Will Be Missed
East Hampton
December 15, 2024
To the Editor,
I passed the firehouse this morning and saw the memorial banner for Dave Jacobs. The banner brings a tear. Dave was one of my Cedar Street neighbors. I was friends with his youngest brother, Toby.
Dave did a number of important things with us: teaching us seining at Sammy’s Beach, scalloping in Three Mile Harbor, and shooting targets in Napeague.
Dave seemed to know everything about small engines and outboards. I remember how good he was at not breaking bolts while fixing an outboard. He could get a broken bolt out if needed but he put the effort into not breaking it first. I guess this is another lesson that could be applied to life. Dave will be missed.
STEVE TALMAGE
Wonderful Story
Amagansett
December 5, 2024
Dear David,
Thank you for your excellent article about Bert Roueché. We live around the corner from the Rouechés’ old home. We came here only about 1990, and I never had an opportunity to meet them. My parents were good friends of the Rouechés’ when my dad was a fellow reporter at The Kansas City Star before World War II.
Theirs was an illustrious group of newspaper reporter friends, including Walter Cronkite and Jack Swift, who later covered the Kansas City mob for The Star. Mr. Swift used to visit us in St. Louis and claimed Jimmy Hoffa was buried under an interstate highway — the mob figured no one would dig up American highways to find a body!
To this day, my siblings and I make a chocolate sauce recipe for ice cream that my mother learned from Kay Roueché. It’s fabulous, and here it is:
3 Tablespoons cocoa
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon butter
Cook in a sauce pan over low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
Thanks for a wonderful story about someone I always wished I had met. I also didn’t realize his book, “The Medical Detectives,” was part of the inspiration for “House,” a show I loved. I hope the East Hampton Library has Mr. Roueché’s books!
Yours truly,
JULIE SAKELLARIADIS
Stand Up
North Haven
December 16, 2024
Dear David:
Jacqui Lofaro has done it again! We just enjoyed the 17th annual Hamptons Doc Fest that she founded right here in Sag Harbor. Their program is a wonderful follow-up to the Hamptons International Film Festival. It offers a diverse selection of quality, timely documentary films, curated by a knowledgeable panel of screeners.
Most films were accompanied by a Q. and A. with the filmmakers, either present or on live video. It was a great opportunity to learn in detail about topics not covered well or honestly in the press or other media. International situations in Kenya, Ethiopia, Ukraine, and ecological issues worldwide, as well as interesting deep dives into the arts, were topics that were given professional cinematic treatment and excellent fact-based journalism.
The evening honoring Michael Moore gave us a retrospective view of his many films, followed by a video interview of him at home while recovering from Covid. His sense of humor was good despite Covid, and he had many thoughtful comments.
Moore’s first film, about General Motors closing all of its plants in Flint, Michigan, from 35 years ago, was still of significance because it shows clearly the hazard of unfettered and uncontrolled corporate greed and behavior. This film showed the destruction of social order in that area, and remains today a warning against similar corporate restructuring throughout our country that effectively sends jobs overseas and our own citizens into poverty.
Michael said we should not be despondent from today’s political situation and not become depressed, inactive, and isolated. We need to toughen up our fight for our important principles. We are in a survival situation against people who don’t seem to care about our survival. If we actually care to survive, we need to continue strong, which can be risky. We have seen terrible things take place when a power structure gets challenged, but we must stop acting as if we have no power.
We do have a lot of power, yet we have a history of being quiet and hiding in safe corners. Michael urged us to be confident in our beliefs and stand up to fight for what we know is right — if we don’t do that, all is lost!
Stay strong and support honest media.
ANTHONY CORON
The ‘Shark Event’
Boston
December 16, 2024
Dear East Hampton Star,
I am writing to support my brother Billy’s representation of the fin story. I am Billy’s oldest sister, Dicki. There are couple of points to clarify.
My little brother, Billy, 10 years old at the time, was smitten with the “Jaws” movie — and to the point that he would swim around in our pool and bite people on the leg, taking on the role of the shark. It was his idea to put the fin in the pond and my boyfriend Pete and I assisted him in accomplishing that.
Something to note additionally in this saga, was that at the time, people coming into town on Route 27 and not paying attention for various reasons, would keep driving through the light and into the Hedges Inn. For years the inn had to be repaired over and over again. We thought it would make sense to accomplish Billy’s mission and at the same time give people pause before they crashed into the Hedges Inn.
