Letters to the Editor: 10.04.18

Community Dinner

East Hampton

October 1, 2018

Dear David,

My family and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Prudence Carabine and all the volunteers in hosting the community dinner this past Sunday on the grounds of the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum. It was a glorious fall day to reminiscence and honor a few of our late community members, each of whom made their own unique contributions to this historical step back in time of our Bonac ancestors. A walk through the 18th-century Lester farmhouse, the barn with many farming, fishing, and hunting artifacts, the Boy Scouts’ sundial, and the beautiful Matthew Lester pollinator garden is well worth the visit.

This was a day my late father would have enjoyed immensely. To be memorialized by the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum. Well, I’m quite sure his spirit was smiling down on us all.

Many thanks to all involved in making this a special day for everyone.

Regards,

SUSAN VORPAHL

Birthday Party

Montauk

September 30, 2018

Dear Editor, 

To my beautiful daughters, family, and friends, both old and new, a great big, heartfelt thank-you for a terrific 80th surprise birthday party at Star Island Yacht Club on Sept. 15. 

The gifts and cards were wonderful; a few brought tears, a few gave laughs. Thank you all! 

JUDY CESLOW

The Library

East Hampton

September 18, 2018

Dear David,

A couple of weeks ago the Sunday New York Times had an opinion piece by Eric Klinenberg addressing why libraries still matter. As I was reading the essay, I began to think of the local libraries and his views of what a library means to a community. 

The library, as the essay states, “is an example of social infrastructure.” It gives us a physical space that shapes the way people interact. It doesn’t only provide the community free access to books, CDs, and DVDs, but it also provides companionship for older adults, children’s activities, language instruction for immigrants, and a wonderful space for young people (the Young Adult Room) to work on homework and projects outside school.

The library offers programs for all ages, including educational programs, entertainment, and social activities. A couple of examples included for children are story time, development play, music, craft workshops, Lego building, and family movies in the beautiful Children’s Room constructed four years ago.

For parents, grandparents, relatives, and babysitters, the library is a godsend when spending time with a child. If and when I become a grandparent, I can’t wait to introduce the children’s room and its programs to my grandchild.

As I mentioned before, young adults have their own room, which provides SAT prep, college essay seminars, community service, virtual reality, and a D.I.Y. lab. Most important, the space provides an area where adolescents and teenagers can spend time together with people their same age. Every day of the month the Young Adult section has some kind of activity for students after school and on weekends.

For adults, there are monthly book discussion clubs, computer training, English language and citizenship classes, defensive driving programs, yoga, tai chi, music, movies, Alzheimer support groups, and homebound library material delivery, and balance and exercise programs.

In recent years, the library has created various comfortable spaces for all age groups, both inside and outside the library. Three most-recent developments include a shade “sail” that was installed in the brick courtyard, a nine-station, hands-on computer training lab, and a Starbucks-branded coffee and hot chocolate and tea machine for the convenience of patrons at a reasonable price.

And don’t forget to catch the East Hampton Library Item of the Week in The East Hampton Star

Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director, and its staff are dedicated, informative, and pleasant in assisting the public.

In an age where every little bit of civility and knowledge will help us build a better society, the East Hampton Library does more than its fair share for us to accomplish that goal.

Sincerely,

CLAUDE BEUDERT 

Neat Trick

East Hampton

September 29, 2018

To The Editor:

Your headline “Village Bans Smoking on the Beach” would have been more accurate and honest had the last three words been omitted, which suggests that The Star deliberately tried to minimize reader outrage. After all, “Village Bans Smoking” would surely have encouraged more readers to peruse the text to find out the scope of the prohibition. And they’d have learned that the ban encompasses virtually the village’s entire outdoors. It was a sly way to bury the lead by attenuating it rather than avoiding it. Neat trick. Lousy journalism.

Editorial comments aside, the piece moved me to sell my home. I cannot live in a place where such sweeping dictates are casually foisted on citizens. And by the way, my decision has nothing to do with smoking per se. Nor is my decision to sell an attempt to garner attention. Thus . . .

The home has four bedrooms, three baths, cathedral ceilings, an in-ground pool, and sits on one-plus acres of complete privacy. Serious buyers may contact me via email: touchtype14@gmail. com.

