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18 THE COURIER SUN • JANUARY 29, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com editorial letters sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Bob Brennan Tom Topousis 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, Salvatore Licata Cliff Kasden, Samantha Sohmer, Elizabeth Aloni Cristabelle Tumola Demetra Plagakis Warren Susman 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 Sales fax: 718-631-3498 www.couriersun.com editorial e-mail: editorial@queenscourier.com for advertising e-mail: ads@queenscourier.com Entire Contents Copyright 2015 by The Courier Sun All letters sent to THE COURIER SUN 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. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE COURIER SUN. 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 COURIER SUN within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. VIctoria Media Services 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 Courier SUN 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. IDENTIFY THIS PLACE Go to www.queenscourier.com and search “Identify This Place” to find out where this is Proposed Mosque did not meet local zoning I have been serving the Kissena Park Civic Association as the Zoning Chair since around 1985 and have also served on the Queens Civic Congress as the Zoning & Code Enforcement Chair for about the last 11 years. I have never presented an argument to our community board, borough president or the BSA based on anything but the facts and the zoning law. I understand the variance process quite well as I have testified at all three public hearings as part of the ULURP as well as before the City Council Zoning Committee numerous times. I find the slant in the article published Jan. 15, 2015, regarding the community board hearing of Jan. 12, 2015, very offensive. I find Muhammed Sheth’s accusations of prejudicial treatment at this hearing entirely wrong. In my opinion Mr. Sheth is using the recent issues in the news about the horrible actions of Muslim extremists to blur the real issues of zoning law. Most people know that the great majority of Muslim people live by a very peaceful standard, but again that is not the issue at hand. This and the next two public hearings at the Office of the Borough President of Queens and the BSA is only about zoning and what is allowed by zoning law. Variances are part of the zoning process. This case is an unusual circumstance because of the irregular lot size and shape chosen for the location of the proposed building. The BSA sometimes permits minor reasonable deviations of the stringent zoning laws when it does not create a major impact on the community. These laws were created to protect the character and quality of life in our residential communities. This application includes many variance requests that far exceed the realm of being reasonable or minimal. For that reason alone both the neighborhood and the community board exhibited strong opposition to this building as presented in the application. This is not the first building that was rejected for trying to step too far from a “reasonable and minimal” variance request at this site. In 2005 the community board, borough president and the BSA all rejected the variances required to erect a dental facility and laboratory at this site for many of the same reasons this application was rejected. Unless the applicant can make major changes to their building so that any variances needed will truly be minimal and have little or no impact to the character and quality of life on the residents of the Kissena Park neighborhood of Flushing, it is likely this site will remain an empty lot. Joe Amoroso Flushing President insults France I find it quite troubling and disturbing that President Obama, Vice President Biden and State Department Secretary Kerry could not be in Paris, France, with many of the world leaders to show solidarity against terrorism. We have a very long history with France going all the way back to the Revolutionary War and the help we received to achieve democracy and freedom. Let us also not forget the gift from France of the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of our freedom, independence and the welcome mat for future Americans to join us in that freedom. This I feel was an insult to France not having our national leaders presence there. All I can say is this: “Shame on you Obama and company!” Frederick R. Bedell Jr. Glen Oaks Village Isis must be stopped The beheading of one of those two Japanese hostages by ISIS is yet another reason for the civilized world to work together to destroy this horrific, murderous group before they kill more innocent people. The situation in the Middle East is continuing to spiral out of control, and if the conflict widens, world peace and stability will be threatened even more than it already is. Add to that the worsening conflict in Ukraine with fighting continuing in that country, and you have a nightmare scenario should Europe and the U.S. have to militarily confront Russia. Seventy-six years ago, the world was plunged into a catastrophic and disastrous conflict, which cost millions of military and civilian lives and left most of Europe and Asia in ruins. That cannot and must not ever be allowed to happen again, for if it does, all humanity would be destroyed and there would be no winners at all. John Amato Fresh Meadows IT’S TIME FOR REAL POLITICAL REFORM IN SCANDAL-SCARRED ALBANY The arrest of state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver last week on federal corruption charges should be the sort of political bombshell that comes along once in a generation. Sadly, we’re seeing these calamitous events come up faster than exit signs on the New York State Thruway. Keep in mind, this is the state that witnessed a governor, Eliot Spitzer, step down from office over a hooker scandal less than a decade ago. And the former top man in the state Senate, Jamaica’s very own Malcolm Smith, is currently on trial for trying to rig his nomination for the mayoralty. And let’s not forget that Silver helped to cover up state payouts to two women who claimed they were sexually harassed by former Assemblyman Vito Lopez. The list goes on and on. For U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, rooting out corruption at the State Capitol has been like shooting fish in a barrel. He’s an accomplished prosecutor, sure. But ethics and campaign laws in our state are so inadequate that they almost invite corruption. There’s an old saying in New York politics: You have to be really stupid to steal because you can take so much legally! It’s high time that our state gets smart. We need real reform in Albany — from campaign finance to reorganizing the way our state concentrates power into the hands of just three elected officials to the opaque financial disclosure rules for public officials. Gov. Cuomo was elected in 2010 with the promise of cleaning up Albany. The campaign finance reform he won from the Legislature last year fell far short of what’s needed. And with that minor victory posing as reform, the governor shut down the Moreland Commission he empowered to root out corruption. Thanks to the US Attorney, we no longer need a commission to investigate. What New York’s residents need is for their elected representatives to get serious about making state government accountable and transparent, from the daily operations of the Legislature to the laws regulating how candidates finance their campaigns for office. We urge Gov. Cuomo to seize this opportunity to push for the types of meaningful reform we believe he wants. Sometimes scandals can produce the kind of political momentum that’s needed to make change. We think this is one of those times.


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