Chwat’s The Problem?

To The Editor:

It seems to me that the charges brought by Estelle Chwat against the Forest Hills Library are ridiculous and unfounded.

She charges that our public library system is anti-Semitic. I can tell that she has not visited the library in a long time, not because she is handicapped, but because there are many Jews who work and volunteer there, and the number of books on Jewish history and Holocaust is growing, with new books continually being added.

As for the anti-Semitic books, they have a free-speech right, and if you don't want to read them, you don't have to. However, censoring will only provoke more problems from the anti-Semitic hatemongers.

Mrs. Chwat, you claimed that you are unable to use public transportation to get to the nearest accessible library branch, but all of our city buses are handicapped accessible.

You may be a member of Friends of Forest Hills Library, but your constant complaints against it make you a hypocrite who should take a look around and realize that your anti-Semitic complaints make no sense!

S. Kadinsky

Forest Hills.

P.S. I am also a Jew. However, I support Norbert Chwat as a candidate for City Council because he doesn’t have a father already serving there.

Problems Are Real

To The Editor:

I have owned a house in Forest Hills for 44 years and have been a school librarian for 26 years. When I first moved to Forest Hills I found the collection and service in the Forest Hills library branch inadequate. It has not improved. Fortunately I can still drive to the Hillcrest branch for the books and audios I want. This should not be necessary.

Joan Strochak

Forest Hills

Stop Power Plants!

A copy of the following letter to area elected officials and KeySpan Energy was received by the Gazette.

To Whom It May Concern:

We are appealing to you for help in addressing our deep concern for the health and safety of an estimated 15,000 residents at the Queensbridge Houses housing development.

We support the struggle to "halt the siting of power plants in any community, and the seeking of alternative means of generating energy." However, we at Queensbridge are adamant and are outraged over NYPA’s proposal to build two additional power plants on Vernon Boulevard in close proximity to our development.

We are equally opposed to KeySpan’s plan to expand the existing Ravenswood generating plant known as "Big Allis" which too is sited on Vernon Boulevard in close proximity to Queensbridge Houses which encompasses six avenue blocks, containing 96 buildings. Each building is mainly comprised of three, four, five and six room apartments. In total, Queensbridge Houses provides housing for well over 3,149 families.

Our development is located on Vernon Boulevard and bounded by the Ravenswood, Big Allis, generating plant and the Queensboro Bridge also known as the 59th Street Bridge.

Big Allis is 100 years old and generates over 60 percent of the energy needed for all five boroughs. Recent studies prove Big Allis to be the dirtiest coal burning plant in New York City.

Over the past decade, incidences of asthma and other related respiratory illnesses within the Queensbridge Houses community have soared, especially among our large population of youth. We suspect that our air quality plays a major role in these increases.

To jam two additional power plants in an area already saturated with dangerously high levels of pollutants for existing power plants and heavy vehicular traffic is a travesty.

Therefore, we are proposing the following:

–a conscientious on-site environmental impact study to be conducted to build two additional power plants on Vernon Boulevard and KeySpan’s plans to expand Big Allis,

–a conscientious on-site environmental impact study to determine the dangerously high levels of pollutants hovering over Queensbridge Houses,

–all studies must be conducted by unbiased health care professionals; preferably trained in the fields of respiratory medicine, and causes and cures of respiratory illnesses,

–an advisory board be established by the Queensbridge Tenant Association to provide input in the selection process and to monitor the overall activities of the study,

–a 24 hour, seven day-a-week on-site health care facility be established and staffed with licensed, trained health care professionals to address our growing need for respiratory illness related emergency medical treatment, to be accessible to the Queensbridge Houses community at all times.

Please respond in writing within two weeks of receipt of this letter to inform me of your intentions regarding our concerns.

Sincerely,

Nina Adams, President

Queensbridge Tenant Association

Protests Greek Genocide

To The Editor:

History is written in the hearts of people. Who would dare to erase history from the hearts of the Greek people? Who is thinking of compromising the history of the Greek nation? Why is the Greek government even contemplating such an action?

Greek citizens must nonviolently but fiercely protest against such contemplation. Whom does the Greek government serve today? It would be very prudent for the Greek government officials to forsake any such action to erase Greek history.

People without history become people without roots. People without roots become violent to one another and to nature, and later they lose their minds. Isn't that what has happened to the invaders of all native cultures? Who has made our people to feel ashamed of their roots, history and traditions? Who has made our people to worship as their gods the invented toys of convenience, the products of the restless?

The present unstable situation in the heart of Europe created by those in power for more power must be taken into serious consideration in order to unite the continent. The times insist on such a development. Citizens of Europe must realize that unless they soon resist their dependence on USA military power, politics and guidance, the balance of world powers will not hold for too long. How is it that the European governments allowed the USA to pour oil on the Balkan fire? Don't they see where they are headed? How long will they be under United States of America occupation?

It won't be for too long before the people of Europe rise against their governments, and who will pacify them?The depleted uranium case is the tip of the iceberg. Don't they see that their soil is deliberately being made a nuclear waste toilet for America?

It would be very instructive for anyone that wants to learn how much the political arena is controlled today by the strong, to go and read about the "new technology of political control" at: www.rense.com/political/weapons/powerfulwep.htm

We must remember our tragic past. But we should be cautious not to fuel hatred in ourselves and in our children against those who committed the atrocities in the past. We must show forgiveness in order not to see the same atrocities again. Hatred does not cease by hating at any time; hatred ceases by not hating. We should practice the truth that our brother is the same as us.

We are responsible for teaching our children to resist propaganda. Our schoolbooks should glorify peace instead of war and they should not conceal its horrors. Living in the nuclear age we are obligated as never before in human history to stop perpetuating past prejudices and instead to instill a new spirit of brotherhood if we are to survive.

Those who contemplate world peace through world government while maintaining weapons of mass destruction are simply living in pure illusion. Men will always fight but they should learn to fight for noble causes not for borders, religion and greed all presented as for love of our countries. Men should fight but their weapons should be weapons of the spirit not weapons of physical destruction but weapons of destruction of greed and fear.

Our fate as a species depends entirely not upon scientific or economic progress but upon our moral development. We do not have much time left to seriously work on such development.

Andreas Toupadakis

(Andreas of Crete)