Road Safety
Springs
August 18, 2024
To the Editor,
Many thanks for your lead editorial, “New Reality on the Roads,” in The Star (Aug. 15). We, as a town, as hamlets, as neighbors, and as individuals must address the growing threat to our safety on local roads. With a growing year-round population and an increased use of our roads by pedestrians and in vehicles of all descriptions, we need to take a hard look at road usage and what can be done to ensure the safety of everyone using them.
The Springs Citizens Advisory Committee, of which I am currently chairperson, has had road safety on the agenda for months, but our suggestions have proven either too costly, illegal, or untenable for a variety of reasons. I understand. We are neither town planners nor engineers. The cost for some of our proposed capital projects would be staggering. But we would urge the town to identify some of the most dangerous roadways and determine ways they can be improved. In other words, make a plan. The plan would not be able to be implemented in its entirety right away, but there would be a townwide road map for what needs to be done.
Individuals can lead by example by staying within speed limits, coming to full stops at stop signs, and signaling every turn when they are in a car. When on foot or other vehicle, they can observe the appropriate protocols. And wear brightly colored reflective clothing, not just at night but whenever they are on the roads. This one behavior modification would be a giant step in reducing accidents.
If you would like a reflective vest, please contact me and I will make sure you get one free of charge.
Thank you,
LORING BOLGER
Ruin of Our Town
East Hampton Village
August 19, 2024
To the Editor,
The great French film director Jacques Tati examined the entire car culture in a late film, “Traffic.” The word itself always conjured up various hilarious moments in the film. No longer. Now, the word “traffic” for me only conjures up East Hampton.
In this year when everything changed, now to speak of the “village” of East Hampton simply dates one. As a charming village, East Hampton has ceased to exist, and traffic has a great deal to do with that.
We have lost our lovely park, which now looks like the athletic facility of a well-endowed private college. Another section can now only be considered an event space essentially devoted to commerce, to selling and buying.
But getting back to traffic: The town has clearly stepped aside, and posted speed limits seem like cruel jokes as they are regularly and intensely flouted. There are existing methods for controlling the flow of traffic, like policing speeders mechanically and sending the resulting tickets to the car’s licensed owner in the mail. This technology is fully developed, but the powers that be here seem loath to do the right thing, and cars speed along knowing they will never be ticketed.
Look at the speed with which vehicles fly down Main Street in Amagansett, with only a single protected crosswalk. Surely this is an accident waiting to happen.
Headlights were invented to allow private vehicles to see their way through darkness, and the capacity to dim them allows drivers to use their brights on the open roads but still dim them for oncoming cars so that those drivers are not almost blinded by the oncoming brights.
Well, local drivers seem to have no concern in the world for their fellow drivers, and the brights are always on, blinding oncoming vehicles. The brights now are used as a signal of the expense and power of the high-end cars which crowd our main streets. It seems the more expensive the vehicle, the greater the intensity of the brights. I’ll leave explanations of that to the psychiatrists.
In any case, traffic has become the bane of our existence and the ruin of our town.
FRED KOLOUCH
Nobody Has the Guts
East Hampton
August 16, 2024
Dear Mr. Editor,
Hope all is well at The Star. I was thinking about you a few weeks ago as I was cruising in Fishers Island Sound. There is just something special about that run east after you pass the Dumplings. I hope you have your motor by now.
So, the letters have been very interesting. I see the biggest complaint — and even an editorial — is about traffic. we have reached the tipping point, so to speak. There is a real answer: Curb development and crack down on the short-term rentals. You know, the beds-and-breakfast, vrbo.com, and the like. Case in point would be the party house in my neighborhood. Ten short-term rentals by Aug. 4. Take three to four cars per rental, that’s approximately 40 cars moving in and out of the neighborhood. That’s just one street. Multiply that by all the roads in East Hampton. That’s a lot of unnecessary traffic.
I guess local government can’t figure out that more bedrooms equals more people equals more traffic. The point is, nobody has the guts to do anything about it. Just like that dead raccoon in the road, it keeps getting run over till nothing is left.
On a lighter note, as far as writers go, you really have some doozies. Upon close examination, your boys Colbath, Pope, and Wallace all suffer from “social distortion.” It’s a fairly new condition. One of your more consistent and knowledgeable writers is Bea Derrico. You should give her a space on the editorial page.
