeting her there.” Nile Walker SNAPS QUEENS A piano by the post offi ce on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights. Photo via Instagram/@jacksonheightsny Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us via our Instagram @queenscourier, Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing [email protected] (subject: Queens Snaps). A time to mourn, a time to heal Let’s be clear about the three truths of the June 17 massacre at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was a terrorist attack. It was racially motivated. It was another stark reminder that our gun laws are a national disgrace. This was not the work of a madman killing for sport. This was a calculated assault by an evil, biased man looking to strike fear and terror into the hearts of an entire group of people. Terrorists, in their quest to break people, attack symbols of resiliency and strength. Emanuel A.M.E. Church — having survived two centuries of bigotry, from its original church being torched to its congregation being, at one point, driven underground — is such a symbol. The killer sought to break the congregation’s spirit, and he failed miserably. The church, the city and the country instead rallied around it — and will grow more united as the years go on. But let us not be so naive to believe that this is the end of violence or racism. Our nation’s struggle with race has gone on for nearly 240 years. Even in our own borough, the most diverse on Earth, Queens residents of color grapple with the same social, economic and political struggles as the rest of the country. Our elected and community leaders must continue to work to bridge the economic and social gaps that divide our people in order to give everyone a chance to succeed. Finally, this massacre — and others in preceding years — once again demonstrated how lethal our lax gun policies have become. It is already a foregone conclusion to many that the government, though it may act to stop terrorists and discrimination, won’t do anything in the wake of the Charleston massacre to control the fl ow of guns in this country. The gun lobby is simply way too powerful, and Congress is collectively too scared to stand up to it, as evidenced by its failures to adopt new gun regulations following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. So let us be the example of strength instead. The best way for Queens residents and Americans to honor the victims of the Charleston massacre is to remember the words of Robert F. Kennedy following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968: “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.”
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