HANDOUT/REUTERS Necessary or excessive? For 3 weeks, keep to yourself
Putnam Valley, N.Y.: While I applaud nurse Kaci Hickox’s selflessness in going to West Africa to treat Ebola patients, I deplore her crybaby attitude about being quarantined. I’m very sorry that she felt her rights were violated, but I’m glad she didn’t come into contact with any of my children. She knew what she was getting into and it was time for her to put on her big-girl panties and deal. Vicky Golden
Chester, N.J.: While it is critical to have training and protocols for Ebola exposure, the quarantine of travelers from West Africa is simply pandering to public fears. The staff at Bellevue taking care of the heroic physician who traveled to West Africa to treat victims could be on the subway or bus next to you as you read this paper. Remember the stigma around HIV when it was first discovered? Who wouldn’t shake Magic Johnson’s hand today? When did Americans become such wusses? David J. Melvin
Common sense goes viral
Manhattan: Are health workers who travel to Africa to save lives willing to jeopardize lives on their return? Though quarantining asymptomatic nurse Kaci Hickox may be over the top, there must be a middle ground between self-reporting (which in the case of Dr. Craig Spencer put the general public at risk) and automatic quarantining of returning health workers for 21 days regardless of their state of health. Mandating twice-daily medical check-ins for returning health workers might pose a slight inconvenience, but it would be in their interest and secure public safety by catching an infection at its earliest stages. Aliza Laufer
Fear itself
Bronx: NYC subway riders couldn’t care less about an Ebola scare. The only thing that gets their attention is the word “delay”! Sandy Harris
Next to godliness
Manhattan: Here’s something everybody can do to help prevent the spread of disease: Wash your hands. Often. Do this three or more times a day, especially after using bathroom facilities or using mass transit and right before eating. And those of you who bite your nails, make a strong effort to stop. I bit my nails for 13 years, and I managed to quit. Jane Elizabeth O’Connor
Nopera
Manhattan: What has happened to classical opera? To beautiful singing, costumes, scenery, music you could hum as you left the opera house and remember forever? Now we have a Metropolitan Opera general manager who knows nothing about what pleases the knowledgeable opera-going public. His only interest is to make money by updating classical librettos so they are beyond recognition. He has replaced scenery with ladders and beautiful costumes with unflattering dresses of the 1920s and ’30s. We are now given “The Death of Klinghoffer,” an insult to Jews as well as those of us who are starved for some good old-fashioned opera. Thanks for nothing, Peter Gelb. Suzanne Lee
Stop horsing around
Essex, Mass.: Mayor de Blasio and activists want to remove carriage horses from the city. Yet anywhere the horses go, they will lose the regulatory protections that now guarantee their continued excellent care. Sending well-cared-for, healthy working horses into an overburdened, underfunded rescue network puts them at more risk than they’ll ever face on the streets of New York. Banning the carriages is not in the best interest of the horses. Ellen Attridge
The neglect after the storm
Belle Harbor: I wonder if The Associated Press and NORC Public Affairs Research polled any Rockaway residents before concluding that almost three-quarters of those hit hard by Sandy say their neighborhoods have recovered (“72% see Sandy recovery: poll,” Oct. 27). We have no Boardwalk and are a community continually overlooked. Now the mayor is taking away our ferry — the only good thing to come out of superstorm Sandy. Nancy Re
Judge not
Dayton, Ohio: To Linda Stasi (“Christie earns minimum rage,” column, Oct. 26): What difference does it make that Kimberly Guilfoyle once modeled lingerie? That was just one step on her career path — before she studied law and became an attorney; before she became a prosecutor. Some of us have worked delivering pizzas; I once worked as a salesclerk. So what? Stasi took Guilfoyle’s comments about selecting a jury out of context. Of course lawyers think carefully about selecting juries. They have to anticipate where jurors’ sympathies may lie. Guilfoyle’s comments had nothing at all to do with “discriminating against young women.” They were about choosing the appropriate jurors for your case. Nali Rios
The 1% solution
Manhattan: Joel Kotkin’s “Our Emerald City” (Op-Ed, Oct. 26) is misguided. If the top 1%, who saw their annual incomes rise to $716,000, all left the city, statistical “income inequality” would drop dramatically. Yet would that be good for the city — including the poor, who rely upon the wealth generators for everything from jobs to taxes that pay for social services? Conversely, if every billionaire in the world moved to New York and brought with them their spending habits, taxable income, businesses and job creation and other corollaries to great wealth, income inequality would spike, but would that be bad for the city? Edward S. Hochman
Don’t forget baseball
Brooklyn: I am an avid NFL lover, especially of my hometown Steelers — but why isn’t there a code of neatness? So many players on all teams have long hair or braids and beards. Sometimes you can’t read the player name or number on their jerseys. Also, some NBA players have their bodies covered in tattoos. Why don’t the commissioners set up regulations for this? Emily A. Cole
Vick’s worst enemy
Rego Park: Dear Jet fans: Your team loses because of karma. As long as Gang Green is paying an animal-abusing dog murderer, they will not win. It is that simple. Marsha Mageneheim
Shame and the name
Woodstock, N.Y.: With regard to all the fuss being made about changing the Washington football team’s name, let me make sure I have this straight. We steal their land, ravage their women and slaughter their tribes, nearly eliminating their race altogether. Next, we put them on small pieces of land where once-proud peoples are now little more than poor unemployed alcoholics with little or no sense of dignity remaining. Now, we’re pretending to be offended about what name we’re calling them? What a pathetic bunch of hypocrites we are! Douglas Golden
Speed demons
Bellerose Manor: Re my friend Bob Fredrich’s Op-Ed about speed cameras (“Speed cameras just won’t give drivers a brake,” Oct. 19): If he doesn’t want them in his neighborhood, please send them over to my neighborhood and install them on Braddock Ave. in Queens. Union Turnpike and Hillside and Braddock Aves. are Long Islanders’ shortcut around the traffic on the expressway and parkway. School locations or not, cars and trucks approaching 50 mph are the norm during rush hours, with zero enforcement from the NYPD. Once a driver gets his $50 fine, you know he’ll slow it down the next time. Paul Bellisario
We’re dumber one!
Forest Hills: In 2000, the U.S. ranked second among all countries in the share of its population with college degrees. Now, we have dropped to fifth. For ages 25-34, we rank 12th. That makes it pretty clear why we have such idiots in Congress and even stupider people who keep voting them back into office. Jay Stewart
Priceless
Manhattan: As I sat this morning reading the Daily News and drinking my coffee, I thought back to when I was 9 or 10 years old in Chelsea. I am now 70. I recall my father laying down three pennies for The News then, and getting his coffee for a dime. A dime then bought other things like a soda, a comic book or a public phone call. Until 1953, the bus or subway cost 10 cents. Not least was every boy’s favorite, a 10-cent spaldeen for Saturday afternoon stickball games. There were many NYC newspapers back then that are long gone, but the Daily News is still with us at $1.25 on weekdays, and coffee is about $2 for medium size. I guess a cup of coffee and The News are a combination that is not going away. Manny Martin
