Politics of immigration, 9/11 attacks, school bus drivers

The Rev. John I. Cervini was right on target [“Long Island should accept asylum-seekers,” Opinion, Sept. 7]. I hope and pray we can have an honest discussion on the issue.

The deeper issue is the Long Island culture that has controlled our politics, attitudes, communities and opinions over the years. The article on rental units, “From cubicles to rental units” [News, Sept. 7], noted that Long Island permits less housing to be built per capita than almost any other major U.S. region.

Nassau and Suffolk counties contain some of the most segregated communities in the country. The poorer minority communities (see Roosevelt, Hempstead, Wyandanch, etc.) have been that way for over 60 years, while the wealthy — almost all white communities — have stayed the same.

Unless we as a people look more deeply into our own convictions, beliefs and strongly held ideas of what we are “owed,” then any honest discussion regarding immigration will be difficult to engage in.

— The Rev. Lawrence Duncklee, Riverhead

While the fractured partisan elite political classes twirl with ridiculous criminal indictments and yet another potential time-wasting presidential impeachment, Rome is burning!

For decades, both political parties have danced around developing a humane, fair and enforceable immigration policy. And, potentially, the worst part of their inaction is that the arriving asylum-seekers have left their home countries stranded high and dry.

As the United States draws perhaps their youngest and strongest, their home countries suffer an ever-shrinking labor force and diminished human capital that will likely result in continued economic disaster, social unrest, and escalated border crossings.

The arriving asylum-seekers are the unwitting pawns in this nightmare scenario, and those left behind in their home countries are additional and unnoticed victims of U.S. political inaction.

Too bad that the billions to be spent on the asylum-seekers were not originally spent on helping these nations.

Maybe the answer is congressional term limits, so some of these aged and ineffective elite politicians in Washington are removed from office and the power base they cling to so tightly.

— Marc de Venoge, Manhasset

Let’s refer to 9/11 for what it really was

It’s been 22 years since the murderous attacks of 9/11. People will gather to reflect on that infamous day [“43 names added to FDNY 9/11 wall,” News, Sept.  7].

We will hear and read about “victims,” “those who died,” “those lost,” “the fallen” and “those killed.” None of these references, however, relays the true brutality of this crime.

Rarely does “murder” surface in print or speeches. Lives are “lost” and people “die” in any number of ways. Many of these general terms are interchangeable. But murder is murder. Let’s call it what it is.

Vague, buffered language referring to these murders is disturbing and potentially damaging. By tempering the pure evil of these attacks, the absolute impact will soon diminish.

Just as there are those who deny or question the unspeakable horror of the Holocaust, these 9/11 murders could be headed in the same direction.

If the history of memorial articles and speeches repeats itself, rarely will murder be mentioned. It’s time to change that. This meticulously planned, hateful act of evil should be referred to and remembered as such.

— Arlene Toyoda, Long Beach

School bus drivers must be considerate

For 35 years, I drove to work. I remember many times I’d have to stop for a school bus pulled over with the door open and the stop sign extended, where the pickup or discharge was already complete. Meanwhile, a mom was standing in the bus doorway talking with the driver [“Nassau school bus cameras delayed,” News, Aug. 28].

Other times in my village, a bus would sit at the curb in front of a house of a single child with the stop sign extended. The driver would wait for the child to leave the house. These events could last seemingly forever, but some drivers would wave me on to pass. Other drivers did not wave me on. Some seemed not to know they were keeping me stopped. I had to decide to pass the stopped bus if there was no valid reason to wait.

I just hope that people on their way to work these days and people whose livelihoods depend on making deliveries don’t find themselves choosing between being late for their jobs or facing tickets for driving past buses with no child potentially at risk.

— Ken Gillespie, Freeport

On the day the article about school bus cameras appeared, I received a second notice about a school bus summons. I never received the original notice, and since I hadn’t responded to that first notice, I could not challenge the summons.

I contacted the Nassau County Traffic Court and was told it cannot take action unless the Town of Hempstead initiates it.

I went to Town Hall and was told that no one there could address the issue and that many others already had complained about the same thing.

A review of the video shows the bus stopped one second before I passed it, and the stop sign was not even fully extended.

Certainly, there needs to be adjustments made so summonses are not so quickly given, or this is just another cash grab by government.

— Timothy Myles, Baldwin

Let me get this straight. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman thought it was appropriate to inject himself into the New York City subway choking murder case [“Blakeman rallies for man charged in subway death,” Long Island, May 25], but he believes that a school bus safety issue in Nassau County is best left to “local municipalities.”

— Howard J. Herman, Great Neck