Letters to the Editor: 01.21.16

Memorable Remark

Brunswick, Me.

January 16, 2016

Dear David,

One of the many memorable remarks by Stuart Vorpahl was, and I quote: “Politics is in everything except deep sleep.” 

May he enjoy his eternal rest!

BILL GOOD JR.

A True Authority

Montauk

January 17, 2016

Dear Rusty,

Your waiting is over and I trust peace of mind has arrived.

Thank you, Rusty Drumm, for your recent words (“A Chocolate Square of Relative Bliss,” Dec. 31, 2015). They came to me in Puerto Rico last Monday and I wanted to thank him in a phone call. I called Gordon to get an update on his health and he let me know that Rusty’s time was short. Upon learning of his passing on Saturday, I decided to thank him in the pages that carried his reporting for so many years. 

His thoughts brought to mind those last few months I spent with a best friend. Steve was (and continues to be) one of those “five best friends.” Someone told me once that if I could fill up one hand with best friends, I was a fortunate man. To date I have counted off four, and I hope to count off that last finger before my time comes. 

In 2000, Steve was sick. He was nearing the end of a nearly 10-year battle with AIDS. If my memory serves me correctly, he had been prescribed something called Marinol to deal with loss of weight, nausea, and the effects of the AIDS-related illnesses he was experiencing. By summertime, Steve was dying. I recall the day in the upstairs room where we spent so many afternoons when he asked me if I could score some marijuana. Apparently his doctor had advised that greater comfort would be achieved with the genuine herb. Of course, those were the days of medical marijuana hysteria, and the federal government stood ready to discipline any state that entertained the idea of allowing the use of medical herb to reduce suffering. 

I scored, Steve ingested, and a few short weeks of relative comfort and appetite followed. Steve died on Aug. 11, 2000, and fortunately I was with him to say goodbye.

At the federal level, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, where Schedule I substances are considered to have a high potential for dependency and no accepted medical use, making distribution of marijuana a federal offense. As Rusty pointed out, New York has finally joined 23 other states in legalizing the dispensing of medical marijuana, albeit quite restrictive. I am not sure that his chocolate square would have qualified. In an age where cutting-edge opiates seem to receive F.D.A. approval with ease and fly off the conveyer belts of the pharmaceuticals, it is unfortunate that 27 states have yet to allow the relief brought by this age-old herb. 

Rusty, we will miss you on many fronts. Many who may not have been close friends knew him through his literary efforts in The East Hampton Star, The Surfer’s Journal, and publications too numerous to list. Whether he were writing about the migration of the striped bass, the question of erosion on the East End, his love for wooden boats, the Oceans Institute and museums, notable swells, the history of Third House and the Rough Riders, or simply rope, his words and research brought pleasure and insight to many. 

Thanks for giving us one more piece about a subject on which, once again, he was a true authority. Smooth sailing.

JOHN McGEEHAN

Farm Preservation

Wainscott

January 18, 2016

Dear Editor,

Thank you for the article about farm preservation in this past week’s paper. It is so important for people of East Hampton to learn about the community preservation fund and the importance of preserving farmland for future farmers. 

I have been farming professionally since 1975. In the last 10 years or so it has become increasingly difficult to secure land for the following year’s planting season. I have lost many acres of valuable land to lawns and privet hedges — and, in some cases, swimming pools — spending money to get the land in top-notch condition to plant potatoes or corn, just for someone else to plant grass and trees. 

The untrained eye may not realize that this is happening, but those of us who rely on farming to make a living are very aware of this epidemic. This is why the acquisition of the additional farming rights are so important to ensure that future generations of farmers will have the resources to work with. I hope that East Hampton follows Southampton’s lead of purchasing additional “affirmative farming” restrictions. 

East Hampton was built on fishing and farming families and it is important that we keep those practices alive for future generations that want to continue in their footsteps. 