As always, best regards.
America and Americans first,
JEFFREY PLITT
Soviet Style
Montauk
August 17, 2024
Dear David,
What happened to the Democrats of years ago, willing to work with Republicans to make America great? Where did they go?
Today’s dog-eat-dog is unbelievable. Kamala Harris gave her first major speech yesterday and O.M.G. it’s straight out of the Marxist book.
While the people behind her were applauding her every word, they were not listening or absorbing her words. A $1.7-trillion spending plan — pay attention, we have a national debt topping $35 trillion.
Another bright idea of hers imposes federal price controls on greedy corporations she claims are price-gouging, not thinking that to stay afloat businesses are passing on their higher costs to consumers. Kamala doesn’t understand that companies must raise prices to cover costs in order to stay in business. All this because her administration can run two trillion-dollar deficits. For her, it’s spend, spend, spend. Inflation would definitely climb.
Price controls have never worked anywhere, ever. They will eventually cause shortages, which lead to higher prices, and consumers will be worse off. Any time the government takes over it’s always a big failure.
In plain English, this Soviet-style plan to federally set grocery prices would likely lead to the worst supply shortages since the 1970s.
Who is running the country? Biden and family sit on the beach every day. Kamala is in hiding with her left-wing choice for a vice president?
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
The True Heroes
East Hampton
August 17, 2024
Dear Editor,
My name is Mary Mott, and I am currently the chief of the East Hampton Village Emergency Medical Service. I have been the chief of the department since Jan. 1, 2023. I am an active volunteer and for 36 of my almost 38 years I was a member of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association. It is from this perspective that I would like to comment on the headline article “A Final Blow to Ambulance’s Old Guard” (Aug. 15).
In November 2022 I was elected the chief of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association at a legal department meeting, having a full quorum of its membership. At that time, the E.H.V.A.A. was the response agency, meaning that it responded to 911 ambulance calls, and it was also the name of the financial account in which donations to the department were deposited.
Due to anger over the reorganization and renaming of the E.H.V.A.A. response agency by East Hampton Village, there was a group that chose not to accept the restructure and transition into the newly formed East Hampton Village E.M.S. Some members quit the response agency, and some chose to remain in the E.H.V.A.A. social agency, of which all exempt members can participate. The total number of those who left the response agency in protest was used over the past two years, in the newspapers and social media, to imply that the E.H.V. E.M.S. would no longer be able to provide emergency medical care to all those who called 911. The end result, according to their account, was to show a helpless and ineffective department incapable of responding to 911 calls.
Unfortunately for the community, you were hearing a one-sided perspective that suggested that there were not enough E.M.S. providers to adequately respond to the emergencies within our response district, the response time was slow, and that somehow public safety was in jeopardy. That picture could not have been further from the truth.
My role as the chief executive officer of the E.H.V. E.M.S. did not change with the new name two years ago. And it did not change as a result of municipal reorganization. I oversee the daily operation of the department, which is the response agency for the East Hampton Village, East Hampton Water District, and the area called Northwest Woods. This response area of approximately 31 square miles is covered by three advanced life-support ambulances, two first responder fly cars, 34 volunteer members, and 12 paid providers. This hybrid response team of volunteer and paid providers consists of drivers, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics who respond 24/7 to the almost 1,500 calls per year that are dispatched through the East Hampton Village dispatch for our department. The East Hampton Village E.M.S. is the busiest and largest ambulance department on the East End.
At the end of this story, we should note that the true heroes of our community are the current members of the E.H.V. E.M.S., those dedicated volunteers who in 2023 responded to the community’s 1,484 911 calls. At present, in 2024, the department is on pace to pass that total, with over 900 calls as of Aug. 18. The mission statement of the ambulance has never changed during this fiasco; the mission was always about service to the people of the community by volunteers who live in this community. And that was accomplished with the giving of caring and competent pre-hospital emergency medical care for all those who called 911.
The dedicated members, who stayed, made a choice not to hold the “company line” being told by those who walked out. They chose the path of peaceful change and the continuation of their personal commitment to helping members of the community. Not the direction of diversion, anger, and distraction. These volunteers are the ones who should be recognized and given the headlines in the news for their strength of conviction and purpose, not the disgruntled employees who quit and then tried to sway public opinion with a false narrative and false assertions in order to meet their own agenda and needs. One would think that out of an alleged “486 combined years of service,” at least one person could have suggested compromise and peaceful resolution.
