Leaving This House Montauk January 2, 2015 To the Editor, Friday, Jan. 2, 5 a.m. I am in the basement of the house. I should be packing to go to Connecticut, but instead I am carefully hanging my hunting clothes on the clotheslines, as I have done so may times before. Procrastination? No, just savoring the ritual in this place where there have been so many rituals before. The bat that inhabits our basement is in the garage; I felt him fly over me as I went to check the oil tank this morning, a faint flutter above my head, as if to say, “I am still here.” I have likened leaving this house to peeling away the petals of a flower — as each petal drops, a memory comes to the surface, lingers in the mind, and then floats away. From that afternoon 40 years ago when Wendy and I stood in an empty upstairs bedroom and surveyed what would soon be our home, to the blinds swinging in the winter wind because the house had no insulation, Nana Duryea calling “Bring that baby downstairs” to our young daughters with curls flashing on the wooden swing set in the backyard. Those are the first petals to peel away. Then closer to the center of the flower. Tom Monahan falling off the roof while putting on new shingles, me lying safely in a cozy bedroom while Hurricane Gloria roared outside, babies crying upstairs, Colin Shea spraying champagne on the ceiling one New Year’s Eve, Travis rushing to finish the porch before he and Amy got married, sunflowers aligned up the front walk for Erica’s rehearsal dinner, and the warmth and quietude of the house early in the morning, rooms still dark, dogs sprawled about the family room. I go upstairs, to our bedroom. Wendy stirs softly, and murmurs, “You can turn on the light.” I say, as I have one hundred times before, “I don’t need it,” because I know that within two minutes she will drift slowly back to sleep, her figure outlined against the white bedding. She and I are coming to terms with all this, bouncing from excitement to sadness, anticipation to regret. The strings that have held us and our children and our children’s children to this place are loosening, but very slowly. There will be a day, not too far away, when the arm of this house will extend, the hand will slowly open, and the essence of this place will fall gently onto the sands of Fort Pond Bay. When that happens, the collective experience of five generations will be absorbed into a realm where dreams are made, and memories are kept. Thank you, house, from all of us — and goodbye. PERRY DURYEA III Thanks to Tom Amagansett December 30, 2014 Dear Mr. Rattray, I wanted to take an opportunity to pay my respects to Tom Twomey, whose recent passing caught me, and I am sure many others, quite by surprise. I first met Tom by way of his wife, the formidable Judith Hope. Judith is a former town supervisor of East Hampton who went on to have a remarkably successful tenure as the chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Committee. After meeting Tom at any number of East End functions, I settled into co-hosting the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night benefit. The event became one of my favorites out here. Tom along with Sheila Rogers and Dennis Fabiszak became my mentors in an effort to raise the necessary funds for the library’s children’s wing. As I stood next to Tom at the children’s wing dedication (and it seems like yesterday), I was finally able to recall who Tom reminded me of. It was my dad. My father, like Tom, was an overwhelmingly community-minded figure in my hometown of Massapequa. A teacher, a coach, a mentor, a good father, a good friend. My father was liked and admired by nearly all who knew him. Tom Twomey was like that, too. Smart and kind, affable and indefatigable, Tom accomplished, along with Dennis, Sheila, and generous local sponsors like Ben Krupinski, the long-sought goal of expanding East Hampton’s library to meet the demands of this growing community. It wasn’t easy, as many will recall. Certainly, we all owe a great deal of thanks to Tom, who cared about this community with his entire being. Tom supported many other causes and his generosity was abundant. His kind is rare. And like my dad back in Massapequa, Tom will be missed on the lawns, buffet lines, and public stages of our community. May he rest in peace. Sincerely, ALEC BALDWIN Halloween Masks East Hampton December 26, 2014 Dear Editor: It has been several weeks since Halloween, but there is something I cannot fathom, and thought maybe you could help me. I was flitting in and out of several gift-type stores, trying to find one that carried Halloween masks. In one of these stores, I asked the lady clerk if they carried Halloween masks. She replied, “Well, yes, of course. Why?” A tad confused, I said, “Well, I just want to look at what you’ve got, and maybe pick one.” She cocked her head to the side, and with a frown said, “You do not need one.” Confused, I asked, “How come?” She sneered a bit, and as she turned and walked away from me, she said, “You don’t need one because you already have one.” I’m still trying to figure that out. RON LEWIS Species in Crisis Gardners, Pa. January 3, 