Letters to the Editor: 04.21.16

Outpouring of Support

Montauk

April 18, 2016

Dear Editor,

On behalf of myself, Johnson Nordlinger, and Kate Grant, I would like to thank the East End community, and Montauk particularly, for the amazing outpouring of support shown for the Walter family fund-raiser on April 6 at the Inlet Seafood restaurant in Montauk. 

A short and by no means comprehensive list of people I need to personally thank for their efforts to help make the evening great include:

Ed Michels, who has a great future at Ticketmaster if his pre-event ticket sales were any indication; the Montauk Chamber of Commerce for kindly being a second venue for ticket sales, Roger Feit and Alice Houseknecht of the East End Foundation, who kindly bestowed upon us their experience, knowledge, and resources; Chief Joe Lenahan of the Montauk Fire Department, who answered every last-minute mayday call from me to make the evening successful, including enlisting the aid of the department’s Ladies Auxiliary members Jamie Carillo, Sue Meyer, and Christine Schnell, who manned the tickets and raffle table with ultimate speed and grace; The Star for its 11th-hour Twitter blast re Odell Beckham Jr.’s signed-shirt up for auction; Mike and Patty Kinney of Montauk Printing for their multiple donations of goods and services, and Kate Nicolai, also of Montauk Printing, whose lightning-fast layout skills were put to the test due to a constant stream of incoming raffle prizes; the over 100 amazing Montauk, East Hampton, Springs, and Sag Harbor businesses that donated raffle prizes, and finally Inlet Seafood Restaurant, their staff, and Larry Wallace, chef extraordinaire, who took loaves and fishes and fed hundreds. 

Thanks to them, and to all of you in the East End community who either attended and/or bought a raffle ticket, or in any way helped make the evening such a great success. 

Sincerely,

BONNIE BRADY

My Shoelace Was Open

Springs

April 13, 2016

Dear Editor,

While standing in the checkout line at the I.G.A. last Wednesday — senior citizen discount day, of course — and struggling to get my credit card out of my purse, a 40ish-years-old woman tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that my shoelace was open and she was going to tie it for me. Before I could protest (and faster than I could manage to get down there), she stooped way over and double tied my laces on my sneakers. It’s been a long time since someone did that for me!

Not long after, as we were pulling out of the parking lot, I saw her get into a car that had a plate on it saying “Springs School.” I’m guessing she’s an elementary school teacher who does this all the time for the little ones.

So it goes.

PEGGY BACKMAN

Mad Theater Together

Southampton

April 16, 2016

To the Editor:

So what exactly do the swells of the Happenin’ Hamptons do of a cheerless chill April Sunday to grant some shape to their day? Well, I cannot speak for everyone, but I often like to blow off steam with a vigorous slapping of the racks at T.J. Maxx. Entering, I always take a quick peruse of the costume jewelry that I have little occasion to wear. Next, lingerie, especially the sale bras, and before I realize it I find myself drifting toward the always golden home goods section. All sorts of disparate items to tempt me in there; I don’t cook much but I must seriously consider the latest in cookie sheets and meat thermometers, picture frames, and the red-tag special mismatched face cloths. My real turn-on is the fancy china at deep discount. I save that section for last so that I may linger and dream a little.

And there I was, minding my very own business in the fancy dishes aisle, when I felt a quiet presence push well into my personal space. A female voice spoke to me in dulcet tones. “Put those down. You already own enough dishes, and those have gold trim, which means hand washing only and who needs that?” Startled, I glanced to my left, and what to my wondering eyes doth appear; why, who but the one, the only, the vibrant actress herself, Ms. Anne Jackson (ta-dah!) in the very flesh, costumed in a well-enjoyed sweatsuit, lumpy coat, and a hat designed not for charm but to hide the hair. She looked just like me.

We squared off, each eagle-eyeing the other like equally matched competitors delving for advantage. We had never met before, but we knew each other. Oh, well, it’s that Irish thing, if you must know; we are all kindred spirits. Every person of Irish roots at some point in their lives realizes that we each are just actors, actors who never require the actual physical stage to create high personal drama — the kitchen serves just as well. Some consider the Irish playwrights, i.e., Sean O’Casey or America’s Eugene O’Neill, as having a singular genius. In my opinion, their unique genius was to have the brains to promptly write down what unhappiness developed in their very own dining rooms that day and suggest it be mere common human drama. 

