Letters to the Editor: 02.04.16

Midwinter

Upon the snowy blanket in the woods,

Long, leggy shadows crisscross like lace.

Midwinter winds whistle the pines, rustle oaks, and creak frozen branches.

Am I not the happiest as can be?

Am I a chipmunk, magnificently underground?

 

Deep past Pooh’s abode, beyond Badger’s burrow and White Rabbit,

I am nestled in my room, my pillowed, quilted, blanketed room.

My puppy, my books, and me in a February heaven of delight.

 

Thank you, February, for this balm,

The respite from the zippy days above:

Tan and tawny, my racing stripe’s earned.

Now I cuddle with breathless stories and winsome folk,

Absorbed, transfixed and timeless.

Puppy, on his back, bicycles when I scratch his warm belly. He snuggles to me. 

We love reading together! Oh, let this go on and on and . . . 

 

February, your midwinter quiet is too brief!

I want more books and dreams and shrouded rest.

What? An extra day? Oh, February, 

Hooray!

BRUCE BLUEDORN

 

Model of Integrity

Montauk

January 31, 2016 

To the Editor:

Russell Drumm was a terrific writer and reporter who captured people’s true thoughts and voices. He reported our protests against the Montauk shark tournaments when only a few of us started publicly demonstrating. 

Russell’s views on fish and wildlife sometimes differed from my own, but his writing was always balanced and fair. He was a model of integrity. His knowledge of the ocean was remarkable, and it stemmed from his deep love for it.

He made East Hampton proud.

BILL CRAIN

President

East Hampton Group for Wildlife

 

Her Presence Was Felt

East Hampton

January 25, 2016

Dear Mr. Rattray, 

Recently, Patricia Young, a longtime employee of the East Hampton Post Office, passed away. On the post office door there is a poster with details and a picture of her. It has been a few weeks now and several times I have seen someone stop and read it and shake their head in sadness and disbelief. 

Over the years, we became friends — on that rare slow day — sharing a conversation about life, family, aging parents, her children. In her voice, there was always the hint of laughter and a positive spirit. She was a bright spot at the end of a long line, tirelessly and with great poise handling each person and situation with amazing diplomacy. I marveled at this gift — the ability to deflect rudeness and impatience and almost always have the person leave with a smile and an improved attitude.

There were long summer days of waiting, holiday rushes, the passport situations that were so complex for her to deal with. Not once did I see her flinch or lose her composure. All of us who live here know that it can be a challenge when our population swells in the summer. Traffic, parking, and daily life can seem overwhelming to navigate. Tempers were also very short during hurricane Sandy, and yet she did not waiver or falter, always making each customer feel as welcomed and important as the last. 

There were comical moments — watching her suggest to someone that perhaps a llama was not an appropriate “service” animal and should wait outside — priceless. Over time, I would look over and our eyes would catch, sharing a look that said, “Okay, breathe!”

Her presence was felt in that building, and certainly for me always will be. We often started a conversation, only to have to cut it short and say, “Let’s have lunch one day!” I am sad to say we never got around to it. As I walk into that building on Gay Lane now, I regret this terribly. 

To her family: The blessing was in the time she graced your lives. Thank you for sharing her with the rest of us, and please accept heartfelt sympathies.

Sincerely, 

DIANE K. McCARRON

 

Avoiding a Swim

Bridgehampton

January 26, 2016

Dear Editor:

Last Sunday, my son Joey and I went to Scott Cameron Beach so Joey could take photos of the sunset. We had been at the beach 24 hours prior. The previous night the ocean took away much of the beach and created a large crater that filled with water, froze over, and was covered with wind-blown sand. While four-wheeling, we drove over this crater thinking it was just beach, then realized we were in three feet of water. 

We climbed out and were able to stay dry in the bed of the truck. Within 15 minutes the Bridgehampton Fire Department and ambulance crew, Southampton Town Police Department, and Southampton Town bay constable all arrived and helped us out of the truck, avoiding a very chilly swim.

I would personally like to thank all of these great people for assisting my son and me. We are very grateful.

With much gratitude, 

JOE FARRELL JR.

JOE FARRELL III

 

We Were Loved

Springs

February 1, 2016

Dear David, 

This is an open, heartbreaking letter to Dr. Jonathan Turetsky and his entire staff. Their kindness to Mom was unbelievable in time of need. 

We were 17 and 16 respectively when time came to leave our precious home and go to doggy heaven. We were loved by everyone who entered our threshold. The care given to us was 10 stars, and then a letter comes for each of us from Tufts University, explaining a donation from Dr. Turetsky and staff was sent to the university in our names. 

Bea and John always made us their first priority and our last days were well taken care of with kindness, the only problem was the tears down Mommy’s face. We left this world a couple of months apart and we will be okay.