Sincerely,

IRA GINSBERG

PSEG’s Equipment

Montauk

October 1, 2018

To the Editor:

The East Hampton Town Board has recommended for purchase, by the Long Island Power Authority (PSEG), approximately 6.5 acres of residentially zoned Montauk property in order to relocate the electrical power station currently located on Industrial Road. The very same property the town board once successfully fought a lengthy and expensive court battle to restrict a simple owner’s variance request. The court’s favorable decision was based on the property’s “historical significance, and “proximity to a water well field.” It is also the very same property the town board’s sponsored and highly acclaimed 2017 hamlet study recommended for a zoning change from residential to parks and recreation in order to ensure the protection of high quality drinking water and moorland significance. As quoted in the hamlet study report, the property needs and requires rezoning that “should provide the highest level of protection possible in order to help assure quality drinking water for the citizens of Montauk.”

The above proposed purchase is the result of the town board’s campaign to convince PSEG to abandon its original intended relocation site on Shore Road, Montauk, due to the fear of future possible and potential flooding. The problem was addressed and resolved in PSEG’s engineered building plan for the site, which calls for doubling the sea level grade to 12.5 feet followed by an additional 12 feet of elevation, on which all operational equipment would be stationed. Including the site’s natural six-foot elevation, PSEG’s equipment would sit on a site of over 30 feet above sea level. Including all projected natural future sea level rise, the proposed site is deemed to be out of range of all forecasted flood zones for the next 40 years, the expected life span of the equipment.  

While the town board chose to ignore these professionally developed assurances, they had no problem supporting a two-and-a-half story, enormous PSEG fragile-battery storage facility recently constructed on Shore Road property, which stands on a lower sea level grade than the next-door rejected power station site.

The residential land under PSEG consideration consists of four independent, adjoining vacant home building lots of similar size in a tree-covered forest area on Flamingo Road. They are just below the Montauk water tower, and above the Montauk Playhouse Community Center, a popular children’s playground and the site of dozens of neighbors’ private homes and residences. 

The physical size of the present Industrial Road PSEG power station is less than 1.2 acres or approximately 45,000 square feet. The town board rejected property site on Shore Road is slightly larger. The combined acreage of the four residential lots in question equals 6.5 acres or 283,140 square feet. Why would PSEG, formerly content with a relocation site of 1.5 acres on industrially-zoned Shore Road, now require a residentially-zoned site of over a quarter-million square feet, the combined size of over five N.F.L. professional football fields?

While the town board was able to successfully influence PSEG’s decision to cancel building plans on Shore Road, they now claim that since PSEG is a utility they are powerless to prevent a Montauk residential property purchase. After making a halfhearted attempt to offer PSEG an unsuitable location at the Montauk town dump, the town board now states there is nothing they can do and are helpless to prevent a PSEG Montauk residential property invasion. Town Board Supervisor Van Scoyoc states, “I can only hope for a fair and accurate consideration” to be made by PSEG. 

This is not an issue of whether or not an electrical power complex is suitably safe for flooding on Shore Road. While PSEG professional planners have already accepted, planned, and vouch for a Shore Road, technologically feasible solution, an alternative location may be acceptable. The main overriding issue is that a recognized, ecologically sensitive 6.5 acre Montauk residentially-zoned area is about to be abandoned by the East Hampton Town Board to a huge industrial development without the least bit of serious effort in attempting to find a more suitable alternative. 

“We can only hope”! Where is the creative can-do effort and leadership of a responsive town board? Where is the promise of representational protection that inherently resides within the mission of all responsible elected leaders? Where is the creative zeal of problem-solving effort that is part of the responsibility of political office? In an attempt to solve a similar, constituent civic problem at the East Hampton Airport, affecting less than 1 percent of East Hampton Town’s voting population, the East Hampton Town Board devoted thousands of councilperson hours in problem-solving consultation, millions of dollars in legal fees, years of legal efforts, and battles at every level of government from Suffolk County offices to the United States Supreme Court and after being defeated in all these efforts, continues to spend millions of dollars in additional attempts. Does not Montauk deserve at least a portion of what the town board expended on other areas of its elective responsibility? Why cannot Montauk receive one one-tenth or even one one-hundreth of this type of representational spirit, drive, and dedication? 

Citizens of Montauk. Beware of this problem. Take a ride to Shore Road and study the new PSEG building. This enormous two-and-a-half-floor structure will be the beginning of 6.5 acres of a sprawling, heavy industrial complex on sensitive, ecologically important, and fragile residential Montauk land. Without creative leadership and responsible representation by our elected officials, Montauk faces years of heavy-duty construction, damaged and destroyed country roads, paths never meant for such activity, serious damage to our clean water resources, and the very real potential possibility of physical harm to our people. Montauk and its citizens deserve better.  

