As a Senior Citizen, I Fear For My Safety
Dear Editor: A 65-year-old Asian-American woman was assaulted on 43rd street in Hell’s Kitchen as she was walking to church and got no help from bystanders. I find this horrific act to be most appalling and that no one stopped to help or to call 911.
But I wonder if those who witnessed this egregious act can live with themselves? Furthermore, are we living in a city without pity? Are there no good Samaritans living in our city willing to help an elderly woman in trouble?
Now added to all this the suspect Brandon Elliot was on parole for killing his own mother. He had previously been denied parole. But due to Gov. Cuomo’s liberal parole board, he was granted parole. This is so very sad. I am a 71-year-old senior citizen, and I fear for my safety as well as other senior citizens because of our too-lenient justice system.
As a Catholic and as Grand Knight of St. Anastasia Knights of Columbus in Douglaston, I offer my heartfelt prayers to this poor Asian-American woman and for her healing from this brutal attack.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr.
Bellerose
April Is National Donate Life Month
Dear Editor: The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) was founded in April 1986 when residents of Bloomington, Indiana, rallied around a toddler who needed a life-saving liver transplant. In less than eight weeks, the community raised $100,000 to place the boy on the organ waiting list. But he died before an organ was found.
Those community volunteers, along with his parents, turned tragedy into triumph by using those funds to help other transplant families.
For 35 years, COTA has assisted thousands of transplant families by helping to raise funds for transplant-related expenses. COTA has built extensive volunteer networks across the nation in an attempt to ensure that no child or young adult needing an organ or tissue transplant is excluded from a transplant waiting list due to lack of funds.
We need your help today to make sure that tragedies, like the one that was the catalyst in founding COTA 35 years ago, are not repeated. April is National Donate Life Month. Every day 20 people die in the United States waiting for an organ transplant. One organ donor can save eight lives. Today, 110,000 people are waiting for lifesaving transplants.
Rick Lofgren
Indiana
Editor’s note: Lofgren is the president of the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA).
The Greatest and Most Charitable Country
Dear Editor: It was disturbing to read the heading “Catholic Agencies Ready for Influx of Migrants at Mexican Border” (Feb. 20). In my opinion — and in the opinion of many other American Catholics — it would have been more accurate to call them “illegal aliens.”
The Catholic Church refuses to recognize that what is occurring on the Mexican border is illegal. Advertising its willingness to assist them upon their arrival is actually encouraging more people to break the law.
You don’t have a country unless you have a border and agents who control ingress and egress. If an American attempts to enter Mexico, or any South American country illegally, he or she will be arrested. Is the church aware of the millions of homeless Americans whose needs cannot be adequately addressed?
To invite millions of illegal aliens only adds to this serious problem. It would be more appropriate for our Catholic agencies, generously supported by Americans, to spend their resources on behalf of Americans in need.
I am convinced that the vast majority of Americans, including Catholic Americans, recognize that America cannot house, feed, clothe, educate and provide for the medical needs of the world, despite what the politicians in Washington are suggesting. By reason of our economy and the generosity of our people,
Light at the End of This Very Long Tunnel
Dear Editor: Since the pandemic began over a year ago, there have been many people who have been working over and above to help keep us safe and healthy. Our doctors, nurses, EMTs, and other medical personnel have been right on the front line of battle against COVID-19, as well as our police and firefighters.
There also have been many other people who have kept this city and country moving and open. To all of these people, this grateful writer wants to most humbly and sincerely say, “Thank you for all that you have done and are continuing to do for all of us to help us come through this terrible medical crisis.”
Now, with vaccines readily available, hopefully, there will be a light at the end of this very long tunnel. God Bless America!
John Amato
Fresh Meadows