Letters to the Editor: 03.17.16

I’m So Thankful

Montauk

March 12, 2016

Dear Editor:

The South Fork? What a fabulous place to live!

Last Sunday, I dragged (coerced, really) a very hesitant husband to see the Southampton Cultural Center production of “South Pacific” in concert.   Knowing Michael Disher’s work, I was sure it would be good, but “good” was a slight. It was great! This is the best production I’ve ever seen here on the South or North Forks. 

Mr. Disher and Amanda Jones direct and produce a show that continually brings joy to the audience. This production brings together mostly amateurs from Montauk to all the way UpIsland, Ridge and Central Islip. The voices are melodic, the acting perfection, and the staging light and divine. Most notable are the two leads, Shannon Dupuis (whom I always knew as a dancer, but can she sing!) and Darren Ottati, whose voice is exquisite, a voice not to be missed. This man should be in every musical production out here.

Each actress and actor in the production carried their role with aplomb. The character actors brought laughs; Kimet Speed as Bloody Mary brought clever poignancy, and the lovers, Lt. Joseph Cable and Liat, played by Douglas Sabo and Edna Winston, brought emotional longing and passion through simple movement. An evening I thought would be pleasant became one for the memory books.

Oh, and the fella I dragged with me? He thanked me at intermission and shed a tear before it was time for the standing ovation.

I’m so thankful that I live in such a creative place.

Sincerely,

RORI FINAZZO

A Formidable Agenda

East Hampton

March 12, 2016

Dear Editor:

On Jan. 12, I celebrated my 94th birthday. Not easy to acknowledge, even harder to say.

“Write about it,” urged my children. “Tell the world,” shouted my friends. But why? I asked. Some answers might suggest good genes, an active life, an adoring family, and a happy marriage. 

Yes, maybe all of the above.

But for me, it signaled an end of an active life committed to working for just causes.

I reviewed a piece I had submitted to The East Hampton Star when I turned 80, but rereading it brought me up sharp. Then, there was still a road to travel. But at 94, I have to ask myself, how much time do I still have?

I am still a nongovernmental organization representative at the United Nations for Peace Action, the largest U.S. peace group. I still attend weekly meetings or briefings (U.N.-speak) at the U.N., and lobby other groups on issues of mutual concern. I corner diplomats with my message of peace and disarmament — no more nukes — and urge support for women’s rights and equality. A formidable agenda for a 94-year-old!

So, where am I today? Still at the U.N. and preparing to attend a U.N. conference in May in South Korea. I still chair the intergenerational committee for that conference, dedicated to advancing global education.

I will urge all who attend to bring the older and younger generations to dialogue and work together for a safer world. It is my hope that by bringing the old and young together, I will pass my torch. Yes, indeed!

But it is still closer to what I see as an end. It does not depress me, nor even limit my activity, given my good health. But it does set some time limits. Will I reach a point when I will say, enough? When will I read a good book and drink a glass of wine? Then I will remember the wonderful life I have had.

I will take comfort knowing that I am leaving a legacy to you, to my three children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. 

Forever, 

JUDY LERNER

Uncertain Times

Lakewood, Ohio

March 11, 2016

To the Editor:

I want to thank you for printing my letter, wishing for more donations, but understand everyone’s situation. Since my previous letter, Northwestern University in Illinois is starting a clinical trial for my disease, Moersch-Woltmann, a.k.a. stiff person syndrome, and I have been invited. I have met the eligibility requirements and am now waiting to see if I am elected to participate. It is stem cell research. This is the first clinical trial since 2010, so I am excited for anyone who gets elected to participate.

Thank you again for your time and consideration during these uncertain times.

TOBY LARSON

Time to Move the Trucks

Amagansett

March 13, 2016

Dear David:

The East Hampton Star grasps exactly some of the main problems with pursuing condemnation on a Napeague beach in its March 10 editorial “To Condemn? That’s the Question.” It writes that “Two major municipal condemnation initiatives, [including one on a] strip of beach on Napeague, warrant more public consideration.”

Indeed. The Napeague condemnation is being considered to retain S.U.V. access on three-quarters of a mile of beach. However, the S.U.V.s have nearby uninhabited beaches available to them that they don’t even use. Surfers and fisherfolk can use Napeague State Park, which is nearly triple the size of Truck Beach yet sits almost empty even on summer weekends. And recreational beachgoers can use South Flora, which the town already spent $8 million to purchase and also sits nearly unused. Why waste taxpayer dollars to buy S.U.V.s another place to drive when the S.U.V.s don’t even use what the town has already bought for them at significant cost?

