Omigod, a Rooster
Amagansett
April 6, 2024
To the Editor:
One of your most entertaining, only-in-the-Hamptons articles ever was “The Case of the Crowing Rooster” by Christopher Gangemi in last week’s issue.
Omigod: One homeowner’s pet rooster keeps disturbing another’s horde of inebriated renters. By my calculation, the rooster begins to crow about 10 minutes after the renters stop blaring their music around the pool and stagger to bed.
It also seems evocative of the Hamptons that the complainant, owner of the sleeps-10 rental house listed on VRBO, provided the town “with pages of dates and times of rooster crows.” A rooster crow spreadsheet.
In my own neighborhood on Napeague, share houses have infiltrated for years, so that in an active summer, there is one cater-corner to me, and two more in active earshot. I think of myself as reasonably intelligent, but I never once thought of adopting a rooster.
For democracy and symbolic speech in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Before the Sun
New York City
April 5, 2024
To the Editor,
In response to the article “The Case of the Crowing Rooster,” I will begin by writing that not only am I an animal-lover, I fully appreciate the sounds of peepers, bullfrogs, cicadas, larks, and any of the many wild indigenous calls that daily and nightly abound. Crowing roosters are different. Although their calls are also to be appreciated, they are not roaming wild, but are owned by those on properties in close proximity to many neighbors and where the disturbance is endless and piercing. In addition to the rooster cited in the article, there is now at least one other rooster in the Springs district. He not only begins crowing before the sun has risen, but continues to crow frequently throughout the day with the sound traveling a sizable distance.
Given the increasing number of residents raising their own chickens, and given the town’s various ordinances on noise disturbances, the allowance for a livestock policy on roosters does not seem appropriate for a residential area where property lots are close to one another. It would seem more just to allow for this kind of disturbance exclusively on plots with greater acreage and much farther distance from one another, such as on a farm, or when the owner of a rooster has an adequate structure to eliminate or at least significantly dampen the noise. I would have no problem with someone owning a rooster if the sound could be adequately reduced. Yes, we all have to endure many disruptive man-made and natural noises, but as the Town of East Hampton has an ordinance against barking dogs or calls of other pet birds, I would hope that it would take seriously the complaints of rooster crowing. As is pointed out in the article, it has already created conflict between neighbors, is certainly a disturbance and a diminution of what makes this neighborhood a desirable place to live, and is an issue that could be easily addressed and resolved for all residents.
ROBERT MEKSIN
Sad Changes
Montauk
April 3, 2024
Dear Dave,
I was sorry to read in the March 7 Star that Paulie’s Tackle shop has closed. The article “On the Water” made note of it being the last of the in-town tackle shops. I remember Johnny’s and Freddie’s, which are gone.
Paul Apostolides pointed out in the article that Montauk has changed and he couldn’t be more right. I have been coming out to Montauk since the mid-1960s and my family has owned a place in Montauk since that time. Montauk since then is almost unrecognizable. It is no longer a fishing village or family oriented. The attributes that made Montauk — simplistic beauty, friendliness of the people, the unpretentiousness — are gone or rapidly disappearing. They are being replaced by obnoxious venues like the Surf Lodge and the Sloppy Tuna and patrons that are self-centered and don’t respect the town or the locals. It is sad that multimillionaires can take over the town with their investments in clubs, etc., and completely change the culture of the town. It is a shame that East Hampton hasn’t done more to try and maintain the culture and temperament of “Montauk, the fishing and surfing community.” Love Montauk and sad for the changes.
Respectfully,
JOE COSTABILE
Parked for Days
East Hampton
April 3, 2024
To the Editor,
The Town of East Hampton should put “No Parking” and/or “No Overnight Parking” signs all along Two Holes of Water Road. Trucks, trailers, cars, and machinery are constantly parked for days, sometimes weeks, on the shoulders. Not only have the shoulders been ruined but, especially at night, one could easily hit a parked trailer.
These workers should be required to park their trucks and machines and cars at the house at which they are working. Sometimes they are not even working on Two Holes of Water but use the shoulders to leave vehicles overnight!
East Hampton is sign-happy, so put signs up on Two Holes of Water Road! The traffic police could then ticket them. Or the town could fine the owners of the house at which they are working. Signs would be perfect and an easy solution.
JANE ADELMAN
Severely Maimed
East Hampton
April 6, 2024
Dear East Hampton Star,
This letter is inspired in part by Christopher Walsh’s article of July 13, 2023, which I did not read until recently.
It’s been some time since I last contributed a letter to this space. I spent two years helping my father through a long illness before losing him a year ago only to face health issues of my own which are now under control. When I finally was able to focus on the outside world again, I noticed some dramatic and alarming changes to the general environment of the South Fork. Primarily, it was the number of trees which seem to have died in the past three years. Anyone who drives on 27 between East Hampton and Bridgehampton can’t help but notice that woods which were thick and seemed healthy are now littered with the rotting fragments of trees.
