Readers sound off on Snug Harbor, the migrant crisis and the 9/11 anniversary

Snug Harbor has room for migrants, if they dare

Staten Island: I was listening to the radio this morning as I did my usual five mile walk, and the topic of discussion was the placing of migrants all over Staten Island, including Sailors’ Snug Harbor. I say good, let the migrants stay in the buildings at Snug Harbor.

Ask anyone who has worked at Snug Harbor at night if they have ever experienced apparitions during their time there. A nurse told me that she had been an event coordinator for Snug Harbor and one of her crew’s duties was to clean up after an event and make sure no one was in the building before locking the doors and leaving. She said that after closing the front door and locking it, she for some reason looked up to the windows and saw that the lights had not been turned off.

She and her crew went back to the second floor to the event room, and she unlocked its front door. She was taken aback because the room had been trashed in the short time after they had locked the door. The hair on the woman’s arm was standing straight up as she thought about that night.

I would not stand in the way of the migrants running off the property. There are more than 6,200 bodies still interred on the property but they are covered with about five feet of water. One of them is my great-grandfather, Henry Verne. Robert McKenna

Where else?

Brooklyn: There are 11 sanctuary states. Are they dealing with the migrant issue? If so, how are they doing so? Is NYC the only city with a problem? It is one thing to make a place a sanctuary, however, without a plan to handle the influx of people, the sanctuary status is meaningless. Vito Labella

Hit the limit

Brooklyn: I want to express what many New Yorkers feel about the migrant situation. New York City is being especially burdened. The needs of legal residents of the city are being neglected. Gov. Hochul wants them here but not in her backyard, which is upstate. There have been reports that many of the migrants expressed dissatisfaction regarding housing and food while trashing hotel accommodations. I strongly recommend that New York State and New York City no longer be sanctuary sites. Melissa Lieberman

Travel vouchers

Barryville, N.Y.: Voicer Raymond McEaddy proposes a feasible solution to handling the forced influx of immigrants to New York. It is the most humane one I have seen. “When they arrive, give them food, let them shower and put them up for a good night’s sleep. In the morning, give them breakfast. Then, put them on the same bus and send them back to Texas or Arizona or wherever,” (or Florida). I would add two other ideas: Give them a family and/or individual stipend to survive the trip and the nasty treatment they’ll endure on their return from the inhumane, un-Christian governors, politicians and residents of Texas and Florida, etc., and initiate federal or international indictments against those governors for inhumanity. John Tomlinson

Not the victims here

Sunnyside: I could not believe the irresponsible and inflammatory remarks made by Jennifer Guttierez, the councilwoman from East Williamsburg (“6 migrants busted in brawl with cops over motorscooters,” Sept. 8). Does Guttierez really believe that the police officers who are trying to protect innocent pedestrians from being run down by criminals who ride their mopeds and bicycles on sidewalks and who run red lights are subjecting the riders to “fear and intimidation tactics”? If she does, then she should try telling that to the innocent traffic agent who was punched in the face and threatened with a knife by a moped driver. John Francis Fox

Bear the burden

Rockaway Point: Enough! If our wimpy president won’t close our borders, then it’s time Congress does. Liberals are ruining this country. Why don’t they take migrant families home with them? Regina Manan

Nothing new under the sun

Flushing: I just finished re-reading “The Grapes of Wrath.” The historical novel depicts the early 1930s, when the Dust Bowl and Depression caused a migration from middle America toward California. The migrants would be known as “internally displaced” in today’s terminology. The Dust Bowl would be the cause of today’s “climate migrants” and the Depression would be today the cause of “economic migrants.” Back then, these migrants were given the slur “Oakies” by some and were looked down upon by the “haves” wherever they tried to settle. Sound familiar? And these Oakies were Americans born in the U.S.A. Today’s immigrants (not born here) are the modern version of the economic and climate migrants of the ’30s. They are the “have-nots” trying to obtain the good life they believe we Americans are enjoying here. Ben Jordon

Upvoters

North Massapequa, L.I.: According to CNN (wow), Joe Biden has a 39% approval rating and I saw that Kamala Harris has a 32% approval rating. My question is, who are these people and what are they smoking? Steven Malichek

Unpopular option

Norwalk, Conn.: I am so ashamed of Biden for bypassing NYC on 9/11. I agree that the federal government should help NYC with the migrant situation. Biden is too old to run again. If Dems want my vote, they should look elsewhere for a candidate. Maybe Biden will see the light and remove himself from another term. One can only hope! F. Larusso

Sacred day’s snub

Beechhurst: It’s an absolute, utter disgrace that President Biden won’t be attending any of this year’s 9/11 memorial events. Such despicable callousness won’t be forgotten by the American people. But here’s a guy who had picked 9/11 as an appropriate date for his lamebrained bugout from Afghanistan until his White House handlers dissuaded him from doing so. And let’s not forget how he gruesomely glanced at his watch when those 13 dead American servicemembers, whose blood is on his hands, came back to American soil. Yet Biden’s apologists want us to believe that Vacation Joe is a good and decent man. Yeah, right — save it! James Hyland

Been there, done that

Delray Beach, Fla.: So everybody is crying about the heat at the U.S. Open and, as usual, the papers pander to both the players and the fan who was taken out of the stadium with heat exhaustion. Well, let me ask you this: Have you ever sat in the bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium with the benches that reflect the sun on you for hours on end? No, I don’t think so. Try doing this in the brutal months of July and August, when there is no shade and the sun is piercing your skin. Deal with the heat. It might be extreme, but at Yankee Stadium in the summer, it is an everyday experience. Manny Agostini

Get on with it

Staten Island: We’ve all heard the news that Donald Trump was indicted a fourth time. The indictments in Georgia and Washington made clear that Trump knew he had lost the 2020 presidential election but worked with his cronies on a variety of illegal schemes to change the election’s outcome so he could remain in power. When his plans to pressure state officials to overturn the will of voters and create fake elector certificates failed to secure him the presidency, Trump and his allies resorted to instigating a violent insurrection. We must make sure this never happens again in the United States of America. Accountability is essential to protecting our democracy, our freedom to vote and future elections. No one is above the law, including former presidents. Trump’s trials must proceed without political interference so that juries of everyday Americans can do their jobs. Janet Grube

Sustained surprise

Kew Gardens: “We’ve never experienced anything like this, ever!” seems to be the most common quote in news media, and pretty much describes the current state of the world. Glenn Hayes