20 THE COURIER SUN • FEBRUARY 26, 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: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] 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. 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IDENTIFY THIS PLACE Go to www.queenscourier.com and search “Identify This Place” to find out where this is Queens College’s pension pig As a Queens College graduate (B.A. 1962), I’m shocked and disgusted to learn that retired Q.C. history professor Edgar McManus is the top pension earner of New York State’s teachers and administrators, receiving $561,286 annually, reported Newdsay and the N.Y. Post. He should have taught a course called Retirement Planning 101: How to Plunder the Pension System. But he’s just one of many richly rewarded retirees and active employees. CUNY Chancellor James Milliken gets over $600,000 in annual salary plus an $18,000 monthly housing allowance, noted the Post. CUNY was tuition free when I went there, prompting Time magazine to call it “The Poor Kids’ Harvard.” Students now pay $6,000 a year, but CUNY is a paycheck paradise for retirees and administrators. Let’s end its outof control compensation. Dick Reif, Flushing Fighting continues to rage Despite the fragile ceasefire in Ukraine, fighting continues to rage and intensify in the eastern section of that country. The separatist rebels, who are being supported by Russian military hardware and some troops, continue to fight against the Ukranian army unabated. This situation is spiraling out of control, and, with each and every passing day, threatens to engulf that region in a larger, full-scale, all-out conflict, which would most certainly be a threat to peace and stability in that part of the world. Russia needs to withdraw its military hardware and personnel immediately so that this ceasefire will actually be able to take effect and hopefully hold. The Ukranian government also needs to exercise restraint as well. Both sides cannot afford an escalation of this conflict, because it would almost certainly drag all of Europe, as well as the U. S. and Russia, into it, which could prove to be nothing short of disastrous. Cool heads and common sense need to prevail here! John Amato, Fresh Meadows Label GMOs in food I believe I have a right to know what’s in my food, and I have a very personal reason for my belief. I have been diagnosed with Lyme disease, and it is imperative that I eat a healthy meal without GMOs. There are no long-term studies on the health effects of GMOs that prove they are safe for humans to eat. And what effect will these foods have on my body 20 years from now, let alone today when I try to eat in a way that doesn’t flare up the disease? In the past I have tried medication prescribed by my physician for Lyme disease, with a painful outcome. So now I am more knowledgeable about what I put into my body and on my hair and my skin. Labels that give me the full information I need to do this are critical to my health. Currently the U.S. does not label GMOs, although the entire European Union requires labels for GMOs. I am not concerned about the cost of labeling — it’s the cost of not knowing what’s in my food that scares me most. Please encourage your Assembly member to pass A. 617 to label GMOs in New York. Kim Foreman, Woodside Beyond Black History Month Black History Month is almost over. Why do we celebrate it anyway? Because we must. We owe it to ourselves, regardless of where we fit among the Census Bureau’s categories. Awareness of the contributions of black men and women to the betterment of civilization should be embedded in every educated person who is sensitive to the world around us. And those who are not as well. People should not need to be reminded that black people in America and abroad are and have been far greater donors in all areas of human achievement than has been credited in textbooks, films, newspaper archives and family conversations over dinner tables. They are represented, though largely unacknowledged, in the pantheon of luminaries in every field. Yet every February, our school bulletin boards and television mini-spots always feature the same superstars. We should study and admire them, but we should also expand the scope of eminence and spread the word about these dignitaries whose notability extends beyond sports, entertainment, community organizing and civil rights/social justice activism. The general absence of a more panoramic view of black excellence may subconsciously imply doubt of its legitimacy. That’s why it’s important that Black History Month not be merely a reference on a wall calendar but an internally felt commitment to analysis. Celebration of Black History Month shouldn’t be begrudging or half-hearted. What we glean from it is part of the common inheritance of all communities. So let’s look into ourselves during Black History Month and neither take the commemoration for granted nor view it as separate from the creativity of the rest of humanity. Ron Isaac, Fresh Meadows New housing must be matched with new schools if Queens is to grow Queens is booming. No doubt about it, the borough has become one of the hottest places in the city to live. We have so many advantages here, from mass transit to communities with some of New York’s best schools. It’s no wonder people want to come to Queens. But if the city’s leaders are not careful, we could wind up killing the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg. At a public hearing on Feb. 23 at Borough Hall, leaders from every corner of Queens pleaded with officials to invest more in public schools that are increasingly overcrowded. Overcrowding has gone from a problem that once affected just a handful of school districts a decade or two ago to a problem that has every school district bursting at the seams today. And with Mayor de Blasio’s well-intentioned plan to build or create 200,000 units of affordable housing – much of which will go in neighborhoods like Sunnyside, Jamaica, Astoria and Long Island City – the need for new classroom space will only grow larger. Quality public schools are one of the reasons families want to move to Queens. That’s a good thing. But to keep that influx of families coming, fueling the economies of local neighborhoods, the city has to step up its investment in our public schools. “We’re experiencing a huge influx of children and we just don’t have the space,” Karyn Petersen, Community Board 10 district manager, said during the hearing held by Borough President Melinda Katz, who is developing a new borough budget. Investing in schools may be one of the most important economic development tools the city has. So, while the city’s leaders do all they can to create more housing, they must not forget the importance of matching that initiative with new and expanded schools. New schools are an investment that will pay dividends for generations to come.
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