Letters to the Editor: 11.19.15

Gathering

No, no! November! 

You come too soon.

Gathering gray, scudding clouds race low. Chill winds shoo leaves and rustle the last calendar pages.

Not yet! We are not through.

Herald geese, still your trumpets! 

The sky is dimming, dark. The days are countable, finite, almost

gone.

We have miles yet to go!

But hear now the call: Gather close at hearth and home.

Celebrate your loving bonds in grateful feast of season past and years gone by.

Robust laughs and happy faces light the hall with warmth and cheer,

now as lighthouse they pierce the fallen gloom.

Gather and give thanks, friends!

But, November, you come too soon.

BRUCE BLUEDORN

Folkstone Road

Springs

November 16, 2015

Dear Editor,

I was upset last week to read about the human feces found on the ground next to the trash can at the end of Folkstone Road. A couple of days later I found a used condom and tissues, also on the ground next to the trash can. It is bad enough that this sort of thing goes on down there but the person(s?) who is responsible could at least deposit his waste in the trash can that the town has provided! 

This dead-end road used to be a nasty mess but the woman who wrote the letter last week has done a great job cleaning up the place, and it is indeed a beautiful spot most of the time. Perhaps the police could patrol this area at night and try to discourage this sort of activity in my neighborhood.

ROSALIE SMITH

A Most Pleasant Man

East Hampton

November 1, 2015

Dear David,

I went to the town dump a few Mondays ago, and while unloading, I met a most pleasant man who was parked next to me. His name was Louis McNeal or McNeill, not sure which.

Our conversation started when he said that he really liked the dark green metallic color of my new truck. He went on to say that he had spent the prior Sunday shopping for trucks in Riverhead, and that it was time to trade in his older truck.

We went on to talk about trucks and everything about shopping, buying, owning, towing, torque, m.p.g., and all that guy-truck stuff that men talk about. At some point, we introduced ourselves, and found out what year we had each graduated from E.H.H.S. He, being about 10 years younger, asked about some of his friends and relatives that graduated with me in 1968.

We went on to discover that both of our wives had recently retired during the past year, and how life was going to be here on out.

Now I’m what your great cartoonist, Peter Spacek, calls a boomerang local, having left in 1969 for the Navy and not returning until a few years ago, and discovering firsthand the significant change the town has undergone from the big influx of added residents, both year-round retirees and summer home visitors.

Louis and I only talked for 5 or 10 minutes, but I came away with a deeper appreciation for the real East Hampton people who have lived and worked here their whole life, and who are and will always be the heart and soul of this town.

Respectfully,

ANDREW HANSON

 

L.V.I.S. Cleanup

East Hampton

November 15, 2015

Dear David, 

On Saturday, Nov. 14, the L.V.I.S. tree committee conducted its semiannual Keep East Hampton Village Beautiful cleanup. There are people to whom we owe the success of this effort. 

The tree committee would like to thank Rebecca Molinaro, the village administrator, for her support and leadership in making this happen, and Rick Lawler, a village board member, for participating in the cleanup. The Village Department of Public Works was on hand to distribute garbage bags, litter pickup tools, and a truck to haul away the refuse we collected. Many thanks to the department! In addition, there were 12 members of the L.V.I.S. tree committee who volunteered their time to participate. A great big thanks also goes to Durell Godfrey, an L.V.I.S. member, for her photo documentation of the cleanup.

Last but not least, a heartfelt thanks to the parents and students at East Hampton Middle School. Members of the Surfrider Junior group, led by John Ryan, and the Middle School Student Association, led by Lynn Rudolph, arrived willing and ready to assist L.V.I.S. with the cleanup on a cold and windy day. We are grateful to have students and parents who care about their community!

Sincerely yours, 

OLIVIA BROOKS

LARRILEE JEMIOLA

For the L.V.I.S. Tree Committee

Unforgettable Breakfast

Sag Harbor

November 16, 2015

Dear Editor,

The Ross School not only teaches the Golden Rule, it practices it as well.

I heard through the grapevine that the Ross School in East Hampton was one of the only schools that was honoring veterans by treating them to a delicious, unforgettable buffet breakfast.

After driving around in the rain for a while, I finally found a parking space in this beautiful, naturally landscaped school. I was warmly greeted at the elevator door to the Health and Well Being Center, which houses the cafeteria, by Greg Dressel, the assistant dean of students.

The breakfast was the best-tasting breakfast ever! Besides the food, which was second to none, I’ll never forget the genuine friendliness, kindness, and respect I was shown by everyone at the Ross School. A far cry from the way I was treated when I returned home from serving my country in the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam!

Thank you!

RICHARD SAWYER

Star-Filled Night Sky

East Hampton

November 16, 2015

Dear Editor,

I am president of the board of directors of the Montauk Observatory. As you can see from our website, montaukobservatory.com, we are an educational foundation based in East Hampton, working with the Ross School and the American Museum of Natural History and dedicated to the furtherance of science education for East End residents of all ages. All of our programs are always free to the public.