Thank you, Dr. Jonathan and your staff, for all you give. 

BLUTO and DOMINO

BEA and JOHN DERRICO

 

‘The Peacock’s Tale’ 

Springs

January 26, 2016

Dear Editor,

The directors of the 84 Hear Us Roar Opera Company would like to thank The Star for your great coverage of our 19th opera at Springs School, “The Peacock’s Tale.” 

The students performed before four packed houses at the John Drew Theater, a setting of a lifetime. Once again the opera is an opportunity for children and staff to work in a truly cooperative effort to create a production challenging the capabilities of fourth graders. The sense of pride, teamwork, and the lessons of high achievement are undeniable. 

Each year the opera is a reflection of cultural heritage for the children of Springs. They learn something about their community and about themselves as they work through the process of creating original opera. This year’s story followed the lives of two brothers who moved to Springs in 1962 from Portugal. The writers interviewed Porfirio and Joseph Goncalves and Coach Fred Yardley and learned about the trials of learning a new language and becoming integrated and accepted in a foreign land. As one of the characters in the opera notes, “We learned as much from them as they learned from us.”

Thanks to the support of the Visiting Artist Program, the students had the opportunity to work along with the artists Andy Piver and Virva Hinnemo. The community and parents stepped up to assist in this ambitious project, along with the incomparable musician and heart of the opera, Kyril Bromley. 

We are in a time of educational controversy, with rising costs and mandatory testing and test opt-outs. Maybe a lesson can be learned from an authentic learning process in which children are applying all of their skills in a collaborative effort. They learned acceptance and a sense of community while raising the bar though art and music and language. What these 84 fourth graders learned in a true integration of the arts is a lesson that will last a lifetime. 

Thanks to all,

EILEEN GOLDMAN

SARA FAULKNER

COLLEEN McGOWAN

ANGELINA MODICA

SUE ELLEN O’CONNOR

LISA WESTON

 

A Marvelous Event

East Hampton

January 31, 2016

To the Editor,

Last week I finally managed to attend a performance of the annual Springs Elementary School’s fourth-grade opera. It was, as I had long suspected, a thoroughly marvelous event. That this is the 19th year that the school’s entire fourth-grade class has created, produced, and performed a thoroughly original work is an astonishing thing, and while I cannot give enough credit to the adult directors of the program the real kudos must go to the entire class. 

This year’s production, “The Peacock’s Tale,” is set in the school in 1961 when two new students from Portugal who spoke no English joined family members in East Hampton and became schoolmates. After an awkward and difficult beginning, the new arrivals begin to learn English and their local classmates begin to be educated in soccer, a brand-new skill to them, leading to the school’s dominance in the sport to this day. 

This was not the first time in the history of East Hampton that soccer has been a bridge between long-term residents and new arrivals. Witness East Hampton High School’s Long Island championship and the marvelous photo in The Star of the winning team for a shining example of the American melting pot at its finest. 

The Springs fourth-grade class and their adult advisers have created a work that movingly demonstrates a genuine way forward for our own community and for the country as a whole. In the final anthem, when the performers were joined onstage by the rest of the crews for the production, I heard the entire class sing with warmth, enthusiasm, real vocal projection, and a spirit that one trusts they will take through their lives. They provided a genuinely thrilling and moving experience. 

Many thanks to everyone involved! It gives me genuine hope for the future, which sometimes seems hard to come by anymore. 

FRED KOLO

 

School Budget Woes

Springs

February 1, 2016

Dear Mr. Rattray:

Christine Sampson’s article “School Budgets Strained” is a meaty article that brings attention to what’s wrong with “big education” in New York State.

Let’s start with Assemblyman Fred Thiele’s response to this crisis. Mr. Thiele’s encouraging school districts to exceed the legal tax cap is appalling. Instead, he should be advising districts to sharpen their pencils. But, taxpayers shouldn’t expect sympathy from a guy who holds multiple taxpayer-funded positions.

Indeed, Mr. Thiele, State Senator Ken LaValle, and their State Legislature colleagues are a huge part of the problem. Over the years they imposed new laws and regulations on school districts, often with no funding. These unfunded mandates, often passed to reward special interests and public unions, force school districts to “find” funds to implement the mandates. The “find” comes from taxpayers’ pockets. 

It gets worse for the districts. In 2011, Governor Cuomo, then-Assembly Speaker Silver, then-Senate Majority Leader Skelos (Silver and Skelos soon will be making big rocks into little rocks, thank you, Preet Bharara), and the New York State Legislature passed legislation limiting municipalities and some school districts to a tax cap of 2 percent or the rate of inflation. This year, school districts, Ms. Sampson reports, are limited to a .12 percent increase. 