As a lifelong student of the local natural history, I’ve been painfully aware of major changes, especially in my backyard. These really began when, in the late 1990s, a lot behind my property was developed and a large, wooded lot was lost along with several bird species and even some endangered lady slipper orchids. Then came the catastrophic deer population explosion which began devastating foliage both wild and cultivated. At one time I counted nearly 30 deer in my front yard — it looked like I was ranching them. In the past few years that I’ve been in my limbo of personal loss, there has also been a large amount of development on my street which has had a negative impact on the wildlife. Careless workmen throwing their food waste in open dumpsters has invited raccoons and rats. Loss of trees and underbrush seems to be causing a hyper-local decline of the bird and native insect populations. I still have most of the common species but in much lower numbers and some which used to be daily visitors appear only once or twice a week at most.
I have tried over the years to gently help spread the warning that too much development and overexploitation of local resources, such as beaches and park areas, would result in a major loss of what makes life on Eastern Long Island so wonderful. Now, I fear, it is too late and though it would be possible to fix some of the damage, it would take years and I strongly believe that there is no stomach in our local government to do what needs to be done. And the reason, as always, is money. Limiting visitors and putting necessarily severe restraints on developers means less revenue and in this time of seemingly runaway inflation it’s understandable. However, our Golden Goose, though not dead, is severely maimed and needs urgent care. If we are to nurse it back to health I would argue that we have to make certain sacrifices. It’s not so much ending tourism or development, which are the backbone of our local economy, but we need to limit them for a significant period in order to reclaim the very thing which brings most of them here — our natural wonder.
As always, thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
MATT HARNICK
Made by Slaves
East Hampton
April 6, 2024
Dear David,
I know you have been researching slavery that existed on the East End. I have been digging around, too. I was amazed to find that slavery in the 1600s and early 1700s in America was not only with Black Africans but was with our Native Americans, as well. Sixteen years after Plymouth Rock, the Pequot Nation was brutally massacred by our British settlers at Mystic, Conn. Hundreds of Pequots were enslaved and sent to work on colonial farms and households. In 1638, the ship Desire took 17 Pequots to the Caribbean to be sold in the slave trade. Before 1700, Native Americans represented the major form of nonwhite labor. By the mid 1700s, the African, Caribbean, and American slave trade was in full force. In the three major cities of Connecticut, half the ministers, lawyers, public officials, and doctors owned slaves. East Hampton associated with Connecticut, not New York. Its 1776 census lists 239 families, and 32 had slaves. We cannot tell how many of the slaves were Native American or African, as they are not named in the census. As a matter of fact, not one Native American is named in the census. We know that many of the Montauketts lived among our settlers as evidenced by our most famous East Ender, Stephen Talkhouse. Stephen was born in a wick-up near Gerard Drive in Springs. His mother, Molly, bound him out to Col. Parsons for $60. One dollar per pound.
There is no question that colonizing a new nation requires a tremendous amount of human labor. I believe that many of the famous New England stone walls were made by slaves and indentured servants. I believe that the raised embanked mounds running throughout the Town of East Hampton delineating pastures and homesteads were made by slaves. However, I have not been able to find proof of this. Have you?
LEE DION
—
As the Plain Sight Project has documented, slavery was nearly ubiquitous on the East End among landowning families from the 1640s at least until its legal end in New York in 1827. In East Hampton, there are records of enslaved and indentured people engaged in all sorts of tasks, from weeding the minister’s corn plot to taking care of infants. Specific descriptions of wall or fence-building have yet to come to light, however, among the earliest requirements that the town trustees imposed was that landowners had to fence their properties. Ed.
Invisible Lives
Amagansett
April 8, 2024
Dear Mr. Rattray,
Fine, thanks, and you? Good to hear.
I’m sure many of us have seen and read the article in Sunday’s New York Times “The Perilous Existence of a Hamptons Day Laborer,” written by Ginia Bellafante. In the piece, Ms. Bellafante chronicles the life and tragic death of Julio Florencio Teo Gomez, a 48-year-old laborer from Guatemala City. He lived a life on the margins in Suffolk County, most recently in an encampment with two other men, under a makeshift tent in the woods in the Town of Southampton. Mr. Teo Gomez was hit by a car while walking to a bus stop on County Road 39 on Dec. 30, on his way to visit his brother in Riverhead. He died shortly after.
The article highlights the existence of one laborer, while telling the larger story of the hundreds of working people — many undocumented migrants — who work in landscaping and construction in our towns while struggling to find even the most basic of affordable living quarters. And for many, it’s meant encampments in the woods.