Sincerely,

PETER DANKOWSKI

Dankowski Farm

Down to Business

East Hampton

January 11, 2016

Dear David,

Looks as if our year is off to a good start. The supervisor’s statement at the organizational meeting on Jan. 5 was exemplary in its focus on the things that need to be done and on the plans to get them accomplished. Our supervisor got right down to business.

I was particularly pleased to hear about new initiatives in social services. The plan to collaborate with Southampton Hospital to bring clinical health services back to town is so important to our community! So are the commitments to a needed new senior citizens center and especially to tangible results in affordable housing. Water quality, code enforcement, and erosion control are on my list as well, and important to be accomplished for our town.

Thank you to all on the East Hampton Town Board, and to all the many members of our community who are helping them, on committees, the board of trustees, the planning and zoning boards, and an invaluable staff to think through and negotiate new programs. You are working for a strong East Hampton future. And thank you to all volunteers who are working to better water quality, code enforcement, and erosion control, and one more thank-you to all the volunteers who are trying to clean up our town and help to control and eradicate all the litter on our roads and beaches. And thank you to our highway superintendent, Steve Lynch, for all his help.

Sincerely yours,

ARLINE GIDION

To Our Local Runners

Sagaponack

January 18, 2016

Dear Mr. Rattray:

It is with some sadness that we write this letter, which is our farewell to East Hampton as a venue for our race, the Hamptons Marathon. For many years we felt wonderful support; there were a large number of people who appreciated the value that the race brought to the community, and we didn’t want to leave without recognizing them and thanking them for all of their friendship and support for us over the past nine years.

First and foremost, we want to express our extraordinary appreciation to Eric Casale and his staff at the Springs School, who always made us feel at home and opened their doors and arms to us each fall. Dan, Alan, Bruce, and the rest of the custodial staff, you couldn’t have been nicer and more helpful, and we will miss your energy and your cheeriness at 3 a.m. and throughout the day.

To OMAC, Howard Lebwith and Paul Fiondella, Henrika and John Connor, and John Ryan Sr. — we really appreciate all your efforts on behalf of the race throughout the years, right up to the final effort to stay in East Hampton. The recognition you gave us for our contributions to athletics and the community in 2009 gave us the confidence that we could build this race into the meaningful event it has become, which is a small-town, high quality marathon that has been recognized nationally as a top race year in and out. Thank you for believing in us.

Linda Blowe and Girl Scout Troop 1768, Eric Malecki and Boy Scout Troop 298, Jaci Winthrop and Springs Junior Troop 341 — you and your scouts were reliable volunteers each year, and the runners loved your water tables. We hope you’ll want to cross the borders and come over to Southampton and help us there! We’ll be in touch as always.

To Project Most and the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, we have loved being involved with your organizations and think you do wonderful things for the children of East Hampton. We hope the local community will continue to support all of your endeavors going forward.

And to all of our local runners, we hope you will follow us over to Southampton, where we have a great course and are very excited for our 10th anniversary event — we have so many new and great things in store for you!

Best,

AMANDA MOSZKOWSKI

DIANE WEINBERGER 

Serious Inequities

Springs

January 18, 2016

Dear David,

Regarding your editorial last week: Thank you for highlighting serious inequities in this town regarding the schools. The separate school districts are entirely unfair, not just to the majority of residents, but to our children.

I believe it is incumbent on the town board to work on this issue, as it affects everyone in the town and certainly our taxes. If the town provided a forum for the school district representatives and residents with expertise in education, building, taxes, and services to meet and discuss the various options to reduce the inequity, perhaps some headway could be made. At least, ideas could be shared to reduce costs.

The town government interacts with our state representatives on many issues. This is very important and we need them to work on this problem. 

SUSAN HARDER

An Ugly Situation

Springs

January 18, 2016

Dear Mr. Rattray,

Now this is getting serious. I find myself, yet again, in absolute agreement with another of your editorials, “School District Taxes: Top Leadership Needed.”

New York State’s educational system is a scandal, from lackluster performance by students to ironclad union contracts that often put the needs and wants of teachers, principals, and administrators above those of students. School budgets are out of control and fiscal management is nearly nonexistent. 