Now, I love the tax cap. It forces government entities to look for efficiencies and pay attention to the bottom line. It’s a win for taxpayers and, of course, politicians. But school districts sometimes are boxed in by unfunded mandates and tax caps. Schoolchildren suffer while politicians skate, having their cake and eating it too, with special interests, unions, and happy taxpayers. 

Ms. Sampson also highlighted the issue of East Hampton High School tuition. Like a Persian bazaar, school districts such as Springs often bargain with East Hampton High School officials to get a good price on tuition payments for high school students who live in the Town of East Hampton but happen to reside in Springs. Whenever I go to a Springs School Board meeting and tuition costs to East Hampton come up, I visualize the scene from “Casablanca,” where Ingrid Bergman is offered a special price on a tablecloth because she rates the Friends of Rick discount. This is no way to run a school system.

But my sympathy for the six school districts’ budget woes wanes as I tick off the millions of tax dollars in personnel and operating costs that taxpayers are forced to pay. The .12 percent tax cap would not loom so greatly if these millions of dollars in unsustainable, redundant expenditures did not exist.

So what can be done? For starters, Assemblyman Thiele and Senator LaValle should take the lead in New York State and do a comprehensive review of all mandates imposed on school districts with an eye to reducing them, mitigating some of the financial burden on districts and taxpayers. That process could begin tomorrow.

Next, taxpayers need school consolidation now. Politicians must solve this problem. To help Messrs. Thiele and LaValle along, here’s an idea.

Ms. Sampson reports that some community members believe that school districts could join together or redraw their lines to balance enrollment. So how do we make this happen? How about raising the tax cap for those districts that consolidate and aggressively reduce their personnel and operating costs? Assigning each district a value of –1 percent, if Springs consolidated with Montauk, their tax cap would be raised by 2 percent. If East Hampton joined in, the tax cap would be raised by 3 percent. Districts not participating would remain at the lower cap levels.

LaValle and Thiele should study the above suggestion and crunch some numbers, or come up with other ideas. Regardless, the time for action is now; taxpayers will wait no longer.

CAROLE CAMPOLO

 

Thoughts for Legislators

Amagansett

January 21, 2016

Dear David, 

After reading your words and those of Carole Campolo, Susan Harder, and Richard Rosenthal, I have thoughts.

Should we not depose our state legislators for condoning local school district gerrymandering?

Do our local legislators realize what a mistake they made in not approving affordable housing in Wainscott?

What about fair housing laws? Are children being discriminated against?

Why pay redundant district superintendents money that could educate 60 kids?

Why does Springs pay seven times the taxes of Wainscott?

I am hosting a dinner for some in local legislative leadership. I will be serving crow.

All good things, 

DIANA WALKER

 

Wounded Warrior

Amagansett

February 1, 2016

Dear Editor,

I watched and read with disgust the glaringly inaccurate and slanted pieces CBS and The New York Times ran last week about Wounded Warrior Project. The saddest part is not the fallacies they propagated but the fact that they endeavored to hurt an organization that does so much (more than any other) to help our wounded soldiers. Both stories are untrue.

The CBS story (the worse of the two) stated that W.W.P. spends 60 percent of its donations on wounded soldiers. Depending on the analysis, W.W.P. spends between 75 percent and 80 percent of donations on wounded service members. 

It then states we spent $26 million on conferences and meetings for staff. The reporter, Chip Reid, didn’t realize that 94 percent of that figure relates to programs and services for warriors and their families to participate in — services such as mental health programming. 

Then there was the statement about lavish conferences. I was at that conference. We were in workshops and meetings from morning till night, designed to find ways to improve the organization. No alcohol was served during the conference. It was a five-star hotel, but we paid Best Western rates. In 12 years, I’ve been to about five conferences. None were lavish. None were parties.

Finally, the piece stated we don’t call warriors, they call us. In addition to weekly emails, in-person visits, and regular phone calls, our staff made more than 77,000 documented wellness checks via outreach calls to warriors and their caregivers.

I have been involved with Wounded Warrior Project for over 12 years, virtually from the beginning. I have met more than 1,000 soldiers positively impacted by the organization. Many soldiers have told me they would’ve committed suicide were it not for W.W.P. We offer over 20 programs for our wounded, including Soldier Ride, a rehabilitative ride that was started by Chris Carney in Amagansett in 2004. There will be more than rides this year, involving 1,800 soldiers. We teamed up with four prestigious medical centers around the country to provide mental health care for our wounded — a $100 million investment. We’ve donated nearly $100 million to a trust so the catastrophically wounded soldiers will be able to stay in their homes with a caregiver of their choice for the rest of their lives.

Oddly, none of this was mentioned by Chip Reid. He simply told Ryan Kules, a double amputee he interviewed, that while he has a whole “file full” of positive stories he pitched to his editors about W.W.P., none made the cut. So much for the truth. 

