Catalan separatists’ victim act
Rye, N.Y.: In “Sorry, Catalonia is not Spain” (Op-Ed, Nov. 27), Jennifer Lutz deeply distorts reality. To claim secessionists are peaceful citizens and suggest the Spanish government is a totalitarian regime similar to Franco’s dictatorship is really offensive. It is also stated by people quoted in the Op-Ed that they want to speak Catalan and apparently can’t do so. What it is not said is that Catalan is by law the co-official language at the same level as Spanish. Everyone is free to speak Catalonian.
It would be also very helpful to clarify what the “peaceful secessionists” have achieved in the past months:
Even though Catalonia has never been a country, they tried to push through an illegal referendum against the ruling of the Supreme Court and against their own Catalonian laws. They tried using the Catalonian government and its budget to create a parallel government and also to create a negative image of Spain in the world with much fake news.
And they created a political situation that was the cause for thousands of the major companies in Catalonia to leave the region, hurting its economy severely and causing the worst social crisis imaginable with many relations broken.
The Op-Ed also fails to note that never in the history of Catalonia has the region had so much autonomy. Alberto Laveron
In defense of men
Andover, Mass.: I read Christina Hoff Sommers’ book “The War Against Boys”; it was superb (“We’re at risk of turning #metoo into a rush to blame all men,” Op-Ed, Nov. 26). My view is that today, sexual harassment allegations are primarily used as a weapon to destroy men. The reason is the feminist movement today generally believes that white males have had power for 10,000 years and done nothing but plunder all who aren’t white men — and now it’s women’s turn to have power. It was never about equality or equity, but women’s superiority. Men are in women’s way. They must be destroyed.
Bill Josephson
In defense of men II
Los Angeles: Please thank Sommers for writing about how this harassment movement going on now could backlash to hurt all men. It’s not fair. Great, too, that it came from a woman.
Glenn Chaika
In defense of men III
San Francisco: Sommers’ article about the Great Sex Panic of 2017 is genuinely informative. Hats off to her. But she better watch out — she has actually committed an act of good old-fashioned reporting.
Mark Behrens
In defense of men IV
Pendleton, Ore.: Maybe it’s time for women to leave us (men) alone. Let us have our all-male colleges, Boy Scouts, men’s clubs, etc. Believe it or not, we don’t want a woman in every foxhole or scattered throughout our subs, carriers and Special Forces. Angry women and feminists have resulted in American men going overseas for wives by the thousands. Men are starting to ignore American women. And young women teachers are finding relationships with high school boys easier because men their age are turned off by their me-first attitude and high maintenance. It’s time for women to realize they’re women and that men are not going to change their biology, because we can’t. Male mammals have testosterone for a reason. Deal with it and leave us alone!
Steve Baker
Out of her depth
Atlanta: Susan Sarandon is an actor and a celebrity, but that does not mean she has anything meaningful to say about our political system (“Sarandon: Hillary Clinton would be as bad as Trump,” Nov. 26). Equating Clinton and President Trump is ludicrous. Clinton is an experienced politician with a deep knowledge of our political system and a thorough understanding of world affairs. Trump is a man with no moral compass, no knowledge of how our democracy works and no understanding of world affairs. Trump has debased, degraded and divided our country. The Trump administration has been marked by scandal, incompetence and chaos. It has become a cesspool of corruption — so much corruption that Trump is actually endorsing an accused pedophile for the Senate. Isabel Patino
No thanks to us
Rockville Centre, L.I.: Re “A policing rift that healed” (editorial, Nov. 27): It was no thanks to the Daily News. Your editorials at the time created enormous animosity between residents and police. They served as an echo chamber for the police department’s unyielding support of its stop-and-frisk practices. At the same time we, along with the Police Reform Organizing Project and Communities United for Police Reform, were testifying, writing and speaking against the aggressive use of the tactic in places such as Harlem and the Village. Try digesting the research before criticizing and simply accepting the police department’s version. The evidence was quite clear from the beginning. Other than our book “The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation,” our research is published in many peer reviewed journals. We welcome you to the club, but you are 12 years late and millions of stops short.
John A. Eterno Director of criminal justice and legal studies, Molloy College
Eli B. Silverman Professor emeritus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
How low can they go?
New Orleans: Thank you, Daily News, for one of the clearest and most concise critiques of the tax bill (“Damned lies and tax cuts,” editorial, Nov. 27). The question is how low will the GOP go? I am hopeful there are enough sane Republican senators to reject this damaging legislation. God help America. Cathy Trione Gontar
How far we’ve fallen
Staten Island: We have become a nation of complacency, and our illustrious President is the leader of the pack. We are not shocked when we open a paper and read that a school or theater or even an outdoor concert is riddled with bullets. Somehow this has become the norm. Now we are putting pedophiles in office, because Trump would rather see a sex offender in office than a Democrat. Wake up, America!
Natalie Johnson
In good hands
Toronto: Andy Byford, who’s now in charge of Toronto’s public transit system, is soon taking over New York City’s transit authority. I am sad to see him go because he is a one-of-a-kind CEO. I am not the only one who feels sad about his departure; the sentiment is shared by workers throughout the system. While Byford, the head of Canada’s largest transit agency, is at the very top, I, a contractor customer service ambassador, am at the very bottom, sometimes literally (I have breathed in brake dust underground on the subway platforms in the company of black mice!) Despite a huge gap between us, I don’t hesitate to reach out to Byford whenever I have ideas or suggestions. One of many examples: On Sept. 6 of this year, I found mistakes in the English text and Braille translation on the passenger assistance intercom at a station. After I came home, at 7:04 p.m., I emailed Byford about the mistakes. At 7:40 p.m., he replied — and said he’d have the problem handled. Byford is approachable. He even allowed my teenage boy, Weilan Huang, to interview him for a documentary that looks behind the scenes at the Toronto system. Wherever Byford goes in the future, we here in Toronto wish him continued success. And we will always remember him fondly.
Gu Zhenzhen
Voice of the privileged
Trumbull, Conn.: To Voicer Ricardo DePaoli. Don’t waste your time. If your views don’t agree with the editors’, they won’t be published. This is no longer the Voice of the People.Joyce B. Pinto
War on walkers
REUTERS Staten Island: I drive through Sunset Park to work five times a week (“Video shows teen cyclist fatally struck, dragged for half a block by BMW driver,” Nov. 25). Drivers are rude, don’t signal and don’t yield to pedestrians. Even though some pedestrians enter the crosswalk against the light, you must yield to them.
Frances Bentley
License to break the rules
Brooklyn: To Voicer Lushantha Seneviratne: You are so right about more and more people illegally covering their license plates. The worst offender is the FDNY. Their civilian commissioners drive around in SUVs with special, unidentifiable, license plates. They do not get red-light and school zone tickets. All employees of the city should have official city plates so the public knows who they are. What are they hiding? Natalie Ortiz