Carpenters and Christmas

I would like to recognize my local union, Carpenters Local 608, and president and business manager John Greaney as New Yorkers who truly embody the spirit of giving back to the Bronx community.

For decades Local 608 has informally collected toys during the holidays to distribute to children in need throughout the communities we serve. Five years ago, under the leadership of John, Local 608 formed a non-profit called Carpenters Care for Kids which formally continues this tradition.

This year, on December 20, a carpenter Santa and brother and sister carpenter elves will distribute these toys to various elementary schools in the Bronx. One public school they are scheduled to visit this year on December 20 at 12 p.m. is P.S. 310.

This schools has 100% of their student population eligible for the federal assisted free lunch program. It is located at P.S. 310, 260 West Kingsbridge Road.

Taking an unpaid day off work and enhancing the holiday season for a few hundred kids is just one of the ways that the members of the carpenters union stay connected to their community. Throughout the entire year our local joins together to give back to the community that is so supportive of them.

Our members build extensions on the houses for the families of their brothers and sisters who have died on the job and adapt the construction of homes for families in the community who are faced with special needs of their children. They have most recently donated their craft to rebuild Ronald McDonald House in Manhattan.

Union carpenters realize how fortunate they and their families are to have the means to celebrate the holidays. Over 30 members will dedicate December 20 to give toys to children.

I believe our humble members who never ask for recognition of their service deserve to be honored for their generosity and genuine care for their neighbors.

Audra O’Donovan
Bronx, New York

Visa Solution

I was saddened to see Senator Charles Schumer promulgating the same failing solution to the immigration crisis in this country. He is dividing the Irish community between recent arrivals eager for legal status, and the Irish Americans who fought for and built the country over hundreds of years and do not want to see it overwhelmed by 20 million more immigrants over the next 10 years, which would surely happen under Schumer’s dangerous proposals.

A far better solution can be found if the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform starts working with the newly elected , and more socially conservative Democrats, to develop a bill that would limit new immigrants to under 300,000 a year, establishes a point system for those here seeking legal status, gives people three years to qualify while they remain as guest workers, and great increases enforcement.

Such a bill would unite the Irish in America and revolutionize the debate by putting America’s interests first, not the global corporations and their front men who seek cheap labor above the quality of life for Americans.

Ed Price
New York, New York

Northern Dinosaur

The meanderings of letter writer Michael J. Cummings in last week’s issue always lead me to smile a smile of nostalgia for the days when many people in Northern Ireland thought like he does. But I smile only because, thankfully, very few in this century still do.

While most of us “back home” are busy trying to come up with ways of moving on from our dysfunctional and despairing past, we can always rely on the efforts of the odd prototypical dinosaur to try reminding us of why our two communities should never agree and why we should be troubled forever.

Using language like British “tormentors” and “persecutors” in this day and age is laughable and would be sort of sweet if it wasn’t so sad.

Mr. Cummings likens the “peace dividend” money from London — as enticement for Sinn Fein to accept the new policing in Northern Ireland — to the British giving of soup to the starving centuries ago, or the denial of political status to the “helpless” hunger strikers of the 1980s — prisoners who, incidentally, were much less helpless than the dead and wounded civilians they were sent down for as punishment for murdering.

We are asking the Democratic Unionist Party to share power with the people who bombed their buildings and shot their brothers for 30 years, and we are asking Sinn Fein to accept a police force that replaced the RUC they so despised. Both must move if Northern Ireland is to continue moving.

Most people there want us to do that, and I rather think we will. Would you care to join us, Mr. Cummings?

Thomas Keown
Somerville, Massachusetts

From Bad to Worse

Evidently my previous letter to the editor lambasting Georgina Brennan’s column had not the desired effect, as yet another column appeared in last week’s issue. Though her previous columns were generally poor journalistic fare, this one was worse.

Granted the editor has the prerogative to publish what she wishes. However, the material should be in accordance with basic journalistic standards of accuracy, syntax and grammar. Georgina admits to have “slowed down a bit in the mental department.” Judging from outrageous statements and the poor quality of her writing, there definitely appears to be signs of a mental meltdown.

Perhaps it is PMS, that is, pre-marriage syndrome. Georgina also seems to have become petty and petulant.

To claim that some Irish crime is hilarious, and that the people have gone from Pope worship to prostitute worship is preposterous. Granted Ireland may no longer be the island of Saints and Scholars; the brown envelope culture lessened the former category, though there is still an abundance in the latter group.

Long gone are the days when pictures of John F. and Jackie Kennedy and the Pope were placed next to the hallowed Sacred Heart lamp and picture. Obviously the Irish were rather abstemious in matters of the flesh during much of the 20th century due to a number of cultural, political, and economic factors. Of course the hegemony of the Catholic Church applied the coup de grace in constraining the libido.

Now that Ireland has experienced the liberating effects of the sexual revolution coupled with the materialism of the Celtic Tiger, their sexual proclivities and peccadilloes are on a par with the rest of the modern world. Inevitably the Irish may be less monogamous, but to claim that they are so depraved as to be idolatrous of prostitutes is reprehensible journalism.

Aside from absurd claims, Georgina’s column is fraught with many meandering and poorly constructed sentences. Space does not permit me to identify the incidents of poor syntax, but I will gladly point them out to Georgina if she contacts me.

Now that I’m aware that there is another column pending, may I suggest that the editor use the biggest photograph possible in the middle of the page? If a picture is worth a thousand words, it will be a thousand less I’ll have to read. That’s all I ask for Christmas.

Frank Brady
Yonkers, New York