By The TimesLedger
When the World Trade Center came crashing to the ground on Sept. 11, the people of New York responded with a generosity the likes of which had not been seen in modern times. Virtually every organization involved in the recovery effort, including the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management and FEMA, received so much donated material that they ran out of space at the Convention Center. Blood banks that had been near record lows had more blood than they needed.
It was easy to rally a public that had been stunned and frightened by the worst act of terrorism that this nation has ever experienced. But there may be an unwanted and unanticipated side effect of this giving. As a generous city focused on the victims of the World Trade Center, other causes came up short. Food pantries and other organizations that serve the city’s needy may get substantially less support from local government because of the decreased revenues and the cost of rebuilding Lower Manhattan. At the same time, there are more people out of work and more families in need than the city has seen since Mayor Giuliani first took office.
A report in last week’s TimesLedger shed light on the desperate situation faced by the pantries that feed the poor each week in New York City. Richmond Hill’s Elohim Christian Church is accustomed to serving about 2,200 families each week. Director Tony Miranda said last month the church was feeding 4,700 families each week. The church pantry is nearly out of food with only a few cases of canned beets on its shelves.
The Food for Survival program said the demand for food has increased by nearly 30 percent. All over Queens it is the same story. Experts anticipate that by year’s end as many as 79,700 people may lose their jobs in the metropolitan area. This appears to be a disaster the city is not prepared to face.
In the last three months, New Yorkers have demonstrated that they are as generous as any people on the face of this earth. Now, with a quiet disaster flowing directly from the attack on the World Trade Center, the city’s leadership must rally the spirit of this city one more time. We believe that if the people of Queens understood that the organizations that feed the needy are literally running out of food, they would rise to the occasion.
All too often we take for granted that there is a safety net protecting the city’s poor. We sleep well assuming that in this great city no one will go hungry. That is no longer a realistic assumption.
Editorial: Tempering justice
The crash of American Airlines Flight 897 in Belle Harbor has presented local and federal officials with an ethical and legal dilemma. There are people living in New York City who want to travel to the Dominican Republic to bury their loved ones who died in this crash but are afraid to do so because they are here illegally.
They fear, with good reason, that if they leave the United States, they will be denied re-entry. In the wake of Sept. 11, there are many who say the nation must get tough on all illegal aliens. They argue that these people broke the law and do not deserve special treatment.
Although we understand where these hardliners are coming from, we find their argument more than a little heartless. The pain that these families are experiencing is nearly unbearable. If there ever was a time to temper justice with mercy, it is now. We agree with Mayor Giuliani and Mayor-elect Bloomberg, the INS should make an exemption for the illegal aliens who lost loved ones in this disaster.