East Hampton Town is a glaring example of this scandal. With 22,000 full-time residents and some 3,000 schoolchildren, the six hamlets each support at least one school, complete with its own district superintendent, principal, assistant principals, and assorted other high-paid administrators. School administrative staff salaries reach into the millions for this small town. This is madness, and for taxpayers, it borders on abuse. 

The Springs community, where I live, is the least affluent of the East Hampton hamlets, yet our taxes (as your editorial notes) are the highest per household in the town. Just this year, our school tax rate has been increased an additional 2.7 percent. That means less money for Springs residents to buy food and clothing, pay their heating bills this winter, and spend as they wish to on their own families. Instead, Springs residents pay for a district superintendent in charge of fewer than 800 K-8 students who commands an annual salary of $215,000. In addition, as a retiree of another UpIsland school district, the superintendent also receives his pension and health care benefits, all courtesy of New York State taxpayers, including Springs residents. 

Just for perspective, the New York City police commissioner, William Bratton, who supervises over 35,000 police officers, receives a salary of $205,180. Gov. Andrew Cuomo receives a salary of $179,000. Multiply just this scenario (I am not even talking teacher salaries, expenditures for books, etc.) by the other hamlets and we are talking about serious, serious amounts of taxpayer dollars.

As I said at the top of my letter, this is madness bordering on taxpayer abuse.

Adding to the fiscal nightmare, the Springs School is currently grappling with a substantial overcrowding situation. Seemingly each week, the school must enroll additional students. With an infrastructure badly in need of an upgrade, and classroom space at a premium, Springs taxpayers may need to fund a school expansion project of from $10 million to $20 million. If approved by the voters, this project will not be completed until around 2020 or later. Who knows what the school population will be then? It could be smaller, or perhaps even larger than the expansion will be able to accommodate. This Russian roulette process is devastating the community; it is unsustainable, it is unfair, and it is a crisis.

Shockingly, in the very politically liberal and politically correct Town of East Hampton, we have a school system that, while not as egregious as the conditions that resulted in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, sets up an unequal application of educational standards among the town’s schools. With a largely minority school population, the glaring unequal conditions that exist can no longer be ignored. Compound those inconsistencies with some Wainscott residents vociferously protesting much-needed affordable housing from being built in their hamlet because of how it might change their school (and a town board caving on the issue), and we have an ugly situation emerging in our town — one of which all residents should be ashamed in this year 2016.

Springs taxpayers are shouldering the full responsibilities for national and state policies dictated from Washington, D.C., and Albany, and we are tapped out. Sorry to say, our state representatives, Assemblyman Fred Thiele and Senator Ken LaValle, are useless in this crisis. For years, consolidation of schools has been talked about, and for years Springs residents are told — and I’m paraphrasing — “Maybe we can find some money to do a study about consolidation.” If that’s all you got, LaValle (elected to the New York State Senate, 1976) and Thiele (elected to the State Assembly, 1995), it’s time for you two to step aside, concentrate on your lucrative private law practices, and let voters elect smart, serious, energetic, and independent state representatives who know a crisis when they see one and have the guts to tackle it head on. And, Springs voters, never, ever, forget that Springs is the largest voting block in East Hampton and Messrs. LaValle and Thiele are up for re-election this year. 

We all acknowledge the consolidation issue is not something that will be resolved quickly. Therefore, school administrators and teachers all need to run their educational institutions efficiently and professionally. Taxpayers can no longer afford administrators’ knee-jerk reactions of raising taxes to resolve budget or space problems. In these difficult economic times, many taxpayers have gone without just to make ends meet. Schools need to be creative, resourceful, think outside the box, and fix serious problems with serious and thoughtful solutions.

