Opinion

 Dear Editor:

 We are all familiar with the phrase MiSheNichnas Adar, marbim b’simchah.

 Dear Editor:

 You will recall that we stated publicly that the Queens Jewish Link will not accept letters that are not civil in tone about any of the writers. Today in shul, a young man in high school came to me to complain about the letters critical of Warren Hecht. He said they were nasty in nature.

 Dear Editor:

 We shouldn’t be panicked by this virus event, and I love the line Rabbi Schonfeld said during the drashah, that Hashem can so easily make a mockery of our “great economy” by having someone in China eat bat soup and thus wrecking our economy – but we shouldn’t ignore this virus either.

We have already had eight cases with unknown origin of coronavirus. Up until February 29, the only country that the Trump administration was barring entry from was China. Now Northern Italy, South Korea, and Iran were added to the list. Before these additions, Italians and others not from China were not even screened when they came into this country, so we don’t know what the effect of those who entered before the latest ban has on our population.

I cite here from this current article an infectious disease expert advising people to act differently during this virus attack. He says, “We may also have to think about reducing occasions when people are crowded together; that may mean more people working from home to avoid offices, buses, and subways. It may mean avoiding sports events, school assemblies, parties, and even unnecessary visits to crowded doctor’s offices – this is a time to develop telemedicine.

This Shabbos in shul, I didn’t feel comfortable shaking people’s hands and gave a fist bump instead. I know that the “Good Shabbos” handshake is legendary, but during these times I think it could be acceptable to go with alternate ways of saying Good Shabbos. One person was almost offended when I gave him my reason for the fist bump.

I think it would be good if Rabbi Schonfeld and other rabbis explained that fist bumps should be understood these days as an alternative for the handshake, if that’s what people want to do.

Abe Fuchs

 Dear Editor:

 With the rise of the Radical Right and the Far Right, you not only have the growth of Survival-of-the-Fittest Social Darwinism ideology in today’s Republican Party, featuring their desire not only to cut and reduce spending on all of the social safety-net federal government social programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, College Student Loans), you also get their growing cold-hearted desire to totally abolish them.

 Dear Editor:

 Friday, February 21, was the last day at work for outgoing NYC Transit Authority President Andy Byford. It will be interesting to see if interim NYC Transit Authority President Ms. Sarah Feinberg and her permanent successor will be successful in preserving both funding and implementation of projects and programs championed by Andy Byford’s Fast Forward: The Plan to Modernize NYC Transit subway and bus system. Let’s hope that $19 billion worth of funding support in the current $51 billion MTA 2020-2024 Five-Year Capital Plan remains in place.

We will have to wait and see if the $19 billion balance of funding needed to complete this plan will be approved in the next MTA 2025-2029 Five-Year Capital Plan. There will be some clues of what the future holds when the MTA releases the updated MTA 2020-2040 20-Year Long-Range Capital Needs Plan. It was supposed to be released in December 2019.

Why has the MTA delayed release for two months? Are they waiting for it to be approved by Governor Cuomo before making it public?

Sincerely,

Larry Penner

 Dear Editor:

 For what it’s worth, here is my take on the election. I have always felt that we have an unhinged demagogue as president. We, as Jews, should know better than to follow a lying low-life demagogue. His rallies remind many of us of other rallies in other countries. Since when does America have such vitriolic rallies for one man?