WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JUNE 21, 2018 13
TRUMP’S
DISRESPECT
LEADING TO
A DIMINISHED
AMERICA
Earlier this month, we commemorated
the 72nd anniversary of D-Day,
the allied invasion of Europe. On that
day, United States, British, Australian
and Canadian servicemen stormed
the beaches of Normandy to liberate
Europe from the evil of fascism.
This is a longstanding alliance
among liberal Western democracies
is being disrespected and undermined
by the president.
A president purposelessly ordering
tariff s on Canada, our second largest
trading partner, while besmirching
the leaders of allied nations is not
normal. It’s a blunder we may never
fully recover from.
Let us hope America will someday
regain the mantle of leader of the free
world. For right now, America has
descended into something unrecognizable.
It is the strength, persistence
and insistence of those resisting this
attack on our founding values that
history will remember.
This dark and abnormal moment
will eventually pass us by. Brighter
days will return to our shores. As
the commanding general of D-Day,
Dwight Eisenhower once said,
“Freedom has its life in the hearts,
the actions, the spirit of men and so it
must be daily earned and refreshed —
else like a fl ower cut from its life-giving
roots, it will wither and die.”
Ethan Felder,
member of Community Board 6
BOARD 9
VOTE SERVED
CIVIC GROUP,
NOT PEOPLE
It was a sad day indeed in Kew Gardens
when Community Board 9 voted
down safety measures proposed by
the DOT.
The members of CB9Q unanimously
voted to support the single-family
homeowners association (Kew Gardens
Civic Association) in spite of
hundreds of residents on 116th, 118th
and the surrounding streets begging
for any safety measures to make their
lives safer.
For over three years, a large group
of Kew Gardens citizens have worked
hard to get safety measures put in
place to make the lives of their children,
senior citizens and friends safer.
Speeding traffi c on 116th Street has
created such a dangerous condition
that residents fear even walking on
the sidewalk.
A concerned community member
testified to this before CB9, “I ask
that you help us for my children,” but
her plea for help for children fell on
deaf ears.
Community Board 9 had previously
voted down a request for speed
humps on 116th Street to appease
a homeowner not wanting to hear
brakes squealing in front of his
home. Aft er protest CB 9 sent letters
to homeowners on two blocks asking
their opinions on implementing safety
measures.
The second set of traffi c safety measures
proposed by the DOT to make
the community safer was to convert
the street into one-way, which had the
added benefi t of restoring numerous
parking spots to the parking-challenged
community.
Nicole Garcia, NYC DOT, Queens
Borough Commissioner wrote of the
one-way conversion proposal, “Based
on our observations of 116th Street,
we are recommending a northbound
conversion of 116th Street from Babbage
to Metropolitan Avenue. … The
proposed changes will help enhance
safety and overall traffi c circulation
for the area.”
The recommendation of the Queens
Commissioner was not sufficient to
overcome the lobby by the single-family
homeowners association (KGCA) to Community
Board 9. In fact, at the open meeting
of Community Board 9 Queens, Rabbi Daniel
Pollack, Community Board 9 Queens
Member stated they must oppose these
recommendations in light of the opposition
from their “sister organization,” the
Kew Gardens Homeowners Association.
How can a private organization
that denies co-op/condo owners
and renters a right to vote, be able
to represent our community in an
organization that is funded by our
tax dollars?
In a roll call vote, every member of
the Community Board present held
up their hand to vote against DOT
proposed safety measures in Kew
Gardens and side with the single-family
homeowners’ association.
It is truly a sad time in our community
when the Community Board Members
appointed by Queens Borough President
Melinda Katz, Council member
Eric Ulrich and Council member Karen
Koslowitz vote against safety for the
children in the community. Numerous
letters to the Council members have
gone completely unanswered. Letters
to Borough President Melinda Katz
were sent. Her staff responded that she
is taking no action.
Indeed, it seems like the single-family
homeowners’ association (KGCA)
owns more than single-family homes
in Kew Gardens.
M.K. Moore, Kew Gardens
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LETTERS AND COMMENTS
We are better than this
BY QUEENS BOROUGH
PRESIDENT MELINDA KATZ
President Trump’s immigration
policy is dehumanizing individuals,
ripping children from
the arms of their parents and tearing
families apart. It makes this otherwise
proud American deeply embarrassed
of my home country. The
future history of the United States
will be unkind to this national shame
and humanitarian crisis.
We are better than this. We must
be better than this.
I could talk about the poem on
the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your
tired, your poor, your huddled
masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming
shore.” I could cite that sacred document
called the Constitution that lays
out basic due process needs by which
a government must abide. I could also
reference the Four Freedoms that
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
espoused and is memorialized in the
State of New York by the great Park
on Roosevelt Island.
As an attorney by trade, a former
professor of Constitutional Law, and
as the President of
the Borough of Queens where 48
percent of our 2.3 million residents
were born outside the United States,
I hold all these principles to be
“self-evident.”
Today, however, all of it – including
the character of our nation – is
being tested.
As a mother, as an American, and
as a woman of faith, our nation’s
broken immigration laws and policies
shake me to my core. It keeps
me up at night to imagine having
my 7-year-old urgently memorize a
phone number, knowing that once
he is ripped away from my arms
indefi nitely into the unknown, his
ability to remember those precious
10 digits will be the only lifeline to
connect to any family. It wrenches
my heart to imagine the horror of
my child locked up behind a chainlinked
cage, and not having any way
to contact or track him, much less
know where or how he is.
Even in a Sanctuary City like
New York, broad raids and sweeps
of immigration enforcement – even
of those without a criminal record
– have successfully spread fear and
imposed a chilling eff ect on everyday
activities and responsibilities.
This is an issue that transcends any
debate about immigration or borders.
Such cruelty betrays the American
narrative. It is a barbaric, xenophobic
immigration policy unfi tting of the
greatest and most powerful nation
in the world. Set forth by President
Trump, this government-sanctioned
nightmare is wreaking terror upon
millions of families, including American
citizens.
To separate families like this challenges
and compromises our humanity.
With one action by the president,
this horrifying reality can come to a
halt. We must not and will not rest
until then.
In the meantime, Queens will
continue to do everything possible
to help counteract the hostility of the
current political climate. We are a
nation of immigrants, and Queens
is about all of our families’ futures.
Next week, I am hosting a “Know
Your Rights Week” for immigrants
in partnership with a host of organizations
and colleagues in local government.
The legal advice is free and
confi dential, available at fi ve events
across fi ve neighborhoods between
June 25-29 designed to connect our
various communities to committed
legal experts, advocates and other
resources. Queens has your back.