Yes, W.W.P. spends 16 percent of its funds on fund-raising. Which is better — an organization that spends 5 percent of funds on fund-raising and raises $10 million or one that spends 16 percent and raises $500 million? Which nets more money to help our wounded?

As for the piece in The Times, Dave Phillips chose to ignore any truth that conflicted with the story he was determined to write. If someone told him something that did not fit his preordained agenda, he discarded it so he could zone in on a few disgruntled former staff. That’s like asking an ex-spouse to comment on their former spouse’s character after a bitter divorce. Though he spoke at length to several of the 500 employees (including many wounded soldiers and vets) who work tirelessly to honor and empower our wounded soldiers, he failed to quote one of them. The only positive quotes came from our C.E.O. and one executive. He was told by our staff how proud they were of their organization. We were contacted by a former staff member who told us that when he spoke positively of W.W.P. the interview quickly concluded. Another told how great the organization is for over an hour. None of that interview was used.

Most important, the reporter failed to speak to the 80,000-plus soldiers we have helped, 96 percent of whom spoke positively about our events and service. How his editors could fail to see this, is journalism at its worst.

And why is that? To do so meant there would be no story. So the soldiers, many of whom are calling us and posting on Facebook that they know what W.W.P. does and will continue to do for them, will continue to be helped. One just emailed me: “W.W.P. has saved thousands from suicides and changed the lives for the better of hundreds of thousands of families across the nation. It’s helped other nations improve their veterans groups. W.W.P. has helped us get a job, networked for and was there for us when the wounded veteran did not have a friend to save us.” 

The truth will come out. When it does, those who take pleasure in uttering these words will find they don’t taste as good when they have to eat them. The Times and CBS owe it to our wounded to assign a competent reporter interested in the real story.

For more information go to woundedwarriorproject.org/scam-information.aspx. 

Proud W.W.P. supporter,

PETER HONERKAMP

 

Restaurant Critics

East Hampton

January 30, 2016

To the Editor: 

Finally, a voice talking about the deficits of food and restaurant critics. There has never been in recent years any qualified professional reviewing the East End restaurants. They are as the local papers advertise, seeking one with good writing skills and no other culinary-related qualifications. 

This response is fully supporting Fred Kolo’s comments and not a criticism of whomever the reviewer is/are, rather the one that advertises for a writer and does not do due diligence. And the restaurant owners who know very little about the restaurant business and or just cut corners. 

I have over 30 years of professional executive hospitality food service expertise as a graduate and former associate instructor at the Culinary Institute of America, qualifying me as a true reviewer-critic in the dining world. And I assure you that all the writers for our local papers are merely a feature mainstay of a publication. These writers are not qualified to critique food, beverage, and service, as they lack the education and experience in this industry. I read the various reviews to see what is happening at establishments, but not as a gauge.

With the exception of just a few dining establishments from Southampton to Montauk, there are just a handful of establishments that prepare menu items properly. If the recipe is altered from the established traditional preparation, then it needs to be menued differently, otherwise the cook’s twist with ingredients misleads patrons of their expectation, and that alteration is just as important as any. 

For those who use these amateurish “reviews” as your dining guide, don’t be disappointed or excited if you have a culinary and service expectation, as you will only experience mediocrity in dining out here. This will not change until restaurant owners raise their bar around proper training and overall sanitation. There is a cost associated with these basic operating tenets that is the foundation of any food establishment, and that is clearly lacking at 99 percent of the food establishments here. Just look at the attire, cleanliness, and lack of grooming of all employees — your first hint to the knowledge base of the operator and lack of quality.

Bon appetit,

J.C. BRADLEY

 

Airport Improvements

East Hampton

February 1, 2016

Dear David,

We read last week in another local paper that, even while attempting to impose limits on aircraft operations at East Hampton Airport and being excoriated for it by aviation interests, the current East Hampton Town Board has gone further and faster in repairing and upgrading the airport, and spent heavily to do it, than any board in at least a decade.

True. But what was omitted from the story is that all of the airport improvements undertaken by the board, with one notable exception, were recommended to it in early 2014 by the noise subcommittee of the airport planning committee. I know, because I chaired that subcommittee. 

Not well understood by the public is that two distinct subcommittees, one representing those adversely impacted by noise; the other, aviation interests, were given the identical charge by the new board in 2014: to propose a comprehensive plan for the airport addressing all issues — operations, safety, finances, infrastructure, capital spending, and, of course, noise. The charge was comprehensive because every aspect of airport operations and capacity affects every other aspect. The airport is a machine, and its parts must work together. It is technically impossible to make a sensible airport plan that does not consider the whole.

