Letters to the Editor

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

‘Our Enduring Democracy’


Despite The New York Sun’s earlier flirtation with reform of the Electoral College via Colorado’s Amendment 36, you chose this Election Day plus one to “praise the Electoral College.” [“Our Enduring Democracy,” Editorial, November 3, 2004]. Like Anthony, I come to bury the Electoral College, not praise it.


Although we avoided another discrepancy between the Electoral College and the popular victors, the Electoral College remains an undemocratic anachronism. A popular vote winner would still have to assemble a coalition of voters across the country, and the likelihood of a single region being dominant is remote. Indeed, our own region would benefit from Electoral College abolition, with far more focus by the candidates on urban issues.


I believe in federalism as fervently as your solons, but a far better, albeit highly unlikely, way to revive it would be to repeal the 17th Amendment and return the selection of U.S. Senators to the state legislatures.


Your concerns about the lack of a majority are prescient, but easily remedied by scrapping plurality voting for a more advanced voting system like approval voting or range voting, which would guarantee majority support for the winner.


As Senator Kerry stated in his eloquent concession speech, “In America, it is vital that every vote count, and that every vote be counted.” Unfortunately, the votes of all the tri-state residents who voted for a candidate other than Mr. Kerry, many of them your readers, will not count when the presidential electors meet on December 13. Wasn’t your primogenitor an abolitionist newspaper? Free the Electoral College slaves.


DOUGLAS GREENE
Cedarhurst, N.Y.


‘Bicyclists Off Balance’


On one single occasion, on the eve of the Republican National Convention, Critical Mass was hijacked by political protesters, about 80% of whom, according to counts in newspaper reports, have yet to return [“Bicyclists Off Balance,” Editorial, November 5, 2004]. But what in New York City was not overrun either by Republicans or their detractors during that August weekend?


In an ordinary month, Critical Mass is not a protest: It seeks neither to change the minds of New York’s motorists, nor to win their approval.


Its riders are primarily bicycle commuters – actual working human beings – who choose, on a daily basis, to risk bodily harm negotiating the morass of New York City’s streets, taking their chances alongside the many drivers who ignore traffic regulations without fear of penalty as a matter of course.


If Critical Mass protests anything, it is not politics or the law, but rather the daily indignities of being harassed by multi-ton vehicles whose occupants have little regard for the well-being of anyone outside of their own reinforced steel boxes.


There is no agenda beyond seizing a rare opportunity to ride New York’s streets in safety, with sheer numbers providing the advantage that the laws of physics ordinarily do not.


In the course of procuring this luxury, Critical Mass will block traffic for about 15 minutes at any given point along its route.


It has done this month after month, without public outcry, since well before the RNC. Motorists routinely suffer delays caused by their own unchecked numbers far exceeding this in duration, but only when the delay is caused by bicycles does it become intolerable and occasion a massive police expenditure, complete with riot gear, helicopters, and, doubtless, plenty of overtime pay.


Like the Police Department’s response to the past few rides, The New York Sun’s decision to de scribe Critical Mass as “wilding”-a special verb in New York’s editorial pages used only to analogize a group to the Central Park monsters of 1989 – is an inappropriate overreaction.


Bicyclists, whether going it alone on their way to work, or riding in solidarity on the last Friday of every month, are good for New York.


Their transportation choices promote their own good health, improve pedestrian safety and air quality for all New Yorkers, and make sensible, conservative use of space in our dense urban environment.


How many drivers, whose seemingly God-given right to total and unfettered access to all places at all times is now being so vigorously defended, can say the same?


JOHN W. FROST
Brooklyn


‘Elites Out of Touch’


What the Democrats do not understand is the average person’s dismay at the turn society has taken in the last 10 years [“Elites Out of Touch With America’s Heart and Soul,” Alicia Colon, New York, November 8, 2004].


Every television advertisement has a sexual connotation. We cannot permit children to watch children’s programs due to the violence in the context of the ads, let alone the programming.


I am shocked by the violent vitriolic response in normal conversation with my office colleagues.


I’ve become afraid, actually afraid to express my opinion – even in my own family.


Bravo, Alicia Colon.


MARION MARK
Brooklyn



Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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