Cranberry Hole Bridge
Amagansett
January 24, 2025
Dear David,
The purpose of this letter is to remind everyone that the Cranberry Hole Road bridge remains closed. The bridge is the primary access to Lazy Point. It is therefore the quickest response route for the Amagansett first responders be they fire or medical personnel.
As we all know, in an emergency every second counts. A plan must be adopted and immediately implemented by the Metropolitan Transportation Agency to replace or repair the bridge. The town board must apply pressure to make this happen and be prepared to step up with at least partial funding, if necessary. We cannot wait and see what happens. Seconds lost can cost lives, which is not an outcome that is acceptable.
Sincerely,
JACK EMPTAGE
Chairman
Amagansett Fire District Board of Commissioners
Wildfire Threat
Springs
January 27, 2025
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the editorial on the wildfire threat on the East End. Last year I sent letters to the New York State Parks Department, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and David Browne, the town chief fire marshal. I hope some action will be taken soon. I never got a reply, except from Fred Thiele who sent an email that he was working on it.
Regards,
BETTY LYND
First Five Years
East Hampton
January 27, 2025
Dear, David
It was refreshing to read our governor, Kathy Hochul’s State of the State Address and her refocus on the costs of child care and early childhood education. Child development research is clear that the first five years matter most. At present, the increased demands put on families to work more hours (erasing valuable time at home with young children) and the constantly increasing cost of child care, give families little hope for making a difference during the first five years of development.
Governor Hochul’s promises to implement tax credits for children and to work toward universal child care (much like universal pre-K) is a step in the right direction. The governor also understands that unless you are able to stimulate and incentivize businesses and nonprofit organizations to provide adequate facilities, services, programs, and spaces for child care, no amount of policy-making will change the current situation where most communities are child care deserts.
“Making New York more affordable” is a direct quote from our governor in her address to the state. We applaud her focus on child care, affordable housing, and small business incentives as key areas that will make it more affordable for our neediest families and provide the resources needed for those first five years.
TIMOTHY C. FRAZIER
Executive Director
Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center
Danny Murray
East Hampton
January 27, 2025
Dear David,
Bruce Buschel’s “Guestwords” (Jan. 23) captured the essence of the great Danny Murray. His legacy of welcoming people into Fairway has certainly been ingrained in the Fairway staff. That is another one of Danny’s good points — he cared about the people he worked with and helped to guide and teach them the importance of caring about their customers (and themselves).
To me, the coffee tastes the same, the Number 5 was just as delicious, and the Danny Murray friendliness was still present.
I’ll miss that Danny Murray smile but know that his teachings have been learned by the people he has worked with for so long.
ADRIENNE KITAEFF
Friend and Colleague
Amagansett
January 26, 2025
Dear Mr. Rattray,
We learned a few days ago of the sudden, unexpected passing of our friend and colleague Hy Abady. A fall, a broken arm, surgery, an infection, things taking a bad turn. I don’t know the details. We come to a time in our lives when troubling news seems to arrive more frequently. It’s never easy and we never become numb to it.
Hy and his partner-husband of nearly four decades, David Pearson, owned a beautiful little beach house in the Amagansett Dunes. We came to know each other through close mutual friends on the East End and in the ad world. Hy was an award-winning copywriter and creative director his entire career. For 10 years he was creative head of the Olay business at the Saatchi Agency, helping to increase the brand’s sales threefold during that period. My company, Bang Music, occasionally made soundtracks for Hy’s commercials. And as other friends of ours had done in the past, Hy and David followed our lead, visiting St. Barth every winter, staying at our favorite hotel on the beach, the Emeraude Plage, until it was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
And as you know, Mr. Rattray, Hy was a frequent contributor to The Star’s “Guestwords” column. He even compiled his pieces into two hardcover volumes under the titles “Back in The Star Again” and “Back in The Star Again, Again!”