For those of us living here in comfort, surrounded everywhere by conspicuous wealth, the article might have brought, as it did for me, a pang of guilt. “How could I not be aware of these conditions?” Others may think, “Well, they came here illegally, so let them fend for themselves.” Either way, peeling away the layers to reveal these invisible lives gives us a discomfiting awareness of an alternative reality that exists within our beautiful towns.
Highlighted also in the piece was the good work of the nonprofit organization Hamptons Community Outreach. It was started in 2020 by Marit Molin, a Swedish-born social worker who moved from Manhattan to Water Mill in 2018. Discovering the needs of a truly hidden community among us she was moved to do something positive. The many initiatives of H.C.O. have included an art camp for kids, free to underserved families; a food outreach program; financial, furnishings, and home-repair assistance for families and individuals in need. In the case of Mr. Teo Gomez’s death, H.C.O. raised the money for his funeral and for his body to be flown home to Guatemala.
What also moved me about the article, Mr. Rattray, was that it wasn’t the predictable, annual diatribe about how the Hamptons are no longer the “it” place in summer, because young people “can’t afford” to stay there, or the traffic has gotten “out of control.” I’ve been reading those for decades. This was a documentary, in print, about conditions the towns have been aware of for years but have failed to address in a meaningful way. Even in previous discussions of what might be done with East Hampton’s 600-plus acres once the airport was closed (hmm . . . ), an idea was proposed for a housing campus for workers, seasonal and year-round.
Millions of dollars have been spent on beach replenishment in Montauk this year. (Bravo.) Over $30 million will be spent on the new senior center in East Hampton. (Bravo.) And in the Amagansett lanes, where Mary and I live, traditional homes are being torn down and replaced by $10-plus-million-dollar, six-bedroom, six-bath things complete with home theaters and gyms. For people who come for the weekend — sometimes. Awesome. My hope is that the Times article will, through its very wide reach, give both East Hampton and Southampton Towns a shot of urgency for dealing with a critical moral and practical issue: the fair treatment and fair housing for those who labor in our community.
Sincerely,
LYLE GREENFIELD
Pick It Up!
Amagansett
April 8, 2024
Dear David,
Following our formation by resolution of the town board, last year the East Hampton Litter Action Committee sponsored a monthlong series of events beginning in April that we named No-Fling Spring.
The goal of that campaign was not just to create some buzz around our new committee and our mission; the underlying intent was to build public awareness in order to increase active involvement and ultimately to realize sustained change in behaviors in order to achieve our goal of a litter-free East Hampton.
Over that month, we were thrilled to see the trustees, the citizens advisory committees, multiple community organizations and businesses, and so many townspeople come together across all our hamlets to collaborate. That month of activities last year was so successful — and so much fun — that we are back again with No-Fling Spring 2024, which will kick off on April 20 and run through May 18.
We’ve just released the full event sheet for the month, and we already have 10 separate cleanup events from Wainscott to Montauk on the calendar that anyone can join in on, and possibly more to be added. But in addition to what is already scheduled, we would like to encourage three other activities in conjunction with No-Fling Spring.
First, our Litter Action Committee has been engaging with the town Highway Department to help revitalize and expand their Adopt-A-Road program. We encourage anyone who is already a participant in that program to do a cleanup of your adopted stretch of road during No-Fling Spring. And we also would love to see anyone who would like to adopt a road sign up for the program during the month.
Second, we’d like to encourage all the neighborhood associations out there to organize a neighborhood cleanup. If there is no association where you live, perhaps just pull together a few of your neighbors for a couple of hours on a nice spring day and do a pickup on your street.
Third, as we members of the Litter Action Committee do, not just during No-Fling Spring but on every day of the year, if you see something, pick it up. Removing even one piece of discarded paper or can or bottle from the environment will make a difference.
You can keep up with all the current No-Fling Spring events on the town website at ehtownny.gov as well as via our Instagram page, @dont.trash.east.hampton. Reach out to us with any questions or ideas at [email protected].
Sincerely,
JAINE MEHRING
Member
East Hampton Town Litter Action Committee
The Wrong One
Springs
April 7, 2024
Dear David,
As one of the founding members of Better Not Bigger, we would like to clarify Councilwoman Cate Brown’s public comments about the senior center’s draft submission and the intention of our group.
She stated that our recently organized group is disparaging our seniors. That is not true. We support a new senior center, but we feel that the draft site plan submitted by the engineering firm from up west is unsafe, does not meet our comprehensive goals, and does not meet our sense of scale and historic character.
Our group totally supports a new senior center and agrees with the town board’s priority to focus on a center that meets the needs of our large number of seniors living in our community.
As a former chairwoman of the planning board and elected town board member, I know that all site plans must meet the goals and regulations of our comprehensive plan, zoning code, and architectural review board. In addition, by law, the building and site plan must be safe, healthy, use alternate energy-saving options and fuel standards, and meet the important requirements of our seniors. However, although we support the need for a new senior center, we feel that this current site plan does not conform to East Hampton’s adopted planning goals.