Residents of East Hampton have become so used to this situation that they just shrug their shoulders and say yeah, we have tried to get someone to listen to us for many years, and no one does. So they give up. But, as a brilliant friend noted to me, those same taxpayers would never stand for and pay for six separate supervisors and town boards, or police departments, or — pick the department of your choice. But they accept this out-of-control school situation. The time has come for us taxpayers, voters, residents to say “no more.” This issue needs to be addressed this year. And if not, then we all need to start thinking about bringing a lawsuit similar to Brown. How embarrassing that would be for our beautiful town.

Mr. Rattray, I will end this letter by giving you a heartfelt thanks for taking on the town’s schools issue. Until your editorial, I think some Springs residents thought they were fighting this battle alone. We appreciate your thoughtful and much needed editorial and look forward to your continued interest in this matter.

Sincerely,

CAROLE CAMPOLO

Feeling the ‘Bern’

Sag Harbor

January 18, 2016

Dear David, 

Once again I would like to begin with prophetic voices before I return to Bernie Sanders, which may be appropriate to our times.

“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Surely some revolution is at hand.” — William Butler Yeats

“Sacred violence provides the state with its legitimacy and fuels the optimism and idolatry of the patriot. It sanctions the judiciary, justifies class distinctions, and bestows prestige on the ‘best people’ and dignifies the executioner.” — Robert Hamerton-Kelly

For too long I’ve been supporting Senator Bernie Sanders and hearing “he’ll never make it” even from people who intend to vote for him. How quickly the political race has changed in both New Hampshire and Iowa. All of sudden those who did not know him have woken up. Apparently Hillary Clinton is too well known and feels threatened already. A real shock came Clinton’s way when Vice President Biden recently spoke out against her. Personally, I would love to have a woman president, but Hillary has a various voting record. Elizabeth Warren would create change, along with Bernie Sanders.

Bloomberg Politics has sent two reporters to MSNBC to make sure Hillary wins, a real intrusion, out of nowhere, on their television shows. Is that what Sanders means when he speaks of corporate powers?

Surely there are signs of Hillary feeling the “Bern.” Daughter Chelsea is out campaigning; her grandchild is too young, the next generation. However, her husband, Bill Clinton, is out there with them. Reminds me of the slogan “old soldiers eventually fade away.” I spent 30 years as a police lieutenant in the New York City Police Department and couldn’t wait to leave, and never looked back. I guess politicians have to be kicked out of office. 

Finally, my hope has always been in the next generation, otherwise we would all be among the walking dead. I learned so much from my own six children and 16 grandchildren. And, I might add, 10 great-grandchildren. I find it hard to walk, but keep on writing. Hang in there. Change coming, along with hope.

In peace, 

LARRY DARCEY

Destroying the Unions

East Hampton

January 18, 2016

To the Editor:

In his State of the Union message, President Obama almost called out the Supreme Court for its obstruction and derailment of the electoral process and for its support in facilitating the destruction of the American middle class. Unfortunately, he didn’t, and the five conservative judges were left off the hook.

In the ’60s we often referred to the police as “pigs.” They were viewed as the tools of oppression by the antiwar and civil rights movements as well as most minorities. The term was unfair for public servants who were doing the jobs that the government asked them to do, but using the term “pig” for the Roberts Court conservatives is not only fair but appropriate. No word better describes the blatantly vulgar attempt to distort and hijack the electoral process and to decimate the economic viability of the middle class. In its simplest sense, piggery is the elevation of greed to its highest level, a form of addiction that is irrational and inhuman. Rob the middle class of its remaining wealth and guarantee political support by limiting voting and making corporations individuals.

The only thing that has ever stood between corporate America and its workers is the union movement. Unions gave workers a chance to obtain a living wage, get benefits and pensions, and eliminate abuse in the workplace. The quasi-imbecilic First Amendment case in California, to stop public-service unions from collecting dues from all the workers under their collective bargaining umbrella because of political questions, boggles the mind. The political support that unions give to social issues is a minuscule but relevant piece of their role as worker advocates. To refuse to pay dues because some workers don’t support certain policies is tough noogies in an imperfect world. When are we ever totally in agreement on anything?

