Focus on pension and politics

Manhattan: I am a retiree from New York City agencies, having worked more than 25 years, first for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, then the Human Resources Administration. I retired at the beginning of 2013, and am now 73 years old. I disagree in the strongest possible terms with Richard Brower, who accused Mayor de Blasio and Controller Scott Stringer of “politicizing” our pensions by divesting from fossilfuel companies and investing instead in clean-energy firms; and also by divesting from private prisons that may serve ICE by holding immigrants (Op-Ed, Sept. 15). This is exactly how I want my pension funds invested.

I don’t want to get money from firms that pollute and poison our air, water and land, and contribute to climate change. I don’t want to be supported by money invested in prisons that profit from the broken lives of immigrants who came to my country fleeing in desperation from starvation and life-threatening circumstances in their homelands. I am decidedly not wealthy and depend upon my pension, but I want to be able to hold my head up about where my money is coming from. The heartlessness of the author was chilling. I applaud de Blasio and Stringer for trying, in this way, to base our pension funds on kindness and decency. If they had not, I’d have joined my colleagues out in the street with a sign.

Not again

Jamaica: The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Sept. 24 to delve into sexual assault allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Once again, just like during the Anita Hill hearing, there will be no Republican women on the panel. There are still two old farts from Hill’s hearing there: Sens. Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch. At least the Democrats have women for these hearings. This is history repeating itself. Hopefully this time the outcome will be different. It’s a shame that Al Franken had to leave the Senate after what he was accused of. Why is the Senate wasting its time with Kavanaugh for a lifetime Supreme Court Justice job? This seems like a double standard. Charlene Black

Not above the law

Manhattan: Voicer Joe Squerciati claims that Brett Kavanaugh believes “the President may not be subpoenaed, indicted or even investigated.” This claim is an entirely biased, subjective and misleadingly broad interpretation of Kavanaugh’s constitutional beliefs. Not only has Kavanaugh never asserted what Squerciati avers, the fact is that Carol F. Yost

the President should be protected from the current plague of ambulance-chasing and/or politically motivated lawyers seeking to derail the tenure of a specific President regarding civil matters long-predating a campaign or election. Any President can and should be investigated and indicted if the evidence exists for the “high crimes and misdemeanors” which can lead to impeachment. Robert Sieger

Something smells fishy

Manhattan: Am I possibly delusional? I find it more than a little difficult to comprehend the logic of “Muggers accuse teen as they rob him on Queens subway” (Sept. 17). It states: “Two muggers accused a teenage boy riding a Queens subway of being a racist Trump supporter as they robbed him of his cell phone and cash, police said Monday. ‘You’re a racist and a Trump supporter,’ one of the robbers said, according to a police source. ‘I’m going to teach you how black people treat white people.’ ” I am concerned about the veracity of the quote from an unidentified police source. Were these truly antiTrump muggers? It appears to me that the article was simply a political announcement by the NYPD whereby we revisit the fantasy that black people are thieves and white people are often the victims of angry black people.

Delano Greenidge

Modern miracles

Melbourne, Australia: On Aug. 23, apparently the L train was actually on time with no delays for the morning run from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. This line and every other line appears to have faced delays and faults for the rest of the month. We could ask cynically, “How did they get that one success?” given that to most travelers, trains always seem to be late or are canceled. The bigger question is why? It should be possible to use computers to schedule trains so that there are few or no delays and a regular maintenance program would prevent most breakdowns. This, however, seems to be beyond the capabilities of most countries in the world. This highlights the limits of our capabilities to manage a reasonably simple technology. We don’t need to worry about Terminator robots starting a war and taking over; they can just wait till all of our systems slowly collapse and then “rescue” us.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Free the cows and pigs

Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Thanks so much for publishing “Our obscene hypocrisy on animal rights” by Kenny Torrella (Sept. 17). All the farmed animals whose short, miserable lives are ended in the terror of slaughter are individuals who don’t want to suffer and don’t want to die, like our beloved companion animals, like ourselves. But if people come to understand this via concern over dogs and cats, it’s great progress. And if people care about hungry people, they must know that the production of meat is hugely wasteful and inefficient, and diverts grain that people could eat to the warehoused animals.

Deborah W. Elliott

All creatures, great and small

Los Angeles: It is indeed hypocritical to fail to address or consider what is the price paid by the animals in suffering and lives so that we might dine on their bodies, and repulsive beyond measure to dine on tortured domestic animals considered loving pets in this country. But glacially. many younger people are coming to recognize this fact and are beginning to adopt a more plant-based diet, and since the

AP raising of meat is so unsustainable owing to land and water depletion, these facts are also making an impression on their nutritional choices, so change is indeed happening. If one is focusing only on the equivalency of a dog vs. a cow, it is understandable that questions might be pondered, as our culture has been so emotionally attached to canines for so long, unlike some other cultures, but still this is an important if not vital issue and I am so pleased that Mr. Torrella posed it to readers so that we might also question its relevancy. Elaine Livesy-Fassel

Blood on our hands

Mundelein, Ill.: Kenny Torrella drove an often-ignored point home: Those tortured lives that provide hungry humans temporary gratification have the same desire to live, play and run as your pampered pooches and cats. Yet abuse of those chosen “pets” results in thousands of dollars of fines. I’m all for the cruelty fines, but now understand the hypocrisy as humans accept and perpetuate a life of unimaginable cruelty to the unfortunate millions of innocent beings. Nancy Jenkins