Letters to the editor

New beginnings, homegrown talent

To The Editor:
The first year’s issues of Chelsea Now have introduced many readers to lots of people, places and groups that help make Chelsea a better place to live—and to some that are detrimental to it. Particularly noteworthy have been interesting series by Chris Lombardi, most of which have brought to the fore positive ideas, projects, programs and efforts that many of us otherwise would not have known about. We appreciate it!

One suggestion I have for Volume 2 of Chelsea Now is to publish more regular columns, on a monthly basis (not all during the same week’s issue), written by Chelsea people. I think that many people will agree with the man who stated, months ago, that we don’t care about Koch’s opinion on films or anything else. I think very few people would say that Jerry Tallmer should not be published in Chelsea Now—certainly I wouldn’t. However, many Chelsea residents are creative and knowledgeable in a wide variety of fields. “Our” neighborhood’s newspaper should feature some of those people as columnists. I also suggest running a “Children’s Pressline” page or half-page, monthly.

An idea for another feature series (by Ms. Lombardi or someone else) is to bring to the fore the challenges facing and opportunities available for the many young immigrants attending school in Chelsea, from the preschool level to F.I.T., the New School, Pratt and other venues for advanced studies. The headquarters of the New York Immigration Coalition is in Chelsea, too.

Usually I’m full of ideas, some of which may be both practical and idealistic—or at least “socially useful.” I’m looking forward to Chelsea Now becoming an ever better community newspaper.
Kathy Casey

Revisiting 9/11

To The Editor:
Re “A date that changes with time” (editorial, Sept. 14):

I read with great disappointment the following excerpt from the editorial in your Sept. 14 issue:

“We can’t help but notice that Sept. 11 is becoming more like another day in the calendar. It will never be ‘just’ another day to us and most others who remember it so vividly, but many can now schedule appointments and go about their business without gasping as they do it. It appeared fewer family members attended the ceremony this year. These are all healthy signs that we are learning how to live with the memories of 9/11.”

The implication is that it’s unhealthy for the families to continue attending the memorial service, a suggestion which merely perpetuates our culture’s insistence on riding off into a tidy sunset. Americans prefer to sweep a mess under the rug in a hurry. Comments such as yours only cause the survivors to question further their grieving process — one that is already made so very complicated by the circumstances that brought it about — and that’s such a shame.

Many, many family members have been able to continue with lives that are as full as possible without our siblings, children, spouses and parents. There’s nothing wrong with continuing to want to set aside that day to gather where they were taken from us, to try to process the why and the how of it, to focus on and pay tribute to them at the place where they were most recently in this plane of existence with us, to be with others who understand and do not expect us to edit our emotions, no matter how many years it has been. We celebrate who our loved ones were when they lived, but to deny how they died is to rewrite their reality, a pursuit that would be dangerous for us and disrespectful to them.

While written in kinder, gentler terms than other comments I have read in the last two weeks, your position still echoes of the spreading sentiment of “get over it.” That, sir or madam, is the unhealthy thing to do. That all who have lost loved ones in untimely, tragic ways — and I mean Sept. 11 families and all others — can “get busy living” rather than “get busy dying” the other 364 days of the year are to be commended. So, too, is the courage to face the reality of the one remaining day of the year that irrefutably shadows the rest.
Alyson Low
Sister of Sara Elizabeth Low, flight attendant, American Airlines Flight 11

Class size: A big problem

To The Editor:
It is simply unacceptable that this late in the year, there are still more than 4,000 classes that violate the United Federation of Teachers class-size limits — limits that New York State’s highest court said were already far too large to provide our students with an adequate education.

This means that literally tens of thousands of our kids are trying to learn and remain engaged in classrooms of 35 students or more — where they often don’t have enough room to sit down and there aren’t enough books to go around.

Every year the Department of Education goes through this waiting game before they place enough teachers in classes, waiting for the “registers to settle down,” as they put it, which means they are waiting for students to drop out.

This process simply doesn’t happen in any suburban school district in the state, and shows D.O.E.’s chronic unconcern about the fate of our children.

This year, these violations are especially outrageous given the fact that there is a state law that requires D.O.E. to reduce class size in all grades — a law they continue to ignore.
Leonie Haimson
Haimson is executive director, Class Size Matters