FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com DECEMBER 1, 2016 • THE COURIER SUN 19 Make America great by feeding hungry BY JOEL BERG In the borough in which President-elect Donald Trump was raised, Queens, all is not well. Despite Queens’ longstanding image as a bedrock middle class community, more than 1.3 million of the borough’s residents live below the meager federal poverty line, earning $20,090 or less in a year. According to federal data analyzed by Hunger Free America, one in 10 Queens residents — and a whopping one in six children in Queens — live in households that can’t always afford enough food. While 70 percent of the soup kitchens and food pantries in Queens reported serving more people this year than last, a quarter of them did not have enough food to meet the growing demand. Given that this problem is so prevalent even in Queens, it is no surprise that 1.4 million people citywide, 3 million statewide, and 42 million nationwide, struggle against hunger. As shocking as those statistics are, the most shocking reality is that the majority of hungry Americans are in households in which people are working but don’t earn enough to feed their families. In New York City alone, there are half a million adults who have jobs but still can’t afford enough food. Nationwide, there are a staggering 16 million “working hungry” adults. Queens, New York City, New York state and the whole nation are facing an epidemic of working hunger. No nation in the history of the world has remained a superpower if it has failed to feed its own people, especially its children. And no economy has thrived for very long if workers don’t earn enough to feed their families. America can’t be great as long as tens of millions of workers earn hunger wages. President-elect Trump and Congress can end the working hunger epidemic once and for all by taking three easy steps: 1) Launch a new national jobs program — a modern WPA — and ensure that workers in it earn a living wage. Merely giving more tax cuts to big businesses won’t work; federal payments should go directly to create new job slots. 2) Raise the federal minimum wage — now stuck at the truly paltry level of $7.25 per hour — to $15 per hour and index future increases to infl ation. A new national study by Hunger Free America proves that states with higher wages have less working hunger. 3) Ensure that, in families for which wages are still not high enough to pay the bills, the families are able to access suffi cient SNAP benefi ts (formerly called food stamps benefi ts) to fi ll in the food gaps. To be sure, these three steps are exactly the opposite of the stances of the modern Republican Party. But if Trump wants to prove he is the policy maverick he claims he is, and if he truly wants to ensure that America achieves its full greatness, he will take these steps immediately. Joel Berg is CEO of Hunger Free America, a nonprofi t organization dedicated to battling hunger in the U.S. oped letters & comments A LOOK BACK The start of the holiday shopping season last week brought thousands of shoppers to Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood. This 1940 photo from the Ridgewood Times archives shows the scene outside Urdang’s department store, which was one of Myrtle Avenue’s most popular shopping destinations for decades. Send us your historic pictures of Queens by email to [email protected], or by mailing printed pictures to A Look Back, c/o The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361. All mailed pictures will be carefully returned to you. LIBRARY HURTS Regarding your Nov. 10 report, “Queens Library settles suit with its former president.” This is another sad example of intimidation by litigation. Rather than present a solid case in court, the library caved in to Tom Galante’s lawyers and paid him $1.5 million to make his wrongful termination lawsuit go away. Galante was fi red for using library funds for personal gain and performing a second job in Nassau County while on the Queens Library’s time. That’s termination for cause, not wrongful discharge. How about the future of the Vleigh Place library branch in Kew Gardens Hills, closed for nearly four years with no re-opening date in sight. That $1.5 million might have speeded completion of a structure that should be retitled “The Tomb of the Unknown Library.” Why such slow progess? Councilman Rory Lancman’s staff told me that NYC’s Department of Design and Construction hired the lowest bidding contractor for this job. Does lowest bidder also mean slowest builder? Does the contract have a penalty for delays, and if so, who enforces it? The Egyptians probably spent less time building the pyramids. Richard Reif, Kew Gardens Hills WHY TRUMP WON Donald Trump did not win because America is a racist or xenophobic nation. He won because Americans rejected establishment politicians whom they felt were pushing their own agendas and were not listening to the electorate. Plus he was the only candidate who confronted issues people wanted to discuss. While the other candidates either ignored issues or gender and race baited, Mr. Trump discussed this nation’s broken immigration system, terrorism, taxes, the failures of Obamacare, serious implications of upcoming nominees to the Supreme Court, and Americans’ anger over what illegal aliens get free that native citizens must pay for. As for the circumstance that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, it must be reviewed realistically. She did, but it was the votes in just two states that gave her that distinction. If not for the count in California and New York, she would not be ahead in the popular vote. The old axiom that one can’t fool all the people all the time was a lesson the establishment leaders of both major parties learned dearly. Edward Riecks, Howard Beach WE NEED TOLERANCE Regarding the bigot who yelled slurs at an Arab-American cab driver in Astoria: What a unfortunate situation. Trump brings out the worst in Americans. He ran a campaign on hatred, racism and division. White Americans obviously unaware of history have poor insight just as this man in the white SUV. People, if you want to learn about the world read books, study, travel, etc. Try not to use the television as your education for all things. Ignorance is ugly. I hope the white man’s family sees this video as well as his neighbors and co-workers. There’s too much disrespect in this world. The most respectful, beautiful people I have ever meet are from countries afar. Most of the times Americans feel like they are the ultimate privileged class of citizens. Try not to meet hatred with more hatred. Pray for these fools. QNS user Justin Taipe
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