TOM BOGDAN

Montauk United

Choices Are

Amagansett

October 1, 2018

Dear David,

At last Tuesday’s Amagansett School Board meeting the interim superintendent, Allan Gerstenlauer, opened with a screen presentation of slides showing inspiring, colorful, and eye-catching bulletin boards the teachers created to welcome the children and parents back to school. It was such a pleasure to see the teaching staff continuing to inspire our community children to learn and create.

The board meeting then continued with the remainder of the agenda including a special presentation by Neil Block, the new school attorney. The president, Kristin Peterson, felt an explanation was necessary of the options the board has to fill the vacant seat of Patrick Bistrian Jr.

I was so hoping that Ms. Peterson would start the new year off on a fresh, new foot and not spend taxpayer money unnecessarily on a lawyer in order to tell the public what they already know. Why did we as a community have to pay a lawyer hours of traveling and time sitting at the meeting to say the same options I outlined in The East Hampton Star two weeks ago? The fact is that Mrs. Peterson and the School Board want to justify their reasons for appointing a person to the vacant seat that is actually their choice to make. 

The choices are: The board can leave the seat open. The board can have a community revote. The board can appoint a candidate.

Best Regards,

MARY A. EAMES

Slimy Green Pond

Wainscott

September 29, 2018

Dear David,

The open town board meeting slated for Oct. 4 concerning the Wainscott Hamlet Study, certainly raises questions that have not been addressed. The slimy green pond, that was located on the southwest corner of the pit years ago, was filled in with thousands of cubic yards of fill. Where did the fill come from and what is in it? What effect did this have on the groundwater?

The issue of the crane that allegedly fell into the pond is another. Was it recovered? One local resident who has lived nearby stated that the trucks were almost nonstop well into the night. Does the Roberto Clemente Park in Central Islip ring a bell? It was condemned due to toxins discovered in the fill and declared a clean-up site.

The question is where are the water test results? Southampton took action on the sand mine in Noyac. Yet the site here in Wainscott, is before the planning board for development. Should not an investigation be conducted here in Wainscott using the same testing criteria? Hmm. Why not?

Yours truly,

ARTHUR J.FRENCH

Common Sense

East Hampton

October 2, 2018

Dear David:

In light of recent developments, it is important to review the status of the Deepwater Wind project. A couple of months ago, the town board majority of Peter Van Scoyoc, Sylvia Overby, and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and the energy sustainability committee were claiming that Deepwater Wind was legally required to have obtained easements to land its cable before making its Article VII application to the Public Service Commission. 

This claim was used to justify giving Deepwater the easements it wants at Beach Lane [Wainscott] in advance of environmental analysis. It proved to be untrue when Councilman Jeff Bragman spoke directly to the general counsel for the Public Service Commission and was told that it was indeed rare for an applicant to have obtained easements in advance of the Article VII proceeding. Counsel to the town trustees then received a written confirmation to that effect.

Then the town board majority claimed that giving the easements in advance would enhance the standing of the town to participate in the Article VII proceeding. Examination of the Public Service Law showed this too to be untrue. Any municipality through which any part of the transmission cable is proposed to pass can participate in the Public Service Commission’s process as of right.

The last justification for giving the easements in advance of environmental analysis was the repeated claim of the supervisor and the energy sustainability committee that Deepwater would not as a business matter take the risk of applying to the Public Service Commission without the easements in hand. We were told that this was just common sense.

Common sense, in fact, told us the opposite because the tens of millions of dollars that Deepwater stands to make from the project is vastly more than the cost of the application. We no longer have to speculate. Contrary to the insistence and energy sustainability committee, two weeks ago Deepwater initiated its Article VII application to the Public Service Commission without first having been granted any easements either by the town board or the town trustees.

As such, there is no longer any justification for granting Deepwater any easements for its cable before the Public Service Commission concludes its work, including environmental analysis, and issues a certificate of public need and environmental compatibility.

When I rose to make this point at a town board meeting two weeks ago, Supervisor Van Scoyoc declared from the dais that no easements would be granted before the Public Service Commission process concludes. Councilman Bragman welcomed the supervisor’s change of position, as should the public.