As Billy indicated, the placement of the shark fin in Town Pond happened in the dark of evening. Therefore, nobody was around to view that except for our inner-circle family. And this was really an inner-circle family event with my sister Ann’s boyfriend Tommy and my boyfriend Pete. Pete and Tommy were at the time doing construction together in East Hampton and very close to each other and very close to my sister Ann. Ann died a few years later, and, so for us, for our family, the shark event was really something that we hold dear as a family legacy.
Anyone who may have observed the fin the next day I cannot account for. Kirby may have been one of the observers along with many the next day, but as Billy indicated, he was not involved with the planning or the construction or the placement of the fin. Please let us hold the truth of this fun tale as a Strong family legacy in East Hampton’s history.
The Fin and Billy’s sister,
DICKI MACY
The Crossword!
East Hampton
December 5, 2024
To the Editor,
I just read with grief that Sheridan Sansegundo will no longer be submitting the crossword puzzle! I so looked forward to doing it every week to the extent that if I were not able to buy the paper, I had someone buy it for me that week. It was brilliant — you needed to be a genius in order to do it — and all with straightforward clues.
Thank you, Ms. Sansegundo! I hope that you are well and that whoever takes your place will be worthy of that position.
PATRICIA ANHOLT HABR
Sorely Miss
Springs
December 12, 2024
To the Editor,
For oh, so many years, I have been delighted by Sheridan Sansegundo’s crossword puzzles. I am sorry to hear she’s decided to retire. I will sorely miss her puzzle each Thursday.
I am lucky to be on the San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, site, where I catch Sheridan’s puzzle. But Thursday’s in The Star were my favorite puzzles.
Please tell Sheridan how much she will be missed.
Is there a plan to bring on another crossword puzzle expert?
Best,
SUZANNE SYLVOR
Solid White Line
East Hampton
December 12, 2024
To the Editor,
A recent editorial cites the need for pavement markings in East Hampton. Our entire local roads system needs this work. Smaller roads have no markings and most of the rest of them are obliterated.
At night, the solid white line at the edge is most important. Even if an oncoming car does not have brights on, it blinds you on curves. Watching the line on the right edge is the only way to stay in position. This is a low-cost, proven way to improve driving safety at night. It has been neglected forever by all those responsible for public safety on the roads.
Locally, this is one of the fundamental duties of the town board and the highway superintendent. An enhanced budget to cover the cost of more-frequent paintings will face no meaningful opposition. Please revisit this matter and tell us if you see a serious response, not just talk. This is straightforward common sense and there is no excuse for failing on it.
DANIEL COHEN
Littering the Norm
Springs
December 16, 2024
To the Editor,
People have been littering so much these days it’s becoming the norm — especially in the summer when the Hamptons is overflowing with people. There’s a law against it, but I never hear of anyone getting fined. Too bad the police don’t step it up and start ticketing people; after all, it’s a disrespectful, disgusting habit.
The town actually has employees pick up litter, which is a double negative: using taxpayer dollars to clean up somebody else’s illegally dumped trash. This also gives the perpetrator a green light to continue littering. People should be responsible for their actions. A second-time offender should be sentenced to pick up trash for the town they littered in.
If one wants to live in a great country, the first thing to do is make sure it’s a clean country. I don’t know anybody who enjoys looking at garbage. New York City is no exception; if there was an award for the dirtiest, most disgusting, and unsanitary city in America it would be a top contender. Other countries, such as Japan, use simple, common-sense rules to eliminate litter. It’s called carry in, carry out.
The first order of business is to remove all public trash receptacles. No one wants to ride up to Main Beach to get a view of the ocean only to see a bunch of overflowing garbage cans. If people take picnic baskets to the beach that’s fine, so long as they bring their trash back home and properly dispose of it there. This one simple rule would save taxpayers dollars by eliminating trash removal, and at the same time have the town looking stately again.
In Singapore it’s against the law to spit your gum out on the sidewalk. It’s time we started implementing common-sense laws like this.
It’s so easy not to litter and a respectful way to behave. Being a child shouldn’t get you a free pass either. If caught littering, the authorities should seek out and fine the parent. Maybe if we address it at the child’s level, the children will grow up learning not to litter.
