LETTERS: Unemployment, banning alcohol
Letter on jobless struck a nerve
A recent letter writer exhibits an incredible lack of understanding regarding unemployment benefits, along with an astonishing lack of compassion toward the unemployed. A visit, in person, to your nearest One-Stop Career Center is a requirement for receiving unemployment insurance. At any time you may be asked to provide proof of your job search efforts, or possibly lose your benefits.
During this economic crisis it's outrageous to suggest that I should be handed a garbage bag because, after 28 years of paying into unemployment, I find myself out of work. I am not a criminal. I am an unemployed taxpayer.
Regina Wall
Let me set the record straight: About two weeks after you lose your job, you get a letter to report to the One-Stop Center. I used the center's workshops and resources for three months and it was very helpful. Did it land me a job? No. The center can only do so much. I know a number of people who own companies on Long Island and not one has even written me a "Sorry, no job" e-mail back. I have 30 years of experience and an MBA in finance, and I couldn't get a job cleaning toilets right now.
Gene Gasparro
I resent a recent letter writer's suggestion that the unemployed are all freeloaders living off unemployment. No one can live on unemployment. I was laid off in August 2009. I've been to the One- Stop Career Center numerous times. I've taken several of the classes they offer and availed myself of all the services they provide. I've sent out over 75 resumes and have gotten zero response.
I'm a 62-year-old single mother with a disabled son, working since I was 18. I too am a taxpayer. I've never been on unemployment before but am grateful to have it. If the writer thinks that getting a quarter of what I used to make keeps me solvent, think again. Maybe he should try it.
Hand the unemployed garbage bags? The Parks Department pays very well. I suspect it's a union job. I'd take it. Offer me a decent job, any job. I want and need to work. We all want to work.
If we fall off the unemployment rolls, you can bet that the welfare rolls will rise, as we have gone through all of our savings and are in jeopardy of losing our homes.
Linda Hayden
Officials should look at banning alcohol
State and local governments have no problem banning smoking anywhere and everywhere . When will they start banning the consumption of alcoholic beverages at parks, beaches and sporting events? Some of us find drinking objectionable and offensive, and yet we are exposed to it at every turn.
Kathleen Flandorffer
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