Should the town choose to condemn, it will do so without taxpayers knowing the cost first, and C.P.F. funds will not be able to be used. Taxpayers will be stuck with whatever bill a judge assigns. Some in East Hampton think the beach can be purchased for next to nothing; we believe its value is in the many tens of millions. However, as Michael Rikon, the town’s condemnation attorney, writes in “The Practical Real Estate Lawyer,” saying that a property is worthless because it has “no development potential” is “dangerous” — “highest and best use” might be something else entirely.

“Instructing the condemner’s appraiser to disregard an obvious highest and best use will result in the complete dismissal of condemner’s appraisal” in favor of the property owners’ appraisal, he adds; and attempting to “low-ball” property owners on condemnation valuations is folly, as it can trigger significant penalties, interest, and having to pay the homeowners’ legal bills. Paying homeowners just compensation, per the Fifth Amendment, is “not a game,” he writes.

Back in 2006, representing the Town of East Hampton in a condemnation case, Rikon attempted to flout his own advice and got the town slammed with having to pay compensation and penalties amounting to 14 times the initial offer made to the homeowner. In a December 2015 case where Rikon represented a business with property being condemned, he turned a $244,000 offer from a municipality into a $12 million catastrophe for it in penalties, interest, and compensation — 53 times the initial offer! Indeed, Rikon proves that low-balling is dangerous folly.

Draining East Hampton’s coffers for S.U.V.s on the beach — something the town has already done to the tune of nearly $1 million despite the S.U.V.s having other beaches to drive on — instead of for affordable housing, medical facilities, E.M.S. services, and police and fire departments is just plain wrong.

In addition, the homeowners’ nuisance claims can trump condemnation. As The Star surmises: “The other concern is that condemnation would not necessarily end the court battle. The litigating property owners’ claim could well prevail: that what is known as Truck Beach is an unregulated nuisance. Were the courts to agree, the traditional right to drive on the town’s beaches could be jeopardized. From where we sit, that is a very big and very serious risk.”

Free solutions exist to resolve this conflict, which are outlined on safebeach.org. It’s time to move the trucks to uninhabited beaches.

CINDI CRAIN

Eminent Domain

New York City

March 13, 2016

Dear Editor:

I read your editorial in last week’s edition and was very puzzled on how you have come to some of your conclusions, and at the same time also bridged the potential eminent domain action of the waterfront in Sag Harbor and the beaches in Napeague together.

I have been walking on the beaches of Napeague, and other locations in East Hampton, for over a decade with my dog. While we both might not be as quick as we once were, we do both enjoy the access to any and all of the beaches in East Hampton that we choose to go to. Only once have we been to a beach and seen fences limiting our ability to enjoy our walk, and that was at Georgica Beach a couple of years back. That was very troubling. More recently I have noticed signs indicating a private beach just south of the Barnes Landing area. I am afraid that this is going to become a trend and the norm, not just an exception.

I have many years in business and legal proceedings. And from what I read in your paper and others, I have concluded that the Sag Harbor waterfront is prime commercial property and would cost millions during eminent domain process. And that’s guaranteed. What I am not so sure of is the cost that the potential eminent domain would be in Napeague Beach. I can’t foresee a judge setting compensation at a high value for land that is not buildable, and the ownership claim is as murky as my grandson’s chocolate milk.

For the record, I am a beach walker and not a beach driver. By no means should the town board eminent domain the beaches of Napeague solely for beach driving, but they must take any and all possible actions, including eminent domain, for the protection of the public’s access to its beaches. By doing this, the town would be justified in taking eminent domain action in Napeague Beach for “the public good.”

We walk the beaches of Napeague multiple times during the week, and the vast majority of times we do not see a single truck driving the beach. So when the complaint of a nuisance is thrown around, it is difficult to believe that the actions of beach drivers on the summer weekends rise to the claim of a nuisance when the beaches are empty the majority of the year.

I guess you bridged the two possible scenarios strictly because of eminent domain, but you never expressed what “the public good” would be for each. I would look forward to hearing your views on the public good for each, as both are important issues.

Before I take up too much more of your time, I just want to make it clear that I don’t have any true feelings toward the use of beach driving, but I do have strong feelings for the public’s (dogs included) ability to use the beach and not be potentially stopped by private homeowners’ signs and fences.

Regards,

MARIA KENNEDY

Replacing Lost Sand

East Hampton

March 13, 2016

Dear David,

I read in The Star that by 2100 A.D. the ocean would rise by four feet. That would be four feet worldwide, and oceans cover 70 percent of the earth’s surface. That’s one whole hell of a lot of water. Where will it come from? Antarctica is not losing, but gaining, land-based ice. The temperature remains below freezing year round almost everywhere on that continent. Remember, floating ice, melting, results in no net increase in volume as it melts. Greenland is not losing ice, as this link shows, over all: longrangeweather.com/ ArticleArchives/GreenlandIceSheet.htm 

Where then is the water going to come from?

