The Journalists and the Media I Used to Trust

Dear Editor: I believe the opposing party of partisans, the misinformed, and the clueless, would allow America to go into total collapse if it destroys Trump. Wake up and pray, Americans.

Socialism is what is coming and that is what the liberal agenda is — open borders, abortions, free medical, free education, free everything, and higher taxes. The price we will pay is to give the government total control.

“Let’s be selfish and lazy and let the next generation handle it.” That means our legacy to our children and grandchildren will make them suffer and pay our debt in taxes and loss of freedoms. Is this what our soldiers fought and died for, or did our soldiers die in vain?

I was always a believer that we are responsible to pass on, to the next generation, everything as good as it was when given to us or better. And if we don’t, our soldiers did die in vain.

During the State of the Union speech, not one Democrat applauded when Trump said, “We will never be a socialist country.” Is this what our soldiers in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam fought and died for so we could let our country go down to collapse?

If we allow this to happen, I would be embarrassed and afraid to show my face at the Veterans Hall, American Legions, or the Catholic War vets.

The most sickening part of this is that it is being accomplished in a great part by journalists and the major news media I used to trust. Every trick in the book is justified if the goal of beating Trump is reached.

I hope I’m wrong. But this is what I see on TV and major media.

Jim Hopkins

Jackson Heights

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Look in the Mirror, Mayor Bill de Blasio

Dear Editor: On Monday, July 6, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke out about the growing gun violence gripping the city, calling it “a very serious situation.” The mayor pointed a finger at the coronavirus pandemic and the shutdowns it has caused.

He failed to mention, however, over 1,500 people have been released from jail since March 16, which includes 329 “violent felony detainees awaiting trial,” which may have led to NYC seeing a 205-percent spike in shootings from June 15 to July 2 compared to the same time in 2019. Or, that some 2,500 inmates got out early from Rikers as a result of COVID-19, and 75 percent of those people released were convicted felons.

No, Mr. de Blasio, don’t point your finger at the coronavirus pandemic. Look in the mirror and point your finger there.

Edward Pisano
Dyker Heights

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A Long and Fruitful Ministry for Bishop Sweeney

Dear Editor: As a lifelong student of life’s ironies, I was struck by the reactions to the pulling down of statues of St. Junípero Serra in California, and then the installation Mass for a son of our diocese as the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey.

On one coast, we had Archbishop of Salvatore Cordeleone performing an exorcism at the site where a statue was ripped down, and on the other — ours — we had Father Sweeney being raised to the episcopacy in a beautiful but pandemic-subdued ceremony on, what else, St. Junípero’s feast day.

Statues are just artfully carved lumps of stone or marble, or welded iron or bronze. Bishop Sweeney’s Mass on
St. Serra’s day is what our church is all about. I pray it will be a long and fruitful ministry for Bishop Sweeney. The Church will long survive what happened in California.

Garrett Dempsey

Whitestone

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In Loving Memory of Sister Margaret Raibaldi

Dear Editor: This tribute is in loving memory of Sister Margaret Raibaldi CSJ, who went home to God this past May.

She arrived in Sacred Heart Parish about 35 years ago and immediately set up the Food Pantry which was very small at that time, and has now grown to feed over 180 families.

For those who have lost a loved one, she would send a sympathy card for one year, every three months, to remind the families that they were being prayed for. She conducted mid-life seminars, trained lay couples to give baptismal instructions, conducted in-home Pre-Cana sessions, and set up and taught the RCIA program and set up special classes for adults needing the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Sister retired about four years ago. She still kept in touch with the parish goings-on and attended some festivities when she could.

The day after 9/11, she organized a truck and went down to Ground Zero with food to feed the first responders.

We will truly miss her but we must not be sad, because we are sure that when she presented her job description to Jesus our Lord, He said to her, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter now into your Father’s kingdom.”

Nancy Baer

Glendale

Editor’s note: Baer is a pastoral associate at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.