And so it is. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” happened at Grandmother’s home every Sunday. I am familiar with all the plays that life can spin us. We all are but temporary actors on life’s public stage. So I believe we must make a play every day, relieve the drear of life by enjoying ourselves with our own humanness. Be open to life’s golden opportunities and play as often as possible.

Anne began. “Tell me, how many in your family?” “Two,” I answered. Anne gestured, “See, you do not need those, put them back down. Those are just show-off plates.” “But I like them.” “No, they are too gaudy.” By then we had caused a small crowd to form in the aisle with us. Perhaps we seemed like two cranky sisters on a boring Sunday, happily squabbling in public. Actually we were making mad theater together, and each enjoying the hell out of our impromptu improv. Word-jousting — acting! 

Our impulsive whimsical repartee was suddenly interrupted when a younger version of Anne appeared and announced: “Mom, Dad found socks, and he wants to go now. Leave the lady alone.” Anne obeyed the daughter but gifted me with a quick rueful twinkle as she left the stage. We had enjoyed ourselves. Shakespeare is, as always, spot on, “The play’s the thing.”

My husband appeared just then to fetch me from fine china. “You’ll never guess who was standing with me at the marked-down socks picking them over?” “Oh, let me hazard a wild guess,” I answered.

When I read of Anne’s passing I paused for a few moments to thank God for her life. I added a small personal prayer: Thank you, Anne, for pausing in your life to play with me a bit. You are appreciated!

SUZANNE MURPHY

Team-Up Cleanup

East Hampton

April 17, 2016

Dear David,

 This coming Saturday, April 23, is a very special Earth Day event. My third annual Shoreline Sweep has teamed up with C.C.O.M.’s Great Montauk Cleanup for what has turned into a multiple-group super team-up cleanup. Folks who are participating in the Great Montauk Cleanup are meeting at Kirk Beach parking area, and those who are joining the forces of the Shoreline Sweep can meet or start at any of the beachheads from Montauk Point to Town Line beach. We suggest you bring your own bags and gloves, but they will be available at several of the beach locations, or you can contact me via email at [email protected] before tomorrow night and I’ll be happy to get you the proper supplies. East Hampton town has graciously supplied the bags and gloves again this year. 

I also have a group that will be doing our famous Leap Frog cleanup on Napeague. Folks are asked to park a tenth of a mile from the last car along the stretch, work your way east toward the next vehicle, then carefully cross the road and work back west to your vehicle — then continue on if you wish. All collected roadside trash should be left on the shoulder, and beach trash should be left at the trash can areas of each beachhead. 

We currently have East Hampton’s entire southern shoreline covered, but folks can certainly join in and help those folks out. The response has been overwhelming, and we will be covering many North Shore areas as well. Lazy Point, Louse Point, Gerard Drive, Fresh Pond, Albert’s Landing, Sammy’s Beach, Maidstone Park Beach, Napeague Bay, Fort Pond, and I’m still getting volunteers for other shoreline areas each day. This is the biggest volunteer litter cleanup I’ve ever been part of, and the results should be mind-blowing. 

I’d start naming all the awesome participants, but I’m afraid I’d miss someone, so let me just say if you’re not already part of the event, you might be the only one. For those who just can’t get to a designated location, please help by removing any trash around your property or roadside. Those who have adopted roadways as part of the East Hampton Town Highway Department’s outstanding program are urged to clean their mile or help a friend do theirs. If you haven’t adopted a road for litter removal, perhaps you can do so, by yourself or with your neighbors or friends. 

Each year we are becoming more and more attentive to the problems related to trash and litter, whether it comes from human carelessness on land or the filth we create in our oceans. At the same time, more and more folks are getting involved and changing the problem, educating themselves and our youth. Even better is that the youth find the issue important and worth changing, believing it can be changed. 