The final ruling in the courts confirmed that the poorly thought-out scheme from a social group posing as active ambulance department members was, on many levels, illegal and self-serving from the start. Even now, as their fabricated stance has been revealed and unraveled, their claiming of victimhood in the news has become the only path that they can possibly take which might gain any community support.
The following quote, “It was a stunning end for the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, a 50-year-old organization that had provided uninterrupted ambulance service to the village and surrounding areas during its tenure,” gives an ambiguous portrayal of the current state of our local E.M.S. The East Hampton Village E.M.S. never stopped providing caring, competent, and timely ambulance service to our response area, despite the restructure and name change. And, after 38 years of responding as an East Hampton volunteer ambulance member, this particular “old guard” will continue to focus on helping my community and participate in the future growth of East Hampton Village Emergency Medical Service.
Sincerely,
MARY MOTT
For My Sanity
East Hampton Village
August 14, 2024
Dear East Hampton Star,
I want to address the frankly inane situation of having a noise ordinance that only applies to half of the problem. After many years of begging the village to limit noise, we got an ordinance which states that landscapers and lawn care can only use loud equipment from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. I also believe that they are not allowed to work after 3 p.m. on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. But this is only half the problem, because none of this applies to construction work. My neighbors are having some major construction done on their property and the workers begin hammering very early, often before 7 a.m. The work continues all day, sometimes well after 7 p.m., though this has become rather rare. They also work all day on weekends. It’s rare to get a Saturday or Sunday which is peaceful and the only noise is kids having fun or neighbors enjoying each other’s company.
Frankly, my experience going through official channels has left a bad taste in my mouth because I don’t feel that anyone listens to any voice other than the Almighty Dollar. I feel that it’s only fair to ask, for many reasons besides the noise pollution, that development and construction be strictly limited to the off-season between Sept. 1 and May 1. I’m not talking about necessary maintenance or repairs but anything which entails more than two or three days of loud hammering, cutting, or grinding noises. Failing this, I think that construction noise should at least have the same limitations as that of yardwork. At the very least, those of us who have to live here deserve to be allowed to enjoy our homes without having the constant distraction and discomfort of loud construction or yardwork.
I know this will probably fall on deaf ears, as usual. This letter is probably doing more for my sanity than it is toward getting anything done. It saddens me to see what the beloved East Hampton has become. It would be nice to be able to shop in town instead of having to go to Southampton or resort to Amazon for necessities. I still love it here and I care very deeply about our village and the wider town. I just wish more people would think about livability and quality of life instead of how to squeeze as much money as possible out of others. That seems to be the common local pastime for those who can actually pull the strings. Thanks for reading.
With hope, but not much,
MATT HARNICK
Leisurama
East Hampton
August 16, 2024
Dear David,
The Montauk Historical Society’s immersive and interactive exhibit “Leisurama” at the Carl Fisher House is must-see viewing. The exhibit is the accurate depiction of the inside of one of the actual Leisurama homes from the 1960s, a total of about 200 which were built, many at the Culloden Shores on Block Island Sound. The exhibit contains actual furniture, appliances, and dinnerware from a Leisurama house. The exhibit is supplemented by products, games, and other ephemera from the 1960s. The Montauk Historical Society and the over 40 individuals and businesses that supported the exhibit should be thanked for their work. You can thank them by attending the exhibit: Thursday through Monday, 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. through Labor Day.
HUGH R. KING
East Hampton Town Historian
Spent to the West
East Hampton
August 13, 2024
Dear David,
While stuck in traffic yesterday, a common occurrence for us all, I had time to think. A dangerous thing, I know. My mind began to crunch some numbers I’ve never put down on paper before. Just how much money is being earned in East Hampton and sent out of town on this never-ending, year-round, road-clogging trade parade? So, I put my eighth-grade math to work and came up with the following.
It’s roughly 35 miles from Wainscott to the start of the Sunrise in Southampton. If you filled that space with cars, it would take 250 cars per mile (each car 20 feet long with room between), so that space requires 9,000 cars per mile. If, as we know, the trade parade lasts three to four hours, we refill that space three to four times, for a total of some 25,000 to 35,000 cars each morning and afternoon.
