Wakeup Call
Amagansett
April 25, 1998

Dear Mrs. Rattray,

This week's Star has the headline "Oil Cleanup Proceeds: Source Is Not Known." I looked for coverage of last Saturday's community event "Are We Poisoning Ourselves?" and was troubled by the lack of interest by The East Hampton Star to cover this event.

We may not know the source of the oil on the beaches, but there is one thing we do know. Our community is being drenched with poisons that we are allowing to be used even though there are nontoxic alternatives.

I have been told that Long Island ranks third in the country for breast cancer and in February the nation learned that the South Fork had the distinction of having a 60 percent higher breast cancer rate than the rest of Long Island.

Everyone has heard of the war on cancer. A war on cancer that looks to cure and treat cancer.

The connection between certain chemicals and their ability to be carcinogens, mutagens, immune stressors, and hormone-mimicking has been well-documented. The battle of prevention starts in our home and in our communities. We must stop using and exposing ourselves and our families to chemicals that are known to be immune suppressors, carcinogens, mutagens, and estrogen mimickers.

As a community we cannot allow the continued drenching of our air, land, and water with these poisons. Some poisons are coming from nuclear reactors that are not located on the South Fork, and these facilities must be permanently closed down.

The South Fork Groundwater Task Force has been formed of concerned citizens who realize that whatever goes into our air and onto our land will ultimately end up in our drinking water.

If there were a terrorist from a foreign country who was caught with chemical agents that he was putting into our drinking water, chemical agents that were known to cause serious illness and disease and even death, what would our government do? We all know it would make the front page of all the newspapers. The public would be outraged and angry. We don't need a terrorist to add these poison chemical agents to our drinking water, we are allowing it to be done to ourselves, every day.

Today there is really only one way to guarantee clean, uncontaminated underground drinking water, and that is the acquisition of groundwater recharge areas that have not already been contaminated.

No one in government or industry is presently feeling enough pressure to protect the little that is left of the uncontaminated deep water recharge areas in East Hampton. These areas must be purchased and protected for all future generations. This is a resource that cannot have a price placed upon it. We cannot allow more of our underground aquifers to become poisoned just because of someone's desire to play a game of golf or build more homes.

Cancer is our wakeup call. We have to put the South Fork in the eyes of the nation as a concerned community. A community that is working together to reduce cancer and other illnesses that have been connected to poisons in our environment. People must get involved. We must educate ourselves and our community.

Sincerely,

ARTHUR KALISKI
President
South Fork Groundwater
Task Force

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Strange
East Hampton
April 25, 1998

To The Editor

What strange reviews of late in this paper. Perhaps the reviewer has a grudge against the former partner of Caswell's. Maybe The Star has a new political agenda that eschews anything remotely cosmopolitan, favoring only the provincial "local yoke" businesses. Is it possible the reviewer grew up on Big Macs and french fries?

Is an elegant atmosphere in a local, beachy setting too much to like? Not long ago I had the best rack of lamb I have ever had, and it was at Caswell's, and last night the most delectable seafood ravioli appetizer. The service was, and has always been, unpretentious and precise. And the Caesar salad was as crisp and well prepared as any I've had in my 16 years in the business.

By the way, the second-best rack I ever had was at the Straight Wharf in Nantucket and was prepared by Julia Child. Mr. Yashinosky is certainly one of the most capable chefs, and deserves a reviewer with either no personal agenda, or some experience in the culinary arts.

JOHN BEUSCHER

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