Dear Editor:
As a Hatzalah member myself (and I’m sure most of my fellow members would agree 100 percent), the earpiece on a date was way out of line.
I do want to point out the issue raised in the article about standing in line at Queens College, asking why the member was listening in. There are several Hatzalah members who are also college students and are responsible for many aspects of Hatzalah’s daily operations. Even if we’re not available for a call at the moment, we have to keep track of how many calls a specific ambulance takes until it will need more gas and other supplies. There are also mechanical issues we keep track of, by hearing reports given oven the radio.
Many of us are also assigned as “Field Training Officers” for new members and need to keep tabs on their progress, and what types of calls they take, in order to help move them up to the next level of being a First Responder. During a call, the dispatcher may also be trying to raise specific Paramedics for a call, not knowing that they may be away or on vacation (like this past Yeshivah Week) and it would be up to us to advise the Dispatcher that so-and-so isn’t in town; please try the next Paramedic, etc.
Again, I’m not justifying the date part, which was rather disgusting. I just wanted to shed more light on the Queens College issue you pointed out.
R.E.
(Sorry for the anonymous part)
Dear Editor:
I found myself intrigued by the front-page article, “Celebrate Pride – Or Else!” but was disappointed to find the article seemingly lacking in substance. Mr. Hill would have readers believe that an incident in which a random hockey player expressed an opinion and was met with mere criticism is somehow a sign of doom for religious freedom. I implore readers to understand that in the headline incident of this article, nothing materially occurred. One man expressed an opinion, other people expressed dissent, and the man continued to play for his team with absolutely no further problems.
I recognize that there is a lot of anxiety within the frum world regarding the YU lawsuit, as Mr. Hill’s column eventually explores, but if the author wanted to write yet another think-piece on the topic, he could have easily done so without the click-bait.
Thank you very much.
Gav
Obesity Is Not Your Fault!
Dear Editor:
Great news for the 70 percent of Americans who are overweight and 50 percent who are obese: It’s not your fault. According to Dr. Cody Stanford, President Biden’s new appointee to a USDA panel set up to determine new dietary guidelines, it is genetics, not diet and exercise, that is the greatest determinant in whether one will be overweight.
Years of incorrect assumptions that healthy choices, namely an active lifestyle combined with monitoring one’s caloric intake, would lead to better health, have been turned upside down by this latest bombshell.
This of course is just the latest ridiculous reboot of institutional norms by the behind-the-scenes puppet-masters running the Biden administration. If people with Y chromosomes can now be women, two negative quarters of GDP no longer equal a recession, and a vaccine no longer needs to vaccinate, should we be surprised when we are now told that diet and exercise have nothing to do with obesity?!
Up is down, down is up, the “Inflation Reduction Act” increases inflation, Biden’s “climate czar” John Kerry attends climate change conferences while flying private jets, and the price of gas has spiked in the last few weeks but no relief is on the way because the Strategic Petroleum Reserves can be tapped only in extreme emergencies such as bad Democrat polling in the lead-up to the midterms, not afterwards.
The fact that Americans willingly accept these conditions only serves to highlight how most of the population has either shut their pre-frontal cortex off or, as is often the case with Warren Hecht, scream “January 6,” “orange man bad,” or “Q-Anon” to justify their support for the political party that has wrought so much damage to this once great country.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
Yips! Oh, no! He’s got them! I’m referring, of course, to the Dallas Cowboys kicker who missed four extra points in an important game. From what I understand, or from what my son informed me, extra points are a “gimme.” In other words, it is expected that the kicker get the ball between the goal posts. So, what happened? He was evidently suffering from the non-medical term “yips,” or nerves. Think this only happens to this unlucky player? Think again.
Let’s take your visit to the doctor’s office. After taking your weight (any extra pounds can be blamed on your sheitel, sweater, and jewelry), the nurse takes your blood pressure. Just looking at her face tells you it’s too high, even though you are on medication. You then ask her to use a manual BP machine, which you assure her is more accurate. However, no luck there. Then, you ask her to use the other arm, which registers 20 points higher. You explain that you have the dreaded “white coat syndrome” or that your high BP is genetic. (Always blame your parents for something.) Maybe your BP is high because it’s almost Pesach, or it’s S’firah and you can’t recall what the number is. Perhaps, it’s the Three Weeks, the Nine Days, or the Yamim Nora’im, all of which can cause your BP to rise. The simplest reason is that you drove along the FDR or the Major Deegan (who was he anyway?) during rush hour to get to your appointment. However, the simplest reason is you experienced the yips.
This reminds me of one of the multiple times I took the road test. My instructor picked up three teenagers and me (age 41) to take to the road test. These three teenagers had a combined IQ of 100, and my instructor was convinced that I’d be the only one to pass. Surprise! They passed and I failed because, after being warned about it a million times, I made a left-hand turn and didn’t pay attention to the oncoming car. (In reality, I had plenty of time.) The instructor yelled and screamed at me. I guess I had the yips.