On a positive note, I know one town in the Hamptons that actually is beautiful and litter-free. I often ride my bike there, whether it be a main road, a back road, a rich neighborhood, or a poor one, I never see any litter. If there ever were an award for the cleanest town in America it should go to Shelter Island.
JEFF HINES
Revert to Grassland
East Hampton
December 10, 2024
Dear Editor:
Nineteenth-century maps reveal that grasslands covered large areas of East Hampton. Maritime and coastal plain grasslands are important ecological communities in our environment. They provide essential benefits. They provide habitat for a range of biological inhabitants necessary for a healthy environment. They preserve soil and hydrological health. And they are excellent carbon sinks, in some ways superior to forests for this purpose.
The Amagansett “555” property presents a unique opportunity. Purchased in 2014 using community preservation funding, the 18.88-acre site is an ideal prospect for grassland restoration. In fact, natural succession is already underway. Native grasses have established themselves in large areas of the property, along with native forbs, or wildflowers.
That’s the good news. Left to its own, with minimum human intervention and cost, the property will revert to a grassland community.
The bad news is that without management, the invasive autumn olive and mugwort taking root will present a major threat to the ecological integrity and health of the site.
Now is the time to establish a management plan that goes beyond the current annual mowing. Fortunately, the soil has been largely depleted. Native grasses thrive in nutrient-poor sandy soil; invasive mugwort does not. We have time to control its spread.
In 2021 the town nature preserve committee wrote a management plan. We would do well to observe and enact its principal recommendation:
“The principal uses of the Amagansett Plains Preserve should be the protection of the Property’s scenic qualities, the perpetuation of natural grasslands and their ecological characteristics, and passive enjoyment by members of the community . . . it should therefore be a management goal to establish, as nearly as possible, a natural meadow or grassland on most of the Preserve, which will sustain grasses, wildflowers, birds, and insects specifically associated with natural grasslands.”
As far back as 2014, Larry Penny wrote, “By and large, Long Island is losing its grasslands, and the rate of loss is accelerating. Trees and nonnative shrubs are filling in the spaces. Let’s see what happens in the next few years to that wonderful field known lately as ‘555’. . . .”
Given the success of the public-private collaboration at the Town Hall native garden, I propose that the town sit down with a number of interested ecological stakeholders, Change Hampton, ReWild Long Island, Perfect Earth, for example, to discuss a plan to move forward. In addition to the immediate environmental benefits of nurturing a sustainable grassland, there are educational opportunities that would accompany a restoration project.
LEONARD GREEN
‘Lazarus Man’
Amagansett
December 12, 2024
Dear David,
Richard Price is one of our most gifted novelists and screenwriters. His breakout book, “The Wanderers,” was sui generis. It was followed by nine other novels, some of which became best sellers, like “Lush Life” and “The Whites.” Some of them were made into films, such as “Freedomland,” starring Julianne Moore, and “Clockers,” directed by Spike Lee.
A few of Richard Price’s screenplays include “The Color of Money” featuring Tom Cruise, directed by Martin Scorsese, and “Sea of Love” starring Al Pacino — a movie which grossed over $100 million.
To damn with faint praise is a familiar tactic. But in his review of Price’s latest novel, “Lazarus Man,” (The East Hampton Star, Dec. 12), Thomas McGonigle decided to damn with high praise. After placing Richard Price on the short list of brilliant American writers like Robert Stone and Don DeLillo, he went on to trash everything about Price’s book using 142 words in an article that ran 713 words.
Naturally, everyone is entitled to his, her, or their own opinion. But because of such short shrift, I’d like to mention some lines from other, more thoughtful reviews. In the San Francisco Chronicle, “the book they [the readers] can’t put down.” In The Washington Post, “Price is the street’s premier storyteller.” In the Chicago Review, “[This] novel is a tapestry of lives intertwined, revealing the beauty and complexity of human connection and tragedy.”
Since all these sentences (plus more like them) were written in the last few weeks, and since I’ve read that Richard Price is under contract for more books and movies, I feel free to criticize McGonigle’s effort to stash Price’s virtuosity in the ever-so-distant ho-hum past.