The current submission does not meet our safety standards because the two major hallways are very lengthy. It is quite a hike for some of us, especially using canes. Hey, I am a World War II baby with the unique birthday of Jan. 23, 1945. The distance to be covered from some parking spaces to the center is also considerable and unsafe, leading our seniors directly across the parked car lanes.
East Hampton’s Comprehensive Plan calls for our landscape and built environment to maintain the small scale of our historic buildings to preserve the character of one of the most beautiful towns in America. The current submission at 22,000 square feet would be one of the largest buildings in East Hampton. The cost to our taxpayers will be $30 million. That would increase our taxes by $2 million over 30 years. In addition, this does not include a much-needed basement for storage, recycling materials, and building maintenance.
There are no identified locations for emergency-vehicle turnarounds. After all that massive construction, the submitted draft senior center does not even include a senior day care center or room for the food pantry.
Finally, the engineering firm’s advertisement states that they specialize in large projects, the direct opposite of our adopted Comprehensive Plan goal for keeping East Hampton’s small town historic character.
Good news. A second draft site plan exists that shows a reduced size, costs less but keeps all amenities, is safer because it is two stories with elevators, uses historic material and not silver shingles, includes the popular senior day care setup, and was designed by a local architect for free who designed North Haven’s Village Hall.
The town board is doing the right thing to concentrate on a new senior center but the current senior center submission is the wrong one. Our group did a random survey and 95 percent of the many responders support a senior center but not the current submission by the UpIsland engineers; 94 percent chose the alternative by the local architect. It seems to me that the choice is clear.
Respectively,
DEBRA FOSTER
Engineers’ Walkabout
East Hampton
April 8, 2024
Dear Reader,
The federal Endangered Species Act defines the 5.672 forested acres on Abraham’s Path — of which the town board wants to illicitly clear 92 percent — as “critical habitat” for the northern long-eared bat, a resident mammal that was declared endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a designation finalized on Jan. 30, 2023.
According to a study of the town’s planned project signed over to the town board by the town’s engineers, L.K. McLean, the page headed “Plants and Animals” states that the engineers “walked the site with a town environmental analyst in June 2022,” seven months before the endangered status of the N.L.E.B. kicked in. That engineers’ walkabout description, which described trees only, was submitted to the Long Island branch of the U.S.F.W.S. and was used to prompt a Letter of Concurrence from that agency, which permitted clearing, dated July 27, 2023.
Okay, so the Long Island U.S.F.W. field office wrote a Letter of Concurrence which relied on information from the town collected before the endangered status, but submitted after the endangered status. And wait — among the myriad of questions invited by these deceptive moves, one stands out. According to the town Planning Department, the “town environmental analyst” referred to in that engineer’s statement was an employee of the town’s Land Acquisition Department, a town agency described this way on its site: “This department’s goal is to help protect our sense of place in an ever-changing landscape through the acquisition and management of East Hampton’s unique natural environments.”
Why didn’t the L.K. McLean engineers walk the site with the town’s Natural Resources Department?
According to the town website, the Natural Resources Department is responsible for “endangered species management,” and is linked on that town site to both the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That town site states, “The Town of East Hampton holds the responsibility to assist the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and United States Fish and Wildlife Service in their endangered species recovery goals.”
Stay tuned.
Sincerely,
PATRICIA HOPE
Really a Scam
Gardners, Pa.
March 26, 2024
Dear Editor:
My wife got a letter in the mail yesterday sent to our residence in Pennsylvania from Empire Offshore Wind L.L.C. When we opened it our reaction was “What the hell?” but turned into “What the hell!”
The letter informed her she was invited to submit comments about the cable landing site of the wind farm in question in Brooklyn. It was confusing why she should receive this letter because she has no connection with Brooklyn and now she’s not even a resident of New York. Upon further reading we determined she got the letter because she’s a commercial fisherman in New York which was a surprise because she can’t recall being a commercial fisherman. At least not in this lifetime. This letter is a requirement of law for public notice to all who might be concerned with the wind farm activities but my wife has no concerns so I guess we can just laugh it off and say it’s an error or incompetence. But I doubt this is the case. It’s really a scam.
It’s a scam in the sense that though the minimum requirement of law is met, the spirit of the law isn’t. I believe we know what the spirit of the law is and the true reason my wife got this letter. By contacting people who have no legitimate ties to Brooklyn they need not fear anything they might say and they’ve covered their butt by law and, at the same time, avoided the only thing they’re afraid of — questions. Because questions demand answers and answers expose truth.
