FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JUNE 27, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 33
TIME FOR MARRIAGE
FOR THE CLERGY
It is high time that the hierarchy
of the Catholic Church in Rome
face the hard facts that until the
law forbidding Catholic priests to
marry is changed, there will continue
to be a marked and serious
shortage of priests throughout the
world.
It makes absolutely no sense at all
for the Church hierarchy to continue
this inane and ridiculous edict.
In other faiths, there are married
clergymen and women, and marriage
should also be permitted for
the clergy in the Catholic Church.
Catholics in the U.S. are becoming
increasingly frustrated and fed
up with the Church’s overall conduct
— the sex abuse certainly is and
continues to be right at the top of
the list of issues angering the faithful.
Also, there was a lot of physical
and verbal abuse of students
by some nuns, brothers and priests
who taught in the Catholic elementary
and secondary schools, as well
as in some of the seminaries.
The Catholic Church really needs
to get its act together, from the
Pope on down. As a Catholic, I am
totally fed up and disgusted by the
lack of empathy that the Catholic
Church has not shown regarding
all of these issues. It has addressed
the sexual abuse by the clergy of
children, but has not done nearly
enough dealing with that issue,
in addition to the others aforementioned
above.
John Amato, Fresh Meadows
BE COMPASSIONATE,
BE ACCEPTING
Pope Francis has said, “If a person
is gay and seeks God and has
good will, who am I to judge?”
Pope Francis has also said that
there is a need to be more compassionate
toward LGBT people.
There is a need to welcome LGBT
people in our churches and not to
exclude them from God’s mercy.
Well, I totally agree.
Back in the 1970s, I had rented
a room from two gay men. I
saw firsthand their love for one
another. I had also once had dated
a girl whose mother was gay and
whose mother showed a generous
kindness toward my two sons and
bought them two small bikes for
Christmas, which I couldn’t afford
at the time.
Those who are different than us
from a sexual point of view should
be accepted, for they have such
love in their hearts and we should
show them love and compassion.
We are all God’s children, and are
all brothers and sisters that our
heavenly father loves.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
NOT ALL FUNDING
NEEDS TO BE EQUAL
A report released by the Rockefeller
Institute of New York claiming that
New York sends more money to
Washington than we get back, resulting
in our being shortchanged, is
nothing new.
Th e report repeats the same old
Democratic playbook continuing
to blame Washington for all of
our problems just like their political
ancestors from past decades.
Moving tax dollars from New
York to Washington redistributes
the wealth from the haves to the
have-nots. Th e late Senator Daniel
Patrick Moynihan documented how
New Yorkers sent more money to
Washington than we get back. Other
states could make the same argument.
Th is imbalance also holds true
in the distribution of state aid from
Albany to the 62 counties of New
York state.
Within NYC, residents of Queens,
Staten Island, Brooklyn, Bronx and
Manhattan (or each of the 59 community
planning boards) don’t
always get back the same amount of
money sent to City Hall, Albany and
Washington. Within any of our 62
counties, you could take this analysis
down to every town, village and local
census tract in our state.
Since this imbalance will never
change, we would be better off leaving
tax levies at the most local level
of government. Th ere will be significant
savings in administrative costs
and a greater percentage of locally
generated revenues remaining in our
communities.
Generating, keeping and spending
local funds in your communities
also allows greater accountability
and oversight by public offi cials
and citizens from the same neighborhoods.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
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
SUNSET IN ASTORIA PARK // PHOTO VIA INSTAGRAM @footandfootprints
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).
Why NYC should take
its public transit back
BY COREY JOHNSON
We’ve all been there:
Stuck in a crowded subway
car due to “signal problems,”
or sitting on a bus
moving so slowly that you
might as well have walked.
Frustration with our mass
transit system is a New
York state of mind we’re all
unfortunately accustomed
to, but I truly believe it
doesn’t have to be this way.
Th e vast majority of the problems with our system
can be summed up in one word: accountability.
Th ere isn’t any.
Th e MTA is a state authority controlled by the
governor with its own budget that’s approved by a
bunch of board members most New Yorkers have
never even heard of.
It’s confusing, which is the point.
How else could the people in charge avoid blame
and responsibility when things go wrong?
Th e buck has to stop with someone, and it has
to be someone who knows if they don’t get it right
their job is on the line.
Th is is why I support municipal control of the
subways, which would mean accountability will fall
squarely on one person: the mayor of New York City.
It means we run our subways, we run Staten
Island rail, we plan our bus routes – right now the
city doesn’t even do that – and we control the toll
money from the seven bridges and tunnels currently
run by the MTA.
I know what you’re thinking. Th at’s all well and
good, but how does that help my commute?
Th ose signal problems making you late for work
all the time?
Th at is what happens when no one is responsible.
It’s the result of decades of misplaced priorities.
Our subways’ signals date back to the 1930s.
Th ey’ve never been upgraded because the MTA’s
governance structure incentivized short-term
glamour projects over the long-term investments
we really need. It’s painting the outside of a house
that’s falling apart inside.
And the result? We allow a 21st-century system
to operate with infrastructure that was built in the
1930s like it is now.
What about our slow buses?
Municipal control would help get our buses moving
again because for the fi rst time ever, the city
– and not the state – would be able to quickly fi x
routes that aren’t working and work in close coordination
with the Department of Transportation,
which is currently under our control.
Th at means better, more cohesive bus service that
gets New Yorkers where they need to be faster.
It makes no sense that diff erent entities are covering
both now. Municipal control isn’t just more
accountable. It’s more effi cient too.
Making municipal control a reality won’t be easy,
and it won’t happen overnight. But this is worth
fi ghting for. We have to think big to solve the problem
of how we move around our city. We can’t let
fear of the politically diffi cult stop us from taking
on this challenge. We have to get New York City
moving again.
I’m ready to fi ght for this for as long as it takes to
make it happen. I hope you’ll fi ght alongside me.
Corey Johnson is the New York City Council
Speaker.
/QNS.com
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