We here on the end of Long Island can control the trash better than most folks because we are surrounded by water on three sides. All together, we could eliminate the existing trash within the walls of our shores. Unfortunately, we cannot control what the shores deposit on our beaches daily. That’s a much larger issue that will take a much larger solution to fix. However, we can help by keeping trash and trash receptacles off our beaches to begin with. It’s really a no-brainer. 

So, folks, I ask for your participation this Saturday. Not for me, but for Mother Earth, your home, your community, your quality of life and that of your neighbors and your neighborhood, your children and their future, and our beautiful wildlife and marine life as well. Your participation helps in so many ways, but the best feeling is felt within — I promise. 

Thanks to everyone involved in this beautiful Earth Day gathering. Stay updated right up until the morning of the event on Facebook’s “Imagination Nature” page. Folks are also invited to meet at Atlantic Avenue Beach at 2 p.m. for refreshments supplied by our generous friends at Goldberg’s Bagels, who support us each year, and Hampton Beverage, who donated water for the event. We are thankful for both their support. 

Okay, folks of Wainscott, East Hampton, Amagansett, Springs, Montauk — see you Saturday. 

DELL CULLUM

Pool at the Water’s Edge

Springs

April 18, 2016 

Dear David,

Well, here we go again — swimming pools on the shore of Three Mile Harbor and a split board. There really shouldn’t be any question about it: An environmental disaster is waiting to happen somewhere along the line. 

We need a firm zoning code that prohibits swimming pools X amount of feet from the water’s edge, case closed. Why? People tend to abuse their swimming pool maintenance habits, as reported last week in The Star about a Dayton Lane man draining his pool into the schoolyard behind his house. He got caught for some reason, but think of how many don’t.

I myself, on little old Breeze Hill Road, witnessed the only two pools on the street being drained into the street, and watched the drain water running down the road right into the wetlands. Even though the swimming pools on the edge of Three Mile Harbor may never actually leak, where does the runoff go? Where does the skimming waste go? Where does excess water go — into a drywell and then directly into the harbor? With all the chemicals, this property is high on a bluff. The gravity factor here is powerful, and down is only one way toward the shore. 

Some members mentioned a tradeoff. Why do we need a tradeoff? Either the plan works or it doesn’t. These continuous variance quagmires only drag us closer to polluted harbors and bays, along with the elegant Levittown look. And for the record, I have no knowledge of any driveway that’s porous — even graded dirt eventually becomes packed down so tight that water runs off. And by the way, “required mitigation to prevent leakage” — what does that mean? A containment dike around the property?

All concerned should vote no to the pool at the water’s edge. 

Yours to command, 

JEFFREY PLITT

The Seawall Project

Springs

April 18, 2016

Dear Mr. Rattray:

I have been following your coverage of proposals affecting our coast, and read the April 14 article titled “Town Dubious of Army Corps Plan,” with interest. The Star astutely identified and reported yet another misstatement concerning the Army Corps construction of a prohibited seawall on the ocean in downtown Montauk, purporting an “exemption from L.W.R.P. regulations for emergencies.” I have some comments that I think the public should know. The Local Waterfront Revitalization Program is clear when it prohibits structures and when it defines exigent circumstances.

The seawall project did not qualify factually or legally for any emergency exception. In the statute, “exigent circumstances” requires imminent danger to human life. No such circumstance existed in the seawall area. Any attempt to distinguish the oceanfront seawall by saying it was allowed as an emergency project misleads the public. The only reason the oceanfront seawall was allowed was by the complete and inexplicable failure of government at all levels, in spite of clear statutory language and intent, and public opinion.

It’s hard to imagine any logical explanation that the government “certainly [doesn’t] want to violate the L.W.R.P” when the same government officials approved the seawall plan that violated (frankly, obliterated) every applicable policy of the L.W.R.P.

Your coverage of this topic is an important part of the continuing quest to educate our community and our decision-makers about the value and benefits of the L.W.R.P.