I will admit, I was a bit envious of Hy’s writing style. In what seemed like plain, conversational prose he could make me see or experience something in a way I never had before — even the most ordinary things, whether an awkward encounter or a social observation about “life” in the Hamptons. He reminded me a bit of the writer and humorist David Sedaris in that way.
And now he’s gone, so suddenly, leaving an empty space in the hearts of those who were so close to him. In the brief obituary posted on legacy.com are these instructions, “In lieu of flowers, you may donate to God’s Love We Deliver or order a cocktail and toast to his memory. He’d like that.”
Cheers to Hy!
LYLE GREENFIELD
The Hedges In
East Hampton Village
January 25, 2025
Dear David,
The only trek from Western states made by any members of my family was when my mother and younger brother spent a week or so in East Hampton and were happily ensconced in the Hedges Inn, within walking distance of my own place. They were very happy there, and I was happy to have them there. Many thanks to all parties in the coming sale. I’ve been worried about its future. Now I know it will be in good hands and be “saved!” Particular thanks to the East Hampton Historical Society.
FRED KOLOUCH
To the Dump!
East Hampton
January 25, 2025
To the Editor:
The Town of East Hampton is considering raising the fee for recycling center permits. To do so, for the residents who pay taxes, would be awful, wrong, thoughtless, and unconscionable. I am a town resident (I live in Northwest Woods). I pay a huge yearly real estate tax. And what do I get in return?
I cannot go to the village beaches.
I do not get mail delivery. (My small post office box in East Hampton costs way more than one in Wainscott. Why?)
I do not get leaf pickup.
I do not get water authority water; I rely on well water with a costly pump.
I do not get free parking in the village.
I do not get garbage pickup. I have to pay to take my garbage to the dump! Taxpayers should not have to pay anything! Raising the already-high fee is outrageous.
JANE ADELMAN
Disturbing Subtext
Amagansett
January 25, 2025
To the Editor:
Your front-page article by Christopher Gangemi “Planning Board Will Skip Lawsuit” (Jan. 23), radiates a rather disturbing subtext. For years, billionaires and their squads of lawyers (looking at you, Mr. Catterson) have dismantled the town whenever it appeared to stand between them and highly important personal goals (like expanding a former fish takeout window in Montauk).
The machinations around the senior center reveal a different and even more bizarre spectacle, of the town board itself taking apart the town. Both Q, the Montauk fish hobbyist billionaire, and the board itself have achieved similar goals, Q rendering the zoning board of appeals an empty sign, a mere representation of an effective government unit, and the town board now accomplishing the same hollowing-out of the planning board. The question remains: What is so darn important about the new senior center that anyone who stands in the way gets run over?
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Social Studies
Amagansett
January 26, 2025
To the Editor,
Last Monday, I asked my children if they learned about Martin Luther King Jr. in school yet. They apparently have not. They also do not know what social studies is.
I remember when I was in second grade we were writing letters to Coretta Scott King. We had social studies, which is still allegedly on the curriculum at the Amagansett School. It must be the school district has more concerning matters, like bringing back the menagerie. Perhaps there was a reason the event ceased to exist in 2009.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Should Be Ashamed
Springs
January 22, 2025
To the Editor:
These times demand finding a good laugh whenever possible. For a real chuckle please direct your attention to Congressman Nick LaLota’s official website. Scroll to the section titled “Supporting Law Enforcement,” where Mr. LaLota states, “My father serving as a police officer and both grandfathers in the NYPD, I have a profound understanding of the sacrifices made by our law enforcement officers. They are the backbone of our communities, tirelessly working day and night to ensure our safety.”
Congressman LaLota should be ashamed for dishonoring his family members by supporting President Trump. Trump pardoned those who were convicted of assaulting police officers on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as pardoning Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling drugs. Upon signing the pardon for Mr. Ulbricht, Trump remarked, “It was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of Ross. The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me.”
Nice to know President Trump is willing to satisfy his appetite for revenge by pardoning a man who is responsible for thousands of deaths. Only in Trump World are those who prosecute drug traffickers denounced as scum and lunatics while the traffickers are heralded as heroes deserving pardon.
