Cellphone use endangers lives
Brooklyn: In response to Voicer Candy Cipriani’ s request for people to “look up from your phone, please,” I am in total agreement. Everywhere I look there are people young and old alike casting their glance downward to check their phones. As I am driving to work early in the morning, there are people crossing the streets, riding their bikes, running to catch a train or bus clutching tightly onto their phones. As hard as it is to believe, I even see joggers looking at their phones as they are running!
All of this is disturbing to witness because these people are so fixated on their devices, they are missing out on the amazing sites and sounds this world has to offer. The most disturbing is to see parents, guardians or nannies crossing the street with a child either walking beside them or pushing a child in a stroller all the while chatting away on their phone while the young child is left to trail next to them in danger sometimes because the adult they are with is more interested in their phone conversation than the safety of the young child they are with. I call these children CPOs — Cell Phone Orphans.
Please wake up, parents, guardians and nannies — these children are young for a precious short time. Don’t you think they deserve your undivided attention? Engage with them while you can and make them feel more important than the caller you are neglecting them for.
Margaret D. Mirailh
Bizarre quotas
Far Rockaway: People keep talking about illegal immigration, what about so-called legal immigration? I’m talking about all the Russians who arrived in NYC during Rudy Giuliani’s reign as mayor. The Russians arrived at JFK with Section 8 apartments, SSI, welfare and food stamps already in their hands. That’s what was happening in those compounds President Obama shut down. The Russians in those compounds had access to all social service, Social Security and all other government databases. They were hooking their people up and many resided in Trump Tower. In the meantime, Americans who were eligible and waiting for these benefits were put on long waiting lists. What about that? Sandra Smith
What a bully!
Salem, N.H.: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski should have the courage to bring criminal extortion charges against President Trump! He has threatened her and Alaska, if she doesn’t do what he says. I hope she seriously considers this! Shirley Kerman
Empty your wallets
North Arlington, N.J.: I think President Trump makes a valid point in citing the increased medical costs transgender people serving in the military bring. Let’s say Robert, who is transgender, joins the Army. He then makes it known that he wishes to have a sex change operation. Upon completion of his/her surgery, and rehab, he enlists an attorney who informs the Army that he no longer wishes to serve. The reason being that Roberta never would have joined the Army. The taxpayers are stuck with the bill for the surgery, and a cottage industry is born. Armand Rose
Time will tell
Flushing: What next? Will President Trump dig up the graves of transgender soldiers and sailors who gave up their lives for their country and who are buried in Arlington Cemetery, in order to remove them? Saul Grossman
United States, divided people?
Seaford, L.I.: The author Ayn Rand has influenced many capitalists over the years. Donald Trump and members of his White House team are firmly in her camp. Rand’s philosophy of objectivism (individualism) can be summed up as “Every man for himself.” She promoted a form of free enterprise that leaves behind the poor, middle class, sick and aging. As we inch closer to “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” by putting ourselves before others, and disregarding the affect our actions have on others, our individual freedoms slowly start to slip away. This is not fiction, but real life. Moral questions abound. Socialism exists in our world because self-centeredness also does. The U.S. is not the first great civilization to travel down this egotistical road and will not be the last. At some point though, they all collapsed into moral poverty. We need to plot a different course. Our current GPS needs a new destination.
Bob Bascelli
Don’s not on our backs
Brooklyn: I enlisted and served in the Air Force between 1965 and 1969. Those who criticize President Trump for being reluctant to serve in the military should be happy he didn’t. Would you be comfortable having a coward covering your back? Anyone who volunteers and vows to serve and protect our country should be honored for their service. Back in the 1960s, and with the airmen I served with, Trump would be considered a “Dirt Bag.” I hope others who served will also write in to Voicers and tell their stories about how they were proud to wear their uniform and were loyal to their fellow brothers and sisters. Kenneth Ackermann
You ain’t a role model!
Kearny, N.J.: What is it with this guy, Trump? He goes before the Boy Scouts, curses (in violation of the Scout Oath to “be clean in speech”), attacks the media and the last President, and brags about his Electoral College victory and crowd size (get over yourself, dude, they were there for their Jamboree, not you). This man is the antithesis of a role model to the Scouts and the values they represent. They’d have done just as well if they’d invited O.J. Simpson or R. Kelly to speak to them. John Woodmaska
Know your rights and duties
Suffern, N.Y.: So many times, in tragedies such as the police killing of Justine Damond in Minneapolis, I return to my thinking when I was a police officer. I remember the apprehension, and concern when approaching a suspect in a situation that appeared to be dangerous. The point of this message has been offered before many many times. When a police officer gives a command, just do what the command dictates. If there is cooperation, the level of apprehension and concern diminishes and the issue can be resolved without unnecessary escalation. Just do what the cop says to do. Simple. Bob Gould
Throw back Thursday
Lewes, Del.: The picture of the moving of the Kosciusko Bridge brought back memories. Growing up in the Marble Hill Houses we watched the old Broadway turnstile bridge at 225th St. being floated out and the new lift bridge that was built down at 207th St. floated in. For a 12-year-old, it was quite the sight. Kevin Bell
Justice for rent
Manhattan: To Voicer Juanita M. Johnson: As a non-payer of rent going on 24 months, I was amused by your suggestion that the laws ought to be changed to allow for the expedited removal of people like me within 60 days. Have you never heard that justice is the firm and “continuous desire” to render to everyone that which is his due? Desires take time. You seem to believe the law confers upon couples with children some special advantage over other litigants in eviction matters. As a happy, loyal, repeat respondent in Manhattan Housing Court, I can assure you they do not. You say the judge in your brother’s case made a mistake. Bad precedents? Maybe. But outright error? The burden to present the facts in arguments lies solely with plaintiffs and it beggars belief to insist your brother did just that and the judge was somehow misled and made a mistake anyway. I do not know whether justice ultimately triumphed in your case but I do know karma simply owed me one in mine. Aydin Torun
Come on, Cuomo!
BEN MARGOT/AP Bellerose: If private companies really want to help straphangers, let them pledge not to discipline their employees for documented transit delays. Why isn’t Gov. Cuomo talking about that, instead of flowers and light shows?
Robert Berger
Mexico is already here
Waco, Tex.: The closing of a burrito shop in Portland, Ore. owned by two white women over claims “cultural appropriation” in The Portland Mercury newspaper is absurd. I don’t have all the facts, but here in Texas, we have Mexican food on every corner. Most of the eateries are owned by Mexican-Americans, but many are owned by whites, so what is their point? Appears to be a typical narrow-minded opinion, or sensationalized journalism.
David Rosen
Yes, they missed it
Oak Ridge, N.J.: Are you kidding me? Clint Frazier hits into a triple play and there’s barely a mention of it during the postgame; yea it was the Yanks that did it but come on man, how friggin often does it happen? Jim Heimbuch