WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JULY 18, 2019 13
LETTERS AND COMMENTS
HELP 9/11 FIRST
RESPONDERS NOW
The House of Representatives has
passed extending the 9/11 Victim
Compensation Fund. This bill will
further aid fi refi ghters, police and
other first responders sick from
working on Ground Zero. Now it is
time for the U.S. Senate to step up and
do the right thing.
Many fi rst responders have already
died and many more are sick due to
their service to our nation. It is also
time to aid and honor those who have
sacrifi ce for America and given up
their health in the process.
I say to the U.S. Senate, “Please don’t
let down those who gave their all!”
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
PREPPING THE
NEW MACHINE
It appears as if the heavy handed
(submit or you will receive a primary
challenge) Justice Democrats are
striving to become the new “machine.”
If the most qualified candidate,
Greg Lasak, had been endorsed by the
Queens County Democrats, Tiff any
Caban would already be relegated to
the dustbin of history.
A. Hagan, Bayside
LAMENTING THE
LOSS OF ‘MAD’
The demise of Mad Magazine is
unfortunate. As a teenager growing up
in the 1960s, I looked forward to each
issue. “Spy vs. Spy” and “The Lighter
Side Of” were two of my favorite
regular features.
While other magazines included
fold-ins, Mad went against the grain
with fold-outs. Competitors such as
Cracked, Crazy, Sick and others were
also funny but not in the same league.
The antics of Alfred E. Neuman
was someone everyone could relate to.
Who could forget how we all laughed
to the free record Mad Magazine added
as a bonus to one issue titled “It’s a Gas”?
The record predated both Howard
Stern’s Fart Man and Mel Brooks
“Blazing Saddles” campfi re beans and
fl atulence scene.
Mad Magazine was ahead of its
time, not paying attention to political
correctness. Their social satire took on
all comers, Democrats and Republicans,
liberals and conservatives, young and
old, single or married, gay or straight,
religious or atheist, drugs, sex and even
the Vietnam War. How refreshing that
there was no subject that was taboo in
each and every issue.
Mad Magazine was a national
treasure that should be remembered
for decades to come.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
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OP-ED
The complex case of
court interpreters
BY DAVID WAYNE
On July 4, The Queens Courier
a sister publication of the
Ridgewood Times published
an article by Max Parrott which
raised important issues with respect to
courtroom interpretation, particularly
in Queens Civil Court.
The staff court interpreters at
Queens Civil Court, along with their
colleagues around the city, share
the concerns of Sateesh Nori of the
Legal Aid Society and others quoted
in your article, that Limited English
Proficient litigants should have
high-quality interpretation readily
available to them.
Not only do
court interpreters
have an ethical
obligat ion to
provide such
services — most
of the interpreters
employed by
New York state
courts are also
members of the
same immigrant
c ommu n i t i e s
which they serve,
and as such they
are far from
indifferent to those
c ommu n i t i e s ’
needs.
Nevertheless,
the issues dealt
with in Mr.
Parrott’s article are more complex
than they appear.
According to the Office of Court
Administration, there were 107,812
cases filed Queens Civil Court in 2018.
While there are no precise statistics
on the number of cases requiring an
interpreter, we can extrapolate from
a few facts.
In their book “Nonstop Metropolis,”
Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-
Schapiro call Queens the most
linguistically diverse urban area
in the world. Fifty-six percent of
the borough’s population speak
a language other than English at
home. Among those, according to
the 2010 census, there are almost
half a million Spanish speakers,
more than 160,000 speakers of some
variant of Chinese, and more than
100,000 speakers of languages from
the Indian subcontinent.
In spite of these daunting statistics,
the number of full-time staff
interpreters for Spanish in Queens
Civil Court is currently four. One
full-time Bengali interpreter is based
in Queens Civil, while none of the
Civil Court’s Mandarin, Cantonese or
Fuzhou interpreters is based there.
Interpreters are frequently
asked to cover an entire f loor
(four busy court parts), in addition
to attending to inquiries in the
clerk’s office and other related
duties. These are the conditions
under which interpreters have
to attempt to provide the quality
service which the public expects
and deserves.
There is no question about the
Unified Court System’s commitment
to maintaining high standards
for its court interpreters; the
i n c r e a s i n g l y
c h a l l e n g i n g
exams it uses to
certify them are
ample evidence
of that.
Unfortunately,
t h i s ve r y
a p p r o p r i a t e
increase in
e x p e c t a t i on s
has not been
accompanied by
a commensurate
increase in
compensation, so
that, at the same
time that the
test has become
harder, the state
hasn’t been able
to attract as
many qualified
candidates to take it.
Like the rest of us, agencies like
the Office of Court Administration
are subject to the constant chorus of
voices claiming that public services
cost too much.
The truth those voices don’t want
to understand is that public services
cost what they cost, and if we aren’t
willing to pay for them, we will suffer
the consequences.
In this case, those consequences
— under-staffing, overwork and
outsourcing — are among the problems
which lead to the kind of experiences
which your paper documented at
Queens Civil Court. In order to allow
our courts to do their job, they need to
be adequately fi nanced.
An increase in the resources the
Unifi ed Court System has to dedicate
to the recruitment and retention
of interpreters would be a step in
that direction.
David Wayne is the chair of the
Court Interpreter Chapter of Local
1070 of District Council 37.
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