Readers sound off on pandemic compensation, the F-35 and Omar’s ouster

Bronx: Gov. Hochul and the New York State Legislature allocated $1.2 billion in funding to the NYS Health Care Workers Bonus (HWB) but at the same time decided to pick and choose which people would be deserving of receiving this money by their title.

During COVID, I was, and still am, a coordinating manager working for a city hospital who was physically in the trailers moving bodies when I should have been sitting at a desk. I contracted COVID, gave it to my handicapped brother and father and lost my father to it. To this day, I have to live with the fact that I may have killed my father in those early days of COVID because I did not have help in the morgue, with the exception of my two morgue technicians, or enough proper PPE to deal with almost 400 deaths in that first month alone.

Now I am being told that because I am a coordinating manager and not a unit manager, I do not deserve to be included in the bonus program. How is it that back then I was an essential worker who had to come to work? I could not stay home and be safe like others. Now I am not considered essential or worthy, but I can pay the ultimate price of losing a loved one while taking care of the citizens of NYC? So disgraceful! Kim LeJuez

Edgewater, N.J.: Your editorial “Least Side Access” (Jan. 25) explains the tremendous delays and cost overruns borne by all of us so that the MTA could develop a brand new terminal deep into Manhattan bedrock to accommodate trains from Long Island. While it is a handsome facility, its functionality depends on long escalators, which work beautifully now, yet somehow “MTA” and “efficient escalator maintenance” don’t seem to belong in the same sentence. Most egregious: 1) The MTA’s component railroads (Metro-North and LIRR) couldn’t agree on using existing track capacity at Grand Central Terminal’s lower level, with LIRR insisting it had to have a terminal of its own; and 2) no digging was done between Grand Central and Penn Station because the railroads at Penn each want their own terminals. So petty. Jay K. Egelberg

Belvidere, N.J.: Voicer Sarah Alboher can find in Genesis (Chapter IX, verse 3) that we have the God-given right to eat the flesh of animals. God told Noah: “And everything that moveth, and liveth shall be meat for you,” which was after the flood when God started everything with Noah and his family. If we ban the “cruelty” of killing animals for food, what’s next? How about killing all the carnivore animals so they don’t kill the innocent herbivore animals? I prefer the message I saw on the bumper sticker of a farmer’s pickup truck: “I love animals, they’re delicious.” Dan Arthur Pryor

Hackettstown, N.J.: Bravo and kudos to Voicer Luana Dunn. Finally, someone is speaking out on what is, indeed, the most egregious snub in deceased Yankees owner George Steinbrenner being denied entry to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Sure, Steinbrenner may have a few strikes against him that may have rubbed some sportswriters the wrong way. But as Dunn pointed out, no one can deny that he was the most successful and winningest owner in New York baseball history, if not all of sports! Furthermore, Steinbrenner went to great lengths to keep his legendary generosity and charitable contributions secret! That unique character trait alone should punch his ticket to the Hall of Fame! Bill Rintz

Wappingers Falls, N.Y.: To Voicer Robert Adams: Really? So the problem with the Jets all these years has been white quarterbacks. Who would have ever guessed? Contact Joe Douglas, I’m sure he’d be happy to discuss this with you, and any other great ideas you might have. Unbelievable! Michael Lanza

Greenlawn, L.I.: If the Republicans in Congress want to cut federal spending, they could start with the fiscal black hole that is the F-35, which has yet to pass a complete set of tests, sucking billions of our tax dollars into oblivion in the process. Helen Hill Updike

North Massapequa, L.I.: Memo to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy: Don’t forget, right after the president’s speech, stand up and openly rip up your copy of the “speech.” What was okay for the Dems should be okay for the Republicans. Steven Malichek

Utica, N.Y.: Apparently, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg says he is now thinking about bringing new fraud charges against former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to pressure him into flipping on Donald Trump. Mr. Bragg, this guy has already made it crystal clear that he will not give you what you want, despite the inexplicable sweetheart deal you have already given him. So, if there is a way that you can prosecute Trump for his alleged crimes while keeping Weisselberg in Rikers for the rest of his life, just do it! Otherwise, please stop making idle threats that no one can take seriously. Jeff Ganeles

Brooklyn: Your article (“Rep. Omar axed from panel over ripping Israel,” Feb. 3) says she was booted off the Foreign Affairs Committee for being anti-Israel. While it is true she’s anti-Israel, so are many Democrats. She got booted because she is anti-U.S. and either clueless or disingenuous about foreign affairs. When she equates the U.S. and Israel, democratic countries with rights for all their citizens, with Hamas and the PLO, both of which sponsor terrorism, she is displaying either ignorance or willful hatred of the West. When she called 9/11 a time when “some people did something,” she displayed a disrespect for her adopted country that is appalling. I am an immigrant to the United States and I thank God every day for the blessing of living in a free and open society. Anyone is welcome to criticize our country, but make it constructive, informed criticism, not inane and uninformed bigotry. Phil Phillips

Manhattan: Marjorie Taylor Greene has referred to the shooting of Ashli Babbitt as “murder.” If Babbitt had tried to break into Greene’s office, backed by hundreds of supporters, and Greene had been armed, does anyone believe she would have allowed the break-in to succeed? I think not. Jeffrey Nelson

Brooklyn: In one of your editorials (“Seeing for ourselves,” Feb. 1), you suggest that NYC politicians and administrators are not trustworthy, but that members of the NYC press are completely trustworthy. In your next editorial (“Next stage for grieving families,” Feb. 1), you state that lobbyists/advocates should trust the politicians of the legislative and executive branches in the state to adjust bills to accommodate reasonable needs. Do you really think the crew that knowingly voted for and signed off on New York’s illegal and unconstitutional redistricting lines for the Assembly, Senate and Congress are more trustworthy than NYC elected and appointed officials? Or trustworthy at all? Elliot Neustadter

Spotswood, Ariz.: Teachers rape students fairly often. Why are there no calls to defund teachers? Why no riots? There are evil people in every profession. Why are cops the only ones to be demonized? Tom Scott

Dayton, Ohio: Robert Gangi’s piece “Tyre Nichols’ death and lessons of police reform” (op-ed, Feb. 3) makes some very good points. It misses, however, the most important change needed. A good person is one who has empathy for people of all races, religions and sexual identities. Trying to train someone who is not a good person to become a good police officer is impossible. The most important change we need to make regarding policing is to learn how to determine who is a good person before hiring them as a police officer. Even if we learn this very difficult thing, we may have trouble finding enough good people who want to be officers. So be it. Not having enough police is preferable to having a plentiful police supply that contains monsters. Vic Presutti