So, what to do? Nothing as far as Brooklyn is concerned, but it should be a lesson for East Hampton. It’s apparent anyone can meet any requirements by simply asking the wrong people (politics?) or finding someone who agrees with you. (Anyone will do.) That leaves our local leaders. They, however, seem not to hear anyone. (Self-interest?) The fishermen have been begging them to ask fisheries regulators questions on the fishermen’s behalf and they never have. (Not important enough to them?) And that leaves only the local media, and by that I mean The Star. Dear Editor, talk to the people then get answers from those who decide for us. What do they know, what did they ask, why should they believe the experts? So many questions.
Even though I’m not there any longer, I love East Hampton.
BRAD LOEWEN
Running Mate
Sag Harbor
April 5, 2024
Dear David,
I want to invite those interested in finding out more about who the Independent Party’s candidate for vice president of the United States is, to come to the Hamptons Doc Festival at the Southampton Cultural Center April 12, 13, and 14.
Nicole Shanahan is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s chosen running mate. Her Kiss the Ground for Regeneration nonprofit is the producer of the 2023 multi-award-winning film, including the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival winner in the Human/Nature category, “Common Ground.” “Common Ground” will be shown on Saturday, April 13, as part of the three-day film festival.
The film is about regenerative agriculture, which demonstrates how by transforming 100 million acres of land into microbial-rich organic soils all our current challenges, including climate change, can be resolved.
Both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan share the passion for healing ourselves, our children, and our planet through transforming agriculture.
Tickets can be obtained at hamptonsdocfest.com.
Warmly,
KATE PLUMB
Elite for Elites
East Hampton
April 5, 2024
To the Editor,
As I was walking down a street in the village I saw my first Robert F. Kennedy sign — it was close to the one for their service entrance.
I was amused to see an elite standing up proudly for yet another elite . . . who is against the elites.
TOM MACKEY
Remove Cotton Balls
Amagansett
April 7, 2024
To the Editor,
In a 2019 Christine Sampson East Hampton Star article, when asking the then-PTA president about the Amagansett School Board who were not “open or transparent”:
“ ‘There’s no communication,’ she said by phone. ‘They’re not even interested in how we think — the community members and parents.’ ”
Seems the same now as the school board looks to let go four special-education teachers in a school with multiple students with autism. What an Autism Acceptance Month we are having here. I heard nothing about the alleged World Autism Day celebration April 2. That’s a seeming lie on your Blue Ribbon School application. One and done? Didn’t hear a peep this week. No support for your most vulnerable students.
Your entire application for the Blue Ribbon is predicated on the co-teacher model. Got that accolade and now look to dismantle it. The school roll, by the numbers, has risen about 10 percent from last year, projected to do the same next. Since the board has chosen to push back their meeting until April 16, join me that Tuesday to request the immediate change to the budget to save teachers over luxuries. It’s not too late.
Students’ education is first. Maybe the board will learn to listen to its community it claims to represent. Apparently they need to remove the cotton balls first. Otherwise we can all vote no and they lose it all.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Bombing Civilians
North Haven
April 8, 2024
Dear David,
Carpet-bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War by the Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger team didn’t work. It was determined to be a violation of Article 51 of the Geneva Convention.
The war went on, civilian “collateral damage” continued, and respect for the United States plummeted. Why would anyone think the current carpet-bombing of Gaza would be any better? Or would Netanyahu rather call it “targeted bombing,” for public-relations purposes?
Carpet-bombing areas containing a concentration of protected civilians has been considered a war crime since 1977, through Article 51 of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions.
It reads (in part) as follows:
“Article 51 — Protection of the civilian population:
1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances.”
(The full text can be found online.)
I recommend folks read the entirety to understand the gravity of what’s happening in Gaza, and also in Ukraine, right now.
A half-year of widespread bombing civilians out of their homes, and their hospitals, followed by a massive relocation with continued bombing of them, yields casualties of these now-starving civilians far in excess of the enemy.
Why then did Israel target and murder seven humanitarian World Central Kitchen workers, during a carefully pre-cleared emergency food supply convoy, hitting all three clearly marked vehicles on the well-established humanitarian supply route?
The simple facts of this alleged “accident” defy belief that it was an “understandable mishap of war.” It’s impossible to accept the “official investigation results” claiming they thought they targeted hostile vehicles — despite the meticulously identified vehicles and pre-clearance of the W.C.K. convoy. Finding five scapegoats to discipline doesn’t give credible cover for this official lawlessness.
Are we to believe some junior inexperienced crackpots pushed the kill button by accident, or their unbridled temper? Three times? That lack of competent supervision must be inexcusable for military and national leadership.
