Support Your Knight

Dear Editor: I really got a kick out of the cartoon in The Tablet (June 16). What really got to me was where two men just left the Bishop Raymond A. Kearney Council of the Knights of Columbus and the one man said to the other, “I’m really proud of receiving my 2nd Degree... But if I’m not home soon, I’ll get the third!”

Well that brings back memories of when my husband, Fred, was going through his degrees. He would be home late and tell me he would be sorry. I understood what he was doing. He was finishing his degrees and went through the chairs until he became Grand Knight of St. Anastasia Knights of Columbus in Douglaston.

He put in long hours on council business but I was proud of his service to the church and the community. Let me say this to all the wives whose husbands are thinking of joining the Knights of Columbus, support your husbands for the Knights are about the Church, the community and families. So be proud and supportive for they are serving the greater good.

Eva P. Bedell
Bellerose

Is This Art?

Dear Editor: If there was any time in the history of our country when we needed the motto “In God We Trust,” we need it now. Has anyone noticed the new gold Washington dollar has omitted the motto? God help us all!

Bill Colreavy
Woodside

A Vote for Sen. Brownback

Dear Editor: In response to “A Vote for Ron Paul” (Letters, June 16), I would like to share a letter from the desk of Don Lester, the chairman of Veterans for Victory.

According to his letter, the U.S. Congress since last November has been defeatist and outright anti-American in its hate for our military and those who serve it. And in bold type he expressly names Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Barack Obama.

I would like to say that we must not back down (in Iraq) like we did in Vietnam. As far as I can see, Vietnam was the beginning of the downfall of our great country. And I would also like to add that the reason we are in all this trouble is because of the slaughter of the unborn. And in closing, I cast my vote with Sen. Sam Brownback from Kansas who is not only pro-life, but is a recent convert to our Catholic faith.

Janet L. Secord Kuse
Jamaica

Natural Occurrences

Dear Editor: I’ve heard it all before. There’s a calamity looming that’s going to kill us all. Now the prophets of doom and gloom want us all to believe that we are the cause of global warming and if we don’t do something there will be catastrophic consequences.

The fact is that climate change is very complex and the science is still evolving. There are several factors that contribute to global warming and no one is entirely sure what the effects will be. But global warming has happened before and so has global cooling. Why is it that we get so alarmed that there is climate change? Do we really think that the global temperature should be constant year after year? Even decades?

Many people have come to believe that CO2 emissions are to blame for global warming. The solutions proposed to reduce CO2 emissions involve more government micro managing of the economy. Not surprising, given that it is those on the left that have embraced global warming as their cause. It’s a convenient cover to advance their political objectives of more government intrusion into every part of our lives. To them, individuals living in freedom are a menace to the environment so the answer is more laws and regulations that limit the choices we can make to live our lives the way we see fit. However it’s our freedom that has allowed us the best use of our creativity in solving problems and improving our lives. In the U.S., pollution levels have come down and people are living longer healthier lives than ever before.

There are noted scientists like Dr. William Gray who dispute the notion that CO2 emissions are the cause of global warming. We should not readily accept ‘solutions’ to an alleged problem that is likely more natural than it is man made. Especially when these ‘solutions’ are going to be costly in terms of resources and individual liberties. Instead of placing our trust in political leaders, we need to place more trust in God. He has given us the resources, ingenuity and will to improve our material existence and that of others.

What we need to do is be open to His graces so that we can purify our intentions and be the good stewards of this planet He is calling us to be. Alarmism and pessimism should have no place in our lives once we accept that God is a generous and caring father, that we are limited and can’t know everything, and that the material world will end one day but it won’t be the end of the world.

Paul Cerni
Richmond Hill

Dear Editor: By the way.....according to the National Weather Service the storms we are experiencing occur approximately every 25 years. Since the beginning... the Earth has always undergone great changes and there were no modern conveniences causing them! 

I agree we should learn to conserve energy but the hypocrisy of these liberals is unbelievable, but worse yet is when supposedly normal everyday citizens support the theories. Of course, most of the offenders are simply President Bush haters!!!! They will blame him for everything that has gone wrong.... is going wrong.... and will go wrong. Do they think he has God’s power?

 Anne Varrone
Brooklyn

Respond to Partial-Birth Ban

Dear Editor: As a people who believe in the Sanctity of Life, we were overjoyed at the recent Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban on partial-birth abortion.
Although all abortion is against God’s command that “Thou shalt not kill,” partial-birth abortion graphically demonstrates the brutality committed against the developing baby.

Therefore, the ban can and should make people realize that other forms of abortion are also brutal acts which take away a baby’s life, and emotionally scar the mother.
Unfortunately, the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has circumvented the Court’s decision, and through his executive power, authorized that there will be no criminal prosecution of abortionists in New York State, no matter what form of abortion, including partial-birth.

In response to the governor’s pro-abortion stance, we need to contact him and our state representatives in both the Assembly and Senate to voice our opposition and to demand a reversal of this policy. If we are truly supportive of human life, both baby and mother, then we must act now. Once more, the Lord reminds us, “As you did it for the least of my brothers and sisters, so you did it for me.

Dr. Charles Haunns
Forest Hills

Search for Childhood Friends

Dear Editor: My name is Michael A. Sardo. I am 75 years old. I have a friend named John Murphy with whom I went to school in Brooklyn. We both graduated from Our Lady of Good Counsel Elementary School on Madison St. in 1946. The school is no longer in existence. However, the church is still on Putnam Ave.

John Murphy and Thomas O’Brien were my two best friends. I have located Thomas but I am up against a brick wall trying to locate John. While attending Our Lady of Good Counsel we were taught by the Franciscan Brothers. I lost touch with John in 1956. John had a brother named Aidan (I’m not sure of the spelling) and a brother named Francis, who was killed in a car accident, I think, in 1953 or thereabouts. I have been searching for John since 9/11/01. Please help me if you can. I also remember John married a lady from Puerto Rico in 1956 and was a paratrooper in 1950, 1951 or 1952.

May God bless you all. I pray that I can find John or someone in his family that I could bless by telling them what a great friend he was. He and Thomas were like brothers to me, especially since I was an only child.

Michael A. Sardo
Pevely, MO

Salute to Marriage Jubilarians

Dear Editor: The Tablet (May 5) contained a beautiful two-page centerfold of Friends and Lovers for 50 Years by Stefanie Gutierrez. Thanks to 113 couples renewing their marriage vows after 50 years of marriage as I’m sure they have done many a time through the years.

Children, grandchildren, relatives and friends thanked them for the example of 50 years they gave to them. I’m sure many a person reading and seeing pictures of these loving couples were stirred. As Bishop Caggiano said, “You prove the world wrong that love cannot last.”

“A Kiss that’s Golden” on the front page stirred my heart as 25, 50 and 60 years of marriage is truly a blessing from God for us all to see.

I didn’t have a good marriage but my parents, my children and grandchildren are my blessings. I was Mom to my daughter-in-law, Eileen, who was lost to cancer and I am Mom to my son-in-law, Nick, who calls me Grandma for his three children.

Thanks to my many friends and relatives for Silver, Forty, Golden and for Sixty year anniversaries. My son-in-law’s parents, Frank and Angie Barone, and friends Tom and Marie Blankley had 60-year anniversaries.

Rose M. Kavanaugh
Howard Beach