Yours very truly,

CARL IRACE

Prekindergarten

East Hampton

April 17, 2016

Dear David,

I applaud the decision of the East Hampton Union Free School District to renew its almost quarter-century award-winning collaboration with the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, and to continue its pilot program to provide full-day prekindergarten to the children of East Hampton. However, I am deeply dismayed by the school district’s decision to limit the number of children in the prekindergarten program to 54 and to employ a lottery system for selection, in effect denying a critical school year to East Hampton children and families, many of whom cannot afford expensive private alternatives.

I recognize the financial constraints imposed upon school districts by the New York State tax cap and the failure of our governor to include funding for universal prekindergarten in the proposed state budget, however, as a former school board member, college professor, and engaged citizen, I believe that it is educationally, economically, and ethically wrong to deny to children in our community what we now know is one of the most critical school years. This decision can only serve to widen the achievement gap and increase the educational and economic inequity that plagues our community and our nation. 

Restricting the number of children to 54 represents a significant cut from the 66 children who are now enrolled in East Hampton’s pilot prekindergarten program. Furthermore, it represents only about two-thirds of the 74 children enrolled in kindergarten at John Marshall this year, a number appreciably lower than the average of 90 to 100 children in kindergarten over the last five years. 

The Star article indicates that the East Hampton School Board has set a narrow and early registration window for next year’s prekindergarten, of May 2 through May 20. Even this year, with a higher enrollment cutoff of 66 children, the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center experienced a decrease in the diversity of children in its prekindergarten classes, a decline that may be attributable to the fact that ethnically and economically underrepresented families tend to register their children later in the summer and missed the early cutoff date. I fear that next year an even larger number of the children who most need prekindergarten will be deprived of this essential educational opportunity. 

A plethora of research now demonstrates that the availability of prekindergarten for all children is critical to creating educational equity in the United States. We now know that the ages of birth to 5 are crucial for brain development, and that critical pre-literacy and numeracy, as well as social and emotional skills, are developed in early childhood education. Moreover, the benefits of universal prekindergarten are economic, as well as educational. Studies demonstrate that children who participate in early childhood education are 50 percent less likely to participate in special-education services, 25 percent less likely to drop out, and 60 percent more likely to attend college (2013 Citizens Budget Commission). 

I also fear that a lottery system will tear our community apart and increase the ethnic and economic divide that separates us from our neighbors. While research indicates that universal pre­kindergarten increases tolerance for diversity, restricting access through a lottery pits children against children and families against families, as the experience of the Springs School District and other communities across the country demonstrates.

Southampton, Bridgehampton, Amagansett, and Montauk already provide full-day prekindergarten to all their children. In East Hampton, with its rich ethnic/racial and economic diversity, it is a moral, as well as educational and economic, imperative of the school board to exercise leadership in providing full-day prekindergarten for all its children. I hope that others in East Hampton will join me in advocating for the right of every child to a high quality, full-day prekindergarten learning experience for their future and that of our community. 

LAURA ANKER



The writer is a board member of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center. Ed.

Budget Challenges

Springs

April 14, 2016

Dear David,

I find it very disappointing that the Herculean efforts by the school board, administration, teachers, and community of Springs School to keep the budget below the tax cap were barely reported, in only one sentence, as an offhand comment. 

Your reporter wrote a nice quarter-page article about the April 11 board meeting that was focused on the efforts that Springs School is making to build its relationship with the Spanish-speaking members of the community. But why no reporting on the budget, which took up 80 percent of the time and public comments at the meeting? Your reporter should have written an additional, equally lengthy article focused on the budget challenges in Springs, and the incredible story of how the board, the administration, and the teachers are making it work. I don’t understand why Wainscott and Amagansett were able to get quarter-page articles on their budgets, with real numbers and facts, but nothing was reported on the budget at Springs School.

I was at the board meeting with other parents and teachers and taxpayers of Springs. I heard how the school has cut programs to the bone, used all of its reserves, and has no contingencies. The superintendent and principal have taken significant pay cuts to help meet the challenges. Yet Springs is continuing to deliver excellent education to all its students, at a cost per student far lower than any neighboring school district. Taxpayers of Springs and parents in Springs should both be incredibly grateful for the hard work it has taken to make this budget meet the needs of both taxpayers and students.

