Letters to the Editor

The Abuse of Taxpayer Dollars

Dear Editor:

Drip, drip,drip, watch your tax dollars go down the drain. Have you also seen all the “Don’t Let Tax, Water, Or Repair Charges Come Between You and Your Property” full page ads in many daily and weekly neighborhood newspapers? It deals with New Yorkers who owes real estate tax water sewer, emergency repair or other property–related charges “the City of New York may sell a lien on your property” advertisement. Is this the best way the NYC Departments of Finance, Environmental Protection along with Housing Preservation and Development can spend taxpayer dollars?

Why can’t all three agencies compare their respective lists of people who owe money with those filing city and state tax returns? Surely the technology exists to place a lien on any tax refunds? You could also extend citizens the courtesy of a telephone call, letter or E-mail informing them of their overdue obligations.

What’s next, will City Hall send out City Marshals going door to door serving subpoenas?

When will either NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson or Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams who are all 2021 Mayoral-wannabes put an end to this waste, fraud and abuse of the taxpayer’s dollars?

Sincerely,

Larry Penner

 

Where Are Today’s Celebrities?

Dear Editor:

“Frank Sinatra kept the Jewish people and the State of Israel close to his heart. He stepped forward in the early 1940s, when big names were needed to rouse America into saving Europe’s remaining Jews, wore a mezuzah around his neck, a gift from Mrs. Golden, an elderly Jewish neighbor who cared for him during his boyhood in Hoboken, N.J. Time magazine reported that Sinatra walked out on the christening of his own son when the priest refused to allow a Jewish friend to be the godfather.”

In ‘’We Are All Jews Here”, Lee Habeeb, writes, “Courage,” Aristotle wrote, “is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.” And courage is precisely what was on display in a German prison camp over seven decades ago, when one brave American soldier did the unthinkable: Staring down the barrel of his Nazi captor’s pistol, he refused to identify which of his fellow prisoners of war were Jewish. His act of defiance would save nearly 200 Jews and earn him, posthumously, the Righteous Among Nations Award. Only five Americans have earned the distinction. Only one was a soldier. His name was Master Sergeant Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds…”

And so I contrast the courage and bravery of these two Americans, one famous and one who should be famous, with the present sorry lot of American celebrities who seem to only open their mouths to put down Israel or to go on about the “poor Palestinians” or who are cowering in silence. I just looked into my crystal globe. I predict this summer’s Democratic National Convention will bring us another round of ignorant celebs, who wouldn’t know a true victim from a true oppressor, if their Oscar Awards depended upon it. They love to find a “cause” to justify their existence without first doing any homework on facts, thus the Big Lies these Arabs put forth are gobbled up by this glutenous, superficial crowd. To them I say, go back to your mansions and read up on the multiples offers of peace, repeatedly rejected by these Arabs in favor of war, or their numerous wars on Israel, or their own words, stating they will never accept a “Jewish state”, and the entire Middle East Is Theirs, “from the river to the sea.” For my part, I’ll pass on all of this sordid show.

Sincerely

Gilda Mary Pickford