Still Remembered
Wainscott
July 15, 2019
Dear Editor,
My family and I wanted to thank you for including my grandfather’s picture in your Recovering the Past Star contest. It meant so much to my family to see his picture in this past week’s paper, and especially a picture we had not seen before. My grandfather has been gone now going on 10 years and we strive to keep his memory alive in our hearts. And while I didn’t win the contest, it’s wonderful to know that he is still remembered by the people of this community.
Many thanks,
BETTY DANKOWSKI
Amagansett
July 11, 2019
Dear David,
I’m sure I am not the only Amagansett resident who is angry at the U.S. Postal Service for starting to charge for post office boxes. The U.S.P.S. does not deliver to street addresses in Amagansett, so post office boxes are the only way for us to get our mail.
The U.S.P.S. is clearly discriminating against Amagansett residents and businesses with this move. Elsewhere in East Hampton, mail is delivered free of charge. Isn’t that why we pay postage? post office boxes are much cheaper for the U.S.P.S. — no need for a fleet of vans, no letter carriers with benefits and pensions — but now they are penalizing us instead of being grateful that we are all prepared to drive to the post office to pick up our mail.
When I complained at the post office, I was told that I could have a free, small post office box — one that is smaller than the one I now have, and which would of course come with a new P.O. box number. So I would have to do a change of address to everyone, at my expense, including changing my address on checks, credit cards, driver license, etc. Chaos!
I never asked for a post office box that size. It was assigned to me years ago by the U.S.P.S. It was their choice, not mine.
I have written to Senator Chuck Schumer about this but have not yet had a response. Does anyone have any ideas about how else we can protest this outrage?
Best wishes,
PETER GARNHAM
Amagansett
July 11, 2019
Dear David,
Thinking about Bonac, class of 2019, our recent high school graduates. I had some random thoughts I’d like to share with them.
First, when one has dreams, it’s the struggle to get there that really counts. When my son Scott (class of ’77) had a dream about something called Health Hampton a long time ago, a dream that the town was not ready for, he never gave up. Nor did his wife, Holly, class of ’81, working together at his side.
Keeping the dream alive resulted in the Club, that extraordinary project that not only gives so many people in town pleasure and respite from the cares that come with living, but also provides jobs so that our people can stay in town and not be forced to look elsewhere.
Second, to the class of 2019, I know it will seem tough sometimes to stick with what matters to you. But hang in there. Whatever happens, you will know you tried and were true to your dreams, true to yourself.
What was Polonius’s advice to Laertes? To thine own self be true, bub. (Well almost!)
Sincerely,
LONA RUBENSTEIN
Greenport
July 13, 2019
To The Star:
We saw “Safe Space” at Bay Street Theater last week and along with most viewers, agreed that while the play was as stale as croutons, most of the cast mediocre at best, it was worth seeing for one reason: the extraordinary talent of Mercedes Ruehl.
I wonder if your reviewer (Star, July 11) has a personal grudge against Ms. Ruehl, singling her out twice for an “uneven performance,” or is it his lack of talent as a critic?
I assume that his I.Q. and his age must be of a match to be so wrong about the play and the leading lady.
PAULA TRACHTMAN
Springs
July 14, 2019
Dear David:
Just wanted to emphasize the importance of Bay Street’s current production “Safe Space.” Political correctness, here in the United States, is on a collision course with both academic freedom and the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee. This play brings the issue into sharp relief, with outstanding performances by the entire cast, and in particular Mercedes Ruehl, as president of a P.C.-besieged university.
Kudos to “Safe Space” and company!
SANDY RAPP
Amagansett I.G.A.
Amagansett
July 11, 2019
I navigate Montauk Highway to make
the difficult left into the parking lot;
fast forward through freezer aisles;
queue up to check out. Who’s this?
Ten feet away? Alec Baldwin?
We all act hard to show we’re not
not-looking at your Saturday morning beard,
flip flops, dull blue shorts, schleppy T.
You stoop over the customer service counter,
sign a tab, perhaps for a quick getaway.
But for me to be so close to the precipice of
immortality, of the possibility of your seeing
me making you incognito is so-so.
So, when done paying, don’t stop
to linger at the end of my checkout
With your cart ranked with boxes of Cheerios,
and whatever it was that customer service
slipped into brown bags.
Please limp away, your right hip locked.
Push your cart like a walker ahead of you.
Load up your Mercedes, which,
Alec Baldwin, you didn’t have to park between
my 13-year-old Prius and the cart port.
Just leave. I’m ramming my Visa
into the chip port,
Gathering my extra virgin olive oil
into the crook of my right elbow,
grabbing the plastic-wrapped banana bunch,
and two cans of organic navy beans.
I take neither plastic nor paper.
I’m saving the planet — and me from having
to return a cart so near to you,
Alec Baldwin, behind your wheel.
Oh, what’s taking you so long
to finish Tweeting on your phone?
I’m going as slowly as I can,
assuming your limp. Please Cheerio
and drive away! Or I’ll turn,
I’m afraid, into Tina Fey, rapping
at your window for my cue, my lines.