2015 Dear Editor, I’m in Pennsylvania visiting with my family and going to my grandchildren’s school concerts and sports events. It’s very much like East Hampton was when I was a younger man, and not that long ago. The most obvious difference is that the mountains and orchards replace the ocean, but with a little observation you see real differences and they are amazing. But that is not the reason for this letter. In spite of myself, and looks from my wife, I can’t cut myself off completely from home, so I read The Star online each Friday. And the article about the report from the D.E.C. of the state of wildlife in New York was also amazing. The report describes the 186 species in crisis and maybe gone from New York within 10 years unless we move to preserve them now. As a fisherman, I can tell you not only eels are gone but so are sand eels. Not only eelgrass is gone but so are most seaweeds. Farmers can tell you not only bumblebees are rare but so are praying mantis. Hunters will tell you only deer are in the woods and wetlands, and duck are uncommon. Birders can tell you they’ve never seen a whippoorwill and gardeners never see a swallowtail butterfly on their butterfly bush. In other words, the 186 species listed ain’t even close. I noted those conservationists you interviewed said we need to preserve more land, get more money to agencies and restaff them. In East Hampton we have a strong zoning code, a Natural Resources and Planning Department, a local waterfront revitalization plan, a Code Enforcement Department, many conservation groups, the community preservation fund, fences on the beach, trustees, bans on vehicles, acres and acres of preserved lands, and it goes on. Yet 186 species and more will be in critical condition soon. Because it’s not them, it’s us. We’re outraged when we hear about Africans poaching elephants for ivory because we know it’s just to satisfy their greed. But no outrage when houses aren’t shelter but a rental investment that overflows the septic and spills into the environment and poisons the wetlands, all to satisfy our greed. We’re incredulous when we hear of underdeveloped countries building dams and burning oil to provide electricity to make their lives easier or even a possibility. We build McMansions that use more energy than 50 Indian villages, to be at ease and comfortable. We’re dismayed when we hear poor countries still use DDT to control disease in the hopes of their children reaching adulthood. We spray thousands of pounds of poison on our marshes every year so we aren’t inconvenienced and scratch a mosquito bite. And it goes on. None of us has ever seen a passenger pigeon or great hawk. So what, we’re doing fine, but when our grandchildren never see a turtle, lobster, or tanager, and ask why, we’ll know it wasn’t some poor souls on the other side of the world. It was us. BRAD LOEWEN Contaminated Poles East Hampton January 5, 2015 Dear Editor: I have a wish for 2015. My wish for this new year is that the Town of East Hampton and the Village of East Hampton, along with the people who live here, will come together as one voice, one team that stands firm on protecting our environment. We live in a sensitive place that requires good stewardship to protect people, animals, and our environment. Bob DeLuca’s article last week hopefully opens up our eyes. Are we going to sit by and watch hundreds of animals disappear into extinction? Why do we make it so difficult? The answer is that it doesn’t have to be. When we come together as a community, a team with one goal, we can get anything accomplished. I believe that the quality of our water needs to be of top priority for everyone. I believe that our polluted waters are part of the cause that our animals are in need of human mitigation before they do not exist. I believe that the contamination of our water is one cause for Long Island’s high cancer rates. Clean water is going to be this generation’s biggest challenge. People are the contaminators of our water supply, whether it’s from our old, out-of-date septic systems, our laundry detergents like Tide that are known to contain cancer-causing carcinogens, pesticides that make our lawn greener than our neighbor’s, or allowing utility companies to upgrade our infrastructure with utility poles soaked with chemicals that are being banned around the world — chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic and extremely harmful to people, animals, and the planet. We now know that the new transmission line utility poles are contaminating our soil and our water with carcinogenic chemicals 48 times greater than the State Department of Environmental Conservation allows, yet the utility poles remain in place and will continue to leach every time it rains or snows — every wet event. Cleaning up the soil is not a solution that solves the problem, because every time it rains it will leach toxic chemicals. PSEG thinks that it’s okay to continue to poison our soil and water because it’s what they’ve always done. They would call it industry standards. Toxic poles versus a smart and responsible upgrade of man-made poles like composite or steel that