I’m not familiar with Mr. McGonigle’s work as a poet, but I suggest that the next time he wants to write for The Star, he should be directed to the “Guestwords” column where he can focus primarily on himself as he did in his review of “Lazarus Man.”
JOANIE MCDONELL
More Senior Housing
East Hampton
December 11, 2024
To the Editor,
The editorial regarding the senior center in the Nov. 28 edition of The Star was very interesting to our committee here at Windmill Village I.
The town board has circumvented the oversight for this project and will go ahead and do what they want. We know that the planning board was not happy about this result but could do little about it so the clearing of the property will begin.
We also noted the heavy clearing at the property on Three Mile Harbor Road for the apartment project there. We assume they had Planning Department and planning board approval. Our committee has been working with the Planning Department and the housing office for over a year in order to have more senior housing built. We are very happy with the result that we can now have 12 apartments on an acre, which passed the board recently.
Windmill Village Inc. has been hoping to build 20 more apartments on the Windmill Village I property and then move on to Windmill II and St. Michael’s with more apartments. The reason for building more apartments on the existing properties is that the infrastructure is already there: water, sewer, electric, etc.
Windmill had its architect draw up plans for the new apartments on the Windmill I property and they met with the housing office and the planning and town board members. At the meeting they were told that they could not build the apartments where they want because they could not clear the trees, ironic isn’t it? The suggestion was to move the apartments to an open area on the property and remove a maintenance shed and the dog walk where there are no trees. Windmill has said it would replace any trees that were removed, and if anyone has been to Windmill Village I they will know we have more trees then we can keep up with. The property is lovely, with trees, flowers, and bushes, which all require manpower to rake and prune every year. We are trying to plant native plants and to reduce the number of bushes and grasses so that we will not use as much water and mowing will not be required.
We do not want to crowd the buildings in one area. They are now spread out with pathways and green areas throughout the property. Why would we want to crowd it all in? The town board member who was at the meeting told the Windmill people that he would not go against the planning board recommendation.
If the town board can go forward without any oversight, and the housing authority can clear most of its property, we would like the board to help us out with this project in order to have more senior housing built and reduce a list of over 400 people waiting for housing. Are trees more important then housing for seniors who can no longer afford to live in this town?
PENNY DAUCH
Tenant Advocacy Group for Senior Housing at Windmill Village I
Design for Elite
Montauk
December 10, 2024
Dear David,
This morning, I attended the East Hampton Town Board meeting at the Montauk Library. I was very disillusioned by the town board’s attitude. One of the discussions was regarding the new East Hampton Senior Center. Jeff Bragman was one of the citizen speakers regarding the cost of the new center and what it will do to our taxes. The board took umbrage at this, and for the rest of the meeting Kathy Burke-Gonzalez repeatedly brought up the costs of other essential departments, such as the lifeguards and how much they cost the town. She then went on to state how much the town had in surplus by department. This was totally uncalled for and very disrespectful to the citizens of East Hampton. Many citizens spoke out against the cost of the new senior center, saying the building was too big and costly. I agree that we need a new senior center in East Hampton, since the current senior center is a disaster waiting to happen. But at what cost? Right now very few (under 30) people are using the East Hampton center on a daily basis, so do we need a 22,000-square-foot building at a cost of $30 million? The town board tells us they are building for the future, but how far in the future?
Another problem with the new senior center is that there are no accommodations for adult day care; they have eliminated this very valuable asset entirely. I have been told that it is not necessary.
Our population is getting older, and there are very few resources for the families of these seniors’ caregivers in the whole of East Hampton. In my opinion, the current design is for the elite and not the common citizen who needs it the most.
The seniors who this building is designed for are still very active and involved with the community and can afford life’s luxuries (the country club set for lack of a better word) and currently do not plan on using the new center. We need a center for people who have grown up here, who have little or no family left here, who want the enjoyment of seeing their friends over an affordable lunch (the local farmers, fishermen, and small business owners). Stop insulting the citizens of East Hampton.
On that note, I would like to point out to David Lys that being born and raised here is not a prerequisite for loving the East End, nor for having the right to an opinion regarding the senior center or any other local issue. I was 3 weeks old the first time I came to Montauk, and my family have been summer people since 1934 (90 years). Some of us became full-time residents. My cousins went to the Montauk School. We have always respected the locals and the environment even though we weren’t born or raised here. His comments at the town board meeting were extremely condescending to the people who chose to live on the East End even if they weren’t born here.