SUSANNA RICH
East Hampton
July 15, 2019
Dear David,
I am writing to publicly acknowledge and thank the East Hampton Democratic Committee members who worked with diligence during the recent primary campaign to encourage registered voters to participate in the election process. Their time and energy was immensely helpful to all nine trustee candidates and Andrew Strong, the Democratic candidate for justice.
The East Hampton Democratic Party chairwoman, Cate Rogers, has been an energizer — replete with purpose, initiative, goals, and follow-through action. Ms. Rogers has demonstrated that she is a dynamic and inspirational leader. Civility, respect, and harmony — not divisiveness — are the key principles of the committee.
As it is often said, “It takes a village” I am proud to be a member of a group of concerned and fair citizens who appreciate the notion that when we work together as a team, we can (and do) accomplish a great many goals that benefit the whole of our cherished community. Thank you, committee members; I truly appreciate working with all of you!
Sincerely,
SUSAN MCGRAW KEBER
Ms. McGraw Keber is an East Hampton Town trustee seeking re-election. Ed.
East Hampton
July 15, 2019
Dear David:
It its brochure, Win With Wind, claiming itself to be an independent advocate for Deepwater Wind’s South Fork Wind Farm, says this: “Will this hurt our fishermen? After listening to commercial fishermen, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management made sure that wind turbines will avoid Cox’s Ledge, a valuable commercial fishing area.”
I wrote last week to say there is not a shred of truth to this, and there is not, as the State of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council has in fact suspended Deepwater’s review process unless and until it can address Rhode Island’s concerns about impacts on fisheries.
Bonnie Brady, one of our East Hampton Fusion Party candidates for town board, who knows as much about the project as anyone in East Hampton, took the further step of writing to the bureau (B.O.E.M.) to inquire. She wrote, “There has just been a bunch of misinformation Re B.O.E.M moved the S.F.W.F. off of Cox’s Ledge that purely by looking at the boxes (on the project site map) can be seen not to be exactly true.”
B.O.E.M. wrote back to say, “Yes, that information is not true.”
In a recent fund-raising letter for Win With Wind, one of its founders, Debra Foster, wrote, “There are some legitimate questions about impacts to our commercial fishermen, landing of the 12-inch cable and cost to our utility bill.” But she then went on to say, “Unfortunately, some residents are publicly spreading misinformation and untrue statements.”
It is unfortunate, but the primary purveyors of misinformation and untrue statements have been Win With Wind itself and the other advocates for Deepwater. Without having done the homework, without having the answers to the “legitimate questions,” they have been doing their best to convince everyone that there are no legitimate questions that deserve an answer because human-induced climate change is a reality and doing this project, in this place, in exactly the manner proposed by Deepwater, is necessary to save our grandchildren from a bleak future.
I would like to think that Debra Foster’s acknowledgement that there are legitimate questions about fisheries impacts, the cable landing site, and project costs is sincere, not just a rhetorical ploy to appear reasonable. If so, it is time for Win With Wind, the Energy Sustainability Committee, and the other advocates of “this project, as is, right now” to say publicly that they have been mistaken, that the critics have quite a few very good points, and that the legitimate questions have to be answered properly for the project to proceed or be modified if necessary. Assemblyman Fred Thiele was willing to admit that he was mistaken in his early, unqualified support for the project and to his great credit, said so publicly.
Then they can rejoin the rest of the community to consider just how those questions can be answered. The first major flaw in the process to date is that the town board made a deal with Deepwater to land the cable at Beach Lane long before the work was done. This is unacceptable. It has led Deepwater to believe and behave as though a thorough assessment of the realistic alternatives is unnecessary.
I have been reading Deepwater’s “alternatives analysis.” It is highly flawed, in most cases simply concluding that a given alternative is “not viable” without any explanation of why not or of the particular conditions that favor one alternative over another. Advocates of offshore wind need to join the critics in saying that this is not the way to go about it.
The second major flaw in the process is that the town has no capability to analyze the thousands of pages of Deepwater’s technical submission to the Public Service Commission, or to introduce contrary evidence about fisheries, cable landing, and costs, even though it is entitled to do so as a party to the proceeding. It means nothing to be a party to the P.S.C. process if there is no willingness or ability to participate in a meaningful way.
Advocates of offshore wind need to join the critics in saying that the town must immediately retain the professional assistance it needs, regarding fisheries, engineering, electric power transmission, and all else that affects us, to analyze Deepwater’s submission and prepare the submission we need to protect East Hampton.
In that manner, we can reach a successful conclusion that serves the people of East Hampton, and Deepwater Wind can cease to be a source of communal division and strife. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Sincerely,
DAVID GRUBER
Wainscott
July 12 2019
Dear David,
The recent World Cup Women’s Soccer win by the United States was denigrated by the disgusting, foul mouth of Megan Rapinoe. In addition, after a 13-to-0 win over Thailand, she chose to do an “all about me” stunt racing up the field to show the world who she really is.
The other insult was to England, with the “tea sipping.” Then her true vulgar persona surfaced with the foul language.
