Respect for single mothers

To the editor:

(re: “Outrage erupts over homeless shelter,” July 20)

The attacks on single mothers that have appeared in comments to a Riverdale Press article on the homeless shelter proposed for 5731 Broadway are deeply disturbing to me, a single mother myself.

I am old enough to remember a day when New York was a more generous and compassionate place. 

It was assumed in at least some city policy that raising children is a demanding occupation deserving of support from the community. 

“It takes a village to raise a child,” requiring financial support, decent health care, good schools, and friendly neighbors. 

A healthy society in the future requires raising healthy children now.

Although I was lucky enough to have sufficient family support that I never needed public assistance and an education that enabled me to find employment paying more than minimum wage, I understand that there are many reasons why a woman can find herself raising children alone. These include choosing that lifestyle as the best option for her in the social environment that we live in. 

Above all, single mothers deserve respect, for themselves as human beings, for managing to survive in often-difficult life circumstances, and for the job they do caring for the young.

Peggy Ray