I hope you can correct the lack of reporting this past week with better reporting on the budget in next week’s Star. It is important for the citizens of Springs to understand these challenges before they vote on the budget. It is also important that the citizens of Springs understand that with the reserves gone, contingencies gone, and programs cut to the bone, next year’s budget challenges will be even worse, and in my opinion, it will be impossible for Springs to stay under the tax cap next year. 

The cliff is approaching, and predicting the financials is straightforward. Get ready‚ because it is not going to be better.

PETER MENDELMAN

P.S. Full disclosure: My wife, Liz Mendelman, is president of the Springs School Board. In this role, she works 30 to 40 hours per week, in an unpaid, volunteer position, trying to do what is best for students and for taxpayers. She is often subject to withering criticism and snarky comments, which are rude and unfair. Yet she keeps at it. I am very proud of her, and Springs is lucky to have her on the board.

P.P.S. On Jan. 28, The Star reported that two discrimination lawsuits were filed against Springs School. One of these lawsuits has been dismissed because the court found that Springs School did not discriminate. There has been no follow-up reporting on this, which gives a negative and misleading impression of Springs School. The Star needs to correct this by doing proper follow-up reporting, with just as big of a headline as the original article.

To Clearly Hear 

Springs

April 12, 2016

To the Editor:

A technical suggestion from last night’s Springs School Board meeting:

Madam President, if you please

Use your mike with a bit more ease.

So that in the back there will be no choice

But to clearly hear your melodic voice.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

TERRY MILLER

Condemnation Is Right

Springs

April 17, 2016

Dear Mr. Rattray:

I urge every resident of East Hampton to take the time to read the actual lawsuits filed by the plaintiffs against the trustees and the town, and the decisions issued thus far, regarding Napeague ocean beach access for all. I did last week.

SAFE and its supporters frame the debate as a safety and environmental issue between oceanfront property owners self-described as “jus’ plain folks” worried about their children’s safety, and the environmental horrors resulting from the traditional pleasures of year-round residents and long-term locals, some of whom use trucks and S.U.V.s to access the nearly mile-long beach. The suits make clear that it is in fact an attempt to steal the public’s rights to access the beach, and the beach itself, plain and simple, as CfAR and other advocates point out. 

The idea of sharing the beach with all users, as dramatically touted on the SAFE website or in letters to the press, is nowhere evident in the filings. Additionally, the alarmist contentions of endangerment to beach users by out-of-control truckers conveniently overlook that there has never been an accident or injury.

While publicly promoting peaceful enjoyment for all, the suits claim ownership of the beach in question, and claim that neither the trustees nor the town has the right to issue beach-driving permits, and that anyone using the beach without the permission of the motel owners and oceanfront development dwellers claiming ownership is trespassing on their private property.

This would-be gated community crowd’s suggestions to move local beach users east to state-owned lands has the same clueless tenor as Marie Antoinette’s famous response when told that the people have no bread. Their contentions that the town, we taxpayers, will be on the hook for a huge settlement is predicated on the plaintiffs’ claim of ownership, despite Napeague having been a public beach for well over a century, and a working beach for fishers far longer, as the original developers of the property made clear in their deeds, and as the courts originally noted. 

(A subsequent self-reversal by the primary judge, allowing the current suit to go forward, scheduled for this summer, is reminiscent of the judge in the original Benson purchase declaring the Montaukett tribe extinct, hence without property rights, while its members sat in the courtroom, as was pointed out by my late friend Stuart Vorpahl.)

The trustees’ and town’s current condemnation proceeding will value the beach at one dollar, not the millions sought by the selfish. If they are, as they claim, trying to help us all avoid a townwide liability, they can simply drop their lawsuits.

East Hampton’s beaches belong to the entirety of the community, the freeholders and commonalty, and the trustees’ and town’s condemnation effort is absolutely the right thing to do in order to protect our rights to access our beaches as we see fit, as neighbors and friends, whether residents for generations, or as locals by choice.