Weekly cease-fire protests, and the counterarguments, here in Sag Harbor on Sundays are often described in these letters to The Star. Neglected is the important understanding that the disgusting October attack, civilian hostages, and Hamas’s known desire to eliminate Israel doesn’t give our long-respected ally license for this undisciplined, indiscriminate slaughter of civilians in response. Israel’s retaliation and defense are understandable, and necessary. But for a nation that is party to the Geneva Convention to be considered an ally among the civilized, it must understand that it is barbaric vengeance to kill a defenseless civilian population with careless widespread destruction and murder.
We see here a miserable level of disregard for civilian life. Actual war crimes are being committed by our cherished, longstanding close ally. My country, our country, has no good reason to condone and continue to supply money and arms to a nation that willfully violates these principles.
This is a humanitarian issue, and not an antisemitic point of view, since both populations are Semites. This opinion is actually good national policy advice.
ANTHONY CORON
Rule of War
North Haven
April 8, 2024
To the Editor,
The letter from Brian Pope (March 28) is deserving of corrections. Mr. Pope provides no basis except for thin air regarding the number of Gazan civilian casualties. Nevertheless, casualties are an unfortunate consequence of war. This war came after the atrocities of Oct. 7 committed by Hamas — raping and beheading Israeli girls and women, burning Israeli babies alive, and kidnapping Israeli hostages. Israel declared war to root out and kill all Hamas soldiers and adherents, a necessary and laudable goal. Unfortunately, Hamas utilizes ordinary civilians and civil infrastructure such as hospitals as shields, making it hazardous for ordinary civilians who are placed in the crosshairs of war by Hamas. What choices do the Israelis have, Mr. Pope? Here are some possibilities — pick one: 1. Israel declares a cease-fire and its Israel Defense Forces withdraw from Gaza and Hamas is able to quickly reconstitute. 2. Hamas surrenders, returns all hostages taken, without condition, and amends its charter recognizing Israel’s sovereignty. 3. Israel’s war against Hamas proceeds with full intensity.
Just look at our own history. We killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians (Hiroshima, Nagasaki) as a way of getting Japan to surrender in World War II. And along with England at the close of the war in the European theater, we devastated Dresden, killing many innocent civilians as a way to accelerate German surrender. Why is there a separate rule of war for Israel? You say Netanyahu is creating another generation of terrorists. You are wrong here, as well.
The terrorists are already in the pipeline, being schooled daily in Gaza and elsewhere in virulent hatred of Jews. And finally you give a thumbs-up to Senator Charles Schumer for speaking up against Israel’s right to defend itself. We think he is a disgrace, especially as the highest-ranking Jew serving in the federal government. Schumer runs around telling anyone who will listen that his name is reflective of his being a “shomer,” or, in Judaism, a guardian or watchman who guards his fellow Jews. He is hardly that. His recent capitulation to Biden’s treachery demonstrates that the only goal that motivates him is his maintenance of the position of Senate majority leader, not the safety and integrity of Israel.
DAVID SAXE
MITCHEL AGOOS
East End Jews for Israel
Marxist Infestation
Springs
April 8, 2024
To the Editor,
A couple of weeks ago, Arthur Goldman penned a long letter in which he said several nice things about me, for which I blushingly thank him. Unfortunately, that same letter accused me of making untrue accusations against the Biden crime family and Democrats in general.
I admit right away that there were two mistakes in my last letter. I said that Ruskin was a Marxist/Communist scoundrel, a serial liar in the mold of Schiff, Swalwell, Pelosi, et al. I meant to say Raskin, not Ruskin. Raskin is just such an individual. Ruskin was a prominent, multitalented intellectual of the late 1800s. My apologies. Second, I said that Peter Navarro, a Trump senior adviser, was placed in leg shackles when arrested. Actually, as Arthur correctly notes, he was leg-shackled at his arraignment. He was handcuffed at his arrest.
Did the Biden Department of Justice really have anything to worry about, necessitating handcuffs and leg shackles for a 74-year-old senior presidential adviser? Or was this a Stalinist tactic meant to humiliate the victim and intimidate anyone else who might oppose the regime? It’s part of a pattern. A fascist pattern. Another 70-something senior adviser, Roger Stone, was hauled out of his home in his bathrobe at 1 a.m. by a swarm of over 30 F.B.I. goons toting automatic rifles. Miraculously, there just happened to be a CNN camera team at the scene to film the proceedings and send a message to anybody else daring to support the Orange Man. Similar treatment was doled out to Trump’s adviser Paul Manafort. As a former history teacher, Arthur knows that Navarro was not thumbing his nose at Congress by refusing to testify. He was claiming his right of executive privilege, a right traditionally granted to senior advisers to a president.
