Adopt Them
Dear Editor: I’m amazed at the bile directed towards Mr. Andrew Sichenze’s letter (April 10) for using the term “illegal aliens.” If you go to Mexico or any other country, not as a tourist, but to demand free food, housing, jobs, medical expenses and free education in your native language, I’m sure they’d all welcome you and provide everything you demand. If you can easily demonize a fellow American for citing legal laws, why don’t you open your homes to some of these unaccompanied minors? Go ahead. Don’t let them languish in those cages.
What defines countries are borders and laws. Breaking the laws does not make everything okay for those unfortunate migrants. The people who are having a heyday are human/drug traffickers who are now controlling the borders and collecting fees for their services. Shocking that Catholics don’t see the necessity for laws and borders. None so blind as those who won’t see.
Go ahead and take the woke side. It sure sounds great to be inclusive.
But yeah, to my earlier point: make it real and adopt the illegal migrant kids/families. I’m sure your houses and purses are big enough.
Cynthia Gonzalez
Fresh Meadows
Students Need to be in School
Dear Editor: The Center for Disease Control (CDC) from the very beginning of the pandemic had consistently stated that children were immune to Covid and therefore not potential carriers of the virus.
Presently, many teachers have been vaccinated, and now with the proclamation of the mayor that the mandatory six feet distance has been reduced to four feet, why are our children still not in school?
Three of our high-school-age grandsons now attend school only two days a week, while private and Catholic schools have been open forever, it seems.
Something is terribly wrong when taxpayers like us and our children are mere pawns in this ultimate game of power between the mayor and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). While most New Yorkers get up every day and go to work, our teachers have become a protected class staying home and collecting a salary.
Recently, (NYC Comptroller) Scott Stringer accepted the UFT’s endorsement in his run for mayor. He should be ashamed of himself.
Any New Yorker thinking of voting for him should surely reconsider that decision. Any candidate not willing to stand up for us and our children is not worthy to be mayor!
Thomas and Constance Dowd
Oakland Garden
Thanks for the Memories
Dear Editor: Thanks for the story about the exhibition of the Pieta at the 1964 World’s Fair (April 17). It brought back a flood of memories. As an adolescent, I visited the Fair on twelve different occasions. Every one included the Vatican Pavilion to view the Pieta.
Most memorable were the four times that my sixth grade class at St. Agnes (DeGraw Street) visited the fair with our teacher Sister Amata Maria (Noonan), CSJ. Sister piled all 38 of us on the subway at the Carroll Street station and we transferred to the No. 7 train in Queens to reach our destination.
Sister was sure to remind us that the Pieta (a replica of which is still in our church of St. Agnes) was the original that came all the way from the Vatican.
The Fair itself was an experience that still evokes vivid memories. THANKS for rekindling them.
In reading the article I remembered the pride I felt having the same last name as Msgr. John Gorman (no relation) and learned that my wife’s maiden name, Leonard, was the same as Msgr. Leonard, director of exhibits at the Fair.
As I prepare to retire as a Catholic school teacher after 42 years of teaching in the Brooklyn Diocese it is nice to know I can still learn more in my chosen discipline, History.
Bill Gorman
Carroll Gardens/Gowanus
For the Birds
Dear Editor: How pleased I was to read Veronica Szczygiel’s “Up Front & Personal” column (April 17) about the goldfinch and birds. As an avid birder, I am enjoying the warmer temps and the beginning of the spring migration — my feathered friends are on their way north!
For many years now I have kept an annual list, beginning January 1, of all the different bird species I see in the NY metropolitan area.
Already this year, just in New York and Connecticut, I have seen 103 (and counting) species.
May is the high point of migratory birds passing through the NYC area. “World Migratory Bird Day” is celebrated this year on Saturday, May 8th. A week or so later, I will be participating, as I do annually, in a Birdathon (24 hours of intensive birding) to raise awareness and financial support for the conservation efforts of the Audubon Society.
During the pandemic, many people have gotten outdoors, when possible, to enjoy the wonders of the natural world. God’s creation is certainly a marvel to behold. So this spring, go outside, take a walk in a park or a refuge or on a beach, and open your eyes, and ears, to what God has done for us in this wonder-filled world.
Monsignor Steven Ferrari
Woodside