already exist, or better yet, burying them underground, seems like a smarter, seventh-generation solution to this 20th-century practice. We need to stand up and make some noise, letting our public officials know that we do not want this type of an electric upgrade. My wish for 2015 is for the town and village, along with our other government officials across the state, to stand up with one clear voice and say, “No.” Remove the toxic poles and bury the lines! Upgrade our community’s infrastructure responsibly! Our rates are high enough. PSEG’s profits can handle doing the right thing. They created this atrocity, so they should be cleaning it up with the removal of their poles. Let 2015 be the year that we demand that our government work for us; its first priority should be to demand that PSEG remove the toxic poles. They issued a permit for the project based upon the utility’s “negative declaration” that there was no need for an environmental impact study, because their high-tension wire project would have no negative impact on the environment. They lied. These contaminated poles have poisoned our soil, our groundwater, have devalued our homes and businesses, have negatively impacted scenic vistas and areas of scenic significance, and have threatened the very way of life that symbolizes our village and town. Here is to a healthy new year! MICHAEL FORST Long Island Businesses for Responsible Energy Neighbors Like That East Hampton December 31, 2014 To the Editor: Today I called PSEG-LI to ask why I was billed for service in a co-op that is closed down tight for the winter — pipes drained, appliances unplugged, the works. The bill is for service, said an employee. What service? I asked. “The service of keeping the account open,” he said. “That costs $.36 a day.” I: “That’s a service charge for a non-service.” He: “Well, you could close your account.” I: “And how do I get it back open? He: “You pay a service charge of $80.” Got it. Dimly I hear echoes of all that PSEG debut rhetoric about how they were going to be good neighbors and save us all money. With neighbors like that, how can you lose? MARTHA LEAR For Philip Cammann East Hampton January 5, 2015 Dear Editor, I am writing in support of Philip B. Cammann, who is running for Bridgehampton fire commissioner. Voting for this important position will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 20, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Fire Department, 64 School Street, Bridgehampton. This is an important revote due to last month’s voided close election. I have known and worked with Philip Cammann over the last 34 years. He is a man of great character, integrity, honesty, and the best man I have had the privilege of knowing! Philip has been an advanced life support provider for 33 years, and paramedic supervisor for the Southampton volunteer ambulance. In the last 34 years Philip has responded to approximately 5,000 ambulance calls. If all the people he has helped could vote, he would surely win. Please show up and vote for him! Philip joined the Bridgehampton ambulance company in June 1980. In 1980 it ran 190 calls per year and he was on half of them. The average number of ambulance calls now is plus or minus 600 per year, and he made, on average, 200 of them. The duties of fire commissioner extend past just call volume. It is about running the municipality of the fire district. Some of the upcoming projects include starting a paid advance life support first responder program (similar to the one he now works for in Southampton); the Pulver building needs addressing, whether to renovate or rebuild — the construction background Philip brings to the table is a tremendous benefit for this project. The third issue is communications between the department members and the commissioners, the chiefs and the commissioners, and mostly the community and the commissioners. The commissioners need to be proactive, present, and visible in the community, and involved at school board meetings, C.A.C. meetings — perhaps an annual or semiannual newsletter. Every vote counts, and your vote has never been more important to our health! The ambulance company needs a voice on the fire commissioners’ board. Philip B. Cammann is that voice! On Jan. 20, bring a friend and neighbor of the fire district and support all that is good with our community. Come vote and then go have a midwinter dinner at one of the Bridgehampton community’s fine restaurants, or go enjoy one of the early-bird specials and then vote. Keep in mind that polls are only open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Remember, every vote counts. Voters must be registered and full-time residents of the Bridgehampton Fire District. Respectfully, GEORGE M. RYAN Insanity Must Stop Springs January 5, 2015 To the Editor, I am totally opposed to any regulation banning trucks on private property in East Hampton. This action would only serve a few people who do not like to see these vehicles. I hope the town has the local people in mind and not just a special few who seem to not like East Hampton the way it is. I like it the way it is. If anything should be