SHARON SENNEFELDER
Some Strange Frolic
Amagansett
December 13, 2024
To the Editor:
I watched the Dec. 10 board meeting and was impressed by the eloquence of the six senior citizens who spoke against the new senior center in the public portion (no one spoke for it).
There has been ample comment in this letters column about the senselessness of the project, the absence of any demand for it, its impact on the environment and endangered species, and on our real estate taxes. But the senior center project is at the same time a huge case study in the failure of democracy in the Town of East Hampton, and of the Democratic machine’s responsibility.
The board approved short-cutting the zoning and environmental quality review, one year after the hearing it held on the subject, and despite unified public opposition. It said, dismissing democracy and insulting its voters: “[T]he town board finds that the articulated concerns by members of the public do not rise to the level of a countervailing local interest of substance and significance.”
After hearing the urgent speakers at the meeting, the supervisor and another board member called their words “disinformation” and “lies” — statements which also signal that the board has actually broken entirely free of public opinion and is off on some kind of strange frolic of its own.
Whom the senior center is really for is almost impossible to answer. The constituency the board claims to be serving is not here — it consists of people who actually leave East Hampton in search of affordable housing with services and of medical care just before they would evince interest in using it. The inevitable conclusion is that the project is for the town board itself, for Voldemort and the usual suspects. Can’t wait to hear that back story.
Side note to David Lys, whose tearful diatribe was oddly charming: Please note that invoking your aging parents in a political speech is the last refuge of a . . . oh, never mind.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Social Security
Montauk
December 16, 2024
Dear David,
Social security, according to the media, the internet, newspapers, will be getting a 2.5 percent increase. However, deductions from gross payment, Medicare, etc., results in a net payment of $17 less per month than what I received in 2024.
There’s a dynamite, honest, congressman in the Bronx. His name is Mr. Torres. This gentleman is so fair for his constituents. Wishful thinking that there would be so many more like him.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
Bouncing Ball
Amagansett
December 15, 2024
Dear David,
I was curious where is one of your classic editorials on Amagansett School? Surely you have been paying attention, haven’t you? Members of The Star sat through almost all the Maria Dorr hearing. I know I have uncovered many documents whether they are from the school itself, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or the New York State Department of Education. Some are very concerning. The bouncing ball always ends up back in the gym.
Eagerly awaiting your take, unless the hands are tied since Bess Rattray became a substitute on Nov. 19. Happy holidays, merry Christmas, happy new year.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
—
Bess Rattray, a part-time Star and East magazine editor, was briefly on the list of substitute teachers at the Amagansett School. Ed.
Scratch the Surface
Montauk
December 16, 2024
Dear Editor:
Thank you for publishing Jeff Gewert’s “Guestwords” piece on his visit to the West Bank of Palestine. Of course, any attempt to humanize the Palestinian people is going to be met with the usual hasbara (from the Hebrew “to explain”) talking points.
Like most people my age who grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s, we grew up with only one side of this narrative. I was very pro-Zionist till about 30 years ago. The information is out there, at least for the time being, and I urge people to do their own research on this very complicated problem but at the crux from a very simple cause.
To just scratch the surface, go on YouTube and check out “Breaking the Silence,” which is the testimony of Israel Defense Force soldiers. Watch videos about West Bank settler violence. There is a great new documentary called “Israelism.” I stick with information from Jewish people themselves, who of course, get accused of being “self-hating” but are actually motivated by the fact that they have a functioning moral compass.
Another great video out there is “Jews Divided, Gaza Under Siege and a World Divided.” which is a conversation between Gabor Mate, a Holocaust survivor, and his two sons. There is also a ton of books: “Blood Brothers” by Elias Chachour, a Christian priest whose village was one of the 500 that were ethnically cleansed during the war of 1948 when he was a boy, and “The General’s Son” by Miko Peled, are only two out of many but are very readable and make you realize that no people on earth would have endured what the indigenous people of Palestine did without some pushback.
Where I’m coming from morally and spiritually, there was no excuse for Oct. 7, but there certainly was a reason.