The big problem in downtown Montauk is coastal erosion. The problem is to replace the sand lost to the overall net loss of sand that the set carries west, then south, all the way to North Carolina at least. Since the migration of our sand nourishes beaches interstate, there is no reason that bringing sand to Montauk cannot be financed by federal taxes. It will travel west, then south, as it has for at least the last 18,000 years, replenishing the beach sand there too. 

Wisconsin has the quartz sand we need, and wants to sell it. We can watch and prepare as the town board states, but I would hope that replacing the lost sand would be a large part of the program.

PETER C. OSBORNE

Model for Lady Liberty

Amagansett

March 11, 2016

Dear David,

The Statue of Liberty, next to the American flag, represents the welcome to our shores. The creator of the Statue of Liberty, a French sculptor, used a Muslim woman as his model. A Muslim lady is the model for Lady Liberty. 

Two quotes I think on a lot lately: “You don’t have to believe everything you think,” and “Why in America are there so many stupids?”

All good things, 

DIANA WALKER

Expect Another Surprise

Sag Harbor

March 14, 2016

Dear David, 

“They never stopped to think that this country was conceived in violence,” said the psychologist Sandra Cox. The larger implication of Cox’s comment is that all who enjoy the benefits of cultural life have an inherently ambivalent relationship to violence. 

Michael Bloomberg, who for months laid the groundwork to run for president as an independent, will not enter the 2016 campaign. Convinced that a restive electorate was crying out for nonpartisan, technocratic government, he instructed his closest aides to set up the machinery for a long-shot billion-dollar campaign that would have subjected his image to a scorching political test. Mr. Bloomberg held extensive talks with Michael Mullen, the retired admiral and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on forming an independent ticket. Lawyers for Bloom­berg started the process.

For Mr. Bloomberg, the decision not to run drops the curtain on a long-held dream. I too have a dream, that Senator Bernie Sanders, over time raising millions of dollars at every campaign stop, continues to draw millions of young people who will flood the convention. They grow day by day. Expect another surprise. Hillary is spending a lot of money via her super PACs from Wall Street for so many years, while Sanders is saving money and gaining more for future primaries. Energy and youth flow in his direction — no billionaires or super PACs accepted. This kind of change has to come from outside a long-corrupt internal system. Hope in every generation begins with the next generation. If not, we’ll experience more of the same. This is my fourth generation with proof of how we got here.

Finally, I’m concerned with the legacy we leave the next generation. Hear their cry: “I have a large student debt, two jobs.” “Will I ever own a car or buy a house?” Make no mistake, money was the bottom line. Profit and greed rose to the top 1 percent. In no way can we ever call any of this democracy. Sixty percent of our people don’t vote.

Some bleed, some give up. Now is the time to wake up, why I write a letter every week supporting Sanders. Also hear his cry, “Enough is enough.”

Bloomberg is afraid of Senator Sanders and thinks he’s at least half right. Social injustice is hard to digest, which represents the tension between capitalism and democracy. I hope I was heard. Be it your time now. I paid my dues. They took it from me. A distant memory from the pundits — it’s stupid, still is.

LARRY DARCEY

The Know Nothings

East Hampton

March 13, 2016

To the Editor:

This week, Charlie Rose interviewed Germany’s minister of defense, Ursula von der Leyen, a mother of seven who speaks as many languages, elegant and brilliant. Her observations about refu­gees and the Middle East were careful, thoughtful, and always prefaced by “we,” we meaning the European Union, of which Germany is a part, and all of the allies that Germany partners with. Rose kept asking about Germany’s position on certain things, and she kept responding that the position of the collective “we” was one thing or another. 

Skip to Donald Trump and the other Republican candidates, talking about how Muslims hate us because of their religion and using examples from TV coverage to substantiate the accusations.

Trump has been defined as a neofascist racist by many of his detractors, and on the immigration and Islam issues they are correct. Painting a billion Muslims with one brushstroke is what the English did to the Irish in 1647 and 1847, the Turks to the Armenians in the early 1900s, and the Germans and much of the world to the Jews for 2,000 years. His rhetoric is borrowed from the Know Nothing Party of the 1850s in the U.S., railing against “Papists” (Catho­lics), especially the Irish immigrants who had come to escape the famine and British genocide.

Every American comes from immigrant stock, and we were often the dregs and miscreants of the countries that shipped us over. Regardless of where we came from, we were all treated with the same level of abuse and disrespect until we weren’t (except for the Africans and certain Latino groups). From day one, it was about cheap labor. Slaves were obviously the cheapest, and every other group worked from enslavement to the lowest possible wages. (See U.S. workers today.)

