I love Andrea Peyser — she hits the nail on the head when she depicts the decay of family values (“The Land of Ick and Honey,” Jan. 10).
We have become an amoral society concerned with mundane issues, instead of addressing the fracture of the American family. We reward people who have babies out of wedlock, and allow fathers to play a smaller role in their children’s lives. Permissiveness is destroying this country, and the economic ramifications are foisted upon the taxpayers.
Children need two loving parents to guide them into a life of productivity and accomplishment.
D. Tarpey, Englishtown, NJ
Slippery senators
Who is actually writing our laws (“Washington’s Latest Giveaways,” Editorial, Jan. 8)?
How is it that they never know what is in a bill? How do lobbyists slip items that they want into the fine print? Do they walk over when the bill is being written and say, “Psst — throw in $14 million for asparagus farmers”?
Many senators now want to repeal a tax on medical devices that will raise an estimated $29 billion, because they just realized that it would cost 49,000 jobs and send health-care premiums through the roof.
Not one of our senators was smart enough to figure that out while they were debating ObamaCare? Where do they plan on getting the $29 billion they thought they would have after the tax?
To say the least, Washington is broken. I hate giving them my hard-earned tax dollars when this is how they operate.
Eileen Manning, Mount Hope
Dollar doodle
With Jack Lew’s signature, it looks like the loopholes in Washington’s legislation are now out in the open (“Lousy Dollar Sign,” Jan. 10).
It resembles a spilled can of macaroni.
Ray Hackinson, Ozone Park
Blind justice
The Post got it right: Upper East Side residents opposing accessible pedestrian signals (APS) don’t see the need, because they can see to cross the street (“UES Deaf To Plan for Blind Crosswalk Help,” Jan. 8).
Council member Gale Brewer, Lighthouse International and I unequivocally support the creation of a citywide APS program, and the City Council passed Local Law 21 of 2012 to do exactly that.
This is not an issue of a community being helpful or unhelpful to its neighbors; this is a civil-rights issue. Full and independent mobility must not be restricted to people who are sighted. Blind and visually impaired New Yorkers have a right to travel to every corner of our city whenever they want.
Recent changes to signal timing and intersection configurations make relying on traffic noise more difficult and necessitate the assistance of APS.
Councilmember James Vacca, Chair, Transportation Committee, Manhattan
Goodbye, Maggie
I read with sadness that Maggie Gallagher’s column on Jan. 5 was to be her last with The Post (“A Farewell to Optimism,” PostOpinion).
I’ve found her columns to be thoughtful and incisive, and they made sense in a sometimes senseless world. Her comments on the decline of family life were spot on.
I wish her luck in her future endeavors and hope we will be hearing from her from time to time in The Post.
S. Czerwinski, E. Northport