When commutes go off the rails

Brooklyn: Commuting from Brooklyn to 34th St. Monday to Friday has gotten so bad that when there aren’t issues I am shocked (“Not even trying,” May 22). A few weeks ago, I was taking a northbound Q train from Kings Highway and the trains were packed to start. I was standing against the door; little did I know what I would be in for. We were stuck between the Avenue J and Newkirk stations for 30 minutes.

People were crying; I was sweating and uncomfortable. Believe it or not, it got even worse for me. I started to get a panic attack. I have never experienced what I felt while standing in the most uncomfortable position with no announcements other than, “We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Taking the subway these past few months has caused major anxiety, especially when we are in the tunnel or in between stations aboveground. It’s an absolute joke that we have to suffer every single day to get to work. It would be great if we all boycotted public transportation, but let’s be honest, we can’t. There is no viable competition for us to take. They raise the fares when they feel like it and we complain, but there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Paul Sugarman

It’s the whole system

Bronx: The subway is just abysmally late. Acting director Ronnie Hakim has more problems than just the L line; it’s the whole system. I have been commuting with the MTA since 1988, and over the years, service has gotten worse: flooding, transformer explosions, employee errors, signal problems, etc. And the bus is not any better. Not just delays — there are people eating, talking on their phones, etc. People getting their own way when the bus driver decides to wait for them to close their front door and then they take two steps to walk to the stop. I am talking about the express BxM8 bus. The News should investigate this one.

Christine Blasucci

Gov’s sky-high dreams

Manhattan: If the stations are better, the riders feel better? BWAHAHAHAHA. How clueless are the MTA and Cuomo’s transit team? They are in the stratosphere. Didn’t Cuomo build the Second Ave. subway singlehandedly? Thomas Story

Parade disgrace

Glendale: It is a disgrace for Oscar López Rivera to be honored at this year’s Puerto Rican Day Parade (“Walking out,” May 23). While assigned to the 23rd Precinct, I was the second car on the scene of one of his bombings. A rookie officer, Angel Poggi, and his training officer responded to a call of an unconscious person in a building on 110th St. As Officer Poggi tried to open the building door, he was blown off the stoop by a bomb planted by the FALN. Poggi lost his eye, among other injuries. This group planted other bombs throughout the city, maiming and killing many people. For City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and others to honor this terrorist is shameful and a disgrace to the families of people who were killed or injured as a result of this man.

Bill Harvey

Shameful organizers

Mount Kisco, N.Y.: The committee that organizes the Puerto Rican Day Parade should be ashamed that they are allowing a terrorist to be honored. As a leader of the FALN, Oscar López Rivera is responsible for death and injuries to police officers and civilians. Thank you to Goya and JetBlue for withdrawing their sponsorship. Of course, the mayor and City Council speaker are going to march. They do not support law enforcement.

Rosemary Forkin, Ret. NYPD

Copout for the terrorist

Fall River, Mass.: Mayor de Blasio says former FALN leader Oscar López Rivera is perceived by many Puerto Rican New Yorkers to have “fought” for their cause. That strikes me as an overly vague generalization that could also be interpreted as a convenient copout. Charles Winokoor

Mayor betrays the people

Island Park, L.I.: I would like to ask the mayor why he would not participate in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2014, but he does not have any problem participating in this year’s Puerto Rican Day Parade, which is honoring Oscar López Rivera. He is the mastermind terrorist behind the bombs planted by the Puerto Rican group FALN that killed Frank Connor and three others in Fraunces Tavern. He is a terrorist who hates America and has close ties with Cuba and Venezuela, yet the mayor has no problem marching in a parade honoring him just as former President Obama had no problem pardoning him. Those in high political positions represent all the people and should not show favoritism or support any group that hurts the public. What is this man thinking, or is he? Rose Johnson

No hero here

Bronx: I can’t help but be happy that Oscar López Rivera is back with his family. But Melissa Mark-Viverito’s embrace of his cause creates the false impression that most New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent support the decision to honor him as “National Freedom Hero” at the parade next month. This man and his group are not the Nelson Mandelas and ANC of Puerto Rico. Once they chose violence and bombs, they joined the “radical chic” tradition of groups like the Weather Underground, Black Panthers and the Young Lords. The real heroes are our parents and grandparents who worked to raise families in New York, Chicago and Boston. They are my “freedom heroes.” Gene Roman

Two states of Reba

Sunnyside: I have often disagreed with Voicer Reba Shimansky (especially when it comes to her refusal to accept the fact that the Democrats lost the 2000 presidential election). However, I thought that it was totally insensitive and inappropriate for Voicer Mike Schmidt to ask her, “Why don’t do you do everybody a favor and move to Israel?” We all have a right to criticize any political leader, and Schmidt’s choice of Israel as the place that Ms. Shimansky should move to is a clear indication of anti-Semitism. And why would it be a bad thing for anyone to move to Israel? Israel and America are two of the most democratic countries in the world. John Francis Fox

New approach to addiction

Manhattan: I remember vividly the crack epidemic in the early 1980s, which devastated black communities all over the country. The answer from law enforcement — from the feds to the states — was to lock up the addicted. No one cared. Today’s opioid epidemic is being treated much differently. Dare I say, “racism,” or have people become more educated and empathetic to the plight of an addict? I wonder, because every person I see in a picture regarding opioid addiction is white, and I’m sure they are not the only people with this problem. So many families and neighborhoods could have been spared if this approach had been used for the killer known as crack! My heart goes out to all addicts. It is a difficult road to travel, and, there but for the grace of God, go I.

Sheila Boyette

Alternatives to jail

Brooklyn: No one who has a drug problem needs to go to jail. Let’s set something up and send them all to one state in a warm area, and every state will chip in for rehab for these people in need. Every family knows somebody who has a drug problem. They just fell off the wagon, and we need to get them back on. Just remember them before they did drugs, and let’s bring them back to that date.

Joseph Ecock

Double-dealing drugs

Manhattan: The Daily News decries the nation’s opioid epidemic. But when President Obama commuted the sentences of over 1,000 convicted drug dealers, The News and liberals applauded. Those prisoners were drug dealers, not casual drug users. Kevin O’Brien

Losers indeed

Staten Island: How long before liberals, Hollywood and the haters of liberty will be crying over President Trump’s statement that those terrorists who killed dozens in Manchester are “evil losers”? I’ll bet Michael Moore, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters and their ilk are getting their statements ready. In full disclosure, I did not vote for Trump. I will say this, however: Even a broken clock is right twice a day; I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Angela Gonsowski

Not long at all

SUSAN WATTS Woodside: Is “evil losers” the best Trump can do? With his thirdgrade vocabulary even “inhuman” would have been better. The only “loser” is DJT himself.

Adam Boulder