Letters to the Editor

Gansevoort Market

Your March issue is bursting with great articles and Brian Pape’s “Honoring the Gansevoort Market” is heart-stoppingly monumental in its portrayal of a neighborhood to be celebrated, embraced, respected! It must be read by anyone who’ll have influence on the city’s decision. Who could read Brian’s article and not choose to spare the district this grotesquely brutal blow?

If someone can provide me with a list of those who vote or influence this decision, I’ll happily copy and mail Brian’s article to them all!

And does Keith Michael somewhere have photos of each of the Fancy Ducks he describes?? Please direct me there!

Thank you, always, for your vital work!

— Karen

Animal Welfare

Americans care deeply about animal welfare, and now is the time to turn that compassion into action. Currently, weak law enforcement allows animals to suffer painfully in commercial dog breeding facilities, agricultural policies favor large-scale factory farming instead of higher welfare farmers, and every American horse remains just one bad sale away from entering the brutal slaughter pipeline.

Lawmakers have the power to change this. By prioritizing animal welfare legislation, they can build a system that protects animals while supporting consumers’ beliefs, public health, and ethical practices. Strengthening enforcement and closing loopholes will ensure that existing laws work as intended and align with the values of the American people.

When legislation like Goldie’s Act, the Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act, and the Industrial Agriculture Conversion Act, are reintroduced this Congress, I hope my lawmakers, Rep. Jerry Nadler and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, will support and advance them.

I hope all of our lawmakers will make animal welfare a legislative priority this Congress to ensure that the policies they focus on reflect the values of the people they serve.

— Annie

Therapeutic Activism

As we progress into Trump’s second term as president, it has become clear that he identifies as the official punisher of the American people. Attacks on health care, be it women’s bodily autonomy, affirmative care or general affordable access, appear to be his preferred method of discipline. Although, to assume this is somehow unique to him would overlook American history. The health care system has long been used by the federal government as a tool for oppression and control; though the transparency of its agenda has not been this irrefutable since the1960s.

The most recent era that reflected a similar circumstance to the one we find ourselves in today was in 1966. At that time the Black Panther Party (BPP) was founded, and by 1969 had established its first People’s Free Medical Clinic (PFMCs). PFMCs were health clinics that served Black people and ensured adequate care and advocacy. The founding of the organization and its health activism was a direct response to the civil rights movement and the continued discrimination of Black people in the United States. This racial discrimination had a variety of unjust manifestations not the least of which was the separate but dramatically inequitable health services. A core initiative of the clinics was the introduction of lay people as intermediary health practitioners. A lay person was not a formally educated health practitioner but a highly trained individual, often receiving training from those who were educated at a university and practicing in the field of medicine. The spread of lay people in the Black health community decommodified health and wellbeing, and ultimately democratized an area of knowledge, challenging discrimination in more formal medical environments. Fast forward to 2025, and we see strikingly similar attacks to those we saw back then.

Being a cis-woman with tremendous concern over the intrusion of the federal government in my reproductive health, I have made the decision to choose activism over anguish. This March I will begin my training as a doula, a role that offers emotional and physical support before, during, and after childbirth. Doulas are in a lot of ways modern day lay people. While they are not considered a medical professional, they are an advocate for the pregnant person and provide physical and emotional security during what can be considered the most vulnerable moment in many people’s lives. It is this vulnerability that has triggered my action. The politics surrounding reproductive health is a source of injustice in the United States, whether it be limiting access to abortion, or from “obstetric violence,” which is categorized by unnecessary medical procedures, or forced sterilization. Women’s bodies and pregnant bodies are a target of brutality. As a doula I hope to protect my clients where my country fails to.

I must admit, however, this is not the first time I have considered birth work. My interest in the field has been present for more than a decade, but this moment compels me to transform my affinity into productive action. It’s my belief that each and every one of us has a proclivity or talent waiting to be transformed into joyful activism. This is our moment.

— Eliza