FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 6, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 31
PRAISE FOR ADOPTIVE
PARENTS BILL
Assemblyman David Weprin believes
a birth certifi cate is a legal document
which is important to one’s identity.
Well I agree.
Adoptees in New York state are forbidden
access to the original document
unless they have a court order. I feel the
passage of a bill sponsored by David
Weprin know as A.5494, Th e Clean
Bill of Adoptee Rights, gets passed and
clears the way for adoptees to know who
their biological parents were and are.
I feel this is important for the adoptees
and their biological parents who
seek to meet. I am one of those biological
parents who seek to meet my children.
In 1975, while still in the Navy, my
children were adopted aft er my wife
had left us and I had no means to support
them and had no family, or friends
that could help me. I’m going to be 70
years old this year and would like to
make contact before I pass away.
I would like to tell my sons named
Tommy and Bobby, who will be 50 and
49 years old, that I still love them and
think of them and would like to tell
them it was not their fault they were
adopted and tell them of our family
history.
Assemblyman Weprin, I would like to
thank you for your eff orts.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
FUEL UP
INFRASTRUCTURE
WITH GAS TAX
Th e devil is in the details as to how
we pay for any proposed new $2 trillion
infrastructure program. With gasoline
at reasonable prices, this a good time
to raise the federal gas tax by just pennies
per gallon to pay for the transportation
portion.
Th e national gasoline tax used to
support the Highway Trust fund was
last raised to 18.4 cents in 1993. Th is
action could signifi cantly increase
funding the National Highway Trust
Fund and its Mass Transit Account.
It would not add to our $22 trillion
national debt.
Most Americans — be they city, suburban
or rural residents, Democrat or
Republican, liberal or conservative —
benefi t by good roads, bridges and public
transportation.
With gridlock and partisan bickering
in Washington, increasing funding for
the Highway Trust Fund and accompanying
Mass Transit Account could be a
key issue on a bipartisan basis that the
president, Democratic Congress and
Republican Senate can agree on. Th is
could fund a signifi cant new national
transportation infrastructure program.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
FLY OLD GLORY PROUDLY
ON FLAG DAY
Every June 14th, our country marks
Flag Day, with multiple displays of
Old Glory across the nation. Everyone
who owns a home or business should
proudly fl y the American fl ag on that
day, because that fl ag is the symbol of
freedom and represents our wonderful
country.
Despite the many problems in our
country at this time, one thing is for
certain: We are very lucky to live in
a country with so many liberties that
are guaranteed by the Constitution
and defended by our valiant men and
women of the Armed Forces.
Every American should always salute
the fl ag when at baseball games or other
public activities. It is a sign of deserved
respect for our country and our fl ag.
John Amato, Fresh Meadows
Email your letters to editorial@qns.
com (Subject: Letter to the Editor) or
leave a comment to any of our stories
at QNS.com. You can also send a letter
by regular mail to Letters to the Editor,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All
letters are subject to editing. Names will
be withheld upon request, but anonymous
letters will not be considered for
publication. Th e views expressed in all
letters and comments are not necessarily
those of this newspaper or its staff .
oped letters & comments
SPRING DAYS IN FLUSHING MEADOWS CORONA PARK //
PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM : @jlc_omie_
Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper!
To submit them to us, tag @qnsgram on Instagram, visit our Facebook page,
tweet @QNS or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
Fight climate change
by investing in parks
BY COSTA CONSTANTINIDES AND
JULIE TIGHE
The recent Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change report and the Fourth
National Climate Assessment make it clear
that we must make radical changes in a very
short time in order to avoid catastrophic climate
change.
Keeping the planet from warming too drastically
will require rapid emissions reductions
and reaching carbon-neutrality by 2050. Even
with these actions, we need to make sure we
make our communities more resilient from
sea level rise, and more frequent and extreme
storms and heat waves. We need national
and international cooperation to fi ght climate
change, but there is plenty we can do at
the city level.
We are proud that the City Council recently
passed the Climate Mobilization Act, which
includes one of the nation’s most signifi cant
emissions reduction policies. But we must also
fi ght climate change by increasing and protecting
our carbon sinks.
Parks, gardens, playgrounds, forests, and
other natural areas absorb carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere. New York City’s urban
tree canopy fi lters 1,300 tons of pollutants and
stores 1.2 million tons of carbon per year.
Trees also mitigate the urban heat island
eff ect and can lower temperatures by up to
nine degrees, cut air conditioning use by 30
percent, and reduce heating energy use by up
to 50 percent — all of which helps decrease
pollution and fi ghts climate change.
Parks and gardens absorb rain during
storms and capture 2 billion gallons of stormwater
runoff each year, which helps make the
city more resilient.
Th at type of technology is now being implemented
in Queens’ Astoria Park under a $30
million, long-overdue capital project. Th anks
to the advocacy of young Astoria native
Angela Garvin, the new rain gardens will capture
stormwater, prevent some of the notorious
fl ooding that’s blighted this green space
for too long, and mitigate discharges into the
nearby East River.
Sadly, this is just one of the many parks
in Queens that need crucial infrastructure
investments to remain resilient against the
demands of climate change in the 21st century.
Unfortunately, the Parks Department receives
less than 1 percent of the total City budget,
leaving these green spaces under threat.
Th at’s why we joined the Play Fair coalition
in the call for increasing the Parks
Department budget by $100 million for better
maintenance.
Properly maintaining parks helps conserve
nature and makes our city more resilient. It
also helps keep invasive species away from
trees and ensures that plantings have the
essential nutrients they need to grow and continue
to absorb carbon and pollution.
Th is budget season, we ask that the city
plays fair for parks!
Council member Costa Constantinides
is the chair of the Council’s Environmental
Protection Committee. Julie Tighe is president
of the New York League of Conservation
Voters (NYLCV).
Flag Day is June 14. Photo by Dean Moses
/QNS.com
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