If we assume half of those cars are just ordinary people going about their daily way, that leaves 12,000 to 17,000 cars with workers who come here to make a buck and go home to spend it. If we assume there are two employees per car/truck, that’s 25,000 to 35,000 paychecks earned here and spent to the west.
If each worker is earning $50,000 a year that’s a total of $1.5 billion dollars earned here and spent to the west!
Of course, this does not take account all of the secondary roads that are also clogged with cars. The Sag Harbor Turnpike (114), Noyac Road, Scuttlehole — every mile of pavement from East Hampton to Southampton also sees its fair share of money headed west.
Even if I am off by a factor of 10, there are hundreds of millions of dollars earned here that are spent west. Why? Because we have no housing for workers and have to import them from more affordable areas. Which in turn benefits from our money.
So, two quick conclusions. If you ever wondered why when I was a kid in East Hampton, we could have a vibrant Main Street year round, with eight restaurants/bars and locally owned shops, it was because whatever money that was earned here was spent here. Second, if you want to grab a piece of that trade parade money and re-anchor the Main Streets of the East End, we have to provide worker housing. Which is just one more reason why our project to transform 350 Pantigo Road into the first project of its kind is so important.
KIRBY MARCANTONIO
—
Mr. Marcantonio is the head of Whalebone Workforce Housing, a private enterprise. Ed.
Accomplished Leader
East Hampton
August 19, 2024
Dear David,
I am writing to endorse my friend Sarah Anker for New York State Senate, First District.
Sarah Anker, a Democrat, served as a Suffolk County legislator for 13 years. During that time, I had the opportunity to meet her when former legislator Bridget Fleming encouraged and helped me to bring my proposal of a ban on the intentional release of balloons to the Legislature. With a unanimous “yea” vote, I attended the bill’s signing with Ms. Anker, then-Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, members of the Surfrider Foundation’s Long Island chapter, Adrienne Esposito of Citizens for the Environment, and the Sierra Club’s Long Island chapter.
When I discovered Sarah had “timed out” as a legislator and announced she would run for the New York State Senate this past spring, I was thrilled.
Sarah Anker is highly dedicated to her community and has been a stellar public defender for the environment, veterans, senior citizens, and unions — she grew up in a union household and has consistently been endorsed by teachers’ unions, the American Federation of Labor, building trades, and Suffolk County law enforcement. A Democrat, Sarah is known to confidently work with both parties to pass legislation that provides common-sense legislation for her constituents. Sarah’s endorsements are many, including Planned Parenthood, which is crucial for women’s health care needs.
Sarah Anker’s campaign slogan is true about her . . . she works hard to help people and is tireless in her efforts. Voting for Sarah Anker in November is a vote for “People Over Politics,” and an experienced, enthusiastic, and accomplished leader who will represent Suffolk County’s First District.
Please visit Sarah’s website for more information about her focus on issues, goals, and her many achievements, sarahanker.com.
P.S. As an illustrator/cartoonist working on finishing a children’s book, I was impressed to learn that Sarah is also the author of three children’s books, which I now own!
All the best and thank you,
SUSAN MCGRAW-KEBER
A Reading
Amagansett
August 19, 2024
Dear Mr. Rattray,
I hope you’ve been well, enjoying these final weeks of summer. Good news: This letter is not about my birthday. It was lovely, thank you. Nine-hundred-twenty-four months. Damn. But I feel fortunate. Pretty healthy, though my back is sore from a lot of shoveling. Some arthritis there, which sucks. Still, so many of our close friends and family members with serious illnesses, some passing away unexpectedly. We only get so many months, don’t we, Mr. Rattray? I’ll take what I can get. (Oops, sorry. That was sort of about my birthday. Oh well. . . .)
I’m writing because I feel the need to do a bit of self-promotion. I realize that The Star has a policy of not reviewing self-published books. Or so I’d been told when hoping the paper would acknowledge a couple of my previous volumes. The title of this new one is “Uniting the States of America — A Self-Care Plan for a Wounded Nation,” and I think it’s the most useful thing I’ve ever written. Definitely the most difficult. I was honored to have guidance and a cover blurb from Frank Sesno, professor at George Washington University, political analyst, and author.