The objective of our business community was to pay the lowest possible wages until forced to do otherwise. Immigrants didn’t come here and offer to work for less and take people’s jobs. They were brought here by the companies that hired them to increase company profits. Companies couldn’t abuse citizens as easily as they could immigrants.

For the simplest minds, it’s an easy case to make. You only work when someone hires you. The betrayal of the working class is not by the immigrants, but by their employers. Immigrants will work for low wages without benefits, and accept being fired silently. Someone should ask Mr. Trump how many illegals he’s hired to work on his projects over the years.

It is impossible to reply to the Muslim diatribe. It’s not about political correctness or fear of offending. It’s bloody stupidity and ignorance that make one want to stick his head in a hole and disappear. People all over the world hate each other. Islam predated the U.S. by 1,000 years, so it’s difficult to imagine Mohammed having that much forethought. There are certain groups that call the U.S. the evil empire, and while some of that is true, we are not the reason that so many Muslims are living in the shit. Even if we make a contribution and do really asinine things on occasion, it is the leaders of their countries who are the primary perpetrators of the abuse. ISIS and Al Qaeda spew racist, anti-Caucasian drivel that appeals to people who feel abused and angry. Mr. Trump follows their lead.

The worldview of von der Leyen is not shared by all of us. Our history is filled with moments like the Know Nothings, and we have found a way to rise above them. We have just experienced seven years of intense racism directed at our elected president, who bore no responsibility for the country’s condition.

  There are real problems that need to be dealt with, but there are no solutions until we accept that the problems exist.

NEIL HAUSIG

Bernie Sanders, But . . .

East Hampton

March 11, 2016

Dear Editor,

Let me start this letter by stating my liking for Bernie Sanders. Bernie is originally from Brooklyn, like me; Bernie is a liberal progressive, like me; Bernie wants to change the political culture of the country, like I do, and Bernie and I share a faith older than both of us.

But I won’t vote for Bernie in the primary, and I don’t want him elected president. I won’t waste my vote in one of the most important elections in years, and a vote for Bernie will result in another four or eight years of stalemate, frustration, anger, and obstruction.

Bernie is and has been an avowed socialist living in a capitalistic society for his entire adult life. As a member of Congress and the Senate, he has not acquired any support from either side of the aisle. There are many elected to Congress who may agree with the problems in the country as pointed out by Bernie, and some who would actually follow his lead, but they won’t jeopardize their careers to do so.

Probably the most experienced, most knowledgeable, most intelligent candidate to run for president in recent memory is Hillary Clinton, besides being the first woman ever to run and have a probable chance of winning the presidency. As a U.S. Senator, she worked hard to assist and aid her fellow office-holders. She raised money for them. She campaigned for them and she was respected by them. She has entree.

She has done more for the concept of women’s rights, human rights, and democracy than anyone. She spoke truth to power when she addressed the Chinese government on that topic.

Yes, Hillary has earned a ton of money making speeches to Wall Street groups. Yes, the Clinton Foundation has raised millions for good causes around the world. Yes, Hillary has made mistakes, like her email fiasco, but they will go nowhere because she never had the key word — intent — to break the law.

  Petraeus gave recognized government documents to a nongovernment employee. Berger took government documents out of government control. They broke the law. Hillary did no such thing, and there will be no criminal charges brought. And getting legally rich is not a crime either.

Bernie Sanders has done and will do a great service to the country by sparking and spreading a national debate on issues most important to the country. But he hasn’t earned my vote, because he can’t change anything without support.

RICHARD P. HIGER

Red Meat Consumption

East Hampton

March 13, 2016

Dear Editor, 

After another winter of severe snowstorms and floods, I look forward to March 20, first day of spring, balmy weather, and blooming flowers.

Hundreds of communities welcome spring with an observance of the Great American Meatout, asking neighbors to explore a healthy, compassionate diet of vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains. 

Indeed, 56 percent of respondents to a GlobalMeatNews poll said that they were or are reducing meat intake. U.S. per capita red meat consumption has dropped by more than 16 percent since 1999.

Mainstream publications like Parade, Better Homes and Gardens, and Eating Well are touting vegan recipes. Even the financial investment community is betting on plant-based meat startups, like Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods, while warning clients about the upcoming “death of meat.”

The reasons are ample. Last year, the World Health Organization found cancer to be associated with consumption of processed meats. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee recommended reduced meat consumption. The media keeps exposing atrocities perpetrated on factory farms. And, animal agriculture remains the chief contributor to climate change and water scarcity and pollution.

Each of us should celebrate our own advent of spring by checking out plant-based foods at our supermarkets and vegan recipes on the Internet.

Sincerely, 

EDWIN HORATH