changed, it should be more time spent on taking over old filed map roads to ensure safe travel, more time and effort keeping our parks and waterways clean and safe, and more to help our young people who would like to make this their home. I have been here all my life and have seen much change and some not for the better. Now is the time to change that and stand for the people who need to make a living and stay here. Being forced to have to put a work truck on commercial property or force someone to hide it from view is ridiculous. What will the next thing be? Maybe everyone will have to paint their home to suit someone else and there we go again. This insanity must stop. I have talked to many people about this and have gotten the same reaction. They see nothing wrong with the way things are. It’s only a few who want to push us around. Well, I am sick of it. CURT CHAPMAN P.S. I’m a Springs homeowner and I want to stay that way! Should Be Scrapped Springs December 28, 2014 Dear David, If ever an editorial hit the nail on the proverbial head, it was yours appearing in the Dec. 25 issue. What a welcome Christmas gift it was! A proposal that began as the need to define a light truck has morphed into a monster that is complex, difficult to read and understand, while giving legitimacy to the commercialization of residential properties. Laws written in a confusing vein are, in plain language, unenforceable. Even if the town had a much larger crackerjack platoon of enforcement personnel, which we hope the newly procured top dog of that group, David Betts, is aiming for, these folks need to have a law that would serve as a tool to do the job, not stand as an impediment to accomplishing the task. We can look back over this year when the present town board began its work and know that it accomplished yeomen’s work, piling up a prodigious list of achievements, which those of us who faithfully watch their meetings and read the local papers can attest to, and not to mention the sense of relief we all feel in the change of tone and evident collegiality. You cite the airport in the editorial as a prime example of their achievements as they move to control what was a finger in the eye and the heart of the entire East End, save a few, and you are so right. What a masterful piece of work in solving a problem that has been hanging over the town for years. Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, take a bow! But in the proposed truck law, the board has chosen instead to protect a small group who are either too lazy or too cheap to park their vehicles in a commercially designated area. Their plea is that they are making a living and can’t park in other places. Commuting even 20 minutes is unacceptable to them. We all know these folks are making enough money to take care of their needs and then some. But it is in the interests of the community at large that the board must serve, as that is its inherent job. To serve those who have been covering half-acre and quarter-acre lots with vehicles of larger and larger sizes and types until it is almost impossible to see the land itself is simply unacceptable. The proposal, which was to be discussed at the work session on Jan. 6 yet one more time, because the board has wrestled with it again and again, should be scrapped. The board has talked about doing hamlet studies. Perhaps that should be the first order of business. Springs, which will pay the heaviest price if this legislation should be adopted, has been racked with problems that the board has, so far, ignored, since special-interest groups seem to hold power over its decision-making. Do you want to be remembered as the group that destroyed Springs? I am compelled to remind you that true leadership is about doing the right thing, not doing what is popular. That will be your true legacy. Pleadingly, PHYLLIS ITALIANO Do the Right Thing Springs January 4, 2015 To the Editor, What has happened to my town? Are laws on the books still being ignored? I think so. I live in a residential area in Springs. Please tell me why big trucks have been allowed, over the years, to disregard the law that pertains to residential areas. I am not from the Nimby school. I care about all my neighbors. It has occurred to me more than once that the town board members don’t have this problem, unless they love large trucks to look at, pay higher taxes, and watch the value of their homes decline. We now have two recently elected members of the board who live in Springs. How happy are we, something might finally get done regarding this issue. But, alas, no such thing has happened. Many truck owners are making a lot of noise. The board has to listen to all the people in Springs before making any decision. I have noticed that problems in other areas of East Hampton and surrounding areas get addressed quickly. We are the stepchildren and we are sick and tired of being ignored. By the way, we also pay the highest taxes. The recent editorial in The East Hampton Star said it all. I implore the board to show the leadership they were elected to demonstrate and do the right thing for the residents of Springs and give us the