MAURA DONAHUE
From Both Sides
Shelter Island
December 12, 2024
To the Editor,
Reading Jeff Gewert’s “Guestwords” article (Dec. 5) about his experience in the West Bank of Israel caused me to go through all the Kubler-Ross stages of grief: denial, anger, depression, and, finally, acceptance. However, I stopped at the last one and decided not to accept Mr. Gewert’s fairy tale but to tell the real story.
I have visited the West Bank for over 30 years, about a dozen times. I have published profiles of Palestinian leaders, met with entrepreneurs, and even bought rice and date-stuffed chickens for Thanksgiving in Hebron. My wife and I have set up a scholarship program at the Hebrew University for Palestinian students to study urban planning. It should thus be clear I believe all people should live in dignity and have the opportunity to prosper. I have also written about the disastrous effects of the occupation and have serious doubts about the Israeli strategy regarding the West Bank. Gaza is another story, Israel left Gaza in 2005 (I was there for the withdrawal) many in the world had high hopes the Palestinians would make it into something to be proud of. Tragically they chose war and destruction or Hamas chose it for them.
That said, the distortions in his article exist from the beginning to the end.
Not since Gauguin fantasized about the Tahitians has anyone so misread a people. The Palestinians are like everyone else. They can be nasty, brutal, and full of hate. Some of them kill their daughters and nieces for dating a man they do not approve of. “Honor killings” are a reality in many families. Having gender issues of any kind also subject a Palestinian youth to a host of violent actions, often forcing a gay or lesbian into self-exile to survive. There are also thieves, child molesters, and corrupt imams. If you really asked a Palestinian about everyone having, as he stated, “trust, cooperation, and unity,” and then he is now being part of a “family,” they might think you insane. The Palestinians I know are riven by the same family feuds as we are.
As to the “expulsion” in 1948, he tells another clever fable. He makes it sound like the Israelis just decided one day to evict the Arabs. No, the United Nations declared the Jews of Israel, the original inhabitants of the land 4,000 years ago, could return to their home, albeit a truncated one. Six Arab armies tried to crush the nascent state and in the onslaught tens of thousands of Palestinians left thinking they would return in a few days, as their leaders told them. Yes, many were forced out but isn’t that what happens to the losers in a war of aggression?
Hamas never agreed to a two-state solution. Here I don’t know if he is intentionally deceiving us or he just doesn’t know the facts. What Hamas floated in 2003 was a hudna, Arabic for a temporary respite. It was time for them to rebuild the tunnels and manufacture more rockets. More time was needed to train troops to cross the border to murder and rape women and butcher children. Anyway, it never came into effect.
As to Americans being “manipulated and suppressed” concerning Arab fanatics. Jeff, where were you on 9/11? Some, not all, Arabs are religious fanatics willing to die to see Allah reign supreme on earth. Clearly he has no historical understanding of inter-Arab fanaticism that has resulted in the deaths of millions of their own people. Are you referring to the recently deposed Bashar al-Assad, who murdered over 500,000 of his own people as someone who proves “the hypocrisy of American foreign policy”? Name me one Arab or Muslim regime that does not jail, torture, and kill its own citizens.
You even got the Crusades wrong. The Arabs won the final battles of the Crusades, and in 1187 Saladin reclaimed Jerusalem for the Muslims. Later, Europe cowered in fear of the Ottomans for centuries — total ignorance on his part to portray the west as responsible for Arab backwardness. The Muslim world simply did not have a renaissance and thus remains in an earlier state of political organization.
On another of his “facts,” not breaking down the civilian deaths in Gaza from Hamas fighters and asserting that all were “civilians” is malicious propaganda on his part. Give Hamas the dignity they deserve; they had an army sworn to the destruction of all Jews. They failed to do so, and most of the civilian deaths resulted from Hamas gunmen hiding in schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings.
In summary, he does no one any favor by this absurd recounting of his West Bank adventure. All he does is show how woefully ignorant of the basics of humanity he is. There is hatred from both sides. Unless that is established, true peace and cooperation and a better life for all, in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, will remain elusive.
JONATHAN RUSSO
Who Decides?
East Hampton
December 16 2024
Dear David,
Jeff Gewert’s Dec. 5 Guestwords in The Star concerning his experiences during a recent visit to Hebron raised several important, unanswered questions which I hope he’ll address in this week’s Star.