As part of our educational events, we hold star parties all year long. Many hundreds of residents enjoy these events, but they are only possible because of the famously dark skies enjoyed on the East End.

The night sky was designated in the town’s comprehensive plan as a natural resource to be protected and, as a result, dark-sky regulations were enacted. A clear night sky with a view of the Milky Way is a unique feature on the East End. 

An astronomical observatory with a professional-grade telescope is about to be installed within a few miles of East Hampton Village, at the Ross School. Our organization hosts free lectures from Southampton to Montauk, and the installation of an observatory will augment our programs. 

Any increase in Kelvin (blue light percentage) will significantly impact the quality of the night sky for miles. Any increase in the percentage of blue light will increase sky glow, due to the Rayleigh Scatter Effect. This will impede astronomical research as well as amateur enjoyment. 

Even with a slight increase in watts for lower Kelvin LEDs, on balance, they will still save energy if specified at 3,000 Kelvin or less.

We respectfully ask that the village trustees use a maximum of 3,000 K for LED light sources in the pending amendments to the lighting code. If more light is needed, an increase in lumens, not Kelvin, will produce a better lighting plan for your residents, businesses, and visitors, many of whom come here in order to witness a unique sight on the East Coast — a star-filled night sky. 

Respectfully,

TERRY BIENSTOCK

President

Montauk Observatory 

Board of Directors

A Frightening Battering

Springs

November 16, 2015

Dear David,

Last Friday evening, after a seven-hour drive from a funeral in Washington, D.C., we were so pleased to have finally reached East Hampton and had just begun to relax as we drove over Cooper Lane toward home in Springs. Midway down Cooper Lane, we were assaulted with a frightening battering to the car, and thought for sure a tree limb had fallen onto the roof, or a deer had run into us. We turned around and drove back to see what it had been and could find no signs of debris in the street. Examining the car in the dark we found no damage and drove on home. In the morning daylight we discovered what had happened. There was green slime all over the driver’s side of the car.

It was a new experience for us, so off to the East Hampton Village police station to show someone what had happened. The visit to the village police was also a new experience. An officer looked at the car and commented, “Oh, it’s only some paintball battering from local kids. You know, they were only being kids. We’ll never be able to find who did it, so just go home and wash it off.”

With that officer’s unconcern for individuals with missile-firing objects, and Donald Trump’s encouraging comments for more individuals to carry guns, it’s no wonder there is such violence in the world. It is not great for kids to “just be kids” in such instances. If Chuck had not held tight when we were bombarded, we could have swerved into a parked car or a car coming in the other direction. If parents are going to allow their children to play with “guns,” they should at least teach them responsibility. And if police officers see such instances as just “play,” they need some further training about visiting homes along Cooper Lane and speaking with parents who do not know what their children are up to. 

A little more thinking, and not so much practice with terrorism, is well in order.

Sincerely,

DAVID WILT

Impacts From Browsing

Amagansett

November 9, 2015

Dear David:

I am compelled to respond to Ron Delsener’s Nov. 2 letter to The Star, in which he makes light of the devastation that deer are causing to East Hampton’s woodlands by referring to it as “nature’s way.”

Actually, “nature’s way,” without interference by man, is a balanced ecosystem in which the deer population is kept in check by natural predation. Unfortunately, man has eliminated the mountain lions, wolves, and other predators that once controlled the deer population naturally.

The result has been an ever-growing number of deer, with increasingly severe and obvious impacts on the vegetative understory of our forests. I have been an explorer and observer of East Hampton’s woods for 35 years. Never before have I seen such ruinous impacts from browsing deer. The problem is more obvious, and more acute, in some areas than in others. In the Grace Estate Preserve, for example, the woods outside residential deer fence enclosures look completely different from the areas inside the fences. The unfenced, i.e. “natural,” areas of the Grace Estate look like someone has driven through them with a brush hog, except for the stunted greenbrier and the spreading invasive plants like Japanese barberry. The normal forest understory, including blueberry and tree saplings, is gone.

Continued deer damage will not, as Mr. Delsener suggests, merely convert East Hampton’s woodlands to picturesque meadows. Instead, it will result in scrawny, patchy woods, infested with ticks, in which the plant species that deer avoid — mostly nonnative invasives — will come to dominate. The birds and animals that depend on our natural forest ecosystem, and which themselves have been around for hundreds or thousands of years, will decline in numbers or even disappear from the area.

All this is the inevitable result of a distorted ecology in which some humans elevate deer in importance above all other things in nature. We need to find a way back to balance. To do that, first and foremost, we must decrease the deer population.

RICHARD E. WHALEN

Control the Inner Fascist

East Hampton

November 8, 2015

To the Editor:

Reading Anthony Marra’s opus “The Tsar of Love and Techno” makes me wonder about the ease with which Russia went into Chechnya and felt justified in destroying the country. What is it that underlies this inhuman, barbaric behavior and makes it seem okay to the perpetrators? So I look back historically to the Holocaust, the Russian Revolution, the great purge in China, slavery and the Indian genocide in the U.S., the civil wars in Central America, Hiroshima and ISIS, etc., and there always seems to be an ism and ideology that is twisted and distorted and sometimes pure that supports and justifies the behavior — the key always being the rationale that dehumanizes people and makes them dispensable.