The first order of business of the noise subcommittee was to identify those safety matters that called for immediate action. These included installing a new automated weather station, taxiway lighting repair, taxiway repair, removing obstacles from the instrument approaches, and the complete enclosure of the airport by a deer fence. All of these have now been completed or are in process, as described in the news. 

More recently, it was I who, as a member of the newer airport management advisory committee, proposed the engineering study now under way of the condition of all airport pavements. The purpose is to allow us to plan properly for the long-term physical and financial needs of the airport, with the emphasis on the long term.

One might have thought that the willingness of those of us who have fought long and hard to bring airport noise under control to consider the rational needs of airport users would have been met with some reciprocal willingness — that of aviation interests to consider, with a sense of civic decency, how to reduce the adverse impact of the airport on people who don’t own their own planes and wish only to enjoy their homes and gardens in peace. 

Sadly, this has not happened. Rather, aviation interests continue, as in the recent election campaign, to make extravagant (dare I say paranoid?) accusations against us about secret plots to close the airport. Aviation interests, hell-bent on preventing local, democratically elected control of this municipal facility, have been making the same false accusations for years. It was always nonsense. There is no plot to close the airport, as I must have said in these pages tens of times over nearly two decades.

Now perhaps, with the evidence of our good faith in hand, local aviation interests will consider their social responsibility to take into account the interests of the thousands who are burdened by airport noise, as we have considered and taken into account theirs.

Next week, I will explain the wasteful airport project, objected to by the noise subcommittee, that the board undertook anyway in response to pressure from aviation interests, why it is the noise-affected who are most anxious to see the airport well maintained and cost-effectively so, and why aviation interests are more than willing to waste airport money. Does that sound odd? Well, stay tuned. It is all explained by the mysterious case of the airport deer fence.

Sincerely,

DAVID GRUBER

 

Wind Farm Industry

East Hampton

February 1, 2016

Dear David,

Kudos to the East Hampton Historical Society and Richard Barons, who opened the first of the society’s winter lecture series with a presentation on “Wind Power: A Story of 350 Years of Harnessing Mother Nature.” 

Embedded in his elegant history of the famous East Hampton windmills, Mr. Barons laid out a future platform for harnessing wind power as a renewable clean-energy resource, linking the historic windmill to a new energy technology, the wind turbine. The current East Hampton wind story began in 2009, when the town joined New York State’s Climate Smart Communities, demonstrating a fundamental commitment to making decisions protecting the sustainability of the town’s natural resources and economic viability.

In order to carry out the climate-smart pledge, the town board appointed an energy sustainability committee.

In October 2013, the town board approved a comprehensive energy vision, submitted by the sustainability committee, calling for the formulation of “goals and policies transforming current energy policy into sustainable energy practices, minimizing environmental impacts and maximizing economic benefits” through­out the East Hampton community. The town board followed up in May 2014 by unanimously establishing a 2020 goal to meet 100 percent of the town’s communitywide electricity needs with renewable clean-energy sources, including solar and wind energy in addition to municipal, commercial, and residential efficiencies. 

Without wind as a new source of power, the 2020 goal would be unrealistic. Now, new wind turbine technology can harness the ocean winds, transforming them into the clean-energy resource the town seeks.

Mr. Barons finished his story with a coda referencing Deepwater ONE, an offshore wind and transmission developer. In July 2013, Deepwater ONE was awarded a 30-year lease for an offshore wind farm — a first — from the U.S. Department of the Interior. In total, the project site, 250 square miles, is roughly 30 miles east of Montauk. Deepwater ONE proposes to develop a wind farm of 15 turbines, 90 megawatts of clean, renewable electrical capacity.

The proposed wind farm will power up East Hampton, reaching the 100-percent renewable energy goal by 2020, producing the energy to power 50,000 homes while annually eliminating tons of fossil fuel emissions from existing power plants into the atmosphere, and jump-starting a new wind farm industry in the United States. Currently, Deepwater Wind is engaged in the construction of a demonstration project, five wind turbines off Block Island. The Block Island wind farm is scheduled to be online in 2016, ready to supply most of Block Island’s power.

Our heritage speaks to a stewardship of land and sea. We have an opportunity to again carry this history into the future. Let LIPA and PSEG-LI know it is no longer business, their business, as usual. No more energy generated by fossil fuels, no more carbon emissions loading the atmosphere, no more power pole lines overshadowing our lands. We want the clean-energy resources now possible with today’s technologies. We want the wind farms begun on land with the windmill 350 years ago to now provide this coastal community with a clean renewable energy resource. 

The time is now for us to reclaim the future of the sun and sea as our clean-energy resources. The town, with its 2020 100 percent renewable clean-energy goal, is on record. Now is the time for us to speak out.

LINDA JAMES

 



The writer is a member of the energy sustainability committee. Ed.

