Dear Editor: Hope springs eternal, but frankly, I am not surprised that the school tax credit was again denied in Albany.
This case is hopeless because we have a liberal government which legalized same-sex marriage and is more interested in forcing the acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle on everybody than the religious and moral education of our children.
JOSEPHINE HARKAY
Jamaica
Dear Editor: I have read with a degree of personal umbrage and chagrin of the NYS Assembly’s newest shell game and attack upon our Catholic school system. My immediate concern was “Here we go again.” Same hate game, new cast of “Sinister Characters.” Satan’s puppets at work.
As a veteran of many tax credit battles, (wars) going back to the 1980s Tuition Tax Credits Bill, introduced by U.S. Sen. Patrick Moynihan and supported by President Reagan, everyone believed, that we had a slam-dunk there. But in the end the believers were slammed and dunked by anti-Catholic vitriol, Catholic self-loathing, fear, apathy, consternation and political parody.
The head in the sand syndrome left many of us standing at the gate, waving meaningless banners. Albert Shanker led the charge against our parochial school system from his bully pulpit as President of the self-seeking and venomous UFT (United Federation of Teachers) and his malicious weekly op-ed in the equally anti-Catholic and patently evil New York Times. His shock troops were energetic and committed, while for the most part our backers were silent and lethargic in the face of the political warfare. His troops came fully armed with prepared lies, falsehoods, misleading polls, noxious spin and beguiling rhetoric.
Much the same tactics were used by Dr. Bernard Nathanson to win the Roe vs. Wade war in the Supreme Court in 1973. Much the same tactics were used so successfully even today replete with the same tired rhetoric and scare tactics.
Our elected political lackeys and shills seek to beguile us with their forked tongues, smoke and mirrors, con games, lies and more lies. Sadly, too many of us simply sit back, shrug our sagging shoulders and our heads buried in the sands of personal disdain.
The same babies, which many of these legislative despots were kissing and hugging only a few years ago, are now being thrown under the bus of political payback to the unions and political power brokers. Business as usual in Dysfunction Junction, aka Albany, and not a peep from the majority of Catholics in the pews.
Sadly, we reap what we sow, as does our country. Nothing but pain and frustration. The time to speak up is slowly coming to an end. Then, it will be time to weep for our children and grandchildren. A little time spent before the Eucharist in fervent, humble prayer is surely in order now.
Taxation without representation is still tyranny.
BOB FALLON
Dyker Heights