However, the supervisor is being disingenuous. He had previously declared the intention to contract with Deepwater to convey the easements contingent upon a successful conclusion to the Public Service Commission process. A contingent contract is still illegal under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which the town board now routinely ignores. 

More important, it does nothing whatever to protect East Hampton. A contingent contract only protects Deepwater from paying if it has no project. If the project were to go forward, East Hampton would be unable to negotiate any protection of the fishing industry or anyone else, including residents at a site where the cable lands, or even to reject that site on the grounds of environmental harm. The town would be every bit as stuck as if it granted the easements tomorrow.

All of the justifications for giving Deepwater easements prior to the conclusion of the Article VII proceeding have now collapsed. The only beneficiary of early action would be the already deep pocket of Deepwater Wind. The job of our town board is to protect East Hampton, not the already fabulously wealthy investors in Deepwater.

What we need now from our town board, and should expect, is the unequivocal statement that no action will be taken to convey or to agree to convey beach-crossing easements to Deepwater Wind prior to the conclusion of the Article VII proceeding, including its environmental review. As Councilman Bragman repeatedly says, “We must know before we go.”

Sincerely,

DAVID GRUBER

Much to Offer

Springs

September 30, 2018

Dear Editor,

To be a moderate of either political party these days is not easy. Yet I find myself in precisely that role as a moderate Republican candidate for town board and as a moderate Republican. I take my inspiration from Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. 

President Lincoln believed there was nothing higher than the rule of law, without which there could be no real freedom. In his Lyceum speech, he said, “Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.” 

As a career law enforcement officer, I believe that too. Above all, the town board must have respect for law and for the equality of everyone before the law. No cronyism or favoritism.

President Teddy Roosevelt was a leader of the progressive movement in the early 20th century. He was a founder of the environmental conservation movement and sought to use government to make society more fair and equitable, to rid government of control by the economically powerful and corrupt influencers, and to assure economic opportunity for all Americans. T.R. said many things that speak to me and to our time. 

On diversity: “I cannot consent to take the position that the door of hope, the door of opportunity is to be shut upon any man, no matter how worthy, purely upon the grounds of race or color. Such an attitude would, according to my convictions, be fundamentally wrong.”

On environmental conservation: “The time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation.” By planning ahead, he said, these fates could be avoided.

On inaction when there is public work to be done: “To sit home, read one’s favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men’s doing.”

I believe in the values of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. I have passed them on to my children and tried my best to live my life by them as a local volunteer for our youth and fire departments, police officer, union organizer, union president, and government affairs representative to the New York State Legislature.

I am often told that to get elected in East Hampton I need to switch parties from Republican to Democratic. I can’t do that just to win office because I still believe in the values of President Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt that, at its best, the Republican Party still has much to offer and can help guide us toward a more perfect union.

I firmly believe that there are many in our community similar to me who, regardless of party affiliation, aspire to the values of Lincoln and Roosevelt. With a long list of bipartisan accomplishments working with the New York State Legislature, I know it is not political affiliation but rather a person’s core beliefs and values that count. Monopolization of government by one political party is never a good thing. 

I think all of our points of view deserve to be represented on our town board. Let’s bring open, transparent, and balanced government back to East Hampton. Please vote for me, Manny Vilar, for East Hampton Town Board on Election Day, Nov. 6.

MANNY VILAR

Factory Farms

East Hampton

September 27, 2018

Dear Editor,

I just learned that there is a World Day for Farm Animals, coming up on Oct. 2 (Gandhi’s birth date). It’s intended to memorialize the billions of animals abused and killed for food each year.

Like many others, I always thought of farm animals as “food on the hoof.” But after watching the deeply moving feature film “Okja” on Netflix, I realized that a farm animal is much like our family dog, fully deserving of compassion and respect.

An internet search showed me that farm animals get neither on today’s factory farms. Male baby chicks are suffocated in plastic garbage bags or ground up alive. Laying hens are crowded into small wire cages that tear out their feathers. Breeding sows spend their lives pregnant in metal cages. Dairy cow babies are snatched from their mothers upon birth, so we can drink their milk.

The cruelties inherent in factory faming drove me to replace animal products in my diet with a rich variety of plant-based meats and dairy items offered by my supermarket. I have since learned that my cruelty-free diet is also great for my health and for the health of our planet.