IRA BAROCAS

Beach Driving Permits

East Hampton

April 17, 2016

Dear David,

Cindi Crain’s self-serving letter of April 1 has presented the reader with a difficult conundrum. Should Ms. Crain’s letter, titled “Beach Parking Problem,” be filed under the heading of “Cinsationalism,” along with the other distortions of fact that have become the trademark of SAFE supporters, or does it in fact warrant the creation of a new file labeled “Pointless Pontifications”? 

Regardless of where one ultimately chooses to file Ms. Crain’s letter, her misleading references to the number of beach driving permits that have been issued warrants clarification.

Although it is true that more than 31,000 beach driving permits have been issued by the town, and it is also true that they theoretically never expire, Ms. Crain has failed to point out that this number in fact represents the total of all permits issued since their inception in 1991, or that many have in fact expired. Included in this 25-year summation are permits that have belonged to individuals who no longer reside within the town, permits that were issued to vehicles that are no longer owned by residents (i.e., sold, traded in, wrecked, or scrapped), and permits that have been issued to replace those that, over time, have become unserviceable. 

That said, Ms. Crain’s comparison of the total number of all beach driving permits issued over a 25-year period to a single year’s total of the town’s registered voters now proves to be somewhere south of astonishingly pointless.

It should also be stated that for the past six years the town clerk’s office has in fact issued an annual average of 2,016 (not a typo) resident and 120 nonresident beach driving permits. Based on this fact, it would be reasonable to estimate that there may well be as many as 5,000 or 6,000 valid beach driving permits that are actually being utilized, from time to time, by residents of the town. With the national average percentage of eligible voter turnout for local elections currently running at 27 percent, it would then also be reasonable to estimate that approximately 10 percent of the town’s total of roughly 16,000 active registered voters currently access the beaches, from time to time, with their vehicles. 

In stark contrast, if each and everyone of the 140 plaintiffs who are suing the town, in an effort to restrict public access to Napeague Beach, were in fact all registered to vote here in East Hampton (although in consideration of where they receive their property tax bills this is obviously not at all the case), they would collectively represent far less than 1 percent of the town’s total of roughly 16,000-plus active registered voters. 

To summarize, on one side of the Napeague Beach access issue we have a group that represents, at best, less than 1 percent of the town’s active registered voters, and on the other side we have a group that represents a reasonably estimated 10 percent of the town’s active registered voters. Finally we have a comparison that even one who is not at all familiar with the details would have to admit is far from being pointless.

G.A. COBB

Deepwater Involvement

East Hampton

April 17, 2016

To the Editor:

I don’t know who Paul Giardina is, but I want to thank him for astute and real-world appraisal of the town’s proposed involvement in the Deepwater wind project.

I am not an engineer, but I am a businessman, and I know what a cost-benefit analysis is. These “green” energy schemes have a sorry history of sounding good and making everybody feel good about their environmental sensibilities, but produce very little benefits, at major cost to the taxpayer. Maintaining wind turbines offshore, where they will be subject to nor’easters, hurricanes, and corrosive salt spray will be a financial uphill battle. 

Literally billions of dollars have been thrown at fiascos like Solyndra without producing a kilowatt, while the executives walked away with millions of dollars each. 

We are already subsidizing these projects with our federal tax dollars. How much of our town taxes will now be thrown in? I hope others with knowledge of the realities of these projects will write and let us know. 

JOHN L. DUNNING

A Vegan Diet

East Hampton

April 18, 2016

Dear Editor: 

With the 47th annual observance of Earth Day just around the corner, this is a great time to explore more effective ways of slowing climate change and conserving Earth’s natural resources for future generations. 

A 2010 U.N. report charged animal agriculture with 19 percent of man-made greenhouse gases — more than all transport — and recommended a global shift to a vegan diet. A subsequent World Watch study placed that contribution closer to 50 percent. Meat and dairy production also dumps more water pollutants than all other human activities combined. It is the driving force in global deforestation and wildlife habitat destruction.

Last fall, England’s prestigious Chatham House declared that reducing meat consumption is critical to achieving global climate goals. A report from Oxford University found that global adoption of a vegan diet would reduce greenhouse emissions by two-thirds. The 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has recommended reduced meat consumption and an environmentally sustainable diet.