quality of life we deserve. Happy New Year to everyone, and please make mine happy. RITA WASSERMAN Regarding Deer Amagansett January 5, 2015 Dear David: I am appalled at the behavior we have had to tolerate from the East Hampton Town Board. We do not accept, as they claimed, that they “misread” the Department of Environmental Conservation decisions sent to them regarding deer hunting on town-managed lands. We townspeople are not supporting biased or illiterate people for the town board who, instead of honoring their former “indication to follow the D.E.C.” approvals, reverted without announcement to their own plan of supporting shotgun hunting on town-managed land. What is wrong with this town? Can’t the public demand a “proposition” vote, like they do in California, for a vote from the people? I believe the vox populi is still respected in this country. So why are we mandated to follow like lambs to accept the sub rosa decisions of the town board? I know most of you have read The Star’s editorial of about two weeks ago, listing the questionable rate of misjudgments and unwise approvals that town has voted in. (Some people get to ravage a primary dune, others get to build revetments, some shady builders allowed illegal additional footage, rooflines, etc.) It makes one truly think of underhanded activity going on here. These town board members are acting like schoolchildren over a dice game, and the public is made the loser. It does seem likely that we will not be served by a smart, reasonably literate town government that is honestly dedicated to making fair and honest and quality decisions. I lived on Nantucket for years, from whose zoning and building laws East Hampton derived its zoning and building code. I can tell you that the Nantucket board will and had forced shady builders to tear off a roof if it was four inches above code! I was there to see it done. And why can’t we get a strong local and/or retired pro bono lawyer to volunteer to give something back to his (our) town by offering to set up a court case? Surely there is someone like that out here. The East Hampton Group for Wildlife has done a very great job of protecting animals and the law, and we hate to see board members sitting there with their eyes glazed over because they have already made up their minds. The goal of a lawsuit would be the issue of a temporary restraining order to stop weekend or other hunting on town-managed lands until a required public discussion of the fair and equal version takes place. For the people and the animals, ANNE and RON BRACK Who Will Suffer East Hampton January 2, 2015 To the Editor: If we cannot stop the town, who will suffer? One group is the deer, who are likely to die in greater numbers. In addition, many residents won’t be able to enjoy weekend walks in the woods and experience the special peace of nature in winter. And, because the town board didn’t hold a public vote prior to its decision, a major victim is democratic decision-making. VICTORIA SADAKA Reinstate the Ban Sag Harbor January 5, 2015 To the Editor: Apparently the East Hampton Town Board misread the website decision of the D.E.C., which has prohibited weekend hunting on state-managed public lands. The East Hampton board said it was going to follow the D.E.C. guidelines, but, having misread the decision, decided to open up weekend hunting on town-managed public lands, meaning hunters get free range on these lands out here in East Hampton. The D.E.C. made its decision on many factors, including a large public response, basically stating weekend hunting prohibited them from using the woods and trails for fear of being shot at. It’s a reasonable fear, not to mention the unpleasant sound of consistent gunfire. So here we have the situation. The hunters go out and shoot away seven days a week; we don’t have the weekends to enjoy the woods and trails, especially since there are dire hunting notices posted all over the place. This seems particularly unfair to the weekenders who leave the city to enjoy the peace and quiet (no more) that they bought or rented houses to enjoy. Is it too much to ask that the hunters have five days to shoot away, and we have the weekends? There has never been a public vote to change the town code to allow weekend hunting. And finally, if the East Hampton Town Board admits it inadvertently misread the D.E.C. decision, can they not own up to it, and reverse their decision, and reinstate the ban on weekend hunting, which is what they say they would have intended to do following the D.E.C. decision? Just own up to it. Reinstate the ban on weekend hunting. Thank you. BEVERLY SCHANZER Weekend Hunting Montauk January 2, 2015 To the Editor: The town bungled its most recent deer hunting decision and violated the democratic process. It decided to permit weekend hunting on town-owned parkland in January without holding a public vote. Here’s a brief history of what happened. In August, a new state law opened the possibility of weekend hunting during January firearms seasons in Suffolk County. The state law only made weekend hunting an option; various government agencies were responsible for the