Congressman LaLota claims to “Back the Blue”? Ha!
ARTHUR GOLDMAN
Autocracy
Montauk
January 23, 2025
Dear David,
As promised during his election campaign, Donald Trump is now well on his way to establishing an autocratic regime in the United States. He is currently purging “disloyal” elements from the federal Civil Service, the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the judiciary, Homeland Security, and the military. By opening the jail cell doors for 1,600 felons who were convicted of assault and insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, he has revealed his contempt for law and order and our judicial system.
If history is any guide, most dictators start out as autocrats. Stalin, Hitler, and Putin are prime examples. Autocracy then uses its powers to use democracy to weaken and destroy political opposition and dissent and easily morphs into dictatorship.
Trump promised to “make America great again.” I have no doubt that the near future will be nirvana for the personal wealth of Mr. Trump, corporations, millionaires, billionaires, and all other wealthy sycophants like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. The plutocrats will experience a second Gilded Age and will build bigger mansions and buy bigger yachts.
However, within two years, I believe that most Americans will realize the MAGA has been replaced with the belief that America ASGA (Ain’t So Great Anymore).
When Mr. Trump gets his tariff bills passed, Americans will be paying much more for the purchases of cars, gasoline, and housing. When his deportations are finished, take a look at the price of fruit, vegetables, eggs, bacon, and beef. Many restaurants will close. And many landscaping companies will declare bankruptcy. Crime rates will continue to rise because the lowest crime rates are among undocumented immigrants.
Sincerely,
BRIAN POPE
A Gracious Manner
East Hampton
January 26, 2025
Dear David:
Amid the launch of the second Trump administration on Monday, one thing marred the new United States president’s week: a sermon of compassion from Bishop Mariann Budde, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. During her homily, the bishop asked Mr. Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
Naturally, Mr. Trump did not much appreciate Bishop Budde’s biblical plea for mercy and understanding. The president lashed out at the bishop on his own social media platform after the service. With apologies to the Episcopal Church, this should be the response to his tantrum: It is not political.
Much like those who do not want him to be president, he does not get to decide whether a bishop’s office is legitimate. Bishop Budde was chosen by the people of her diocese to be their bishop. Then, she was granted consent to be a bishop by the Episcopal Church. Calling her a “so-called” bishop is to discredit her as a person, rather than addressing that which she said that he disagrees with. It is ironic that he found the Episcopal Church legitimate enough to hold his third wedding, the funeral of Melania’s mother, and the baptism of his son, Barron. Barron also attended an Episcopal day school. Now he has an issue with how that church does things when they don’t go his way?
Nor was the bishop nasty in tone. Plainly and simply, her homily was given in a gracious manner and calm tone. Go back and listen to her speak. Now, he may disagree with what she said, but her tone was in no way “nasty.” Additionally, insulting her intelligence, rather than quoting what he disagreed with and explaining why, is the typical response of a narcissist.
While we do need to improve our immigration system, he seems blissfully to ignore that the central tenet of the Christian faith is mercy. In asking that he have mercy on immigrants, the bishop was alluding to the passage in the Bible (Leviticus 19: 33-34) which says, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” If he has an issue with this, take it up with God.
Moreover, data show that most crimes committed in the U.S. are committed by U.S. citizens. So, in response to the bishop asking him to have mercy on immigrants, his reflexive and unfounded retort that a massive deportation is necessary because a “large number of illegal migrants came into our country and killed people” is a gross misrepresentation and does not make sense. By that logic, we should be locking up or deporting all Americans because the majority of crimes were committed by American citizens.
Finally, the bishop does not owe him an apology. The Episcopal Church does not owe him an apology. All he was asked to do is what scripture directly asks all Christians to do. If he is offended by the bishop’s homily or feels that it was a personal attack, look to see if he can find anything she actually said that was out of line with Christian teachings. If he can’t, the fact he was so offended by what was said shows he knows there is truth in it.
