Letters to the Editor: 07.07.16

Bag of Rocks

East Hampton

July 3, 2016

Dear David:

Congratulations are due Eastern Regional Helicopter Association Carpetbagger-in-Chief Jeff Smith and chameleon Attorney Peter Kirsch for selling the East Hampton Town Board a total bag of rocks masquerading as a noise complaint system — again!

The new reporting system added to the town’s website, known as airport.vector-us.com, is here and can be accessed online. It is designed to replace and/or work with the old reporting system: Planenoise. Both of these are either run or endorsed by the helicopter industry. What the town has succeeded in doing is trading in an expensive, cumbersome, unsophisticated system for a new and improved expensive, cumbersome, unsophisticated system.

Want the real bad news? There is a much more accurate and efficient system available for free, developed and run by people who are sick and tired of helicopters ferrying precious cargo (springer spaniels and heirloom tomatoes) back and forth between here and not here.

If you visit both sites — airnoisereport.com (the good guys) and airport.vector-us.com (the bad guys) — and spend a little time trying to track the folks ruining your morning coffee and evening barbecue, the first thing you will notice is that the bad guys’ (our town’s for-pay system) has a 10-minute delay on tracking of helicopter flight paths. The stated reason is for “security purposes.” Good one, guys! 

If this were the case it would most likely be required of any air travel tracking system, but it’s not. The good guy system (airnoisereport.com) has no such delay. You can follow the offending aircraft in real time, click on it, and get its registration number, who owns it, and its current altitude. Well, darn. That’s useful stuff. Useful free stuff. Then you can click one more time to report the offending aircraft.

There is quite a bit more in terms of difference between the two systems, and if you run them side by side you will see quickly that we made yet another bad choice when it comes to controlling our local airport. 

Because nobody actually reads long letters to The East Hampton Star except politicians and those who actually write long letters, I want to make one more quick point. With the real-time feature of airnoisereport.com it is possible to sit on my deck at 8:59 in the morning having coffee and track exactly how far away the helicopter I am hearing actually is. I want you to know that from my porch near the intersection of Route 114 and Swamp Road, I can hear helicopters in the distance approaching East Hampton Airport from as far away as Deerfield Road in Water Mill. By the time they cross Brick Kiln Road in Sag Harbor they are loud enough to be disturbing. 

Now, if I could hear a lawnmower, leaf blower, or even the dulcet tones of Nancy Atlas from that far away, you can bet that something would be done about it very quickly and decisively. 

Can we please start listening to the people of the East End instead of noisy helicopters and their silky-smooth shills?

Ban helicopters from landing anywhere in East Hampton Town — now. 

TOM MacNIVEN

Common Sense

East Hampton

June 29, 2016

To the Editor:

Never thought I’d see the day when I would agree with a member of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, considering Bill Crain’s ridiculous anthropomorphic dialogue.

But Beverly Schanzer seems to have her feet planted on common-sense ground.

I think all can agree that the approach White Buffalo uses to sterilize white-tailed deer is nothing short of inhumane and barbaric, reaping little or no substantial benefits. Certainly the cost equation is totally out of whack.

I respect Beverly’s position on hunting. Hunting is not for everyone, but it has a place for millions of Americans. The enjoyment of being afield, the camaraderie with friends, and the sharing of the experience with family, while providing the purest protein to be had, cannot be denied.

The one thing open for discussion is the introduced wild turkey situation. True, they eat ticks, but also harbor them, a trade-off. They also forage natural seeds and nuts, competing with deer for their limited food source. More important, however, this destroys the potential for these seeds, nuts, and berries to germinate and produce understory growth in the severely overbrowsed habitat of our native forest.

One more thing, Beverly. Unless you are a vegan, have a wild turkey at Thanksgiving, and you will likely not want to consider another store-bought bird. They are outstandingly delicious, with no growth hormones, etc.

Beverly, I enjoyed your common-sense contribution to The Star.

DON LEHMAN

Public Transportation

Great Neck

July 1, 2016

Dear Editor:

July marks the 52nd anniversary of federal government support for public transportation. The success of public transportation can be traced back to one of the late President Lyndon Johnson’s greatest accomplishments, which continues benefiting many Americans today. On July 10, 1964, he signed the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 into law. Subsequently this has resulted in the investment over time of several hundred billion dollars into public transportation. 

Millions of Americans, including many residing in East Hampton and other nearby communities, today on a daily basis utilize various public transportation alternatives. They include local and express bus, ferry, jitney, light rail, subway, and commuter rail services. All of these systems use less fuel and move far more people than conventional single-occupancy vehicles. Most of these systems are funded with your tax dollars, thanks to President Johnson.

Depending upon where you live, consider the public transportation alternative. Try riding a local or express bus, commuter van, ferry, light rail, commuter rail, or subway. 