final decisions. East Hampton’s deer management advisory committee indicated that our town would follow the lead of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the town board seemed comfortable with this line of action. On Dec. 23, after hearing from the public, the D.E.C. announced that it would prohibit weekend hunting this January on state-managed land in East Hampton. But the D.E.C.’s decision wasn’t sufficiently clear to our town; the town went ahead and opened town-owned areas to weekend shotgun hunting. And it did so without voting to change its codes. Who suffers? One group is the deer, which are likely to die in greater numbers. In addition, many residents won’t be able to enjoy weekend walks in the woods and experience the special peace of nature in winter. And, because the town board didn’t hold a public vote prior to its decision, a major victim is democratic decision-making. BILL CRAIN President East Hampton Group for Wildlife Backwoods Mentality East Hampton January 5, 2015 To the Editor: Well, there go our prayers for peace in the new year. As shotguns ring out once again, civilized and compassionate people are faced with lawless elected officials who apparently don’t give a damn about what a majority of this community wants. In spite of the D.E.C.’s mandating that on state-managed land the East Hampton cooperative area and Noyac (part of the Southampton cooperative areas) will be open for firearms deer hunting from Jan. 5 to Jan. 31 on weekdays only, members of our town board, reneging on their own decision, and without a public vote to change the town code, have opened East Hampton Town lands to hunting on weekends. The risk and danger posed to hikers, to children and pets, to anyone who wants to go out for a walk with his or her dog or to simply enjoy the peace, quiet, and presence of wildlife, is of no concern to this board, which has demonstrated an entrenched backwoods mentality when dealing with issues concerning wildlife. Catering to special interests and those who get a thrill from the kill, who invade our community with a license to kill, this out-of-touch board continues to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to reason and to life. Shame! Shame! Shame! Who are they representing anyway? ZELDA PENZEL President People for the End of Animal Cruelty and Exploitation You Hate Obama East Hampton January 1, 2015 To the Editor, You are out there. You hate Obama. You hate black people, immigrants, Muslims, labor unions, you hate ’em all. You hate being called racist. You hate being called a bigot. Maybe if you talked about creating jobs more than you talk about why you hate black people and Obama, we wouldn’t call you bigots. Maybe if you talked about black people without automatically assuming they are on food stamps while demanding their birth certificates we wouldn’t call you racist. You hate socialism and social justice. You hate regulations and taxes and spending and the government. You hate. I know you profess to love our country and the founding fathers, but I need to remind you that America is not what Fox News says it is. America is a melting pot, it always has been. Now that you have thrown everything and the kitchen sink at President Obama and it still hasn’t worked, you are panicking. Obama’s approval ratings are rising above 50 percent despite your best efforts to undermine the economy and America’s recovery at every step you can. You tried to hold the American economy hostage to force America into default on its debts, debts that you rang up under Bush, so you could blame it on Obama, and it failed. You’ve used the filibuster more than any other Congress ever, going so far as to vote against providing health care access to 9/11 first responders. You remember 9/11, don’t you? It’s that thing you used to lie us into a war in Iraq, and then when Obama killed bin Laden and ended the war in Iraq you told people that he hates America and wants the troops to fail. You hate Obama with a passion, despite the fact that he has turned our economy around, reduced the deficit, ended the wars, taken steps to unlock the immigration stalemate. You call him a Kenyan. You call him a socialist. You dance with your hatred, singing it proudly. Frankly, you disgust me. Your hatred nauseates me. Your bigotry offends me. Your racism revolts me. I am openly questioning your patriotism. I think you hate Obama, black people, poor people, all of us — women, atheists and agnostics, Latinos, Muslims, liberals, all of us. I think you hate everyone who isn’t exactly like you, and I think you hate us more than you love your country. I don’t even think you want America to win wars, you just want America to have wars, never-ending wars, and the war profiteering it generates. You love that kind of spending, you love spending on faith-based initiatives and abstinence-based sex education (George Carlin would have loved that one). You love spending on subsidies for profitable oil corporations, you spend like drunken sailors when you can, anything to make the black president look bad. But oooh, you love your country, you say, and you want it back. Well, listen