FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com THE COURIER SUN • DECEMBER 15, 2016 19 oped A LOOK BACK Here’s another gem from our friends at the Facebook group, “You must have lived in Ridgewood if you remember...” This photo from the 1930s shows the elevated M line above Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood, looking northbound. Note the trolley in the foreground turning onto Fresh Pond Road southbound; it’s coming out of the trolley depot that the MTA now uses to store some of its fleet of buses. Send us your historic photos of Queens by email to editorial@qns.com, or by mail 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.. letters & comments AT WHAT PRICE SHOULD STUDENTS OPPOSE TRUMP? Regarding Liam Baker’s Dec. 1 article about “College students anxious over Trump.” As a Queens College graduate, I urge all CUNY students to weigh the costs before turning their campuses into sanctuaries for undocumented students. President-elect Trump threatened to cut federal funds to sanctuary cities like New York. He can also cut funds to sanctuary schools that can lose a lot of money. Professors would lose research grants from federal agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Department of Education also controls two key sources of financial aid: Pell Grants and subsidized loans, the latter of which are offered at lower interest rates than banks and have more flexible repayment plans based on a student’s income after graduation. I realize students and faculty suffer from Post-Trump traumatic stress disorder. But they should heed the old adage that warns, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Richard Reif, Kew Gardens Hills HATE GRAFFITI WASN’T MADE BY LOCAL RESIDENTS Regarding the vandalism in Maspeth: I can almost promise you that this is not being done by responsible Maspeth adults that represent the spirit of the people of our Queens area. This is being done by media watching, misguided, attention hungry idiots with too much time on their hands and a lack of any real social education. This is being done by someone or a group of people who wants to bring the wrong type of attention to our neighborhood so they can then point fingers and say, “See, I told you so.” I can almost guarantee this is not being done by people who responsibly exercised their right and their duty to vote and actually went and voted for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or whomever else they supported. I can bet my house that this is not being done by people who get involved in making their community better through any type of community organization. Let’s focus more on the many volunteers from community organizations and even some of our local politicians, all who come together to give of their time and organize cleanup efforts to deal with this type of garbage before it becomes news. QNS user George Rosario WORLD’S FAIR MARINA NEEDS A NOISE ENFORCER As for the excessive noise from the World’s Fair Marina: This stuff never happened when my father ran the snack bar at Pier 1. The city took it over and look at what happened. My father was the one who ran people out who played music and also told the cruise ships to cut the music at a certain time. Even when my father was alive doing all of this because he loved it, they still didn’t appreciate it. It’s so saddening to see it become this; if I could, I would try to run it again in a heartbeat. I’m sorry this is happening to the community; my father would not be happy. QNS user Annmarie Kiefer The Values Worth Fighting For BY CONGRESSMAN JOE CROWLEY Democrats have always been at the forefront of putting forward big, bold ideas to create ladders of opportunities for working families, provide peace of mind that comes with having reliable and affordable health care, and ensure every worker has a sense of security when it comes to their retirement. Our focus has always been to promote policies focused on rebuilding, reinvigorating and reinvesting in an economy that works for everyone in America. Those are values that we did not lose on Election Day. Now, more than ever, we need to make it clear to the American people that Democrats are not going to stop fighting for our vision of putting the American Dream back in reach for every American. I grew up in Woodside — only a few miles away from where Donald Trump himself grew up, yet very much on the other side of the tracks. The Queens that I know draws strength from its diversity. It’s a community where firefighters, teachers, construction workers, small-business owners, and new immigrants all share a desire to ensure a better life for themselves and their children. But not unlike many Americans across the country, they feel uncertain about their futures, too. What I can tell them is this: where we can find common ground with the incoming administration, Democrats stand ready to work. We stand ready to work on infrastructure legislation that rebuilds our roads, bridges and tunnels while creating good paying jobs. We stand ready to work on growing the paychecks of American workers, giving families peace of mind and a shot at a more secure future. We stand ready to work to do better by our veterans and wounded warriors by strengthening the Veterans Administration and expanding opportunities for our service members. But we will fiercely push back on against any odious legislation that targets the vulnerable and threatens to tear our communities at the seams. We’ll fight on behalf of Americans who feel left behind — and those who will certainly be left behind by Republican attempts to dismantle Medicare and Social Security, strip away health care, tear apart families by deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, and gut investments in job training and education. We know the road ahead is full of challenges, but Democrats know that these are the battles worth fighting. It’s up to us to make sure the voices of the voiceless are heard, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. Congressman Crowley is the nine-term representative from the 14th Congressional District of New York, which includes sections of Queens and the Bronx. He is a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee and serves as vice chair of the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives.
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