Sincerely,

EDWIN HORATH

Road to Success

East Hampton

September 30, 2018

Dear Editor: 

To be a leader you must pre-live the future, not relive the past. The turtle never makes any progress till he sticks his head out. Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery, triumph, a beginning, a struggle, and a victory. All endeavors call for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the plan, and fight to the finish. Spirit is the one characteristic we must possess if we are to face the future. 

The most unknowing learn by necessity. Knowledgeable men do in the beginning what fools do in the end. Courage is an everyday thing. Strong men, like a waterfall, they channel their own path. We accomplish things by desire not by ignoring them. The distance between success and failure can only be measured by one’s desire. Determination makes a person thrive in life. Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary desire. Confidence, like art, does not come from having all the answers; it comes from asking all the questions. Achieving starts with what you believe. In today’s fast-moving world what we need more than foresight or hindsight is insight. As a leader you always have to be enthusiastic for you can’t light a fire with a wet match. Achieving starts with what you believe. Dedication is not what others expect of you. It’s what you can give to others. Responsibility always exceeds authority. 

And every thread of gold is valuable. So is every moment of time: Don’t waste it. Time is relative to where you are and what you do. The more obstacles you overcome the stronger you become. Too many people run out of ideas before they run out of words. When strict with yourself, one rarely fails. Language has three important uses. It expresses thought, conceals thought, and takes the place of thought. Extraordinary minds think independently. To me as a citizen of the United States these are the qualities I want in our elective officials. Let’s come together as American citizens and elect the most qualified person to represent us in the United States Congress. That is Lee Zeldin. We rate ability in men by what they accomplish, not what they attempt. Persistence is your measure of faith in yourself. To a wise man every day is a new life. Always remember the road to success is always under construction. 

TOM BYRNE 

Terminology

Springs

September 24, 2018

Dear David:

With the general elections upon us and many younger voters tending toward Bernie Sanders’s social democracy, it is high time to clarify that terminology and its meaning.

In this country, when “socialism” is mentioned it is almost always in the negative. No one seems to ever mention the extremely successful social-demo­cratic Scandinavian countries, or the socialist British Labor Party, or the socialist parties in Spain, France, and Germany, where they have been responsible for much of the rebuilding after World War II, including the creation of the European Union, and where they remain very strong.

Also, most people seem to totally be unaware of the simple reality that all Western countries, including our United States, function on the basis of socialist-inspired institutions that were established in the 20th century, starting with the labor party of Ramsay MacDonald in Great Britain, the Front Populaire in France, the German Weimar Republic, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in the United States, all the Scandinavian countries, institutions such as Social 

Security, paid holidays, medical insur­ance, welfare, unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and many others, including, of course, our free elementary and secondary education system, which was one of the very first demands of the 1848 Communist Manifesto.

As a social Democrat, I believe in free enterprise tempered by strong social institutions and controls in order to sustain an economically and morally viable society and avoid extreme disparity, such as the obscene situation now prevalent in our country where 80 percent of the wealth goes to 1 percent of the population, and where so many depend on food stamps to survive while working a full-time job.

I have full confidence that, with the critical input of our new social Demo­crats, the Democratic Party will win the House and the Senate this November, a necessary step for our country to regain its sanity and leadership role in the world.

(Full disclosure: my father was the president of the world’s first social Dem­ocratic country — the Republic of Georgia, 1918-1921.)

REDJEB JORDANIA

Serious Concerns

East Hampton

October 1, 2018

Dear David:

Lee Zeldin would have us believe that he is on our side on our most serious concerns. Nothing could be further from the truth.

On health care, Mr. Zeldin proudly voted for the House health care plan and then cheered about it at the White House. That bill, which even Donald Trump called “nasty,” would have severely limited our health care coverage and stripped away coverage from people with pre-existing conditions. 

In contrast, Perry Gershon believes health care is a right, not a privilege, and will work to preserve the protections of the Affordable Care Act and improve its coverage for all of us.

On gun safety, Mr. Zeldin sponsored a bill that would let millions carry concealed weapons in New York. Law enforcement thinks his idea is unreasonably dangerous. Why? The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would gut the protections of New York’s gun laws, among the strongest in the country. In our schools, he supports arming teachers, another idea many think to be nonsensical. In contrast, Mr. Gershon favors common-sense gun safety reform.

On ocean drilling, Mr. Zeldin bragged about opposing drilling off the coast of Long Island, but when it came time to walk the walk, he refused to sign onto a letter House representatives submitted to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke opposing offshore drilling along the East Coast. Mr. Gershon will strongly oppose all such drilling.

