EDITORIAL
READERS WRITE
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
October is Breast Cancer
Awareness Month and it is a reminder
for all of us to do something.
Throughout the month
of October, women are encouraged
to make mammography
appointments.
Also, remember that in rare
cases men can also come down
with breast cancer. Some may
wonder why a man is writing a
letter about breast cancer which
is more common in women, but
it affects us all — the ones we
love, including our mothers, sisters,
aunts, wives, or life companions
may be affected by this
insidious disease.
We are their caregivers and
try to care for the ones we love.
Eva, my wife of 32 years, goes
often for the test and it scares
her because breast cancer
runs in her family and she has
had friends who have had this
disease — some of whom have
passed away because of it. Yet
each time she goes for the test,
I’m afraid to hear the worst and
maybe lose the most important
person in my life.
But we must remember that
early detection is extremely important.
I know that for a fact
because I had come down with
prostate cancer, but due to early
detection and an aggressive
surgery, I am in remission four
years later.
Now, with new treatment
options, mammography screenings
do improve a woman’s
chance of survival. Many years
ago I had an aunt who had
breast cancer in the 1960’s and
had passed away at age 62. But
more can be done today and the
cure rate is much better today.
We all need to get involved
and do what we can to fight this
insidious disease, like donating
to the American Cancer Society,
which helps women cope with
this disease.
A lot of organizations are
out there that can also help and
there are also various runs,
walks and other fundraisers
that help. So please volunteer
and help end this disease that
has affected so many women
and their families.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.,
Glen Oaks Village
EDITORIAL STAFF
Reporters: Bill Parry, Mark
Hallum, Carlotta Mohamed, Jenna
Bagcal, Emily Davenport,
Max Parrott
Photographers: Nat Valentine,
Ellis Kaplan, Robert Cole
Copy Editor: Katrina Medoff
Contributing Writers/Columnists:
Tammy Scileppi, Robert Cole
ART & PRODUCTION
Production Manager:
Deborah Cusick
Art Director: Nirmal Singh
Layout: Zach Gewelb
Cartoonist: Tip Sempliner
ADVERTISING
Senior Account Executive:
Kathy Wenk
Account Executives:
David Strauss
Sherri Rossi
PROUD MEMBER OF NEW YORK PRESS ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHER
Brian Rice
EDITOR
Zach Gewelb
V.P. OF ADVERTISING
Ralph D’onofrio
CIRCULATION
Robert Palacios
CLASSIFIED
Classified Director:
Celeste Alamin
Classified Sales
Manager:
Eugena Pechenaya
A SHAMEFUL MEETING
The borough of Queens was disgraced by its own
sons and daughters at a Community Board 5 public
hearing Monday night where a mob mentality and
bigoted anti-homeless vitriol infected nearly 1,000 citizens.
Just a week earlier, CB5 District Manager Gary
Giordano said he was hoping to have a calm and respectful
hearing but opponents of a proposed homeless
shelter in Glendale began heckling during a moment of
silence for the four homeless men who were beaten to
death over the weekend in Chinatown.
Things quickly turned uglier when CB5 member
Crystal Wolfe, a Maspeth resident who authored a comprehensive
book on the homeless called “Our Invisible
Neighbors,” which dispelled some of the misconceptions
that surround New York City’s homeless crisis.
Wolfe was compelled to write the book after witnessing
the nightly protests against the city’s plan to convert
the Maspeth Holiday Inn Express into a homeless
She was shouted down by the crowd as she tried
to debunk what she deemed to be misinformation —
shouted down by many of the same people who inspired
her to write the book in the first place.
Raquel Namuche, an organizer with the Ridgewood
Tenants Union implored the crowd to work together to
fight City Hall to build “housing for those that need it.”
The blowback from the mob was so intense, Namuche’s
own mother moved forward to protect her, before police
escorted her group from the auditorium.
The meeting cratered even further when a woman
named Isabella from Astoria stepped to the microphone
and brought the crowd to cheers when she said, “I do
not care about the homeless. I feel sorry, but I don’t want
them in my backyard. They are a ticking time bomb. I
hope somebody’s going to burn the place down.”
That was when Assistant Commissioner of Government
Affairs Matt Borden put his foot down from the
“You can’t threaten to bomb a shelter where there
are people living,” he said. “I refuse to accept a New
Yorker would say that.”
But she did, and the exchange went viral on social
media bringing shame to a borough that fought so hard
for decades to dispel its Archie Bunker image made
famous in “All in the Family”, the 70s sitcom created
by Norman Lear. So many Queens residents watch the
racist rantings of Bunker today and say that’s not us,
not these days.
Make them watch video clips of the CB5 meeting
and they will have to admit, Archie Bunker still lives
on in the borough’s DNA. Isabella and the mob that did
the shouting, ironically inside the auditorium at Christ
the King, proved it to be true.
HOW TO REACH US
shelter in 2017.
stage.
MAIL: 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361
PHONE: Display Advertising: (718) 260-4537
Editorial: (718) 260-4549
WEBSITE: Visit www.qns.com
E-MAIL: Editorial: timesledgernews@schnepsmedia.com
Display Advertising: brice@schnepsmedia.com
Classified: classified@schnepsmedia.com
TO SUBSCRIBE: Call (718) 260-2515
Copyright©2019 Queens CNG LLC.
16 TIMESLEDGER, OCT. 11-17, 2019 BT QNS.COM
/www.qns.com
link
link
link
/www.qns.com
/QNS.COM
link
link
link