His piece stirred up passions among several published letters (including mine). My guess is that those letters were just the tip of the iceberg to the questions and intense feelings that many of your readers experienced addressing his provoking column.
Jeff’s bio, as a retired video writer, producer, and director, as well as a regular contributor to newspapers including USA Today, The New York Times, and those of Hearst Media, should be enough to elicit a sense of professional pride in him to respond fully to the questions raised in those letters.
It also raised questions in my mind about the nature and criteria for the “Guestwords” column itself. I know there are common-sense rules and regulations for those writing letters to the editor; I couldn’t find any sort of explanation for the “Guestwords” column, except for word restrictions.
For the record and for those who may want to contribute to the column, what are the criteria for selection and who decides who is chosen? Is the decision determined or voted on by an editorial board? Does the inclusion of an article depend on the importance or relevance to a particular topic at the time? Are the articles selected fact-checked — an issue of particular importance in Gewert’s piece. Do all the columnists selected have to live in East Hampton? Are issues of local interest more likely to be chosen than national or international concerns or vice versa? Are the opinions expressed in the “Guestwords” column an endorsement by The Star of those opinions?
I hope that these questions are seen and taken by The Star as strengthening the safeguards of power a free press should have and contribute to the generally excellent journalism we experience week after week reading The Star. As many of us know, we live in a political world under which a free, independent press is under intense and unfair threats, including threats of fines and censorship, and revocation of licenses.
I know The Star generally doesn’t respond to letters, but I hope you will in this case, since it’s asking about clarification and increased transparency of newspaper policy that many readers would find interesting. That can only make for an even more excellent paper and a better understanding by its readers of how it operates!
Very best as always,
JIM VRETTOS
—
The opinions expressed in the Guestwords column belong to the writer and are not necessarily endorsed by the editorial staff of The Star. (See: “A Call for Muscle” by David Saxe in the Nov. 30, 2023, Guestwords, which advocated for self-defense by Jewish students on college campuses and led to an accusation of inciting violence.) Ed.
Will Be Televised
East Hampton
December 14, 2024
To the Editor,
We are all Romans now, just days away from the show. Despair simmers. As Emerson wrote, “the earth is made of glass” and so the terror of the dispossessed and our shame will be televised.
They round up horses, don’t they?
TOM MACKEY
Patriotic Ditty
Montauk
December 14, 2024
Dear David,
Sean Hannity of F.F.N. (Fox Fake News) reported this week that many changes in tradition and precedent are in store after the inauguration of Donald Trump in January. For starters, common citizens and advisers may not use the term “Mr. President” when conversing with Trump. Instead, they may choose among “your majesty,” “your lordship,” “your royal majesty,” or “Mr. big.” In addition, Trump’s oldest son can no longer be referred to as “Don Jr.” From now on he is to be known as “his lordship, the Prince of Whales” (no doubt due to his ongoing relationship with Megan Fox that apparently is going kaput).
Another change in precedent, Trump has announced that JD Vance will be appointed to lead a new federal department. Vance will now become the secretary for vice, avarice, and rapid mind changing.
When Hannity was questioned about the huge number of clowns appointed to cabinet positions, he replied that these clowns are going to make Pennywise look like a boy scout.
A new tune to replace “Hail to the Chief” is also on the horizon. Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and Stephen Miller are working with Sean Combs to come up with a patriotic ditty to honor Trump.
Cheers and happy holidays to most,
BRIAN POPE
Fellow Felons
Plainview
December 9, 2024
To the Editor,
Yes, Joe Biden’s unjustified pardon of his own son is wrong and a mistake, but so was Donald Trump’s previous pardon of Charles Kushner (the father of his own daughter, Ivanka’s, husband, Jared Kushner), who committed “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” (in the words of Trump’s old pal Chris Christie).
And it’s not surprising that Donald Trump has now nominated his own relative, Charles Kushner, to be our country’s ambassador to France considering that they’re fellow felons and are related by their children’s marriage.
So what if Kushner spent 14 months in prison for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering for hiring a prostitute to seduce his own brother-in-law, filming their sex acts, and mailing the tape to his own sister? Because at least Trump is not making Kushner ambassador to the Vatican and Pope Francis, and, as far as we know, Kushner himself is not in the habit of grabbing “ ’em by the pussy.”
RICHARD SIEGELMAN