Your article on Whitestone contained a lot of interesting information, but you omitted one of our excellent elementary schools, P.S. 209 (Clearview Gardens School) at 16-10 Utopia Parkway. When my daughters attended this school, it was listed several times among the top 10 New York City schools for its reading scores.
Linda Imhauser
Whitestone
On medical marijuana
Kudos to Alex Lang for his excellent piece on the medical marijuana “debate.” However, it is not really a debate at all because the position of those opposed to the medicalization of marijuana is so academically bankrupt, that they flee from all challenges to debate the topic and only discuss it when they can control the audience and their message.
I also write to inform voters that State Senator Frank Padavan continues to rely on his widely discredited 1986 Senate Committee report to continue his opposition to medical marijuana and that Congressmember Gregory Meeks voted to permit the DEA to continue arresting marijuana patients in states where doctors are authorized by state law to recommend marijuana to their patients. At their next re-election bid, the voters should turn these politicians out.
Finally, while the DEA spokesperson quoted in the article “couldn’t say if the DEA would arrest someone for smoking [marijuana] for medical purposes,”
I can assure you that they do.
The real conspiracy here is that marijuana is dirt-cheap and the pharmaceutical companies will lose money if it becomes widely used again as it was for thousands of years prior to the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937.
Thomas J. Hillgardner, Esq.
Jamaica
Thank you, Thank you
Congratulations on your 22nd Anniversary Issue. Your issue reminded me of how fortunate we are living in one of the few remaining free societies with a wealth of information sources available for any citizen to access.
In various neighborhoods all over Queens, you have far better coverage of local community events than any daily newspaper can provide.
I am grateful that you have afforded me the opportunity to express my views along with others on the issues of the day. Thanks to you, an ordinary citizen like me is afforded the freedom to comment [subject to editing] on the actions and legislation of various elected officials.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
A Plea to Congressmember Meeks
Spending a day in the boiling heat of October in Manhattan earlier this week was a not-so-subtle reminder to me of what I enjoy by living in still sylvan south Queens. A quick jog across Cross Bay Boulevard past the Jamaica Wildlife Refuge tells a story about how the whole planet could look in the future – subdivided into spoiled tundras punctuated by ‘refuges’ artificially harboring the last remaining remnants of a once-livable Earth.
I just keep thinking it does not have to be this way. Our cities could become bastions of life if infused with the clean renewable technologies that have existed not just on the drawing board but also in tried and tested application for over a quarter century.
That is why I urge Congressmember Gregory Meeks to get on board with legislation to clean the air and integrate renewable energy technologies into the American landscape.
Moreover, as luck would have it the perfect law is already, as they say, “in the House.”
H.R. 1590, the Safe Climate Act, contains provisions for the minimum necessary reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and a significant raising of automobile fuel efficiency standards. Additionally it provides for a substantive move to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, which is just what the doctor ordered and contains the key provisions of the internationally signed Kyoto Protocol.
When passed this act would quite literally put an end to the causes and exacerbating factors of global warming nationally. Please vote for this bill Congressmember Meeks.
James French
Howard Beach
Our reporting is always honest
In his September 20 article, your reporter discusses the school districts not being able to get parent members to run for the school councils. Then he states that members have a voice in determining educational policies in the districts and a list of a whole bunch of things that he thinks they do.
Well the reason they cannot get members is because they are not respected, their views and opinions are not considered and the DOE does whatever it pleases without consulting with the parents.
Perhaps you can write a more honest article telling it how it really is!
Geraldine Gelber,
L-CSW
Editor’s Note: We read the above letter to Rob Caloras, the President of the Community Education Council for District 26 (CDEC26), who was quoted in the article and he responded:
“I cannot argue with the statement that the Department of Education (DOE) and the Chancellor’s office ignore us because they do - constantly.
Chancellor Klein addressed that issue and promised changes, though I suspect they will not be sufficient to fully realize the power granted to the councils by statute.
However, it must be noted that CDEC26, and all the district councils represent all parents on all issues. We have direct access to the principals, the district superintendents, the School Construction Authority and the DOE.
We are a conduit for parents to express their concerns. Council Presidents have monthly meetings with DOE officials and we have gotten things done which have little to do with the Chancellor’s office.
The fact of the matter is that if there were more of us on CDEC26, we would each have fewer schools to cover, and could do a more effective job.
If nothing else, we are more familiar with the system and the process than the average parent is and certainly have more influence than the one of them would.”
Letters To The Editor
Email us your letters to editorial@ queenscourier.com for publication in The Queens Courier or send them to The Queens Courier, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361, attention: Editorial Department. Please include name and contact information.
