There’s hope yet for us in 2024

To the Editor:

In the last two months, we have seen in this paper what can be explained as the abuse of collective suffering for political gain. Jeffery Dinowitz and his club, the BFRDC, have made their position clear: Anything less than total acceptance of Israel’s actions is antisemitism.

This Trumpian use of ultimatums is a political tactic we all know by now. There is a civil conversation that can be had about the civilian deaths in the current conflict.

But to dismiss the deaths of civilians in Gaza is bigotry in the same way as dismissing the deaths and obscene violence on Oct. 7.

Dinowitz would like his public image to remain that of someone who likes civil discourse yet he repeatedly smears or dismisses those who dare speak up. He even snarkily writes “get vaccinated” on Google reviews that criticize him.

I refuse to be represented by someone who only knows how to dismiss constituents for the benefit of his ego.

A representative who has amassed political power since 1994 only to elect his son into office but not to have a team of people creating real transformative legislation to help us. He only has performative rallies that accomplish little for our real issues.

Assemblyman Dinowitz said in an article on Oct. 6 “I am confident that hateful rhetoric from anyone, including those parachuting into our community for political gain, solves nothing and only divides us.” 

He has led the charge in seeding this hatred himself locally instead of outsourcing. From pitting us against our incumbent state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, to sending members of his club to attack our district leaders and denying his constituents options on the ballot.

I have spoken to him about litter and trashcan issues in Kingsbridge to which he said “It’s not a real problem, that side of the district gets more federal funding anyway.”

He has lots of time for Twitter photo-ops but little time to do actual helping.

Complex issues require complex solutions BUT they also require the willpower to make those changes.  Things can be better and for that, we must expect the most out of our leaders.

Let 2024 be the year that you also speak truth to power.

Marcelo Lopez