Readers sound off on migrant overcrowding, Biden’s election chances and Hamas

Anger at migrants is based on lived realities

Breezy Point: The Daily News recently ran a story sympathetic to the migrants who take the Q35 bus to and from their shelter at Floyd Bennett Field (“Stone-cold weather and neighbors in Brooklyn,” Dec. 24). It discussed how the migrants get dirty looks, people beating them out for seats and passengers speaking English.

If The News wanted to do a balanced story, it should have had a reporter join us during morning and afternoon rush hours. At the FBF stop, about 20 people board pushing carriages with toddlers and kids. They make no attempt to pay or to accommodate the paying passengers. They do not fold their carriages, but choose to line them up in the aisle, blocking people moving from the front to the back while creating safety hazards. Their kids take seats from paying passengers, who need to get to and from work so we can pay taxes to support them. They cough and sneeze without covering and stare at you when you put on a mask. They talk from rows apart in Spanish, yet they are annoyed that we speak English. At the Kings Plaza stop portrayed in the article, more than 35 board, a repeat of the morning but with a bus so packed that paying customers are left to wait until the next bus. Some board carrying pizzas, bags of Popeyes and bottles of soda as kids snack on gummies. I wish I could buy these little luxuries but I need to pay my fare.

If they are going to ride the bus, they need to pay the fare and follow the rules. Then maybe people will accept them. Carlotta Rhondi

National origin

South Richmond Hill: Do citizens who have written that we should send migrants back to Texas really think they originated there, or in any other state in this country? Duh! They come from other countries outside of our borders (when we did have borders). Why should any of the border states have to bear all the burden and responsibility to handle these thousands upon thousands of migrants? All the politicians in the states and cities who believe we should welcome any and all of them, let them take in their share. Even Democrats who support President Biden’s policies, like Gov. Phil Murphy, do not want to have them in their jurisdictions. If you want to send them back to where they came from, that’s fine, but they did not come from Texas! Joseph Napoleone

Old news

Lakewood, N.J.: I know it’s been yet another disappointing and frustrating year for the New York Jets and there is not much to write about. However, can you please advise your Jets beat writer, Antwan Staley, to write just one article where he doesn’t mention Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles injury? It’s been nearly four months, yet virtually all of his articles mention this. Jets fans are very aware of what happened on opening night. Please stop reminding us! Frank Mongiello

Bird murder

Dover, Del.: I noticed that your article “Flood of stray cats hits many city nabes” (Aug. 20) references an outdated statistic. You mentioned that 2 billion birds are killed by cats annually. Based on our most recent data, these figures have been updated, and in the U.S. alone, 2.4 billion birds are killed by outdoor cats annually. As one of the leading organizations in advocacy, it’s the World Animal Foundation’s utmost duty to ensure such statistics are current, not just on our platform but also on other relevant platforms. Sarah Rose

Timely decision

Merion Station, Pa.: Knowing that his past illegal activities might result in doing time, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez made the best of his predicament by accepting expensive timepieces from Qatar. Paul L. Newman

Pick a winner

Edinburgh, Scotland: It seemed that Papa Joe was the only person who could have defeated Trump in 2020 and hold his nerve in the post-election, pre-inauguration nightmare. However, Papa Joe is not the person for 2024. From over here, it seems so extraordinarily clear, and the moderates and liberals praising this good, kind, brave old man and desperately proclaiming how different he is from the orange monster now has a ring of desperation. All decent people know the two are chalk and cheesy. In baby language: Biden is a good man and Trump is not. But that does not make Papa Joe the right Democratic candidate this time around. America needs someone everyone can vote for. Whether or not Mr. Stinky makes it to the ballot, Joe needs to step aside with dignity. He did the job he was born for in 2020. Thank God. Now he needs to recognize his next great responsibility and step aside. Amanda Baker

‘Unqualified grifter’

Basking Ridge, N.J.: To Voicer Greg Van Den Berg: That is so well said. I’ve struggled with the best way to describe the criminal former President Trump. Yours was the best yet and you made the ultimate point that people need to think about. The problem that concerns me, Greg, is there seems to be millions of people in our country who can’t grasp this simple concept. I don’t know if it’s a lack of education, pure ignorance or both. Either way, you said it perfectly. Joe Tierney

For sale

Staten Island: Trump’s obvious payday stands in stark contrast to the muddled corruption allegations that Republicans have lobbed at President Biden. No one has been able to calculate the harm done to the country by Trump’s theft of, and insecure storage of, top-secret government documents either. Knowing how corrupt, self-serving and unpatriotic Trump is, he probably showed or sold them to America’s greatest enemies. The question is what did Trump give foreign governments in return for the millions he collected from them? Did he sell top-secret U.S. documents? No country gives up millions of dollars for nothing. Trump was ignoring all the rules and ethics from day one. No one in his cult understands what a grifter and unethical person he truly is. It seems like the emoluments clause is another provision of the Constitution that isn’t worth the parchment it was hand-written on because nobody cares enough to enforce it. Michael Rosenkrantz

Entrenched opposition

Davis, Calif.: The Hamas Covenant states, “Israel exists and will continue to exist until Islam obliterates it.” The never-actually-amended PLO Covenant declares, “The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine.” Those statements are both completely clear and utterly intransigent. Regarding the 1,200 people who were murdered on Oct. 7, Maya Angelou’s observation is absolutely on point: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Israel’s worst threat is the decades-long, hate-fueled Palestinian intransigence we saw in action on Oct. 7, and which precludes any hope of peaceful coexistence with Israel. Julia Lutch

Objection

Manhattan: Your paper is a total disgrace. After the atrocities of the terrorists of Hamas in Israel, you have the gall to publish the ravings of a self-hating Jew accusing Israel of apartheid politics (“Classroom criticism of Israel isn’t antisemitic,” op-ed, Jan. 4). You actually have the unmitigated audacity to publish that rubbish on your op-ed page. Perry Greenberg

Discredited

Vashon, Wash.: Now that it is reported that Alan Dershowitz has been accused of participating in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring of underage girls, I am hopeful that you will stop publishing anything from him. Reed Harvey

As a warning

Greenburgh, N.Y.: Glad that Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned over her insensitivity to antisemitism, among other issues. The president of the world’s top university must set an example for students. A suggestion to university presidents around the country: Require students who apply for admission to the university to write an essay on antisemitism, hate, bigotry and discrimination as part of the admissions process — how they would deal with the incident if observed on campus. This essay will send a message to possible students that antisemitism and participating in hate could be a factor in denying their admission to the university. Paul Feiner