The icing on the cake was when New York City gave them a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. There in front of a large crowd of cheering fans, many of them young women and children, she grabs the microphone and the first thing out of her foul mouth was the M-F bomb! The idiot mayor stood in admiration. Of course the complicit media was in full bloom by ignoring this.
However, she chose to add another disgraceful thing during the final match, that she dragged the American flag on the ground and dropped it as if it were a headband. It was picked up by another player and carried off. Again, ignored by the complicit media. “A hero”? How about a crude, showboating all-about-me jackass who proved to the world that she is the queen of classless idiots.
She has the right to kneel in protest and not stand for the National Anthem. However at least do not compound the behavior by opening your foul mouth. Not condemning this will lead one to assume that this is acceptable behavior for the world to see.
Yours Truly
ARTHUR J. FRENCH
Montauk
July 15, 2019
Dear David,
Whenever I sit down to write, there is always some anxiety as to how I can get my point across with the hope that just one person who reads my letters will have their curiosity peaked just enough to look further into what I am writing about.
Well today this anxiety has been greater than usual. The 13th of July has come and gone and so has the third apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. There is just so much information on this apparition that I am going to give the outline Father Andrew Apostoli used in his book “Fatima for Today. The July Apparition, part one: the first secret — the vision of hell. The July Apparition, part two: the second secret war, communism, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The July Apparition, part three: the third secret penance and the sufferings of the church.
As a result of the children talking about the three secrets, the local authorities threatened all three children with boiling them in oil unless they told them what the three secrets were. All three children stood firm miraculously and did not give up any of the three secrets. Remember these children were between the ages of 7 to 10 years.
Oh, if we only had a small percentage of faith that these three little children had, what a better place this world would be.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
VINCENT BIONDO
Montauk
July 11, 2019
To the Editor:
I read your comments regarding the census in today’s paper.
I didn’t read the census but I thought we asked questions regarding occupation, skin color, etc. What is wrong asking about citizenship?
Thank you,
RICHARD ZDYB
Rochester
July 9, 2019
To the Editor:
Would someone of national stature (preferably one of the Democratic Party candidates for president in 2020) please tell the people of our country how full of baloney the national conservative news media is? The part that I find to be the most pathetic and laughable is how they play all of us and have the nerve and gall to pretend that their “think tanks” (which outnumber liberal/progressive think tanks by many times) produce “scholarly,” “objective,” “unbiased,” and “scientific” research when almost all of them are actually phony and fake right-wing propaganda factories/mills primarily funded by corporate billionaires and deca-millionaires, many of whom want to abolish all of the social safety-net programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Sincerely,
STEWART B. EPSTEIN
East Hampton
July 14, 2019
Editor:
The U.S. is one of the rare places in the world where people debate capitalism or socialism. It is a base, ridiculously stupid, and fraudulent debate, designed to confuse people and obfuscate the real issues the country needs to deal with. So, when someone tells you to watch out for socialism they probably have their hand in your pocket and it’s not sex that’s on their minds.
Because everything in the U.S. is about money. Nothing matters more than money. Not love, God, sex, happiness, freedom, democracy. Nothing, nada, zippo. So, when the new progressive Democrats are criticized by their Republican counterparts and many Democrats for being too progressive, don’t think ideas or philosophy. Think money.
Almost every Republican politician and too many Democrats are tied to the purse strings of corporate America. They may take different approaches as to how their fidelity is expressed, but in the morning they all wake up in the same bed.
Consequently, the debate is really about capitalism and to what degree it is regulated. Regulation is all that separates the American people from complete and utter devastation by corporate America. For example, all of our homes would have asbestos. Our fish would have mercury. Our meat would have insects. (See botulism.) Our cars would have no emission controls. Our water would rarely be potable, etc., etc. Because all of these regulations cost money and corporate America exists only to make money.
So the problem with the new Dem progressives is that they get the money thing and understand that the inequality of wealth in the country is by design. There are large entities that are willing to screw any and everyone to gain a few more dollars. Sounds horrific, but it’s true.
What the progressives also get is that controlling the political process one controls the entire economic process. Look at Citizens United. By allowing corporate America to put unlimited amounts of money into the electoral process it allows them to control who gets elected, and la de dah.
Look at the fraudulence of the Voting Rights Act. The Dems loved it because it would enhance greater minority voting and help them. The Repubs hated it because they believe it’s easier to win an election with fewer voters. But it’s really about economics and how we regulate corporate America, if at all.
So, we track back to the new progressive women. They are the American dream. Everything that we believe is good in the country. Pelosi was one of them before she was co-opted and corrupted. She seems better than her Republican counterparts (who doesn’t?) but not by enough. Incremental garbage in, garbage out changes don’t solve problems in our lifetimes.
Epstein is the perfect analysis. Clinton, Trump, and too many of their pals. Our real white trash raping and molesting little kids. White trash in, white trash out. Acosta resigns. A sacrificial lamb to protect the real bad guys.
A.O.C. and her crew are our future. They speak truth to power. We have to protect their backs.
NEIL HAUSIG