A simple ritual to counter despair in this time
Itasca, Ill.: When we read every day in the Daily News about problems and tragedies, it’s easy to become distressed. That’s good if it leads us to action, but not if it makes us upset about our lives.
To increase happiness, find time each day to think about things for which you have gratitude. My family does this at the end of dinner when we say “grats.” This involves one person telling us three things for which she or he is grateful. Then we have a conversation about what was said.
Being the old guy at the table, I often discuss how one of those things was different in earlier times. For example, if televisions are cited, I might talk about how when I was young, we didn’t have one, and that the first TVs had small screens and took a while to warm up before a low-quality black-and-white image grudgingly appeared.
The only rules we have are that grats shouldn’t involve a person at the table, nor something that was brought up recently. Otherwise, they can be anything, big or small. Examples: freedom of speech, paper towels, email, volunteers, toothbrushes, friends, pie, plastic, sunshine, living in America, electricity, teachers, parks and music.
Grats has sparked a lot of good conversation and made us more appreciative of the lives we have. I invite you to give it a try. Gary Jump
Ever more invasive
Brooklyn: On top of congestion pricing, red light cameras, speeding cameras, regular parking tickets and not sorting your recycling properly, you can now have your garbage looked through for food scraps and receive a ticket. The only thing left is monitoring your bathroom doings and paying a fee for #1 or #2. Don’t laugh, it’s gonna happen. Joe Many
Recipe for rankness
Whitestone: Here we go again! Who is making these decisions for the homemakers who are cooking, cleaning vegetables and throwing food scraps, yard waste and soiled paper into these pails! All food scraps, including meat, bones, shells, dairy, prepared and cooked food, etc. go in these new bins. When it was mixed together with our regular garbage, it was somehow not as bad. But with only food, it stinks and is rotting terribly for the seven days it waits to be picked up. While the weather is cool here in the boroughs it’s bad, but come the summer with high temperatures, it will be a disaster, even with the special little brown bins the city so graciously supplied us with. Now we will have many more rats and raccoons prowling the streets looking for the rotten food they smell! Have fun composting! Marlene Torino
No-fly zone
Brooklyn: I think it’s time to end all helicopter tours over the New York area (“A celebration, then tragedy,” April 12). Let’s be honest: In this day and age, there is a lot more air traffic than there was 30 or 40 years ago. I don’t want to discuss what caused the accident because that doesn’t matter at this point. I leave that up to the National Transportation Safety Board to figure out. Bottom line: Lives were lost and this is not the first time this has happened. So, unlike Mayor Adams, who says we don’t have to end these flights, I say you definitely do. The mayor says they are a tourist attraction. Mr. Mayor, this is New York City. There are plenty of things to do and see. You have sporting events, music festivals, museums, the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building — the list goes on. End these tours once and for all. John De Angelo
Necessary measures
Fresh Meadows: Folks, we’re almost at the middle of 2025. Our wisely demanding Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019 (CLCPA) directs us to reduce our polluting emissions by 2030 — in just four and a half years. Gov. Hochul and others in Albany are extending the budget deadline over other matters, as if the onrushing locomotive of climate breakdown behind our CLCPA mandate is not the costly, destructive force that it is. Albany, wake up! The NY HEAT Act must go into the executive budget. Hochul must restore the Cap-and-Invest program she pulled at the last minute. These measures are how the law can put the brakes on that locomotive. Sara Rebecca Storch
Hidden hand
Manhattan: To Voicer Jake Pickering: Thank you for bringing to my attention the fact that references to “the illegal, murderous 17-year military siege by Israel against Palestine civilians in the Gaza Strip never happened” persist. Apparently, rogue elements within the U.S. Department of Education, in an act of extreme insubordination, have disregarded my direct orders to have all such inconvenient truths written out of the historical record, and any books alluding to such burned forthwith. I enjoy my job of effecting revisionism and can only hope this act of civil disobedience escapes the notice of DOGE agents. So let it be rewritten, so let it be done. Aydin Torun
Ancient playbook
Long Branch, N.J.: President Trump is erasing Black history, people of color and DEI in the same manner that the Pharaoh erased Moses when he discovered Moses was Jewish. Lenzy Kelley
The rich get richer
Delray Beach, Fla.: So, Goldman Sachs recorded record profits for the first quarter. Did you expect anything different from the Wall Street thieves who always say to be patient? Of course, we always hear to be patient, buy low and sell high, but does the average person have any choice? As we can all see, economically we are no better off now than we were a few months ago. Prices for everything are still through the roof and will only get worse. Buying a big-ticket item is out of reach, so what did Trump really accomplish? The answer is things for his rich friends in corporate America as the working-class suffer. Let’s see what happens by the midterms. How much damage has been done to your paycheck? Time will tell, but for all retired Americans, it does not look promising. Manny Agostini
Small-time secretary
Long Island City: Since Secretary of State Marco Rubio can’t do the normal things that secretaries of state do, like negotiating for peace in Gaza and Ukraine, he must resort to removing people to El Salvador illegally. I assume he gets a commission for each person he removes. The next thing we will hear is that Rubio and the other incompetent, Steve Witkoff, are trying to sell all the Trump towers around New York City and the country to make some more money for Trump. Paul Camilleri
Strategic defense
Elmhurst: The reason Democrats are so adamant about their defense of illegal immigrants is not a benevolent one. It is because of the billions of dollars allotted for the care of illegals that will serve as a personal ATM for the Democrats’ use. Added to this are the potential votes that Democrats hope to stuff the ballot box with in the hopes of electing more idiots like Kamala Harris or her “amen” chorus of socialist politicians like AOC, Ilhan Omar and others. James League
The failure is theirs
Ozone Park: Charles Barkley speaks the truth. The Democrats lost, period. Even though Trump talks like an 8-year-old with his those-are-bad-people verbiage, voters chose his policies. The Democrats have to completely reinvent their campaign strategy to stay relevant. Ray Hackinson
Lethally callous
Forest Hills: The U.S. has stopped supporting programs that provide people displaced by war with food, water, medical care and shelter. Why? For the “convenience of the U.S. government.” But at least the people making these decisions are pro-life. Alan Hirschberg
Faulty case
Manhattan: To Voicer Scott Thompson: I was in Cape Cod last year and saw part of the Karen Read trial. I heard the testimony of the police officer who wrote very personal and disgusting things about her as part of the case and shared his words with other officers. From calling her vulgar names to looking for nude pictures of her on her phone and finding no proof of the broken taillight that wasn’t broken before they confiscated the SUV but was broken later on, to conflicting testimony, I’d say the police created reasonable doubt, and she should be acquitted. Heyward Johnson
