editorial 22 THE COURIER SUN • MAY 12, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH STEPHEN REINA RON TORINA, JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ, CHERYL GALLAGHER KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA BRIANNA ELLIS KATARINA HYBENOVA CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI JACLYN HERTLING DEBORAH CUSICK WARREN SUSSMAN 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 ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS STAFF REPORTERS DIGITAL EDITOR CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS EVENTS COORDINATOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER 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.qns.com editorial e-mail: [email protected] for advertising e-mail: [email protected] Entire Contents Copyright 2016 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 offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, 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 fi ve 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. SNAPS QUEENS Baby Duck in the Lake // PHOTO BY MICHELLE LONG Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us tag @queenscourier on Instagram, Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing [email protected] (subject: Queens Snaps). The chance to honor a local heroine At long last, the city is starting to renovate the Kew Gardens fountain where the controversial Civic Virtue statue once stood. Along with being beautifi ed, the site is being re-dedicated to the women of Queens. This will be noted on a plaque installed at the site. It is fi tting and proper that the site be re-dedicated considering that so many people found Civic Virtue — a marble sculpture of a male fi gure representing virtue standing over two female sirens depicting vice and corruption — to be sexist. For those who still feel that the statue’s removal in 2012 was an act of political correctness, it should be noted that the same concerns about the statue were voiced decades earlier, soon after Civic Virtue debuted at its original home at City Hall. No one would ever suggest the early 20th century was a politically correct time in our history. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia got tired of seeing the statue’s backside and had it moved to Queens Borough Hall in 1940. When Queens residents got tired of the statue’s misogynistic representations in 2012, the city had it moved to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Honoring the women of Queens is noble, but the former Civic Virtue site should also feature a statue of a prominent woman in the borough’s rich history. A new statue, however, is not in the current renovation plans, according to the Queens borough president’s offi ce. Of course, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done in the future. There are few public statues in New York City that honor historic women. Reportedly, there are just fi ve — all of them in Manhattan — honoring Joan of Arc, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, Golda Meir and Harriet Tubman. The former Civic Virtue site represents Queens’ golden opportunity to honor a great woman in history, someone whose contributions had a profound impact both locally and nationally. We can think of no better candidate for a statue than Geraldine Ferraro, a former teacher at an Astoria public school who later became a prosecutor in the Queens District Attorney’s offi ce and then represented Queens on Capitol Hill. Ferraro was a rising star in Washington in 1984 when presidential candidate Walter Mondale chose her as his vice presidential running mate. In doing so, Ferraro became the fi rst woman in American history to be nominated to a major political party’s presidential ticket. Mondale and Ferraro would lose the 1984 election, but Ferraro’s candidacy would pave the way for women to become leaders on the national political scene. In her later years and following her death in 2012, Ferraro’s legacy was honored with the renaming of a Long Island City post offi ce and a Forest Hills street. We believe that the time has come to give someone with such a profound impact on Queens and the U.S. an even greater tribute. A LOOK BACK Here’s an oldie but goodie straight out of the Roaring Twenties in Ridgewood. Courtesy of the Facebook page “You must have lived in Ridgewood if you remember...,” take a look at the stretch of St. Nicholas Avenue near Palmetto Street during the 1920s. In the background is the domed roof of the Ridgewood Grove Arena, which once hosted boxing and wrestling matches among other sporting events. Send us your historic pictures of Queens by sharing them on our Facebook and Twitter pages, emailing [email protected], or mailing printed pictures to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you upon request.
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