 

Our Slice of Heaven

Sag Harbor

January 29, 2016

To the Editor:

The recent passing of Stuart Vorpahl has prompted me to send this letter. Mr. Vorpahl’s devotion to the local fishermen and beaches will remain his legacy. He was a local man who stood up for what he believed was just and right, so I am hoping that this letter can serve a similar purpose. The lawsuit that the town trustees have been dragged through has been weighing on my heart for years and I felt it was time to speak up against these ridiculous accusations.

  The battle for the beach has hit an all-time low. A few months ago, I attended a town board meeting proudly representing CfAR, Citizens for Access Rights. A comment was made in regard to a petition that SAFE (Safe Access for Everyone) had, of only 75 names, all of which did not live in the community. I am wondering if, as an effort to get more “local” names on that petition, young men were recruited to stand on Main Street, East Hampton, and at Jitney stops in New York City, requesting that people sign their petition. Are they that desperate for support of their cause? Keep in mind the money and efforts, all for 10 weekends of the year, that these homeowners want a public area all to themselves.

It is an issue that I hold dear to my heart, so find it really upsetting when I hear so many misconceptions about Truck Beach. Has it become overcrowded? Yes. Do some people disrespect the beach? Yes. Is the traffic heavy and scary? Yes. Unfortunately, these things have overshadowed what the majority of the beach, where I have spent every summer with my family of 20-plus, truly is. 

Heavy traffic, overcrowding, safety issues are all things that we have seen slowly spin out of control growing up out here. We do use other beaches, but for me the safest place to bring my four kids is where the rest of my family will be, along with the community of beachgoers who gather, sharing clams to paddleboards. Everyone watches out for one another. I know that if my kids are in the water and I’m tending to one of my younger children, that they are being looked after and cared for. It has also become one of my only options trying to get four kids to the beach by myself while my husband works long summer hours in his restaurant. 

The suggestion made by SAFE to park and walk from the highway with all my four kids and gear is ridiculous. SAFE considers that to be safe?

The surplus of summer visitors in the area has escalated the beach access issue, but not because of accident reports, arrests, damage, etc. Some summer weekends Napeague Beach is overflowing with vehicles and people. Our local escape from the crowds has become more populated, but remains to be safe and respected. We have made efforts to avoid problems that may occur while on the beach (spinning tires, appropriate tire pressure for soft sand, hand gestures to slow down, etc.).

It was also suggested that we should go to other beaches. We do go to other beaches. The sand and air of all the beaches out here are in my blood. As cheesy as that sounds, for anyone who has grown up out here each beach has a special memory nestled in our life. The shortage of parking at other beaches is another ripple effect of the number of people here during summer months. For those of us who have to drive rather than walk to a beach, this can be quite an endeavor on a summer weekend. I have attempted to arrive at other beaches by 9 a.m., wait an hour for a parking spot and drag everything down. This didn’t bother me so much when I was younger and child-free. 

The convenience of packing up a truck for the day (usually from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and spending the day with everything that we need (including a porta potty) is just the way we have always done it. And for the most part, after working hard all week, my one saving grace is a day or two down at Napeague.

Driving on the beach also allowed my grandparents to enjoy a day at the beach when their bodies couldn’t handle walking down on their own. 

We are not vicious, trashy people. At any public place we face people who do things that we don’t agree with or like. Our main streets and favorite places are turned upside down in the summer months. My kids can’t do certain things because of how much the area changes, but I’m not crying or suing anyone over it. It is just what has become of my hometown. If Truck Beach had become a thing a few years ago, I would better understand homeowners’ displeasure — but we have been beaching there for decades. I know many other families can say the same.

I truly believe a compromise is possible. CfAR does a good job of policing the entrance to the beach. A lot of the problems that I have witnessed over the years, though, have been people who hear about Truck Beach and drive down not knowing anything about beach driving and the unwritten laws of our slice of heaven. Maybe a sign can be posted with speed limits, children at play, proper tire pressure, and CfAR contacts to call if in need of help or to report a problem.

I have also seen groups of young people from share houses or rentals who parade down with no respect — trash and bottles left behind, dog waste, cigarette butts — that we clean up. If there are days you look and see people set up closer to the dunes, we are not endangering wildlife or grass. Some days the tide comes up, the wind turns up a notch, so we move far from the water to stay dry and warm. Some pictures make it look like people are set up on top of the dunes, and that’s not the case.

I don’t want my children or anyone’s child put in danger. Growing up on Napeague, we learned to respect the beach as well as learn the rules of the beach roads. I’d love for the homeowners to come join our barbecue/clambake-style feasts, watch our children play along the shore, surf, and toast to a beautiful sunset at a place we are so fortunate to live. 

At the end of the day, there are so many bigger issues that the money and attention should go to, and I think it’s a shame all this money is being wasted on the one thing out here that has actually remained the same.