A couple of Arthur’s more astounding claims need to be addressed. No evidence of crimes and corruption among the Biden gang? Arthur, are you a laptop denier? As a history teacher, I know you are aware of the importance of reliable sources, and there are plenty of sources on this issue. Hunter’s laptop alone has enough evidence to send the whole Biden family to the hoosegow. Just because the bobble-head buffoons in the media are still trying to deny the authenticity of the laptop doesn’t mean its contents aren’t true. In fact, their childish denials prove its validity. There is also the sworn testimony of Biden Inc.’s chief financial officer, Tony Bobulinski. Nobody is as familiar with the Biden finances as he. He has twice presented, under oath, photos, emails, texts, and bank records at congressional hearings, showing an extraordinarily intricate web of payoffs, bribes, and influence-peddling — with Joe Biden right in the middle of it. The mainstream media pretty much ignored these hearings, Arthur, so you may not be aware of them. But they’re out there. There are also two books by Peter Schweizer (“Blood Money” and “Secret Empires”) which catalog the dirty deeds of the Bidens and a host of other pols, including Republican corruptos like Mitch McConnell.
The evidence of Biden corruption is overwhelming. Biden Inc. produced no products, provided no services, had no special skills to market. As senator, as vice president, and as president the only commodity Joe had to offer was his name and the influence it bought. This corruption is so vast that it puts our national security at risk. Russia, China, Ukraine, and who knows who else all have enough evidence on Joe Biden to pressure him at will. Democrats who refuse to acknowledge the harm Biden is doing to this country and to their party should take their heads out of the D.C. sandbox.
Arthur does admit one Biden fault. He says Biden “mishandled” the illegal immigration crisis. Mishandled? He actively promoted this invasion, funded it, broke every immigration law, handed out phones and credit cards at taxpayer expense, provided housing (often displacing American citizens), used border agents as babysitters and bus drivers, and brought with this catastrophe an epidemic of fentanyl deaths, rampant crime, diseases (tuberculosis and measles are back!), and imposed huge burdens on American towns and cities. Don’t be surprised this November if lots of these “newcomers” show up at the polls to vote (Democrat, of course). Oh, yeah. The Lankford border bill farce. Speaker Johnson was absolutely right to toss it out. The bill would have hired extra border agents, not to enforce the law and close the border, but to facilitate the processing of even more illegals.
Pence as heroic savior of our democracy? Just the opposite. Pence, as V.P., was supposed to certify the slates of electors from each state, unless the legislatures of the states thought that enough vote fraud had occurred to warrant an investigation. Four states, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia, sent letters to Pence telling him to return their slates so that an investigation could take place. If vote fraud was serious enough (which it was in all four of these states and many more), they would then choose a new slate of electors and send it back, as laid out in the Electoral Count Act of 1887.
Pence was advised by John Eastman, a highly respected authority on the Constitution, that he could and should send them back. Pence, whether out of cowardice or corruption or just plain stupidity, refused to do so. These four states alone would have made Trump the winner had they found evidence of significant fraud. And fraud there was, on a massive scale, all over the country. But that’s a topic for another time. Our craven media, as might be expected, described this thoroughly legal constitutional procedure as Trump trying to force Pence to decertify the electors out of hand.
Arthur’s letter admonishes me for using the word “fascist” to describe the tactics of the Biden thugocracy. That’s juicy. The left and their lapdog media have been using the words “fascist” and “racist” against their political opponents for so long and in such torrents that the words have virtually lost all meaning. But the word “fascist” is totally appropriate in regard to this administration. In addition to the raids on private homes by the F.B.I. and local authorities I mentioned in a previous letter, unprecedented and ridiculous lawsuits against Trump and anyone associated with him, and the show trial aspects of the arrests I mentioned above, what else would you call a regime that locks up hundreds of Jan. 6 protesters for months and even years, some in solitary confinement, with no charges, access to their attorneys denied, K.G.B.-style treatment, abusive guards, and even food deprivation? Some of the Jan. 6 detainees have appealed, only half-jokingly, to their jailers to be transferred to Guantanamo, where the treatment afforded prisoners is far superior to what they’re experiencing in the D.C. hellhole. Most of those arrested are guilty only of trespassing, though many of them were escorted around the Capitol by the Keystone Kops, otherwise known as the Capitol Police, who are not trained policemen but more like well-armed museum guards. The treatment of the Jan. 6-ers bears all the hallmarks of Soviet-style fascism, an abrogation of every standard of the American system of justice.
Still on the subject of fascism, let’s not forget that the Biden Department of Homeland Security established a committee on misinformation (as determined by government bureaucrats) to monitor and remove or “correct” and even punish any statements which disputed or refuted the government’s opinion — “1984,” anyone? Even liberals were aghast at this assault on the First Amendment, so, after a couple of absurd attempts to rename the committee, it was dropped — we hope, though some contend it is still lurking deep in the bowels of the D.H.S. And what are we to make of the comment by Hillary (yes, that Hillary, the hectoring hypocritical harridan) that MAGA people might have to be “reprogrammed”? Can gulags and barbed wire be far behind? No doubt I will be called a spawn of Joe McCarthy for saying this, but the infestation of the Democrat Party by its Marxist wing is at its highest levels since those glory years of the F.D.R. administration, and it shows. Don’t believe me? Get hold of a little book, a large pamphlet really, by Diana West called “The Red Thread.” An eye-opener for sure, for those willing to see.