So here we go: I’ll be at the East Hampton Library on Monday for a reading and discussion that begins at 6 p.m. Books, signed, will be available for those interested. I hope you’ll come, Mr. Rattray — the library is, what, a hundred feet from your office? “Uniting the States of America” is available at BookHampton and can be ordered from bookbaby.com (which printed the book) in hardcover and e-book. Go to their drop-down menu and hit “Bookshop.” It’s also available for preorder on Amazon.
Finally, I’ve dedicated the book to our newest granddaughter, Ava Marie Scarpulla, and to all of our grandkids. Ava will be my age in 2098 — the idea is that we better leave this country, and planet, in a good state for her and for all the ones who come after us. That’s our responsibility. Anyone interested in learning more about the book, or the author, might visit lylejgreenfield.com (the publicist made me do it).
Sincerely,
LYLE GREENFIELD
Fattening Profits
Springs
August 16, 2024
Dear David,
Seniors make up more than 22 percent of the year-round population of East Hampton. We depend on Medicare to pay for most of our health care costs. As our younger working residents are doing now, we paid all our working lives into Medicare so that we could have this health care safety net.
But if Donald Trump is elected, his Project 2025 plan would shred that safety net. He’s denied any association with Project 2025, but the guy who wrote its plan for Medicare is the same guy who oversaw Medicare under the last Trump administration: Roger Severino, Trump’s Health and Human Services director. And newly revealed video shows that Project 2025 is, in fact, the plan a Trump administration would follow.
Project 2025 would make the privatized version of Medicare—Medicare Advantage the default option for seniors. Traditional Medicare gives seniors choice of doctors, but M.A. limits choice — and adds onerous prior-authorization requirements and denials of care that have led more and more doctors and hospitals to drop out of M.A. networks.
Furthermore, M.A. is wasteful and expensive, costing Medicare $84 billion dollars more in 2024 alone than what the program would have paid under traditional Medicare.
The Medicare trust fund is now on track to become insolvent by 2036. Making profit-driven M.A. the default option would likely drain it long before then. In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration is proposing to extend its solvency to 2061 with a series of modest but effective measures.
This week, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden announced a slew of more prescription drugs whose prices will be slashed 40 to 80 percent because Medicare can now bargain with drug companies over price. Vice President Harris says she intends to enable Medicare to negotiate to lower prices of all prescription medicines. But Trump’s Project 2025 wants to block Medicare from negotiating drug prices.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act caps out-of-pocket drug costs for people on Medicare. But Project 2025 wants to repeal the I.R.A., thereby raising the cost for nearly 19 million seniors and people with disabilities. That would cost New York seniors an average of $390 more per year for their medication.
In sum, Kamala Harris’s plan for Medicare would boost the program’s financial health while slashing drug costs to seniors. Project 2025’s plan for Medicare would restrict older Americans’ access to care, threaten Medicare’s financial health, and cost taxpayers millions while fattening the profits of private insurance companies. The choice is clear.
FRANCESCA RHEANNON
Aging Molecules
East Hampton
August 18, 2024
To the Editor,
Bad news for the East Hampton Town Board and 2R Architects staff related to their respective gerontophobia, fear of aging. A new study from Stanford University has been published in “Nature Ageing” (Aug. 14). The research confirmed that major age-related changes happen in men and women in their early 40s and again in their early 60s.
“We’re not just changing gradually over time. Sixty is definitely not the new 50! There are some really dramatic changes,” said Prof. Michael Snyder, M.D., a geneticist and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and senior author of the study.
The study, which tracked thousands of different molecules in people ages 25 to 75, detected two major waves of age-related changes at around ages 44 and again at 60. These age-related changes hit men and women alike. The findings could explain why spikes in certain health issues including musculoskeletal problems, cardiovascular disease, cancers, autoimmune diseases, and sensory changes (sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell) occur at certain ages.
The new, exhaustive study analyzed random participants who donated blood and other biological samples every few months over a span of several years. Scientists discovered four distinct “age-types,” showing many different kinds of molecules in participant samples including RNA, proteins, and metabolites, as well as shifts in the microbiomes.
While we are not all the same ethnically, racially, or genetically we age in irrefutably similar ways, according to Dr. Snyder.
What does that mean for the design of a senior center? The architectural and interior design of spaces used by men and women ages 60-plus are a unique, sophisticated science, not a cookie-cutter fantasy!