Sincerely,

LARRY PENNER

Consider Consolidation

Montauk

June 30, 2016

Dear David,

Although the Wainscott and Amagansett School Districts are not contiguous, it might be an opportune time to consider district consolidation. Apparently the majorities of both boards of education share many values, foremost among them the desire to build walls instead of bridges.

BRIAN POPE

Ma and Pa Barker

Springs

July 3, 2016

To the Editor:

Here we go again. The runway rendezvous between Bubba and Attorney General Loretta Lynch reminds us of what we’re in for if we are foolish enough to put the Clintons back in the White House. The stench of corruption, fraud, deceit, money-laundering, lying, and God knows what else follows this Ma and Pa Barker of political sleaze wherever they go.

And if we had an honest press corps, or if Lynch were a Republican, the demands for her to resign would be overwhelming, even if she were merely a pawn in the Clintons’ games. Instead, most of them are actually going along with the party line that this was a chance meeting. Right.

Yes, Donald Trump is prone to crude or vulgar remarks on occasion. But he has a sound economic program rather than the neo-socialist claptrap put forth by Hillary, he will secure our dangerously open borders, and he takes the threat from radical Islam seriously. 

Hillary, based solely on the Clinton Foundation scam and the email and Benghazi scandals, has earned a trip to the Big House, not the White House.

Sincerely,

REG CORNELIA

Trump Is the Voice

Amagansett

June 27, 2016

To the Editor,

This year’s election has turned completely topsy-turvy and also has determined the ineptness, stupidity, and blindness of the American electorate as to electing a socialist state and repeating the ideology of World War II socialism and fascism.

It is revealing that the above factions do not solve our grave problems exacerbated by the present policies of Barack Obama and his blindness to never solving our irresistible blunders. We are headed to global collapse. If we wise up, the smart will put Donald J. Trump to fix the next presidency. Peace through strength and realizing that conservative principles hopefully can solve the problems created by the left-wing thinking that must end.

Mr. Trump is the voice of many angry Americans. We need terse leadership that unites and clearly articulates and envisions what is to come if the country steers off the cliff by throwing grandma off of it. We need big change, otherwise we will continue on the wrong path. We have to go forward and use our free choice in rising to a level of solutions that solve. 

So wake up, people, and listen to our beating hearts, or otherwise, what else can happen? That result isn’t pleasant.

Sincerely,

LINDA PRINCE

Old Ways Change

Rochester, Vt.

July 4, 2016

Dear David, 

From the tranquillity of rural Vermont, I have been reading with dismay about the petulant behavior of my fellow townspeople. Sounds like a bunch of 3-year-olds lying on the floor kicking their heels and crying, “But I want it! Mine, mine, mine!”

I was privileged to attend the fabulous East Hampton High School concert that celebrated the retirement of two beloved teachers, and one song on the program, “All Too Soon,” might give some food for thought to all of the combatants. It was poignant. Not a dry eye in the house. The beautiful children singing, “For the old ways they change, but the new is so strange.” 

No, it will never be simple again. To paraphrase Heroditus: All things flow, and you cannot put your feet in the same ocean twice.

Best regards,

JANET VAN SICKLE

Impossibly Large

Montauk

July 2, 2016

Editor:

Dear God: Please help me! I know I only beseech you when I have a problem, but that’s the way I roll.

Last night I had a terrible nightmare or maybe it was just a bad acid flashback. I dreamt that some higher government official put eight impossibly large, hideous highway signs — the kind you see at Kennedy Airport or on the Major Deegan — throughout the Montauk dock area.

Please help me hunt down this misguided bastard so that we can castrate him and feed his gonads to the sharks.

GEORGE WATSON

Couldn’t Answer

East Hampton

July 4, 2016

Dear Editor,

After watching interviews of average beach attendees on Channel 5 tonight and seeing that 95 percent of these randomly selected people didn’t know why we celebrate July 4, which country we fought in the Revolution, who fought in and won the Civil War or why it was fought, or even who we fought in World War II, I realize why Donald Trump is within the margin of error in presidential election polls.

Americans voters are stupid, uninformed, and uniform jackasses to whom schools obviously taught nothing but were just a means to meet prospective spouses or make contacts for jobs. Even when asked when the War of 1812 was, many of these dunces couldn’t answer.

Does anyone think the winner of the coming presidential election will be a leader who is capable of leading the country in these most perilous times or will it just be the result of minimal voter turnout and name recognition?

Does anyone at all in this country listen to these “breaking news” stories about Hillary and emails and F.B.I. interviews or Trump and his pursuit of the almighty buck or his racist, divisive comments or his anti-Semitism, or his absolute ignorance about governance of this great country? Does any of it penetrate the thick skulls of the electorate?

 Are all these competing cable news programs or similar interview shows or newspaper and magazine articles just wasting time and space with their attempts to bring information to the people?

My answer is a resounding, “No!” they don’t give a rat’s ass about any of it. All they want is what they, themselves, think they need, and if they don’t get it they moan and groan and complain about those they send to Washington to govern.

RICHARD P. HIGER