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Guestwords

Seeking ‘Guestwords’ Submissions

The Star welcomes submissions of essays for its “Guestwords” column of between 700 and 1,200 words. Submissions can be sent for review by email, in text or Word format, to [email protected].

Jul 5, 2018
Interdependence

A local group has come together for a Walk for Interdependence, to keep families together, at the windmill in Sag Harbor on the Fourth of July at 11 a.m.

Jun 28, 2018
Rain or shine, Rebecca Genia reminded golf fans of local history during the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. The Shinnecock Curse

The Shinnecocks take no glee in the public disasters that have befallen Shinnecock Hills since the tribe was excommunicated, the indigenous people removed as caretakers of their own land. But you could call it karma.

Jun 21, 2018
How Chile Changed Pope Francis

If the essence of the church meant being a field hospital, reaching the margins, loving the poor in spirit — as Pope Francis had told his flock — then there was the promise of compassion, understanding, and justice.

Jun 14, 2018
The Present Danger

In the current political environment, I am frightened enough to feel that I have to be more involved. But how? Deciding isn’t easy, and neither is choosing among Representative Lee Zeldin's primary challengers.

Jun 7, 2018
A Survival Story

If you had confronted me, I would have told you I wasn’t a battered wife. I was a strong, smart woman in love with a troubled man.

May 31, 2018
The Online Rental Game

I was aware that Airbnb and HomeAway had obstacles, and I had heard the horror stories, renters partying and charging admission, or subdividing rooms with Sheetrock then subletting to other tenants.

May 24, 2018
Dear Mr. President

Thank you, Mr. President, for strengthening the bonds of my nuclear family. “We’ll get through this, boys,” I told my discombobulated sons, “the family that panics together takes Xanax together.”

May 16, 2018
Music — Medicine — Mound

With college acceptance letters there comes a dilemma: not only which to choose, but whether you should search your soul for what you love or just flip a coin.

May 10, 2018
Charles Miner Jr., World War II bomber pilot, investment banker, and summertime East Hampton resident, died in March at the age of 96. Remembering V-E Day

Charlie Miner would learn of the toll of anti-aircraft fire only after a bombing run. “We all paid our respects. But after that, we didn’t talk a whole lot about the ones who were gone. It was just the risk you took.”

May 3, 2018
The Code Breakers

Disabilities access improves self-reliance, reduces tax expenditures, and is good for business.

Apr 26, 2018
Exposed With Every Storm

Forget hard structures and dumping offshore sand on the Montauk beach, it's time for coastal retreat.

Apr 19, 2018
Exports from vineyards on the East End could be hurt in an escalating tit-for-tat trade war with China. Trade, Trump, and Zeldin

(Op-Ed by Perry Gershon) Representative Zeldin calls Trump “the ultimate dealmaker,” but both seem indifferent to the damage even a successful deal with the Chinese would do to American consumers.

Apr 11, 2018
From the Country of the Young-Old

Both young and old experience a heightened push-pull between the desire to stand on our own and our need to rely on others.

Apr 4, 2018
The Questions of Passover

Not only is life better when we live to chase the question mark, questions drive us to be creative.

Mar 28, 2018
I Want a Gun

I have the teaching experience, the education, and the dedication, but I have no gun. So why do I want a gun? Let me count the ways . . .

Mar 21, 2018
Beyond Thoughts and Prayers

With sensible legislation, the gun violence afflicting too many of our neighborhoods and schools doesn't have to be routine. Kids don't have to keep dying. (Guestwords by State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.)

Mar 14, 2018
The story behind Rocky Graziano’s right cross to Tony Janiro’s jaw from one of their bouts in the early 1950s highlighted the October 1964 issue of Boxing Illustrated/Wrestling News magazine. The Rise of Rocky Graziano

In his hard-knocks early years, Rocky Graziano was headed for a life of nothing but crime and incarceration, but the legendary puncher turned it around, winning the middleweight crown in 1947, earning a parade and a telegram from President Truman.

Mar 7, 2018
Climate change contributed to this huge landslide on Piz Cengalo in the Swiss Alps in August 2017. Global Crumbling

In the mountains there is no doubt as to global warming’s effects: Glaciers that were once tourist attractions have disappeared and famous peaks like Eiger and Matterhorn are coming apart.

Feb 28, 2018
12 Days in Lockup

In January I was sentenced for protesting the black bear hunt in New Jersey. I hope my experience proves useful.

Feb 21, 2018
‘Thanks, Young Fella’

I don’t need to be reminded I’m getting old when I’m on a pleasant afternoon jaunt shopping for dinner with friends in blissful, if temporary, obliviousness to the passage of time and the nearness of death.

Feb 14, 2018
Who Needs Marriage?

Ah, the largely independent joys of this thing they call an apartnership.

Feb 7, 2018
The Poison in Your Laundry

If you knew what’s really in those detergents and softeners, you might change your laundry routine forever.

Jan 31, 2018
Einstein and the Beatles

In hindsight, the Beatles were as Nobel worthy as Bob Dylan or Albert Einstein. Original, thoughtful, creative rebels, they rejected what came before them.

Jan 24, 2018
Theatrical Coincidences by Hy Abady

Bernadette Peters with me in the audience? On two opening nights 20 years apart? And now she’s got her own opening night in “Hello, Dolly!” on Jan. 20.

Jan 17, 2018
Water: Our Common Ground by Elaine DiMasi

A First Congressional District candidate with a scientific background emphasizes environmental protection.

Jan 10, 2018
Cancer Will Not Defeat Senator McCain

If “battling cancer” has long been a misguided metaphor, it seems spectacularly inapposite in connection with the redoubtable John McCain.

Jan 3, 2018
Patricia Donahue and James Daly in a scene from “A Stop at Willoughby,” a 1960 “Twilight Zone” episode about the pressures of workplace harassment. ‘Letter of Resignation’ by Francis Levy

Will we no longer be able to read or see work by thieves like Jean Genet, sex offenders like Roman Polanski, or bigots like Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot?

Dec 27, 2017
Little Church by the Harbor, by Bill Henderson

It's time to get back to the divinity who inspired us originally — to love and forgiveness, to turning the other cheek and total nonviolence.

Dec 20, 2017
The Birth of a Chorus, by Jessica Fitzpatrick

When I was diagnosed with lymphoma eight years ago, my search for strength and solace involved bringing as much music into my life as possible.

Dec 6, 2017