Sincerely,
NANCY R. PEPPARD, Ph.D.
Napeague Bay
Amagansett
August 18, 2024
To the Editor,
In the Aug. 8 edition, an editorial spoke about “alone time” and visiting the bay. We’d love to, if we could access it safely. Unfortunately, Bay View Avenue remains blocked, and the view of the bay is blocked with an illegal noncompliant structure and obstruction.
As the bay flows into Napeague Harbor, you can no longer see the bottom. The water appears filthy and sometimes is documented with high and medium levels of bacteria.
In other local goings-on, the Amagansett School Board and superintendent broke their own policies July 9. Thanks again for taking my comments into “consideration.” By their own policies, each board member, superintendent, and district members should be removed immediately. I think I’ll send them another public comment, perhaps in a red envelope.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Self-Anointed
Montauk
August 15, 2024
Dear David,
This letter is directed to address recent letters denigrating Jonathan Wallace by David Saxe and Mitchell Agoos, the self-anointed defenders of Jews on the East End.
First, you do not represent Jews on the East End. What you do represent is a reprehensible attempt to play the antisemitism card to justify the murder of 40,000 Palestinian civilian men, women, and children in Gaza by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces. You fail to understand that the criticism of Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition’s murderous campaign is not antisemitism, it is pro-humanity. How many more hospitals and schools do you want to be bombed with the I.D.F. “precision” that appears to kill mostly children and their mothers? And what does this bombing contribute to freeing hostages?
When folks in the U.S.A. criticize their government, they are not reviled as anti-American; they are respected for practicing their freedom of speech.
Sincerely,
BRIAN POPE
Deft Competence
Springs
August 14, 2024
Dear David:
“The Apprentice” launched in 2004, and its highly edited episodes portrayed Mr. Trump as a brilliant and wealthy businessman, while ignoring his past failures. Since 2015, capitalizing on his falsified business prowess, Mr. Trump offered a picture of America — one of chaos and carnage — that does not reflect reality. Using language to enrapture a disaffected population, he promised that he would bring back manufacturing, close tax loopholes, promote infrastructure, and make health care cheaper and better. He also promised sexists and racists that he would roll back the gains women and racial and gender minorities had made since the 1950s. His administration would again champion centrist, white, heteronormative men.
He never delivered on his economic promises: Manufacturing continued to decline, he cut taxes only for the wealthy and for corporations. “Infrastructure Week” became a national joke. Rather than expand the Affordable Care Act, Republicans repeatedly tried to kill it, offering nothing in its place. More than a million Americans died due to his administration’s botched handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Mr. Trump did deliver on his cultural promises. His Supreme Court justices gutted what was left of the Voting Rights Act. And, tragically, but as Mr. Trump promised, it erased a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. This has, in turn, led to cruel and disastrous state policies undercutting women’s most fundamental reproductive health needs. So, now, in 2024, the Republican Party is little more than an antidemocratic vehicle for Christian nationalism.
In stark contrast, over the past four years, Americans have seen the Biden-Harris administration actually do the hard work of governing, completing the empty promises Mr. Trump made. Manufacturing has surged under Biden, with factories under construction and about 800,000 manufacturing jobs created. Unemployment is the lowest it’s been in decades and wages are growing. The Biden-Harris administration went after tax cheats, recovering more than $1 billion from high-income, high-wealth individuals and scoring a $6 billion judgment against Coca-Cola for back taxes. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges. A record high number of people have enrolled in affordable health coverage plans since January 2021. A bipartisan effort led to legislation that would have led to the most conservative immigration reform in decades, policies endorsed by the Biden-Harris Administration, had it not been scuttled by Mr. Trump.
The difference between empty rhetoric and the hard work of governing was illustrated when the Biden-Harris administration pulled off a complicated multicountry swap that freed a Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovich, along with 15 other Russian-held prisoners. In another empty boast, Mr. Trump repeatedly claimed that only he could get Russian president Vladimir Putin to release those prisoners.
What the Biden-Harris team has shown is deft competence in balancing the economy as the U.S. emerged from the worst of the pandemic. And it has fought to reverse the extreme social policies advocated by Mr. Trump. While it is still a work in progress, so far it has worked: The U.S. came out of the pandemic with a stronger economy than any other nation. And, slowly, progress is being made on the social front.