Speaking of words that should not be bandied about with abandon, what about “insurrection”? The media weasels and Democrat pols are still using the word on a daily basis. Guess what none of those arrested have been charged with? That’s right, insurrection — because there was no insurrection.
Arthur, about 20 years ago we were chatting on the steps of the now sadly defunct Springs General Store and I asked you why East Hampton High School was using “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn as its primary American history textbook. I noted that the book is a rabid, unrelenting attack on every American institution, principle, and tradition. You replied, “Well, they have to learn what the other side thinks, don’t they?” I said, “Fine, but where’s our side?” You said you’d get back to me, but never did. Sadly for education in this country, this vicious slander of a book is still the most commonly used text on American high school and college campuses. I call it Zinndoctrination.
The book has produced almost two generations now of students who have been taught to loathe their own country as a racist, imperialist, dare I say fascist, horror on the world scene, ignoring or downplaying the enormous levels of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity this still young nation has achieved. We are living with the legacy of this awful, evil book and others like it. It’s why we see so many students eager to tear down or dismiss our history, our monuments, our heroes, even the founders who bequeathed us this magnificent attempt at self-government. Like all Marxist diatribes, it urges the destruction of the past but fails to lay out, as our founders did, clear and coherent processes for achieving their promised utopia.
The poison this book has injected into the hearts and minds of our students produces the abhorrent scenes we have witnessed the last few years — thousands of students rioting, looting, and burning as they did in the summer of 2020; thousands, including even some Jewish and gay students, supporting the monsters of Hamas who would gladly butcher them at the first opportunity. Supported by a media, indoctrinated in the same false history, only too eager to pile on.
Arthur, it’s time for some soul-searching. Your party has been taken over by the Far Left. As muddled and timid as Republicans too often are, we don’t harbor, ignore, or condone Marxists, jihadis, rabidly anti-American or antisemitic ideologues and the like, as the Democrats do. Time to meet again on the steps of the Springs General Store. I’ll bring the coffee.
Sincerely,
REG CORNELIA
Economic Calculus
East Hampton
April 6, 2024
David,
The narrative about the state of the U.S. economy is sometimes beyond absurd. While economics is not an exact science it shouldn’t be the province of village idiots and politicians. The simplest example is the complaint that something is more expensive than it was four years ago. While this is true, the economic calculus needs to know how much wages have gone up during that period. Also necessary are the factors that might determine why cost has increased, like wars, shortages, epidemics, etc., because the more expensive product might actually be less expensive. That’s why politicians telling half-truths with insufficient info need to shut it.
Last week on “Gzero World,” Ian Bremmer interviewed the economist Dambisa Moyo on the economic state of the world. Citing information from the International Monetary Fund, Moyo explained that the Covid-19 epidemic of 2020 set the world economy back significantly. Ranging from 10 to 20 percent of gross domestic product. (G.D.P. grew at 2 percent during the Trump era, excluding the Covid year 2020.) China, Japan, and most of Europe are still suffering from slow growth or no growth and high inflation. Only the U.S. has come out of this disaster in good shape.
Inflation in the U.S. is now below 3 percent from almost 8 percent, employment is above 250,000 jobs a month, and G.D.P. is 3.4 percent. These numbers are exceptional compared to the rest of the world that continues to struggle and dwarf Trump’s first three years (Covid excluded). The flow of financial support to the population during Covid, the Fed’s monetary management, and Biden’s rebuilding America projects won the battle against the economic disaster.
Furthermore, Biden’s proposed budget has a clear program for extending Social Security and Medicare benefits which doesn’t include cutting benefits. Otherwise known as “killing grandma.”
When economic growth is measured, the starting point tells much of the story Obama started with a financial crisis that took years to unravel. Trump got an upward-growing economy and did squat with it. Biden inherited Covid and did amazing things by any standard. Real numbers. All true. How does anyone concerned with economy vote for anyone else?
NEIL HAUSIG
Soft on Crime
Montauk
April 8, 2024
Dear David,
I’m aware Long Island is not a part of the five boroughs, therefore we don’t vote for certain elections.
For those who read the letters to the editor and live in one of the boroughs, please pay attention to any and all elections this November.
We have Carl Heastie, soft on crime, doesn’t believe punishment for committing crime. He’s against bail, and will fight the governor on changing bail reform.
There are plenty of others in Albany that should be voted out for the safety of the public, this includes Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Crime is rising in the Bronx and speaker Heastie sees nothing wrong.
Keep all this in mind when you vote.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO