A group hug for a hurting world

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hitestone: Hugs for the world. We don’t need to give physical hugs but hugs of compassion, deeds and mercy towards others. Let’s give one large group hug to our world and our world will once more return its hugs to us.

Sally De Felice Long Beach, L.I.: I want to thank the Country Music Awards and all involved in this industry. They bring joy and music and smiles to the people. The music is created from performers’ lives and hearts. The songs are clear and understandable. They are not offensive, hurtful or demeaning. At the awards show, the women were glamorous and feminine, not trashy. Host Reba McEntire did not use her captive audience to make political statements or dumb jokes. The award winners said “thank you” without rambling on. We need more music and shows like this. Carole A. Michelman

Life for a life

Manhattan: Once again we learn what our legal system thinks a child’s life is worth (“Horror ma to jail,” May 3). A mother who murdered her 4-year-old son — beat him to death, with a broomstick, for dropping an egg on the floor — has been sentenced to 17 years in prison. I’d like an explanation as to why this woman wasn’t given a life sentence. By the way, she was a day care worker.

Sue Deutsch

Let prisoners vote

Canandaigua, N.Y.: New York’s Republican legislators are condemning Gov. Cuomo’s executive order that would enfranchise parolees. By contrast, the Republican leadership in Maine and Vermont is not only supportive of parolee enfranchisement but also supportive of policies allowing prisoners to vote by absentee ballot. As Mike Donohue, a spokesman for the Vermont Republican Party, told NBC News: “The last thing we want to do is start putting up insurmountable barriers to civic life because someone may have been convicted of a crime. People’s right to vote is sacred.” I agree.

Joel Freedman

What’s in a name

Long Island City: With the Nazis’ murder of millions and their evil aim to enslave the world, to name a global taxi company, Uber, after a favorite Nazi word seems more than bizarre. It is simply sick.

William Lindauer

How about a car-free mayor?

Forest Hills: Re “End of road for Central Park cars” (April 21): Mayor de Blasio, who gets chauffeured from Gracie Mansion to a Brooklyn gym, stated, “We’re trying to live differently” to fight climate change.” Yet the rhetoric from this deplorable phony does not apply to himself and family. City limos contribute to pollution, and he uses his for his pleasure and convenience, ignoring the fact that subways are available for the lower-class peasants who stupidly voted for him but certainly not for himself. Richard Delson

FDR FTW

Bayside: Wow! My husband was just saying: God bless Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He wouldn’t survive without his monthly Social Security checks.

Theresa Polese

War on the poor

Bronx: To Donald Trump and all his dirtbag flunkies: May you all choke on all your money. I see that the rich people hit the jackpot when this joker Trump got elected President. Where’s Batman when you need him? Not only does the Trump administration want to do away with the food stamp program, now they want to hike the rent in public housing. What do we poor people pay the rent with, rocks? Hey, Ben Carson, I bet you live in a beautiful house with no worries. I just hope that Gov. Cuomo can help us poor people out, because Trump wants all the poor people to drop dead. Doris Festante

Don’t give him ideas

Katonah, N.Y.: Will Trump reach another low and pardon Bill Cosby? Gregg Cunningham Oak Ridge, N.J.: Re “Tracking Cosby like an animal” (April 28): Lock the bum up and throw away the key! John Lesquereaux

A city, taken

Queens Village: I agree with everything in Maria Doulis’ critique of the City Council’s budget duty (“Forcing discipline on big spender bill,” May 2). What I find disturbing is that New York City has strong revenues, particularly from property taxes. There are five boroughs in this city. I can only speak on the one I reside in, Queens. Luxury buildings have been given tax abatements over the last decade in staggering numbers. Our property taxes have gone up drastically over that time. It seems that the outer boroughs’ property taxes are subsidizing this loss of revenue in this area. With a large increase in population, this city needs more services, such as police, firefighters, sanitation and infrastructure maintenance and repair. The property taxes will continue to go up to furnish these services while the fat cat developers walk away with large profits. I have lived in and loved Queens for almost 65 years. It was like the country, and now it is an overcrowded, filthy place. I say goodbye, as Paddy Reilly sang, to “the town that I loved so well.” And God help those that remain. May the politicians all rot in a nonpartisan hell.

Len Basile

Trashy priorities

Kew Gardens: Three conniving schemers connected with Gov. Cuomo — state Sens. Liz Krueger and Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Steve Englebright — introduced a statewide bill to ban plastic bags (“Make the plastic carryout bag extinct,” Op-Ed, April 21). Purchasers of other types of bags will be penalized with a 10-cent fee, forcing us to switch. Krueger admitted the money would go to the state Environmental Protection Fund, with exemptions for low-income people. So we are penalized for earning and forced to support inept governments. They cite their responsibility to children and grandchildren but are not concerned with waste-and-spend deficit budgets. They cite, erroneously, bags discarded after 12 minutes, with each person using 1,000 yearly, this from Cuomo’s plastic bag task force. They predict that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. They make frivolous predictions about the future with exactness, yet with these skills are unable to balance our state budget and have it function accurately. Joseph E. Justiz

Al Gored

Brooklyn: When someone gives advice on the environment, we should have someone with more facts and common sense than ex-vice president and nimrod Al Gore. If there’s a greenhouse effect, why were we still having winter-type weather in April? Looks like Gore’s theory is full of hot air. Robert Romeo

Give us a break

Brooklyn: Re “Andy: No book income” (April 18): I am a senior citizen, 89 years old, and I gave more to charity last year than Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray, $600. The mayor and his wife should be ashamed.

Elaine Gelobter

Going for broke

Westport, Conn.: A projected $800 billion budget deficit for this fiscal year, a trillion dollars next year. This from the same party that had pushed for a balancedbudget amendment. Voodoo economics? James Giambalvo

A Grimm candidate

Staten Island: To Voicer Thomas McGuire: How can anyone trust Michael Grimm ever again? He should have never run for Congress, knowing that he was going to resign and take a plea bargain. He told us he was going to fight his conviction to the end. I always vote for a veteran, but can’t vote for Grimm. He’s a liar.

James Garofalo

Matt on the floor

Bayside: I hate reading harsh words about Mets pitcher Matt Harvey. Sarcasm, like what Voicer George V. Hlinko wrote, is even worse and downright cruel. He’s not the only pitcher in baseball who has had a rough time. He’s a super pitcher, as you will come to realize and soon. Leave him alone. Sarah Alboher

Winners all

Bronx: Thanks so much for the two tickets to the Yankee game on April 25. My granddaughter and I had a good time and great seats. Also, the Yankees won the game. William A. Dyson II

A fun loss

GETTY IMAGES Brooklyn: We had a great time at the Yankees game, thanks to free tickets from the Daily News, even though they lost. I still enjoyed the game. We made friends with the people sitting next to us and the seats were great. Thank you, Daily News, my favorite newspaper. Rose Charley