Keep Those Letters Coming...
Dear Editor:
Congratulations to my fellow 2024 “Letter to the Editor” writers. Surveys reveal that “Letters to the Editor” is one of the most widely read and popular sections of newspapers.
Most newspapers will print letters submitted by any writers, regardless of where they live, so long as the topic is relevant to readers.
It helps to have a snappy introduction, good hook, be timely, precise, have an interesting or different viewpoint to increase your odds of publication. Papers welcome letters commenting on their own editorials, articles, or previously published letters to the editor.
I’m grateful that the Queens Jewish Link affords both me and my fellow letter writers the opportunity to express our views, as well as differing opinions on issues of the day.
Please join me along with your neighbors in reading the Queens Jewish Link. Patronize their advertisers; they provide the revenues necessary to keep them in business. This helps pay to provide space for your favorite or not so favorite letter writers.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Longtime Reader and Frequent Letter-Writer
Futile Phone Calls
Dear Editor:
I figure in a 24-hour day, I spend eight hours (yeah, right) sleeping or trying to sleep. I then spend 15 minutes davening (I really need to lengthen that) and 45 minutes eating (breakfast, lunch, and supper). Then, I proceed to spend hours (and I’m not exaggerating) on hold with AAA, various insurance companies, Verizon, AT&T, and numerous doctors’ offices. I have no idea how in another life I used to work 6-8 hours a day, raise three kids, and cook (if you call putting fish sticks in the oven cooking).
When you finally get a human being on the line – and I use that term loosely – you have already forgotten what you needed. Was it a question about your bill, its due date, or whether you have bundled your insurance policies? Their first question is whether you want to contact them online. Well, if that were the case, you would have done it from the get-go. Then, they ask your mother’s maiden name. You are lucky by this point if you know your own maiden name. Of course, there’s the “How’s your day going?” to which you want to answer, “How do you think my day is going?” At the end, they ask you to answer a “short” survey, at which point you hang up.
After a morning of futile phone calls, it’s time to go shopping, where you go into shock at the price of a doughnut: $2.50. What do they fill it with, gold? (A tip: Now is the time to sell all your gold and make a small fortune.) The bags of romaine lettuce that say “Kasher L’Pesach” should say “Kasher MeiPesach.” In other words, they taste like they were leftovers from the previous Pesach.
I have to stop complaining because I get nowhere with my complaints. I should appreciate people being nice, even though I told the banker to stop being so nice. Maybe if I were nicer, all these irritations would go away. Have a nice day!
Debbie Horowitz
Who Is Our President Now?
Dear Editor:
The Logan Act is a centuries-old law aimed at keeping private citizens out of foreign affairs. Several years ago, Michael Flynn, President Trump’s National Security Advisor in 2016, was criminally charged over communications he had with a Russian ambassador while Flynn was the incoming National Security Advisor, before he officially assumed the role. Trump has had several meetings with World leaders the past few weeks to discuss foreign affairs, very likely in violation of the Logan Act.
Democrats and their minions, who in the past have charged Trump with all sorts of “crimes,” raided his home and arrested and booked him, don’t seem to care about any of this. The question is why? The answer is obvious. President-elect Trump is not usurping the sitting President because there is no sitting President, nor has there been one for the past four years. Joe Biden ran for President in 2019 after he was diagnosed with dementia.
Tucker Carlson reported this on air a few years ago, telling of a conversation he had with a mutual friend of Biden’s sister, Val. Val was upset with Democrats and Jill Biden for enabling the elder abuse of Joe, suffering one humiliation after another on the public stage because being a dementia patient and running for President are incompatible with each other.
Now that the truth has come out that Biden was incapacitated from the get-go, his irrational decisions of leaving Americans behind in Afghanistan along with $85 billion dollars of military equipment, slow walking aid to Israel, and attacking half the country as ultra-MAGA racists all makes sense. How could anyone possibly expect any reasonable decision-making that would require careful consideration and deliberation from a dementia patient?!
With the largest coverup in modern Presidential history now exposed for all to see, Biden’s handlers are more than happy with the unwritten agreement they have worked out: No one will impeach Biden or invoke the 25th Amendment, and Biden will cede the stage to Trump months before he officially takes office this January 20.
Jonathan Goldgrab
Big Pharma Strikes Again!
Dear Editor:
In 2021, a novel drug was introduced into the marketplace with lots of fanfare. Hailed as the only way out of the Covid pandemic, the drug was marketed by our government/big pharma complex as “safe and effective.” Although it was linked to serious adverse events, lacked any long-term safety data, and was being pushed on vulnerable populations like children, it was viewed by many as so vital that those who refused it were often demonized. That is, until the drug was no longer considered by many to be “safe and effective” anymore. Then those who pushed so hard for it to be mandated, receded into the background, memory-holed their actions of the previous two years, and moved on as if nothing happened.
Less than two years after this fiasco, another new drug was introduced into the marketplace amidst lots of fanfare. Hailed as the most effective way out of the so-called “obesity epidemic,” the drug is being marketed by our government/big pharma complex as “safe and effective.” Although it is linked to serious adverse events, lacks any long-term safety data and is being pushed on vulnerable populations like children, the momentum and widespread usage of this new drug shows little sign of slowing up.
In a 1948 speech to the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Americans are trusting by nature and clearly have short memories. Why anyone would trust Big Pharma after the scam they pulled on the public in 2021 defies all logic and common sense. The last Big Pharma drug push took two years to unwind. How long until this latest drug push which is currently all the rage falls apart? Hard to predict, but let’s hope the ramifications for those who fell prey to the latest Big Pharma push are not dire, and everyone enjoys long and healthy lives.
Jason Stark
Rest in Peace, Jimmy Carter
Dear Editor:
Jimmy Carter passed away this week. It took him until age 100, but Carter held on long enough for Joe Biden to be voted out of office. Timing is everything in life (and death), but apparently, there is only enough room on earth for one man at a time to hold the title of “Worst Living Ex-President in US History.”
Avi Goldberg
Mr. Carter
Dear Editor:
Throughout our history, the Jewish people have always showed respect and engaged in diplomacy with the leader of whichever country in exile we resided in. Former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away last Sunday at the age of 100, wasn’t our friend. But he brokered a peace treaty between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat, which holds to this day, albeit shakily.
Bogged down by high inflation, the Iranian hostage crisis, and an energy crisis (sweaters, anyone?), Carter sought to save his legacy. Who have world leaders historically turned to as a scapegoat for their own troubles? The Jews.
Farmer Jimmy spent the last decades of his life trying to solve the Middle East crisis by painting Israel as an apartheid state that must cede land to the “Palestinians” for the sake of peace. How careful we have to be, then, to be diplomatic but not delude ourselves into thinking that any one ruler is our savior or downfall!
As it says in Melachim II, do not fear the blasphemy of the foreign king. We don’t know what Trump will do to close the deal or save his legacy. The lessons we learned from Chanukah must carry us through the year, the next election cycle, and beyond: Live peacefully amongst the nations when you can, but don’t get too close to the foreign flame.
May the menorah shine bright always.
Chaim Yehuda Meyer
Brooklyn, New York