In World War II, the Japanese killed 500,000 people in the city of Nanking and never thought twice about the morality. They were Chinese, and didn’t matter to the superior culture that occupied the country. The Russian Revolution and Mao’s purge in China killed tens of millions, all necessary to enable communism to flourish. Marx would have surely turned over in his grave if he had witnessed his ideology, designed for freedom and equality, turned into a killing machine.

There are endless stories in every culture where the ideologies of Jesus, Marx, Adam Smith, etc. were turned upside down for the purposes of eliminating masses of people, and when elimination was not an option then rendering them subhuman, like the Indian caste system and slavery throughout the Americas. It doesn’t matter what the Bible or the Koran says, but the distorted interpretation that allowed Protestants and Catholics to kill each other under the banner of turning the other cheek, and Sunnis and Shia to turn the religion of peace into a manual for a head-chopping bloodbath.

When we look at them closely, all religions need only the slightest twist to move from helping the poor to turning them into slaves. Ideologies like capitalism and communism have the seeds of fascism so close to the surface that the smallest deviation engenders greed-mongering and piggery and the need to go to war to support it. It seems like the history of our world is about controlling the inner fascist that one could argue is a genetic malfunction.

Our problem, as leader of the world, dwarfs the invasion of Chechnya and ISIS, because we have the capacity to blow up most of the world and no longer live in an atmosphere of community and social consciousness. We stopped pretending that our obsession with going to war derived from a platform of social democracy that obligates us to intervene in every conflict that serves our self-interest. The beheading of our middle class unmasked our inner fascist and announced to the world that we will waste our own people as willingly as we would waste them if they crossed us.

As the elder President Bush said to his wayward son, if you’re looking for the Axis of Evil, try the mirror in the bathroom.

The only solution for this problem of joyful destruction is the emancipation of our collective consciousness: The idea that we might all be in this world together, and if we don’t our children will inherit a toxic universe that is essentially uninhabitable.

NEIL HAUSIG

Used Car, Yes

East Hampton

November 7, 2015

Dear Editor,

As an admittedly biased observer of the panorama being played out before us all in the form of the Republican race for the presidential nomination, I am totally befuddled by the dearth of viable candidates in the group.

Donald Trump, the country’s leading advocate of bankruptcy as a free pass to avoid responsibility for poor financial decision-making, master of the insult, and primal assassin? Ben Carson, surgeon with scalpel and dull mind? Factual escapists each, but Carson takes the cake and is leading the pack. Carson?

True, these two men are now locked into seeking votes in a Republican primary from voters who are, in reality, an array of religious zealots, right-wing dingbats, and misled anti-government angry voters who, hopefully, do not represent a majority of citizens. But Carson is a total unbelievable candidate, better suited for a straitjacket than president of the United States. Buy a used car from him, yes; have him cut into my brain? Big maybe! Have him decide if we start a nuclear holocaust, save General Motors? A big nooooo!

Take these remarks, made in a speech before Seventh Day Adventist Counsel, his church: “The Pyramids were not used to bury Pharaohs, they were built in biblical times to store grain.” Hmmmm. So what the heck was Tutankhamun doing in there? Having breakfast?

And his spurious stories of his youth as a tough kid, which no one interviewed by CNN remembers, or his belief that prisoners become gay while in jail when they weren’t when they were sent there, or his total commitment to anti-abortion in all circumstances, even incest and rape. Don’t even these Repubs think the guy is a little odd?

Whoa, pardner, this brain surgeon without sense outside the operating room, thinks the presidency is “not as complicated as brain surgery”? We must steer clear of this guy or we are going to create another Palin doll. Whew!

Oh, and by the way, when asked if his total lack of any political or business experience was a hindrance to being leader of the free world, Ben Carson said, “Noah had no experience when he built the Ark and it survived, but experts built the Titanic and it sank.” Now there is a brilliant riposte!

Is there some way I can go to sleep and be awakened when Carson is gone and takes Mr. Litigation with him?

RICHARD P. HIGER

In Another Time

Southold 

November 5, 2015

Dear Editor, 

Thanks, Andy! In another time, or it might have been this, Andy Griffith took my poems to the Academy Awards from The East Hampton Star. Robert De Niro was there for a movie award. He had long hair, almost to the shoulders. We both leaned against a school door, like kids. He was being, happily, nominated for a big picture, and my award was for my funny lyrical poems. We were pretty young and felt like kids. 

Last week I spoke to my cousin over the phone. When we both went through life, I promised I’d watch out for him, and did, with movie ideas — for instance, “New York, New York” and “Deer Hunter,” while I lived in Pittsburgh. My maiden name, “Perrella,” was one line beneath “De Niro” on our genealogy chart. I was having, at this time, kids. 

ANITA FAGAN