S. MITCHELL

 

Can’t Vote for Hillary

Wainscott

February 1, 2016

Dear David,

I am a feminist, a progressive, and a woman — and I will never vote for Hillary Clinton.

Don’t get me wrong, this decision didn’t come easily. I’ve only ever voted for Democrats, and it terrifies me to think the next president could be an ideologue like Ted Cruz or a demagogue like Donald Trump. But demo­cracy isn’t about voting for someone simply because their track record and talking points are not quite as bad as their opponent’s; democracy is about voting for someone because you believe in them. I will write in a throwaway vote before I pledge my allegiance to a politician whose candidacy depends almost entirely on billionaires and corporations, and who earned their own millions because of those billionaires and corporations. A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote against myself.

As a feminist, I cannot vote for someone simply because of their gender. Yes, I would love to see a female president, but that doesn’t mean all you need is a vagina and a skirtsuit to win my vote. Feminists believe in freedom of expression, equality in the eyes of the law, and civil liberties and rights for all. We fight for the rights of straight women like Hillary and me, sure, but we also fight for the rights of straight men and the L.G.B.T.Q. community. We fight for the notion that everyone should be able to express themselves and lead their lives as they choose, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. By definition, someone who openly opposed equal marriage rights up until three years ago is not a feminist.

Just as Hillary couldn’t quite stomach gay marriage a few years ago, as a progressive I am entirely unable to stomach supporting yet another Clinton bid for president. Progressives strive to move the country forward by steadily improving the lives of its people. The party was formed by Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, with the major platforms of reforming corrupt lobbying and campaign finance systems, recording and publicizing Congressional committee proceedings, and extending voting rights to women and other disenfranchised Americans. The party called for an eight-hour workday, a minimum wage for women, workers’ compensation, and social insurance, a predecessor to Social Security. 

While the call for universal health care has taken the place of workers’ comp, the anti-progressive rhetoric against “socialist” campaigns and fear-mongering by establishment politicians remains the same. In some instances, the fight has hardly changed; a fair minimum wage and campaign finance reform are omnipresent battles. Mrs. Clinton supports a minimum wage of only $12, which amounts to an annual salary of less than $25,000 — before taxes. It would be interesting to see the Clintons live off of $12 an hour, instead of $675,000 a speech. I wouldn’t have voted for a liberal who doesn’t support a living wage or a fair campaign finance system in 1912, and I won’t do it in November.

As a woman, voting for Mrs. Clinton is simply unreasonable. It is extremely important to me to have control of my body and to be able to access medicine and health care without begging pharmacists, lying to doctors, or being shamed by politicians. Like many young people, male and female, I hope to be able to both care for my children and advance in my career, something increasingly hard to do in a country with one of the worst records of any developed nation on maternal care, parental leave, and other family issues. When it comes to the economy, we need a candidate with progressive, people-based values if American workers are going to survive. 

And while I want my friends here in the U.S. to have the financial security to have families, houses, and retirement plans, I also care about women around the world. Just as I can’t vote for a candidate who depends on the contributions of giant corporations, I can’t vote for a candidate who receives large donations from countries with some of the world’s worst records on gender equality, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Algeria. 

In eight years as first lady and four as secretary of state, what has Clinton done for women? She has said a lot of nice things about women and she is a woman, but what has she done? Did Roe v. Wade get stronger? No, it got weaker, thanks in large part to complacent “liberal” stances like Hillary’s. When you call abortion “a moral issue” and say things like abortion should be “rare, and by rare I mean rare,” you add to the stigmatization and condemnation of the millions of moral women who have had abortions. 

Of course it’s a tough decision, but that’s exactly why it’s undeniably unhelpful for politicians — especially the ones who claim to be feminist, pro-choice champions for women — to stand on their public pedestals of morality and cast their judgments down into our personal, private decisions. And in all honesty, while I’ve been waiting to see a female president since I was a little girl, I’d rather hold out for a woman who didn’t start her political career as the wife of a politician (here’s looking at you, Elizabeth Warren).

Hillary Clinton’s brand of feminism and liberal politics doesn’t align with my understanding of the requisite values in terms of the economy, the environment, campaign finance reform, women’s rights, prison reform, gay marriage, civil rights, health care, education, privacy, and civil liberties, and, most simply, in supporting democracy over oligarchy and people over corporations.

As much as I’d love to see a woman be president and I’d hate to see a Republican be president, I just can’t bring myself to vote for Hillary Clinton. A hundred years ago, women and progressives were embattled with corporations and establishment politicians, fighting so that I could exercise my right to vote. Rather than settling for the “lesser of two evils,” I’d rather cast that vote for someone they’d approve of.

TESSA RAEBECK

 

Greed Good for Whom?