But using disagreements over political action as a basis for further weakening the union system is essentially criminal. The court slips from the edge of fascism, which it always skirts, to neo-fascist activism. Subverting First Amendment protections, as a lever to further weaken the unions and the collective bargaining process, reinforces the vision of the Supreme Court as corporate hacks and sty dwellers.

That a tiny fraction of workers’ First Amendment rights might be violated is a bloody joke, especially when the courts recently ruled against the rights of 100 million minority voters in its repeal of the voting rights protection provisions. When the Constitution was written, everyone, except for a select few, had their rights violated. The Constitution was written as a framework to benefit the people from oppressive private and public powers in the best interests of the nation. How destroying the unions helps anyone besides corporations is difficult to fathom.

Piggery as a national policy is a disease that needs to be eradicated. That the court will ignore the negative impact of its decisions on the vast majority of the population brings into question whether it has run its course and needs to be replaced. In truth, our democracy needs to be rethought and turned into a real democracy, rather than some bastardized form of corporate oligarchy.

NEIL HAUSIG

Democratic Causes

East Hampton

January 14, 2016

Dear Editor,

It always pleases me to find my name referred to in a letter to The Star, whether it is positively or negatively. It merely signifies to me that my so-called “rants” are being read by people whose own rants and opinions are different than mine.

Now, take Arthur J. French. (Please! as Henny Youngman used to say.) He writes that I am angry and that I have to amend my thinking, as evidenced by my “weekly” letters. Sorry, Mr. French, no can do. Eighty-five years of liberal progressive thinking and working for Democratic causes cannot easily be wiped away. However, just keep reading my letters and maybe you will change your retrograde thinking.

I have supported and voted for Democrats all of my life, and looking back on those years I am quite satisfied with the result, both for myself and my family and for the country. Justifying it all is that Democrats have proposed and supported every major advance in American democracy in our history for the benefit of those who elected them, and always they seem to have to do it over the objections and obstruction of Republicans and some of the people who vote against their own interests. Why that is, I have no idea. Why are they looking to punch holes in the economic safety net? It sure beats reasoning — unless the answer is, as it always has been, money!

Republicans seem to live in a different country. If not, then why are they supported by a majority of white males with high-school educations, over the age of 50? Why do these white males seem to support those who do not further their interests?

Hey, you want guns to protect yourself, even if they haven’t been shown to do that, that is an understandable difference of opinion. But don’t join up to destroy workers’ unions that have been one of the prime sources in making this country great.

Want health care for all? Speak up and vote for the Health Care Act, or amend it to make it better. No, they won’t. Why? Ask the Koch brothers, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Levin, and their ilk.

Want better water and air? Look into curbing coal and oil use. Not us, say the Republicans. Want fewer abortions, don’t stand in the way of better sex education. No, sir, say the evangelicals and those who save nice Christmas pictures rather than giving the president war powers to fight terrorists.

In other words, never do anything because it’s the right thing to do. Oppose it if it will assist the president to build a legacy. We all know black people can’t get legacies — it demeans the rest of us who held them in slavery.

You explain that to me, Mr. French, in one of your own rants, and while you are at it explain why Republicans want to narrow voting rights to prevent fraud that does not exist. Or why Republicans want to gerrymander voting districts to eliminate equally divided populations in favor of unnaturally segregated ones.

So don’t talk to us about your airport noise, an inconvenience to some but one that we can all survive. Instead, talk about educating police officers on the proper use of their weapons, which some cannot survive. That, sir, is the Democratic pathway.

Tell us why, Mr. French, an agreement with Iran on its nuclear development — as that person Trump says, the worst agreement ever — is not good if it keeps that development from happening, even for a short time. I’m not angry, Mr. French, I am dumbfounded.

As for using vulgarity, I don’t on Christmas Eve or otherwise. Not that some obscenity sometimes must be used to describe political actions by conservatives when nothing else will do the job.

RICHARD P. HIGER