To his supporters who also feel offended by it, the same goes.
Sincerely,
BRUCE COLBATH
Edmund Burke
Springs
January 24, 2025
To the Editor:
“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke, English philosopher, 1729-1797.
SUSAN MENU
Know-Nothings
North Haven
January 27, 2025
Dear David:
Jan. 20 inaugurated a promised era of “shock and awe,” along with Donald Trump. The often mentioned Project 2025 seems well underway. Hundreds of drastic executive orders were promptly signed with theatrical flamboyance. Of course, this could be just harmless gloating and defiance, or seen as justified pride of accomplishment. It could also be seen as a developing tragedy. Your call.
Victims of Jan. 6, 2021, and their families are already being threatened and terrorized by pardoned convicts and/or their re-energized supporters.
What troubles me more is the behavior of many congressional supporters loyal to this unusual president and his hasty use of so many harsh executive powers of questionable legal merit.
Reporters asked reasonable questions about events such as the Jan. 6 insurrection and got dismissive evasive claims of not seeing it and not knowing enough to answer, “That’s not my job,” or from the speaker of the House of Representatives, “There was a weaponization of the Justice Department. . . . [T]he president made his decision, I don’t second guess those.” These ridiculous denials avoid answering valid questions to our once-trusted politicians.
Whatever happened to a politician’s ability to provide honest public accountability and the checks and balances built into the Constitution? What about loyalty to all of their actual constituents?
Who are these jokers kidding? Doesn’t this deception sound like a revival of the defunct Know-Nothing Party that thrived from 1844 until 1860, just before the Civil War? Let’s take a moment to review how well that failed “Know-Nothing” agenda of anti-Catholic, anti-immigration, isolationism worked for them 150 years ago:
A quote from Wikipedia: “The Know-Nothing Party intended to prevent Catholics and immigrants from being elected to political offices. Its members also hoped to deny these people jobs in the private sector, arguing that the nation’s business owners needed to employ true Americans.”
The name Know-Nothing originated in the semisecret organization of the party. When a member of the party was asked about his activities, he was supposed to say, “I know nothing.” Outsiders derisively called the party’s members know nothings, and the name stuck.
Doesn’t this sound like today’s Project 2025 exclusionary policy, supported by Mr. Trump’s know-nothing apparatchiks? It didn’t work then and won’t work now. This is the sort of garbage thinking that drives a country into revolution.
The use of race, religion, and sex has no proper place in exclusionary politics, only reasonable regulations ensuring fair and equal treatment. Immigration is actually a national issue to be handled by Congress and according to well-debated, agreed-upon rules and regulations. Citizenship is a constitutional matter.
The dereliction of Congress in doing its given job is not a valid reason to allow the executive office to do their work for them. That’s clearly unconstitutional, if that matters to us as a nation anymore.
ANTHONY CORON
Just a Week
East Hampton
January 27, 2025
To the Editor:
It’s taken Vice President Vance just a week to attack the Catholic Church, one that helped elect him. I thought it would take 8 days.
TOM MACKEY
Will Not Accept
Plainview
January 27, 2025
To the Editor,
“My fellow Americans: At last summer’s Republican Convention I didn’t have the courage to repeat President Lyndon Johnson’s March 31, 1968, announcement that, ‘I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.’ ”
“But today, my guilty conscience over my sore-loser lies about my actual 2020 loss to Joe Biden requires me not to take this oath of office — but to instead say, ‘I’m sorry that I sought, and I will not accept, the American people’s popular and Electoral College votes for another term as your President.’ ”
RICHARD SIEGELMAN
True Believers
East Hampton
January 27, 2025
Dear David,
Jeff Gewert, in last week’s Star (“Regarding My Trip”), damaged his own cause and went down a self-destructive route many true believers fall prey to.