Sag Harbor

February 1, 2016

Dear David, 

Although I obtained a master’s degree in theology while working as a lieutenant for 30 years in the New York City Police Department, I rarely ever quote from the Bible. Writing about politics often becomes extremism or man-made, including my own Christianity. However, I think I’ve stumbled on an exception.

“Jesus is not there in order to stress once again in his own person the unified violence of the sacred; he is not there to ordain and govern like Moses; he is not there to unite a people around him, to forget its unity in the crucible of rites and prohibitions, but on the contrary to turn this long page of human history once and for all.” Rene Girard.

Having said this, I turn to Senator Bernie Sanders. He himself is Jewish and has a long-term friend, a Jewish theologian, who also emphasizes social justice. Sanders’s entire political life has been consistent in this endeavor. I’m sure you noticed most current politicians running for office flip on the issues to gain popularity or power. Isn’t it time we gave up alternately impersonating Mother Teresa and John Wayne? 

How might we focus on the children we kill? Even Obama has picked up the theme with tears in his eyes. But still the drones are launched by the thousands. 

Saunders, in his debate with Hillary Clinton, alluded to the $50 billion penalty paid by Goldman Sachs for the sale and marketing of faulty mortgage securities to investors. What about the victims who will never be paid back? White-collar crimes cause hundreds of thousands of people to suffer and ruined their lives. It’s okay, they say. Not like street crimes.

Finally, consider this an insult to us taxpayers. On Jan. 22, on the top of the Business Day section of The New York Times (also known as organized crime), a color photo of Jamie Dimon’s package for the C.E.O. of JPMorgan Chase, a 35 percent raise to $27 million. That corporation cannot be tamed by our government or Wall Street. I also believe this can only be done from outside a terribly corrupt system. Some dare call this democracy rather than capitalism at its worst. Today’s logo: Greed is good. For whom?

All the above is playing into exactly what Bernie Sanders has been saying for most of his life. Now he has Hillary really threatened. Vice President Biden no longer backs her, while President Obama invited Senator Sanders for a 45-minute chat discussing foreign policy and internal affairs. Both agreed the meeting was constructive and positive. 

There is hope Sanders may also win Iowa and New Hampshire. Sanders’s crowds are growing larger and larger. A woman in her 20s told me she can’t believe the high number of teenagers following Sanders. This appears to be good news, while the doubters rant on. Hold on.

In peace, 

LARRY DARCEY

 

Class Does Not Abound

East Hampton

January 28, 2016

Dear Editor,

Every day and night the cable news is replete with the campaign news of the moment. Sometimes it comes following a flashing bulletin loudly heralding breaking news, which is generally just variants or more details of an earlier “breaking news” story and meant just to keep the viewer tied into the channel. I hang around to make sure I don’t miss anything. Nine times out of 10 I should have gone for a snack.

I know that not everyone follows the minute-by-minute activities of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, or the others running this year, but what each says about the race or each other I find fascinating, and try to encapsulate their more entertaining comments in my letters.

Of course, every letter of mine has at its inception my admitted lifelong hatred of most things Republican, brought about by their constant degradation and opposition to everything that would make life better for us all, especially if it happens to be suggested by a liberal or progressive or a black president.

So I report that Ted Cruz states that he prefers his religion before his country and before his family. That Donald Trump is so narcissistic that he believes he can kill someone with a gun in open view and not lose a single vote because of it. (Why have an edge in nukes if we don’t use them, says Trump’s campaign manager.) That Trump can display his petulance and bullying tactics and call Brussels, where he has not been in 20 years, a “hellhole” because of Muslim influx. That Carly Fiorina can cite sales of infant body parts by Planned Parenthood but never produce a scintilla of direct evidence of the fact, which grand juries have passed over as not in existence. That Trump can talk about girls as looking better on their knees or bleeding from everywhere and worthy of a job because of their looks.

Class certainly does not abound with these wannabes. Shock and awe is their modus operandi, solutions and remedies for the country’s ills are nowhere to be seen or even discussed. They go about smearing each other.

Don’t fix Obamacare. Even if you think it isn’t good enough, just repeal it, so people can’t have any medical insurance. Don’t propose a substitute; don’t propose immigration reform, just rant and rave that it is someone else’s fault. Crash into women’s lives with petty and destructive obstructions to abortion; applaud spending millions on repetitive Congressional investigations hoping to damage the Democratic candidate, and finally, rally against keeping a rogue nation from obtaining the nuclear bomb because it would enhance a president’s legacy. 

Hold debates where the main topic becomes the quality of the questions asked by the moderators. Fight to win Iowa delegates that count for less than nothing at the convention, and just generally flood the country with negativism, downgrading, fear, and hatred of neighbors who are different.

RICHARD P. HIGER