Readers sound off on astrological signs, killings in Gaza and a wrongful conviction

Get the right crustacean for 2024’s horoscopes

St. Albans: I realize that this letter might appear to some to be a bit frivolous, what with everything going on in our fractured and ever-changing reality (or lack of it, depending on your caffeine level, haha), but I thought I might bring something to your attention in the hope that in the coming year, a slight discrepancy might be corrected.

When I read the Daily News, I try to read four sections with regularity (in no particular order): the comics, the editorials and Voice of the People, the TV schedules and the horoscopes by Tarot.com. For a very long time now, there has been a minor error which has been evident but, as far as I can tell, has not been mentioned until now. The horoscope picture for Cancer is depicted as a lobster. As any follower of astrology and the Zodiac will mention, the true depiction of the sign for Cancer is a crab. While they are both delicious (especially with steak fries, melted butter and a side salad), only the crab is the recognized animal depiction for Cancer.

In the new year, with its promise of hope for the future (which we need in abundance right now), it is my hope that whatever your sign may be, all who read this have a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year, and that the picture for Cancer is changed to the correct one in due course for those of you who are of the sign. Strength and honor in 2024! Anthony Vasser

Uninstalled

Manhattan: Our mailbox on Second Ave. and 23rd St. is gone. This is a main avenue and a main cross street. No notice. No explanation. What is going on? Mary Jane Manger

Struck down

Bronx: Mayor Adams was right to veto bill 586. The proposed How Many Stops Act would require police officers to do more paperwork when they encounter civilians. This city continues to show its contempt for our men and women in blue. I guess the mass retirements (1,400) and transfers to other police departments haven’t resonated with some members of the City Council. Police will no longer be proactive in preventing crime. A person loitering outside a bank for an extended period of time can’t be asked what he/she is doing there without the officer filling out extensive paperwork. What happens if, while they’re doing this paperwork, a call comes of a burglary in progress? Would they be justified ignoring the call until they finish the paperwork? We have been asking for more neighborhood policing. We want to interact with law enforcement, not further alienate them. Al D’Angelo

Serve our interests

Astoria: The City Council has to wake up. Residents have to remember at election time the state of the city they put us in. Citizens are not safe. Criminals get a revolving door policy and no bail. Migrants cost our schools, police and fire departments needed funding, let alone that they are unvetted and unvaccinated. Vote the pols out if they are not protecting us taxpaying citizens. Anthony Gigantiello

Repurpose

Patterson, N.Y.: So Gov. Hochul, after already having closed the state prison in Fishkill, is now talking about closing five more prisons in upstate N.Y.! I say do it! Afterwards, have some minor modifications made to the buildings and move the migrants in! During the summer months, the grounds can be converted into working farms to help feed and stock food pantries, etc.! Kevin-Michael Treco

Circumvention suggestion

Brooklyn: To Voicer Fran Esposito: Try going down to Mexico for a while, fight your way back claiming asylum, then get everything for free here. Josie Oliveri

Dishonored

Amityville, L.I.: On or about Nov. 13, 1942, five brothers died together when their ship, the USS Juneau, was sunk by Japanese forces in World War II. They were the Sullivan brothers, and they were from Iowa. How despicable is it that a few days ago, Iowa Republicans nominated the former president as their choice for president. Their nominee is alleged to have said that soldiers and sailors like the Sullivan brothers who sacrificed and gave their lives for this country were losers and suckers. The Republicans of Iowa, in choosing Donald Trump as their nominee, should be ashamed of themselves. They have disgraced the memory and sacrifice of their fellow Iowans, the Sullivan brothers. John Weber

Losing strategy

Cincinnati: Some Democrats can’t learn the lessons of the Trump victory over the supposedly inevitable first female president, Hillary Clinton, back in 2016. As Hillary began to slip in the polls, instead of refashioning her approach, she became the great abominator, casting her orange opponent as a lowlife and gleefully describing him and his followers with terms of repugnance, abhorring any mention of how serious her troubles had become. Her hatred for The Donald blinded her to the peril she faced. It is now eight years later, and President Biden and his merry band of campaign planners are reprising the same script, substituting Hillary’s deplorables for Biden’s MAGA extremists. Republican and independent voters are far too smart for that ploy, and the incumbent may well follow the inevitable Hillary down memory lane to defeat. Paul Bloustein

Misaligned

Astoria: To Olivia Brodsky and Joshua Stanton, co-authors of “The quandary for progressive Jews” (op-ed, Jan. 19): Your whining mirrors, almost word for word, similar lamentations from your progressive Jewish brethren in South Africa, who wore their anti-apartheid credentials with pride and were instrumental in toppling the minority white government and ushering in the African National Congress, which has controlled South Africa with a draconian fist for 30 years. Now that South Africa has allied with Hamas, as well as every other terrorist regime on Earth, and instigated a literal pogrom against its Jewish inhabitants — the country’s under-19 cricket team captain was recently removed because he’s a Jew — they, like you, are whining about “betrayal.” You made your bed, dude, your chickens have come home to roost in it. Bradley Morris

Recalculations

Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.: To Voicer Richard Tobiassen: The number of civilian deaths does not seem right to anyone. More importantly, your numbers and calculation of 24 to 1 should be 20 to 1. Still horrific. It is more than 1,200 Israeli deaths, not “about 1,000.” Let’s include other numbers: 350 miles of underground Hamas tunnels to wage barbaric attacks and war; billions of dollars to Hamas that should have gone to the civilians for food, housing, education and medical care. Finally, the 100-plus hostages kept more than 100 days in captivity. Your numbers don’t tell the real story. Steven Goldfinger

Stop the killing

Forest Hills: To Voicer Soterios Vrontis: You sound like a backer of Benjamin Netanyahu’s (whose corruption trial continues) continued genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. What death figures should I use: 22,000, 20,000, 18,000? In your mind, what number of dead, innocent Palestinian women and children would be too many to justify the continued devastation of Gaza? Who are you to say that the parents of innocent Palestinian children killed by the Israelis (shown night after night on the “PBS NewsHour”) love their children any less than Israeli parents love theirs? Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” What is your solution to returning the hostages? The “civilized world” wants the continuous bombing and destruction of Gaza by Israeli forces to end right now, therefore allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza to try and save what is left of the Palestinian population. Mel Moskowitz

Choice words

Manhattan: I found the headline about Steven Ruffin’s exoneration appalling (“Slay conviction tied to disgraced NYPD Det. Scarcella to be overturned,” Jan. 18). To advertise a wrongful conviction story as “slay conviction” is beyond misleading and, frankly, disgusting. The original edit didn’t even include Ruffin’s name and focuses exclusively on the disgraced detective, whose irresponsibility and bias resulted in almost 20 exonerations now and cost the city more than $110 million. I hope the Daily News will reconsider the point of the story in its headlines and focus on humanity. Ruffin spent 14 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and while he will never get that time back, the media can celebrate an innocent man’s exoneration or at least call it a wrongful conviction. Saying “slay conviction” does nothing for the two victims: Ruffin and James Deligny. Please do better. Peter Hunziker