In my first letter, I suggested that his article would have been more helpful if he limited it to a narrative about his filmmaking class with young Palestinian students. Their vulnerable voices are too often forgotten. He didn’t stop there, but decided to delve into a deeply complex issue, which exposed his agenda, that, for good reason, has been condemned by a number of letter writers to The Star.
Mr. Gewert’s most outrageous point was questioning whether Hamas had enough time to commit the criminal killings, rapes, and mutilations occurring on Oct. 7, as reported. This, in the face of the fact that most of the international community has condemned and acknowledged that it happened.
The discussion has turned away from the worthwhile cause of reading about the thoughts and work of young Palestinian filmmakers to some pretty ugly stuff from Mr. Gewert’s pretty ugly agenda. It’s now become about Gewert, Norman Finkelstein, etc. Just read the letters sent to The Star — not one mentions the young students, except mine.
No inquisition could have done a better job than Mr. Gewert himself as his excesses and extreme agenda became exposed by his own words.
I did view Mr. Gewert’s shorts.
I would have been glad to connect him to the work of a prominent, well-respected Israeli filmmaker who teaches cinematography at Beit Berl College. The college is one of the bilingual Jewish-Arab schools that exist across Israel. His classes are inclusive to both Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers; his own children attend one of these schools.
Mr. Finkelstein has always been a divisive figure in the academic and nonacademic world for years; he and Alan Dershowitz have had a running feud for years. To Jonathan Wallace’s concern: I adamantly disapprove of Mr. Dershowitz’s intrusion into Mr. Finkelstein’s tenure process, and to any other professor’s tenure process for that matter.
The granting or not granting of tenure is always a political process though — especially in the social sciences. Mr. Dershowitz certainly has a right to weigh in with his concerns.
Mr. Finkelstein is not some innocent martyr. His polemics don’t fit into a serious intellectual, academic forum. Saying Israel is a lunatic, satanic state coming out of the boils of hell and offering solidarity with Hezbollah’s guerilla warfare against Israel doesn’t endear himself — thankfully — to most members of the academic community and people of good will.
Mr. Finkelstein had much to do with cooking his own goose. True believers usually do, with their extremist excesses. The president of DePaul, the university board of promotion and tenure, and dean of the college all supported a denial of his tenure, saying Mr. Finkelstein has a lack of respect for the dignity of the individual and for the rights of others to hold and express different intellectual positions. Other college administrators and colleagues where Mr. Finkelstein has taught have pretty much said the same thing. For Star readers, watch Mr. Finkelstein on Lex Fridman’s podcast of March 2024 to get a flavor of his style and rhetoric.
Many thanks to Donald Sussis and his letter quoting Martin Luther King, “Hopes Are for Peace.” Let me add to Dr. King’s statement on the Middle East question delivered by him and the Southern Christian Leadership Council in Chicago in September 1967:
“Tensions cannot be relieved — neither Israel nor its neighbors can live in peace without an underlying basis of economic and social development. At the heart of the problem are oil interests —- American policies have been motivated in no small measure by the $2.5 billion stake which U.S. oil companies invested in the area.”
“Some Arab feudal rulers are no less concerned for oil wealth and neglect the plight of their own peoples. The solution will have to be found in statesmanship by Israel and progressive Arab forces in concert with the great powers recognizing that fair and peaceful solutions are the concern of all humanity.”
The Finkelsteins, Gewerts, and other true believers of the world should not have the final word.
Rashid Khalidi, to his credit, would agree with much of what M.L.K. has written in this quote — including the corruption, greed, disregard for its people that the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamas, and Palestinian Authority have exhibited for decades. He knows and has written extensively about it firsthand. Israel too has its own cadre of true-believing demagogues that has taken it away from the lasting peace that M.L.K. talked about.
Mr. Gewert’s message is not a loving, beautiful message — he exposed himself for the fanatic he is. It could have been different but he chose the extreme route. To use a metaphor, it’s why it deserves to be thrown in the ash heap of history.
Very best,
JIM VRETTOS