Remember, the next time you are in a tough situation, take a deep breath, close your eyes (unless you are driving), and ask Hashem to calm you down.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
Moshe Hill’s recent OpEd, “Celebrate Pride – Or Else,” was rife with fallacies.
Hill’s piece relies on a shaky rhetorical foundation to support a weak argument, from the false analogy between the Philadelphia Flyers and YU to the slippery slope of recruiting event withdrawals leading to dress code changes. The absurd notion of forcing people to wear rainbow pins is a sickening, thinly veiled allusion to the yellow stars of pre-war Europe.
Affording resources to a student organization is by no means a ringing endorsement. Tolerance is a far cry from celebration.
Sincerely,
Shalom Weberman
Forest Hills Gardens
Dear Editor:
I read Moshe Hill’s rabid January 26 defense of homophobic Philadelphia Flyer Ivan Provorov’s refusal to wear a Pride Night warmup jersey based upon First Amendment grounds and I automatically presumed that Moshe would have numerous tweets defending the right of former 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick to exercise his First Amendment right to take a knee during the playing of our National Anthem in his timeline.
So, imagine my shock that in a search of Moshe’s 4,258 (as of January 27) tweets, I found a grand total of zero tweets supporting Kaepernick’s right to take a knee. None to criticize the NFL for blacklisting a talented QB. In fact, his only mention of Kaepernick’s was to criticize him and other biracial Americans who choose to identify with the race that society perceives them to be.
Then I did a search of the Queens Jewish Link archives. A total of 12 opinion pieces, four by Moshe, contained the name Kaepernick. Shockingly, not one word of support for Kaepernick’s First Amendment Rights. Not one word calling to an end of his blacklisting. Bupkas!
As to the law President Biden has signed that Mr. Hill claims “gives no protection to individuals who want to adhere to their religion outside of their religious institutions,” I presume that opinion refers to laws that protect individuals from having their rights to be served limited by those who do not wish to serve certain groups of people. Given this “logic,” I would presume that Moshe would have no problem with those who cited religious objections to serving our grandparents and great-grandparents as well as the ancestors of our African American neighbors when those forbearers were prohibited from staying at restricted (segregated) hotels (as portrayed in Gentleman’s Agreement and which necessitated the creation of the Borscht Belt and the Green Book).
Unfortunately, it is obvious that Moshe only respects the rights of those who fit on the narrow right (and intolerant) side of his Hill with a View.
David S. Pecoraro
Rosedale, New York
Dear Editor:
My family was deeply disturbed to have not received the QJL distributed to their door this past Friday. Our neighbors did not get the paper either.
This is quite disappointing, as I am employed by the publication and never got to see my writings in print.
This concerns 69th Avenue, between 147th Street and Main Street.
Best regards,
Shabsie Saphirstein
Dear Editor:
Even with the opening 15 years late on March 25, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber and Governor Kathy Hochul still refuse to acknowledge that the $11.6 billion cost for construction of the Long Island Rail Road East Side Access to Grand Central Madison is misleading. It does not include $1 billion debt service payments for borrowing costs bringing the price tag to $12.6 billion. Debt service charges are buried under a separate agency operating budget.
There is also $4 billion-plus for indirect costs known as LIRR readiness projects. They took place east of the Woodside Harold Interlockings, carried off line from the official project budget. These include the $2.6 billion Main Line Third Track, $450 million Jamaica Capacity Improvements, $387 million Ronkonkoma Double Track, $120 million Ronkonkoma Yard Expansion, $44 million Great Neck Pocket Track, $423 million for rail car fleet expansion and others that are necessary for successful full implementation of ESA. Without these projects, the LIRR would have lacked the expanded operational capabilities to support both promised 24 rush hour train service to Grand Central Madison along with a 40 percent increase in reverse peak service.
Any honest transportation project cost accounting would include these expenditures. This would bring the true cost of ESA to $16.6 billion.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Dear Editor:
The fight to raise the debt ceiling is the fault of Mitch McConnell. He is a man of no principles. He is not a Constitutional conservative. Rather, he is a conniving politician who yields tremendous power. He has made millions of dollars off Communist China. Having gone along with Senator Schumer and the House Democrats, those spending bills passed in the last House session caused the painful inflation we are all currently suffering through. The Republicans now have a PR nightmare trying to explain the financial situation the US finds itself in. The media and Democratic Party are one and the same and have now blamed the House Republicans because they refuse to raise the debt ceiling. No mention of the runaway spending spree the Democratic Party went on. Why should taxpayers be funding transgender studies in Pakistan or paying for border walls in seven Arab Middle East countries? This is a fight worth fighting. If we have to stay within our personal budgets, so too should Washington, DC!
The documents scandal is now about to doom any hopes for a second Biden term. He will most certainly lose the 2024 election. That is, unless President Trump is the Republican nominee. According to Michael Goodwin of the New York Post, Trump is the only Republican that Biden can beat. We can only hope and pray that Governor Ron DeSantis jumps in the race and Republicans across the country come to their senses and vote DeSantis in the primary. We need to save this country and take our Republic back.
Shalom Markowitz