We, the American voters, have the power to make things even better. The enthusiasm for the Biden-Walz ticket is no fluke — it’s a rejection of the misery and fear promised by more of Mr. Trump. The Biden-Walz ticket deserves your vote. And while we’re at it, let’s send our congressman and Trump toady, Nick LaLota, packing and elect John Avlon to his seat in Congress.
Sincerely,
BRUCE COLBATH
Let’s Debunk
East Hampton
August 16, 2024
Dear David,
Someone once said to me, “Everyone lies.” I disagree. Do we all tell little white lies, like not admitting you left the toothpaste messy and uncovered after brushing your teeth? Probably everyone is guilty of something like that. “Wasn’t me.” The someone above was referring to duplicitous behavior. “Everyone does it.” Still no. Not everyone has the character to be a cheater, cheater pumpkin-eater. I admire honesty and would rather the cold hard truth than a lie to lessen the blow.
Why do people blatantly lie? Some are sociopaths. Others habitual liars. Some narcissists. Others gossip-eaters. I want to wonder with the die-hard rosary-bead wearers, what happened to you? No, really, when did you forget the whole “act like Jesus” thing you preach? Matthew 19:18: “Jesus said, thou shalt not bear false witness.” In other words, don’t freaking lie. Exodus 20:16: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Does this lie you tell help anyone? Is it necessary and nice? So why repeat it?
Have you strayed so far from reality that you cannot see straight anymore? Or brother, sister, are you afraid? A wise sage (counselor) once told me, “Everything is based on one thing — fear. Our anger, our righteous indignation, our judgment of others, our hangups, our abandonment, our retelling our same story. Fear. For when we are afraid, we may lash out.” Whoa. A banquet for thought, I remember thinking at the time. So, someone screaming like a maniac who has lost the plot is afraid? Maybe only afraid of losing power and control. It is the egotistical insecure person’s playbook, after all.
The lies being spread through television ads and online about Harris and Walz are atrocious. They are way off base and vitriolic. So let’s debunk some of them.
One. No, Harris did not free a multiple-convicted criminal while prosecutor. Wasn’t her. Look it up.
Two. No, neither Harris nor Walz is a “dangerous liberal extremist.” That is schoolyard name-calling. What then is the MAGA ticket, boys and girls? A dangerous far-right autocracy to come; an extreme nightmare before your very eyes. See how this goes? If you’re gonna talk s***, then expect it to come back at you.
Three. Nobody “let Minneapolis burn.” The protest, originally peaceful, turned riotous, yes, nobody is disagreeing. “The state should have moved faster, I take that responsibility,” Governor Walz has said, repeatedly. Something you will never, ever hear Trump do — admit to any wrongdoing of his own, i.e., lying that the election was stolen when he lost, and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on our Capitol, which he fully incited and fueled to the hilt. I could go on and on, but you gotta wake up, people. Tick Tock. . . . The other dictators abroad in bad places are watching. And waiting. We are out of our league, compared to their capacity for hate of us. But we’re getting there, hating one another. We’re good haters now. Haters ‘R’ Us is now America. Not my America. But apparently yours, if you elect a felon and America-hater like Trump. “Third world country. That’s what we are.” Really, Mr. Empty Suit? You should go try living in one. Putin will build you a hockey rink and a bordello too, if you like.
Try not to let your head get full of crazy thoughts you’re fed daily by Fox and company and Touched Trump and Vacant Vance. No one is going to give anyone an unwanted abortion or a tampon to your son, okay? But should your daughter need either, both will be available, hopefully. The girls sports teams use the boys bathrooms when they’re playing games. Stop imagining anything else. No one is “sterilizing teens.” Or performing abortions in the late months, or in the ninth month, ever. That is called “the baby died in utero, and they are removing the poor soul for burial.” Try having a little more compassion for people who are suffering the loss of a child. What would Jesus think? If you never had to consider terminating a pregnancy for health reasons of mother or baby in utero, or both, thank your lucky stars. Or God. It’s hurtful and very unchristian of you to judge another’s painful decision. How about we concentrate on the children already here, who need health care, safe schools, child care, and love. Try loving your neighbor. We all have to live together. That’s the Jesus teachings I took out of a Catholic upbringing. The dogma you can have, it has served no one I know. But it has closed minds.
Honestly,
NANCI LAGARENNE