Put down phone, pick up broom

Brooklyn: We are living in a time of countless electronic devices. I walk every day as a form of exercise, as recommended by my doctor. This I have been doing for over four years. My cell phone keeps track of how far I walk. I see people texting as they walk and as they cross the street, many times against the light, and sometimes pushing babies in strollers. They talk as they walk or drive, and almost every time I stop for a coffee or a snack, there are people using their phones or laptops while they eat.

With all the walking I’ve done I’ve noticed something else: The streets have never been filthier in the 70 years I have lived in Brooklyn. It’s disgusting. For all the modern devices that have taken over our lives, many of us have forgotten a device that has been around for hundreds of years. It’s called a broom.

There are people who do keep their sidewalks clean, and good for them, but to the rest of you: Let’s get on the ball and clean up our messy sidewalks. The broom may not text or tweet or all those other things but it can give you some self-respect. Peter Cain

Pedaling backward

Brooklyn: When I was a boy, I loved to ride my bike. As I got older, I was able to ride in the street. There were no bike lanes in the street, you just had to be careful. You were taught to obey the same laws as car drivers: Stop for red lights, full stops, go the right way on one-way streets, obey yield signs and stay off the sidewalk if you weren’t a little kid. Special spots had bike paths — I remember Prospect Park, Eastern Parkway, Ocean Parkway and Shore Road. Now that bike paths are everywhere, it’s more dangerous than ever to drive your car, mostly because the bikers don’t seem to know the rules. They go too fast, go right through red lights and stop signs, go the wrong way, ride on sidewalks. If you are an adult, you should have to get a bike license and be taught the rules of the road. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve almost been run down by some dope on a bike. Also: When I was a kid, boys rode boys’ bikes and girls rode girls’ bikes. Now all I see are guys riding Citi Bikes that we boys would never ride. All these bikes are girls’ bikes. If you guys don’t mind riding girls’ bikes, at least do it safely. Joe Curtain

Imperfect people

Bronx: Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa MarkViverito seem determined to foment an uncivil war that is polarizing the city that they pledged to serve. (Oh, excuse me, Mark-Viverito doesn’t believe in pledging her allegiance to anything.) These misguided iconoclasts have embarked on a crusade to destroy monuments that they claim to be offensive in an attempt to distract from their own misdeeds. We humans are imperfect creatures at best. There are few saints among us. History must judge us by the sum of our accomplishments, not single acts or statements that are influenced by the times in which we live. The individuals that they seek to discredit laid the foundation for our growth as a more inclusive and just society. If we are to survive, we cannot turn our backs on the past. Tearing down monuments only serves to tear the fabric that binds us together. Learn from the past; don’t sweep it under the rug. Honor the good that these individuals accomplished during their lives, in spite of what we now perceive as their failings. Let’s not deny them the place they deserve in our history.

Paulette Sorg Scarsdale, N.Y.: Why did Hillary Clinton lose the election? Because she chose Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her vice-presidential running mate, whom no one knew. Had she chosen Sen. Bernie Sanders, all his followers would have endorsed her instead of Trump. Claude Young

Dirty politics

East Northport, L.I.: Hillary Clinton says she lost the election because the Russians interfered. Then it was James Comey, then it was the Electoral College, then Bernie Sanders, when in fact it was Tide laundry detergent. You see, Tide can get grass stains out of your kid’s uniform, and it can get blood out of your husband’s outfit, but it can’t get that brown stain out of her pant suit.

Brian O’Gara

Your song

Manhattan: To Donald Trump: There is only one “Rocket Man,” and that’s Elton John. Refer to the North Korean guy as “Rocket Boy,” please. Yvonne Crequé

The face that launched

Belleville, N.J.: So Donald Trump calls the North Korean dictator “Rocket Man.” That’s not a bad nickname for him, the way he’s been threatening the U.S., Japan and the rest of the free world with his nuclear rockets. I myself like to call him Baby Face Nelson. The worst President was Ronald Reagan, who curbed our freespeech right to authorize strikes.

Frank R. Alvarenga

Use your heads!

Flushing: I’m all for the NFL and equipment manufacturers doing everything possible to protect football players, but players should also take responsibility for their own protection and health. When they make a good play (sometimes even a bad play), they’re head-butting or head-slapping each other, and not softly. Even without four years of college, you have to know that’s not helping your head. Duh!

Joe Grimm

Clearing the air

Staten Island: The emergence of hookah bars across the city has made harmful behaviors socially acceptable (“New bars get the hook-a,” Sept. 28). The City Council is taking one more step to decrease tolerance of tobacco use and ensure our youth are not inhaling harmful substances. Ashley Zanatta, community engagement manager, JCC of

Staten Island

Christian revival

Hardwick, N.J.: To Voicer Michael Hanahoe, who asked about the difference between Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar, and said Billy Graham must be turning over in his grave: When did he die? As far as I know, Graham is alive and will be 99 in November.

Jean Hayes

Native Americans

Bayville, N.J.: A quick note to help out Voicer Doris Festante, who writes about Mexicans whom she says were born in California, Texas, Arizona “and other states.” Clearly in her fervor to leap onto the bash-Trump bandwagon, she has become confused. People born in the aforementioned states are called “Americans.” I hope that clears things up for her. James Reilly

Our money

College Point: Congress has taken aggressive steps trying to reduce our monthly Social Security checks, increase out-of-pocket health care costs, deny access to copayment-free preventive care services and use these vital programs to pay for deficit reduction and massive tax cuts for the wealthy. Yet Social Security didn’t cause the deficits that are fueling proposals to slash the benefits that we’ve paid into our entire working lives. These proposals are backed by wealthy corporate interest groups, which are more concerned about expanding tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans than protecting citizens’ earned benefits.

Frank Sforza

Whose idea was this?

Flushing: Mexico has suffered through two mighty earthquakes. Millions of people have lost their homes and a few of them have lost their lives. Some of us are still talking about “intelligent design.” What is so intelligent about this design? G.M. Chandu

Dr. K

Brooklyn: I did not go to college and have no initials after my name, but I think Voicer Hyman Auslander’s reference to Vitamin K and circumcision had to do with Vitamin K and blood clotting, which, if it is produced by the eighth day of life, would protect a baby from the circumcision procedure. Vitamin K can be given by injection.

Fran Giammalvo

To her ears

Jamaica: To Voicer Irene Hersberg: Thank you so much for information on great music. I will find these radio stations and listen to great music again. There is nothing like the old standards. Thank you, too, to Voicer Joan Tully. I love Peggy Lee and Dinah Washington, too. Jenny Kelly

Spoken for

DON EMMERT/AFP/GETTY Tompkins Corners, N.Y.: Voicer Susan Clark made me smile. Although Candice Bergen was entertaining to watch on TV or in films, actions in her personal life indicated she was always off the rails, radical in her political and social views. We must all remember that her brothers, Mortimer and Charlie, were real dummies and always let others put words in their mouths. Neither brother had a brain in his head. Their father, Edgar, always had to speak for them. If only Edgar had spoken for his daughter Candice.

Shirley Van Schoik