Just as we replace fossil fuels by wind, solar, and other sustainable energy sources, we must replace animal foods with the more sustainable vegetables, fruits, and grains. Being mindful of this can help us make better choices at the supermarket. 

ELIJAH HANNESBURG

Everything Is Rigged

Sag Harbor

April 18, 2016

Dear David, 

Since the last time I wrote about Senator Bernie Sanders a lot has changed, but not altogether. Caught in the bitter chaos, I don’t know where to start, so I call upon another prophetic voice, Leonard Cohen (from the ’60s, and still alive and well):

 

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forgot your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

 

That light just might be “everything in government is rigged.” Certainly Senator Sanders concurs, from the beginning of his run for the presidency. Elizabeth Warren ran for the Senate on the same quote, “everything is rigged,” and won her Senate seat, and also implied that leaders of our government allowed it to happen. You don’t have to go elsewhere to play the blame game. The psychologist Carl Jung in the 20th century warned us that “if we continue to project our evil on others, we are headed for self-destruction.” It took over 60 years to get here and perpetual war.

A quick update: Bernie popped up in the Bronx and got 11,000 people out, mostly young people weary and angry of the status quo and expecting a better life than they have been dealt, especially the black, the poor, the minorities, including the Muslims. Victims of a rigged economy. And more recently, 27,000 showed up in Washington Park — more than Obama got.

Senator Sanders often speaks out about privatizing our government. Once you give it to them we lose control and our money. The best example is the C.I.A. civilians, selected privately to run our government secretly. The worst crimes they have committed have yet to be revealed, much like Hillary Clinton. “No, I won’t tell you about all the money I made by giving talks to Wall Street.” Add the past along with the current amount, equals $11 million. What did Hillary get for being a pawn of Wall Street? By the way, Wall Street came out strongly against Sanders. Where would we be without Sanders to represent us, we the people?

Sanders reminds us at one time we were a country of the people, by the people, and for the people, and not by the lobbyists of the corporation and for the corporation, once referred to as democracy but no more. There has always been a tension between capitalism and democracy. Cleary that tension has been broken in favor of runaway capitalism or the rigged economy, out of which rose socialism and social injustices. 

Starting out, Sanders was not known in parts of our country, especially the South. Now he has upset Clinton and was even invited to the Vatican. The whole world is aware of him living in the same place as the Pope.  There will be more to say on this topic. After his trip to Rome, Sanders was brutally beaten up by Bloomberg charges to make certain Bloomberg is protected. These two talking heads had to apologize to Susan Sarandon for errors misrepresenting her. She said she would never vote for Hillary no matter what.

LARRY DARCEY

Amend the Constitution

Montauk

April 16, 2016

Dear David,

Clearly the political sense of the people at the national level indicates a great degree of dissatisfaction. The Constitution of the United States provides a never-before-used remedy for many of our ills. Article V provides for “on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments” to the Constitution. To date, 26 states have called for a convention. Here are my suggestions for amendments to improve the state of the nation. I have given only the barest of outlines for each suggestion.

Congressmen shall serve no more than four consecutive terms (8 years), senators no more than two consecutive terms (12 years). Thus we will automatically “throw the bums out.”

The age to vote in federal elections, except for members of the military or others who put their lives on the line to protect their fellow citizens, shall be 21. How stupid is it to admit that a citizen lacks the judgment to drink or smoke until age 21, but think that they have the necessary wisdom to select who shall govern us at age 18.

Federal judges, including those on the Supreme Court, are to serve the lesser of 20 years or retire at age 80. This to better reflect the will of the people in a timelier manner and to minimize the occasional diminishment of faculties experienced by some with advanced age.

If 50 percent of the members of each house concur within 60 days, Supreme Court decisions shall be not be in effect for six months, thus giving Congress, with presidential approval, time to make appropriate adjustments to federal law. This to prevent the unelected judiciary from legislating from the bench.

With hope and prayers for our nation,

DAN BRIGANTI