LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

IDC creates ethical concerns

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To the editor:

The controversy over state Sen. Jeffrey Klein’s membership in and leadership of the Independent Democratic Conference broadly features claims that he strongly serves the community and remains loyal to the tenets of the Democratic Party.

The Ad Hoc Committee to improve Bx10/20 Bus Service called Sen. Klein’s office in October 2016 to get an appointment to discuss bus service and how he could possibly help get improvements. We were told to email his appointment assistant.

We did email her, and got no response for two weeks. We emailed again, and got an answer that she would look into his schedule, but she never got back.

So we concluded that we simply didn’t count. The petition for more Bx10 buses and for full Bx20 service was submitted. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Councilman Andrew Cohen enured that Sen. Klein’s signature was on the letter submitting the petition to the MTA. But the committee couldn’t sit down with the senator to discuss his particular role.

So much for the myth of his community service.

Last May, we got a phone call about scheduling an appointment. Way, way too late.

Since last fall, the Republican Party has morphed into a chimera that is part “alt-right” and has ties with violently anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-Latino, anti-Semitic, anti-woman and anti-sexual minority groups. In the last couple weeks, reliable news media such as the online New York Times and The Guardian reported that the GOP recruits at neo-Nazi and other “alt-right” rallies.

The alliance between the GOP and fascist groups makes Sen. Klein’s alliance with the GOP highly ambiguous ethically. Strengthening local Republican organizations help strengthen national Republican organizations. The IDC itself participates in power acquisition for a party that increasingly threatens everyone who isn’t a white Protestant male.

As co-leaders of the Ad Hoc Committee, we will seek no future interaction with Sen. Klein unless he leaves the IDC. One of us is African-American, the other, Jewish. The Republican slide into proto-fascism means that alliance with Republicans has deep moral implications.

Anyone who harps only on the relative power in the state senate of the two parties, and on shoveling money into the district, lacks an important ethical, mental and emotional component in light of the current dynamics.

BEVERLY KELLY, DEBORAH WALLACE

The authors are co-leaders of the Ad Hoc Committee to improve Bx10/20 Bus Service.

Beverly Kelly, Deborah Wallace,

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