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Pension Funds Invested in Kindness and Decency

The following letter by WestView contributor Carol Yost was recently published in the Daily News’ Voice of the People section.

To the Editor:

I am a retiree from New York City agencies, having worked more than 25 years, first for the HPD, then HRA. I retired at the beginning of 2013, and am now 73 years old.

I disagree in the strongest possible terms with Richard Brower, who accused Mayor de Blasio and Controller Scott Stringer of “politicizing” our pensions by divesting from fossil-fuel companies and investing instead in clean-energy firms; and also by divesting from private prisons that may serve ICE by holding immigrants. This is exactly how I want my pension funds invested.

I don’t want to get money from firms that pollute and poison our air, water and land, and contribute to climate change. I don’t want to be supported by money invested in prisons that profit from the broken lives of immigrants who came to my country fleeing in desperation from starvation and life-threatening circumstances in their homelands. I am decidedly not wealthy and depend upon my pension, but I want to be able to hold my head up about where my money is coming from. The heartlessness of the author was chilling. I applaud de Blasio and Stringer for trying, in this way, to base our pension funds on kindness and decency. If they had not, I’d have joined my colleagues out in the street with a sign.

— Carol F. Yost

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