here, Skippy, it isn’t your country, you don’t own it, it is our country, and America is not the religiously extremist Foxbots who hate science, elitist professors, and having a vibrant and meaningful sex life with someone we love if Rick Santorum doesn’t approve of it. Rick Santorum wasn’t running for America’s effing high school dance chaperone. He should probably just shut the hell up about sex, but he can’t because he has nothing else to run on. Republicans cannot win on the issues. They’ve got nothing. All they have is a divide-and-conquer class war that pits ignorant, racist, and bigoted people against the rest of us, in a meaningless battle of wedge issues and the already proven-to-fail George W. Bush agenda again, of tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, privatization and war profiteering, and nothing else, so all they can do is blame the poor, big government, anybody and everyone else for their own failings. The party of personal responsibility? My rear end. So stop wearing your hate with pride. Stop celebrating your anti-science, anti-math ignorance. Stop using code words to mask your bigotry. Stop calling a convicted felon who resigned his Congressional seat “honorable,” or making excuses for your Republican No. 3 leader who appeared and spoke at a Ku Klux Klan gathering. Own up. I know you say things solely to motivate your following, but be honest and tell them your ideas will make them poorer, and we’ll see how much they back you and they would never vote for you. You are doing your best to impoverish your countrymen so rich people can get bigger tax breaks and you can keep on delivering corporate welfare to the special interests who have bribed you, and I am disgusted by the way you gleefully parade your hatred with aplomb. I don’t think you do love America. At least, not as much as you hate everyone in America who isn’t exactly like you. You should think about that, and maybe get some help. And for the record, I do not hate you. I am embarrassed by you and nauseated by your cruel and thoughtless behavior and your all-consuming, thoughtless denigrating of the president and his family, but I do not hate you. I hope you can change someday, but I don’t hate you. Some of you have enough hate in you for the rest of us as it is. RICHARD P. HIGER We Are in Trouble Amagansett December 26, 2014 To the Editor, “Massacre” has become the tragically misguided mantra of mainstream political correctedness of our leaders, leading to political rhetoric breaking our constitutional laws. These horrific incidents only exacerbate wrong over right. The mayor, and also our president, should account for their country’s fallen state for better without divisiveness. Our forefathers gave our country dignity, righteousness, and it has been eroded by these inadequate officials who were elected. The country has angered many Americans, so we should become more bold and resist with our convictions, not emotions! The worst debacle is that the heinous administration was re-elected to a second term to achieve this closed-mindedness and ultimate failure of the world and global collapse of the United States. We are in trouble, and many Americans realize the American people are not stupid. This administration is a carbon copy of World War II and the Nazi regime. It must account for its mistakes in unity, not hate. Past civil rights leaders would be mortified at these behaviors today. The complete destructiveness stems from inadequate leadership. Some care deeply but are sadly overlooked, as it will always be. We must connect and unite together, looking forward to the future. Sincerely, LINDA PRINCE Hard to Forget Southold December 7, 2014 To the Editor, I was invited to Adam Clayton Powell’s church one Sunday long ago, worth remembering. It looked like the whole congregation was Dutch-looking with coffee-colored shoe polish on their faces. I got up on the pulpit, a little girl, I just about saw over it. I started to read something. It looked like everyone in the congregation was trying to keep the laughter down. After the service was over, I went over to the darkened auditorium where Adam Clayton Powell was doing a mime to an empty auditorium. I sat down and watched another girl with him, a blonde with her hair all on top of her head, dressed in a beautiful long white dress, on an old-fashioned bike. It was supposed to be around 1912. Adam Clayton Powell wore an old-fashioned black suit with a shirt collar up around his neck. First scene’s act was a dating scene, no words. Second scene was marriage. Third scene was them with a baby carriage, then old age and death. In the background there was only the sound of a beeper. Boop-ba, boomp-boomp-ba, boomp-boomp-ba, boomp. After that was over I walked around the front of the church. Next door was a nice brown house where Al Sharpton lived. He was having a rock ’n’ roll party with a group of about 20 people. I stayed until my uncle from Queens picked me up a little later and went home. A memory hard to forget. Summer, August 1957. ANITA FAGAN
Published 5 years ago
Last updated 5 years ago
Letters to the Editor: 01.08.15
January 7, 2015