A terrorist is a terrorist
To The Editor:
Re “What we honor: It should never be terrorists” (talking point, by Cormac Flynn, June 1):
Is there a difference between Oscar Lopez Rivera and the Osama bin Ladens of this world? Why would the organizers of the fun Puerto Rican Day Parade want to associate with this dark shadow?
Allen Goldmeier
Get ready for fascism
To The Editor:
Re “Mussolini in Lower Manhattan” (talking point, by Bill Weinberg, May 17, thevillager.com):
Thank you, Bill Weinberg, for the timely and bracing reminder that fascism is again on the march. The battle has come to us and it is in our streets and at our doors. We should be ready, but most of all we should be clear-eyed and clearheaded in the face of the enemy’s cynical deceptions and insincere appeals.
Cormac Flynn
Trump lied to vets
To The Editor:
Trump lied about his support for veterans to get votes. Trump’s budget proposal calls for a 3.7 percent increase in total funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It calls for $29 billion over the next decade for expansion of the Choice program, which would allow veterans to seek outside medical care from private doctors. It would pay for it, in part, by cutting some disability benefits for elderly veterans.
Major veterans’ groups oppose the cuts. The American Legion says the funding trade-off is “stealth privatization.”
Trump also wants to slash annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) increases for veterans. Note that he wants to cut benefits for disabled elderly veterans.
John Penley
A bite of history
To The Editor:
Congratulations to Katz’s Delicatessen on its 129th anniversary! Eating at Katz’s is a religious experience for those who enjoy great deli.
Forget the fancy tablecloths, waiters and sparkling bottled water in other restaurants. Go to the Lower East Side of our ancestors to enjoy authentic New York food eaten by generations of Big Apple residents. Your bubbee would be proud. Take a day free from worrying about cholesterol and your weight to enjoy life!
The restaurant is a trip down memory lane, with photographs of celebrities from different eras. Look closely at the back of some chairs. Perhaps a former president or two or some other famous individual used the same seat. For decades, every winning politician has made a campaign stop at Katz’s!
Katz’s portions and quality continue to make it one of the best buys in New York today. Anyone still hungry after dining there must have a tapeworm!
Larry Penner
Eat environmentally
To The Editor:
Are you, too, fighting mad about Trump pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord? Then let’s fight back three times a day by adopting an eco-friendly plant-based diet.
A 2010 United Nations report blames animal agriculture for 19 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, 38 percent of land use, and 70 percent of global freshwater consumption.
Carbon dioxide is emitted by burning forests to create animal pastures and by fossil-fuel combustion to operate farm machinery, trucks, factory farms and slaughterhouses. The more-damaging methane and nitrous oxide are released from digestive tracts of cattle and from animal waste cesspools, respectively.
In an environmentally sustainable world, meat and dairy products in our diet must be replaced by vegetables, fruits and grains, just as fossil fuels are replaced by wind, solar and other pollution-free energy sources.
Nico Young
E-mail letters, not longer than 250 words in length, to news@thevillager.com or fax to 212-229-2790 or mail to The Villager, Letters to the Editor, 1 MetroTech North, 10th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please include phone number for confirmation purposes. The Villager reserves the right to edit letters for space, grammar, clarity and libel. Anonymous letters will not be published.