On women’s rights, Mr. Zeldin would outlaw a woman’s right to choose, arguing for the repeal of Roe v. Wade, and has voted to deny federal funding to Planned Parenthood (which would deprive tens of thousands of women in the First Congressional District of needed health care, such as cancer screening). He has also been silent on equal pay for women. Mr. Gershon will fight for equal pay, fight to maintain Roe v. Wade, and fight to support Planned Parenthood.

On taxes, while Mr. Zeldin wants us to believe he is a congressional leader, he let his constituents down by failing to get his own party to block the cap on SALT and mortgage deductions, which will penalize many of us. Indeed, he cheered a tax plan that provided hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich, while the average family got a measly few hundred dollars. Mr. Gershon opposes the Trump tax plan and strongly favors tax reform that would give the middle class real tax relief.

On jobs, Suffolk County’s job growth is among the worst in the nation, and has seen little improvement under Mr. Zeldin’s watch. Notably, he has failed to push for a massive federal infrastructure investment, which would create millions of jobs across the nation — and here. Such an infrastructure plan is the centerpiece of Mr. Gershon’s economic proposal.

Given his record (and this is just the tip of the iceberg), Mr. Zeldin has failed us. This November, let’s get out and vote for a congressman who will fight for us instead of his political future. Mr. Gershon should be our next congressman; join me in trusting him with your vote on Nov. 6.

Sincerely, 

BRUCE COLBATH

All Her Fault

Amagansett

September 27, 2018

Dear David,

The art of magical thinking!

Under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or the devil, it’s not his fault.

Under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or the devil, it’s all her fault.

GEROME GURNEY

Fake Accusations

Springs

September 30, 2018

Dear David,

Schumer goes on the most liberal talk show and makes statements: I believe Professor Ford; I believe every word she says. Kirsten Gillibrand loves the TV with statements. I believe this woman problem; they have not spoken or interviewed Professor Ford.

Dianne Feinstein holds onto a letter for 60 days and swears neither she nor her staff leaked it to The Washington Post. Ms. Ford goes on to be interviewed. She cannot make it to Washington, D.C., in a week; she does not fly. She has flown all over the world for pleasure and business. In her accusation against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, she does not remember where this assault happened, she does not remember when, what time, or where. She has a friend that was there. This friend denies this ever happened. Her family was not in the room to support her during her testimony. How did you get home, Ms. Ford? I don’t remember. In a real courthouse this case would have been thrown out. Insufficient evidence. But this woman insists she’s going to destroy Judge Kavanaugh and his family.

Ms. Feinstein refused to show/share this letter with anyone, but how did The Post get it? Ms. Feinstein had a Chinese spy for 20 years. Cory Booker announced he groped a girl at 15 years old; he should have recused himself. Blumenthal, a (Conn.) senator, lied over and over again about being in Vietnam and Tom Carper exposed for beating his wife. Last but not least, no investigation of Keith Ellison running for attorney general in Minnesota, for beating his girlfriend.

Everything great for the Democrats regarding their crimes, but destroy a man because of fake accusations.

There is a lot more I can inform the public about but I don’t need this letter to be that long. I can remember every minute of a man trying to accost me when I was 13 years old, every minute.

In God and country,

BEA DERRICO

Simple Answer

Springs

September 30, 2018

Dear David:

The much-watched Senate hearing this past week, which featured testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, created far many more questions than it answered. One of the questions that it raised is whether or not something that may have occurred that long ago in someone’s past is relative in their present-day circumstances. The answer to that question would of course depend upon what the past event was, its pertinence to the present-day circumstances, and the opinion of the one or ones doing the evaluation. But the larger question that can be answered by the sheer existence of that consideration is one that is generally deemed rhetorical and unanswerable: Where does the time go? 

The simple answer is time goes nowhere. It stays in the ever-evolving present moment and accumulates following the mathematical formula Un=Un-1+Un-2. Otherwise known as the Fibbonacci Recurrence Series or the Golden Ratio or Golden Key, this simple formula shows the method by which all things occur in our world, including time. 

