Pre-K is about justice, not race

MUnfairness 101

Manhattan: So, Gov. Cuomo wants our state to pay college costs for inmates. Why not make the cons take student loans and pay the state back? This sounds like it would be a lot cheaper to send your kids to prison to get a college education than to do it the right way. Yet again, politicans are punishing the people who choose to do things the right way. Leo Kibler

Bridgeghazi

West Islip, L.I.: If you reporters and politicians spent as much time investigating Benghazi as you do on this nonsensical Bridgegate, we would know who gave the order to stand down when four American citizens were shot and killed. How sad that a traffic jam is considered more important than those four American lives. Carmel Harrigan

Great danes

Bronx: Your Feb. 20 editorial (“Tastes like prejudice”) rightly criticizes the Danish government for outlawing kosher and halal slaughter of animals. Yet the editorial ignores the heroic role of Denmark in protecting Danish Jews from slaughter by the Nazis in World War II. The Danes saved almost every Jew by ferrying them to neutral Sweden, beyond Hitler’s reach. We Jews should never forget the courage of the Danish people. Bob Goldberg

Needles and the damage done

Bronx: With all the heroin addicts, 125th St. and Lexington Ave. in Harlem looks like a scene straight out of “The Living Dead.” They literally stand on the street and nod, seeming to be asleep while standing, but they never fall. Some of them even are laid out on the sidewalks. It’s nothing to walk past hundreds of heroin bags and needles, and there is a school right there on the corner. Cops are always on that strip and they walk right past them as they nod. Heroin has gotten out of control; I have been saying this for the last six years. Now an actor has died in his posh apartment in Manhattan, and they want to call it a epidemic. Lakeisha Mcfadden

The five plagues

Mooresville, N.C.: We Southerners have endured a lot this winter: Snow, sleet, ice, rain and Honey Boo Boo! Please, please, please, make it all go away. Herb Stark

Lost in translation

Bethpage, L.I.: Why do big companies hire people with heavy accents to answer their phones? I was on for 40 minutes trying to get a simple answer from a woman who spoke like a machine with a foreign accent. There was no one I could speak to who spoke plain English. After getting aggravated listening to “push this button” commands that didn’t fit my purposes, I had to wait until the end before speaking to a real person. What’s with businesses? Don’t they ever listen to the people they hire to tend to their companies’ images? Rita Schmidt

Unholy

Stroudsburg, Pa.: I have been a reader of the Daily News for almost 65 years, but after the subhead in Linda Stasi’s column (“Pope A Dope,” Jan. 19), I just have to say goodbye. The content of the article did not offend me, but the heading did. It was classless and uncalled-for. Dorothy Conforti

A ray of sunshine

Staten Island: I got on the No. 3 train the other night, heading home after a hard day’s work, and there was a man playing the bass and singing in the car. My initial reaction was, “Here we go again”: more unwanted noise and solicitations for money to add to my commute. However, less than a minute into his routine, this man had the whole car laughing and playing along with him. He would pick out people on the train and reword popular songs, making these people the subject. I grew up in the city and have taken the subway my whole life, and I have never had such a pleasurable experience as I did that night. I don’t know his name, but I want to thank him for the laughter and fun he gave us all during a miserable, overcrowded commute. Linda Burke

The long con

Brooklyn: How is it possible for Con Ed to announce that there will be a two-year freeze on rates — then allow an astronomical rise in the January rates? My bill zoomed from $59 to $86, which is about a 45% increase. What is the story with this? Either rates are going up or they are being frozen like the weather. Steve Yanowsky

Stop digging

Valley Stream, L.I.: Having just sat in heavy traffic on the Staten Island Parkway, it’s now taking an hour to travel one exit on the Belt Parkway. The cause? Roving pothole repairs. How many winters will it take for people to realize that it’s time to pave all roads with concrete? This is madness! Daniel Muessig

And MTV about music?

Glendale: Does anyone remember when the History Channel was actually about history? Diana Mischler

Animal wrongs

Sunnyside: Voicer Ciro Coppola posed a good question about PETA and NYCLASS: “How do they feel about abortion?” Well, I can’t speak for PETA and NYCLASS. However, I do support their efforts to stop the abuse of circus animals, and I also support groups like Feminists Choosing Life and the National Right-toLife Committee, which want to restore legal protection for unborn children. John Francis Fox

Sound and fury

Forest Hills: So the MTA is creating new ways for people to be abused by unwanted noise by allowing cell phone conversations on trains — but the lettered train stations still won’t have countdown clocks? Sherri Rosen

Hellephants

Norfolk, Va.: Ringling Bros. Circus defender Janice Aria (“A beastly battle,” Feb. 20) would rather go into a cage of hungry tigers than admit the days of hauling animals around in boxcars and beating them into submission are long over. Her blatantly self-serving defense of the cruel bullhook is downright ludicrous. Calling a heavy baton with a sharp metal hook at the end a “guide” is akin to calling a gun a noisemaker. Jennifer O’Connor

Staff writer, PETA Foundation

Shelve these benefits

Floral Park: It was bad enough reading about Queens Library boss Tom Galante and his salary and perks. Then I read that laidoff library workers were able to collect 10 weeks of unused sick days! It’s a long time since I was employed. But back then, if we didn’t use our sick days, we lost them. We sure as heck didn’t get paid for not using them. This is another hidden story of a benefit that civil service employees receive that is unheard-of in the private sector. A. Poskrop

Florida justice

Manhattan: To Voicer Jean Hampsas: You are mistaken about Florida. Florida is working just fine. If Florida can fix an election for President, it can make sure the fix is in for the trial of a white man killing a black youth. Raymond McEaddy

Global dumbing

Manchester, N.J.: To Voicer Betty Tiska and all other deniers: Global warming doesn’t mean it’s not going to be cold; just the opposite. While we continue polluting the atmosphere with fossil fuels, hurricanes will become stronger and more frequent, winters will get colder, droughts and wildfires will multiply, and climate change will make our continued existence iffy at best. And it isn’t “God,” it’s science. Looks like there aren’t any Mensa meetings out in Syosset. Charles Morgan

Dig deeper

Staten Island: Just a question: how did Mayor de Blasio’s son get to school after the snow storm? I frequently hear the mayor describe himself as a parent, but no mention of this. Roberta Nisslein anhattan: I am writing in response to “De Blasio, McCray say universal pre-K funding boils down to civil rights” (Feb. 11) by Erin Durkin, Glenn Blain and Jennifer Fermino. It is unfortunate that your reporters who heard “200 applauding African-American clergy members at a Baptist church in Brooklyn” didn’t also observe the diversity among us clergy. We wore different garb reflecting our faith traditions and had complexions representing the multiracial character of our city. I am leader of the New York Society for Ethical Culture, whose clergy and members cofounded the NAACP, and I was very proud to attend this and other social justice events with my fellow clergy.

Support for universal pre-K and after-school programs is an ethical stance that New Yorkers of every race, culture, gender and faith take for the sake of our children, communities and shared future. Together, we will take this cause to Albany and prevail.