I do agree with your editorial that there should be more stringent requirements for obtaining a driver's license to protect the safety of the public. However, the editorial cartoon accompanying the editorial seems to put the blame on people with disabilities. As you may not be aware, there are many people with a wide variety of disabilities who drive safely just like everyone else. However, there are repeat incidents of people involved in drunk driving or unsafe driving resulting in local tragedies such as the needless deaths on Queens Boulevard proving that a person's disability is not the issue but rather their ability to drive responsibly.
Carl Herr
Flushing
Editor's Note: The editorial cartoon was not intended to blame people with disabilities at all. It highlighted the fact that the ability to see is tested for and reported on to the DMV by law. We are calling for those patients who are being treated for seizures and blackouts to be reported to the DMV medical review unit.
Remember Our Troops Overseas
Thanksgiving, with its annual Macy's parade, family gatherings, and delicious food, has come and gone.
I am personally thankful that my family and friends are all well this year.
However, a pervasive sadness refuses to leave my thoughts at this time. The loss of American troops as well as countless Iraqi citizens detracts from the usual joyous feelings, felt, I am sure by many other people besides myself this Thanksgiving along with the forthcoming Christmas and Chanukah season.
I hope that next year, we can sincerely give thanks for peace! Celebrations will then be so much more meaningful!
Leonore Brooks
Whitestone
No Fan Of Landmark Status
The proliferation of “McMansions” in our area is the result of the city's negligence and, in light of recent indictments, perhaps graft and corruption. Instead of adequately addressing the lack of enforcement of building codes and zoning laws, the Broadway-Flushing Homeowners' Association decided to assign the property rights to the exterior of 1300 homes without the homeowners' consent to the NYC Landmark Commission with a plea that “it is up to the City to protect us NOW.”
The revelations of graft, corruption, outright theft and abuse of power by elected officials (i.e. Assemblymember Brian McLaughlin and State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, to name the most recent), suggest we should not be asking for their “protection” but instead may need protection from them.
The Homeowners' Association refers to landmark status as an “honor.”
Is it an “honor” to be coerced to request permission from faceless bureaucrats to paint our houses, replace sidewalks and change our windows? Why not “honor” us instead with “Landmark” tax breaks for maintaining and preserving the “gracious sense of place,” we created in the first place?
Ed Konecnik
Flushing
We Need A Wal-Mart
The recent announcement by Wal-Mart that they are now going to offer generic drugs to customers for only $4 was good news nationally. Sadly, Queens residents will be unable to share in.
City Council Finance Committee Chairperson David Weprin has stated in published reports that he would consider allowing Wal-Mart into the City if they played by our rules. This is the height of arrogance. Why should Councilmember Weprin and his colleagues set the rules for who can or can't open a business?
Public opinion polls have consistently shown that New Yorkers would like the opportunity to shop at Wal-Mart.
Construction of a new Wal-Mart would provide work for construction contractors and their employees and, once opened, employment opportunities for many local workers. Students, homemakers, heads of single-family households, senior citizens and ordinary people currently out of work could find employment locally without having to travel one to two hours elsewhere.
Wal-Mart is the nation's largest private sector employer with over one million two hundred thousand employees and growing each year. Starting pay is several dollars up to double above the minimum wage for new employees around the nation. They also offer health care and other benefits.
I believe that the silent majority of New Yorkers would actually welcome Wal-Mart to Queens.
Most New Yorkers need the great prices, good quality merchandise and now affordable drugs that Wal-Mart offers. Consumers have voted with their feet all over America making Wal-Mart the number one retail merchant success story it is today. It is time to allow Wal-Mart the opportunity to compete in the New York marketplace as well!
Larry Penner
Great Neck