First discovered by Greek architect and sculptor Phidias over 5,000 years ago, this proportion permeates our natural world on every level and has been used by architects, artists, and musicians over the ages to create works harmonious with nature. Mathematically the formula manifests as a series of whole numbers that follow as 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and so on, ad infinitum, each numeral being a combination of the two prior numerals. It is the method that creates a spiral in a nautilus shell, each increment of the spiral larger than the last. It is the “secret” behind the design of the pyramids and their alleged connection to the spirit world. Buckminster Fuller applied it to create his geodesic domes, structures that he viewed as part of the solution to humanity’s growing population problem. Frank Lloyd Wright, Bach, and Beethoven incorporated it in their work. Even our iPhones and credit cards are designed with it. But beyond its application to our tactile world, the formula can also be applied to time, to show how our reality gets created and how we can use clues from the events of prior moments in time to reconstruct events that occurred in the past. 

Just as whole numbers can add up in the formula, so do whole seconds and all that they contain. Just as growth rings on a tree show us the environmental reality that a tree experienced in each year of its growth, events that occur in our past leave their marks on our present reality. Time is really nothing more than the result of the dynamic of electromagnetism that drives each moment continuously from one to the next, an ever evolving continuous now. Man has created a system of time by monitoring the repetition of events within that dynamic, which we then use to communicate with each other in an orderly fashion to collectively create our world from our thoughts. 

The power that drives this electromagnetic dynamic comes from stars and quasars, which cause ionization of basic universal elements which then causes polarity and therefore attraction and repelling, which we experience as time, gravity, matter, and karma. Every thing is memory — magnetic ink, as the Moody Blues put it decades ago, and remains as memory in one form or another until the power goes out and “things” return to singularity. Without this dynamic there would be nothing, and if the memory of the past was not in the present moment, neither Sherlock Holmes nor Jack McCoy would stand a snowball’s chance of solving a crime. 

Did Brett Kavanaugh sexually assault Christine Blasey at an alcohol-fueled party back in high school days 36 years ago? Your guess or opinion is as good as mine. But because of the dynamic that drives each moment from this one to the next and a simple math formula that can be used to follow the bread crumb trail of clues from this moment to that one, finding the truth is a real possibility.

RICHARD M. KOSTURA

Paranoid Belief

Rochester

September 27, 2018

To The Editor:

I seem to find myself to be in the minority in today’s national Democratic Party. I disagree with the tendency of most Democrats (including political candidates for Congress and those in the news media) to constantly bash Donald Trump over his obnoxious personality and his divisive comments.

As very-conservative “Morning Joe” Scarborough has said on his MSNBC show, when Democrats talk negatively about Donald Trump it just makes his supporters angrier and more protective of him, while corroborating their paranoid belief that the Democrats and the liberal part of the media are out to get Trump. Rather, as Joe suggests, Demo­crats need to focus on their values and telling the people how the federal government can make life better for all Americans.

They don’t seem to realize that most Americans agree with them that we need to protect the safety-net programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, college student loans, and unemployment insurance benefits. These are winning issues that we should constantly be talking about, not trashing Trump.

Sincerely,

STEWART B. EPSTEIN

100 Percent

Plainview

September 29, 2018

To the Editor:

Let’s give President Trump credit where credit is due. This hurricane, he acted a little more presidential in the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence than he did in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. He actually, personally, physically handed hot dogs, chips, and whole Styrofoam container meals to current storm victims, as opposed to throwing rolls of paper towels into a crowd of desperate Puerto Ricans — as if he were a Bronx Zoo worker tossing fish out to the trained seals. 

He told these American citizens, “We will never forget your loss,” as opposed to denying the 2,975 losses of life in Puerto Rico over the past year. And he told Carolinians, “We will be there 100 percent,” although just as his recent claim of “the best in 100 years” about record unemployment figures turned out to only be 10 years, maybe he’ll only “be there” 10 percent for the Carolinas. 

RICHARD SIEGELMAN

Cool It

East Hampton

October 1, 2018

To the Editor,

Cool it. Felicitous counseling for wariness and caution to the marauding, roving impeachment hordes. There is a relevant historical, edifying parable-idiom pertinent to your transpiring strivings, itching for a pogrom dating back to the year 1500, acclaimed, utilized, and exploited by renowned, eminent historical “top dogs,” “bigwigs,” such as Martin Luther King Jr., Kepler, Goethe, Bismarck, Thomas Mann, Gunter Grass, T. Carlyle, adapted concern on slavery, and many more:

“Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschutten” Translated into English: Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Take heed.

EDWARD A WAGSCHAL