Letters to the editor

Church influence?

In a Meg Trogolo Worcester Magazine column, Jai Santora engages in a favorite pastime of transgender activists, complaining about the Catholic church, (Nex Benedict vigil shines light on discrimination LGBTQ+ community faces, even in Mass., March 3, 2024).

Santora resurrects the bogeyman of alleged Catholic political influence, making the absurdly paranoid claim that the views of Worcester Bishop Robert McManus on gender might influence Worcester public school teachers and members of the School Committee.

If McManus could not secure the support of the College of the Holy Cross for his traditional Catholic beliefs on gender, how is he going to influence members of a Worcester teachers union affiliated with the left-leaning, pro-Democrat Massachusetts Teachers Association?

As for the Worcester School Committee, McManus could not even count on the support of former member Tracy O'Connell Novick, the wife of a Catholic deacon. Novick was endorsed by Planned Parenthood.

C. Joseph Doyle, executive director, Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, Boston

Another chapter on Little Free Libraries

Thanks for highlighting a Worcester story on the Little Free Libraries.

This is just an add-on to your story, I felt you should know.

In 2022, Columbus Park Neighborhood sponsored the 21-22 Vincent Ave. Little Free Library. Residents donated $10 each to purchase the box. As this project developed, we worked with the Parks Department and installed the Little Free Library. Four volunteers/residents are responsible to manage the rotation of books (spring, summer, fall and winter).

It is a wonderful gathering area for residents who walk/play in the neighborhood to enjoy picking out a book to read.

Nice job — featuring what Worcester is all about, great people living and working together in harmony.

Barbara Engwall, Worcester

'Day of infamy' for Leominster

Sept. 11, 2001, like Pearl Harbor, etched itself in the national psyche.  Yet despite the incalculable human suffering caused 23 years ago when religious zealots turned commercial airliners into bombs, it also united the country over the plight of victims' families.  And it should remind us today even awful events can breed unexpected generosity.

For Leominster, Sept. 11 is another "day of infamy."  On that date last year, a foot of rain suddenly inundated the city.  Within hours, long-functional roads and established homes became unusable; two dams even threatened to burst.  Yet despite the unprecedented tragedy, Mayor Dean Mazzarella responded with urgency.  And the community, though reeling and wounded, persevered.

Yet no city can readily absorb an estimated $30 million in damages.  And Leominster, like cities before it, reasonably turned to the federal government for help.  Yet bewilderingly, FEMA, the government's lead disaster agency, just rejected the city's request.  It determined volunteers and local fundraising should suffice.  What malarkey!

With its signature determination, and the governor's guidance, I'm confident the upcoming appeal to FEMA will succeed.  But Leominster residents, long known for their Yankee independence, will have to fully document their losses.  Otherwise, their suffering will stay silent and the city will be ignored.  And that just won't do.

R. Jay Allain, Orleans

Arms spending not the answer

I saw President Biden and his undersecretary of state, Victoria Nuland, gush over the fact that much of Biden’s $95 billion spending bill for Israel, the Ukraine, and Taiwan will stay home here in the U.S. because it will create good-paying jobs in the U.S. arms industry. There are 40 states that will benefit. This will help build our industrial base. What kind of depraved country depends on endless wars, on sickening massacres like the one in Gaza to build its industrial base? These people are leading us straight to World War III. What good will a strong war industrial base do us when they start dropping hydrogen bombs? We’re funding our own demise. Time for the U.S. to find a new way to make a living. The future of our planet depends on it. We really want a future of never-ending wars, never diplomacy, always provoking and bullying? I’m sick of it.

Charlotte Burns, Palmer

Wheelchair a part of person with disability

As a spinal cord injury disabled wheelchair user, I was pleased to read about the final outcome for the traveler whose wheelchair was damaged and rendered useless. Last December I took my first trip in nine years and the single greatest stressor was traveling with my chair. What the author fails to point out is that for a disabled person the wheelchair is part of us and provides mobility and independence. Often they are custom-fitted to the individual so when it is damaged and useless, it may take months to replace.  A broken wheelchair to us is akin to an able-bodied person boarding a flight and when it lands they're a paraplegic with no equipment.

Warren Hawkes, Auburn

Doing math on tax hikes

I have to ask myself: Why do we continue to elect representatives who fail to stand up for us, but rather rubber-stamp party leadership? Not too long ago they raised the sales tax from 5% to 6.25%. Nobody squawked about a measly 1¼%, but in reality, it was a 25% increase. Voters just forgot how to do the math and your paper, like most others, failed to highlight the unbelievable increase. Now comes an increase in lodging tax from 6% to 7%, that’s a 17% increase, meals tax from .75 to 1%, that’s a 33% increase. I think I should thank our “representatives” for just increasing the excise tax by 5%. I would have expected Ray Mariano’s head to explode after learning of these increases, but then I remembered that after all he was a politician and his colors run the same as the impotent leaders we have sent to Boston. I’m honestly ashamed of them all. They have truly failed the people that elected them.

Mark Eaton, Leominster

On Election Day, only one choice

The choice will be obvious come Election Day 2024.  When the dust settles from the campaign trail there will be only one choice.

Which person/party will protect our democracy?  Would you rather have a president with his hand out to help you and your family or one who will have their hand deep inside your pockets so their cronies can get rich?  Which party will actually get work done at the Capitol instead of running around like a bunch of kids at recess?  Do you want the majority to reach across the aisle, or reach for their throats?  For those of you who see the clear path to a better future for the country, I salute you.  For those of you who drank the Kool-Aid in 2016 and never recovered, for you I will pray.

Scott Vottiero, Millbury

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Letters to the editor