Letters to the Editor: 03.19.98
Leader Is Chosen
Sag Harbor
March 16, 1998
Dear Editor,
This letter comes from the Pharaoh family - direct descendants of Wyandanch, Uncle Stephen Talkhouse Pharaoh, great-grandparents King David Pharaoh and Queen Maria Pharaoh, Great-Aunt Princess Pocahontas Pharaoh - last person born on the Montauk reservation in 1878 - Uncle Chief Wyandank Pharaoh, grandparents Prince Ebenezer Pharaoh and wife, Harriet, parents, Prince Samuel D. Pharaoh and wife, Mary, and our beloved sister Queen Olive L. Pharaoh, who died in 1996.
It is the choice of the royal family to decide upon who shall be the leader of the Montaukett people. We the living heirs of the Pharaoh family have chosen and emphatically support Chief-Grand Sachem Robert P. Pharaoh, son of the late Queen Olive L. Pharaoh, in his continuing efforts to attain Federal recognition for the tribe.
Respectfully,
WILLIAM R. PHARAOH
Patriarch of the Pharaoh Family
CAROLYN M. PHARAOH
PEGGY PHARAOH BUTLER
The Royal Family of Montaukett Indians
A Challenge
Montauk
March 16, 1998
Dear Helen,
Those who saw the News 12 edition report on Robert Cooper's press conference are now fully aware of the farce being performed before the public. The motivations of this tiny group of people were quite apparent. Their statements clearly contradict previous denials and raise doubts about every aspect of their story. No Montaukett Indian would subject himself or our people to the ridicule that attended that event.
Your articles last week exposed the plan for a big casino. It also exposed Mr. Cooper's most destructive character. His press release showed a tremendous lack of judgment and was in the poorest of taste. It also showed a lack of basic understanding of Montaukett history. No Montaukett would have used that article from 1879 about Stephen Talkhouse's funeral to prove any point. The article is filled with racist stereotypes prevalent during that period and not reflective of our people.
The irrelevant, misleading, and downright wrong information contained in Mr. Cooper's release - tinged as it was by the use of odd racist undertones - is not something that any Montaukett I have ever known would have issued. A more disgraceful piece of trash has never been presented by anyone purporting to have the interests of the Montaukett Indians at heart.
The process for tribal recognition is one that requires individuals, especially those who form the council, to provide substantive documentation of one's heritage. I recently submitted my own information and, since rumors have been swirling around Mr. Cooper's own genealogy, I began to check his. What I found has led me to doubt whether Mr. Cooper can show a clear link to the Montauketts. I could not make the necessary connection of Mr. Cooper to Maria Fowler Pharaoh Johnson Banks or her son, Junius Leo Banks.
Perhaps there is a plausible explanation. But since the Bureau of Indian Affairs has certain standards that must be met, I challenge Mr. Cooper to produce birth records and marriage licenses showing that he is a true descendant and member of the Montaukett Tribe. Since he has taken potshots at others, Mr. Cooper should be more than willing to produce the required documentation.
In trying to prove that he is some sort of "chief" of the Montauketts, Mr. Cooper may have forgotten that one must first show, by documentation, that one is truly a Native American. For Mr. Cooper to raise all this fuss and bother, and to descend to the depths that he has descended to, if he knows, as I believe, that he cannot show any real connection to the Montauketts, would make Mr. Cooper pitiable, contemptible, or both.
Yours,
JIM DEVINE
Disinformation
East Hampton
March 13, 1998
Dear Editor,
Hillary Clinton's charge that the Monica Lewinsky matter is a right wing conspiracy is a very clever piece of disinformation.
The whole Lewinsky affair is actually a Democratic plot designed to close the gender gap by increasing the President's popularity among men.
The aim of the plot is to divert American men from Clinton's real flaw - his lack of manliness in dealing with the country's real challenges - chaotic health care, outrageous military expenditures, huge disparities of wealth, regressive taxes, scapegoating of seniors, corrupt campaign financing, and corporate welfare. To achieve this, the conspirators have tricked right-wingers into emphasizing the President's only male virtue, a lusty taste for sexual exploration with a consenting adult partner.
The right-wingers were sucked in. The plot, aided by Bob Dole's face-lift, is working. Check the polls. More and more men are supporting the President.
Sincerely,
RICHARD ROSENTHAL
Vision And Guts
Montauk
March 8, 1998
Dear Helen:
Like many people, I greatly admire much of what Mayor Giuliani is doing to revitalize New York City. Of particular note are his numerous courageous and successful efforts to improve living conditions for residents in the Big Apple by going after so-called "quality of life" violations of all kinds. Sadly, a growing number of similar issues here in East Hampton worsen each year and are going entirely unaddressed. Consider just three:
1. Ten years ago, the number of floodlights that violated the Town Code's 25-year-old prohibition against unshielded outdoor lighting visible across property lines from roads could be counted on two hands. Today there are hundreds of offenders and our dark rural night sky is well on its way to being lost forever.
Application of the light law would be relatively easy if the town's code enforcement people occasionally worked at night! An even easier thing the town could do would be to include a letter in the next annual property tax mailing, reminding all homeowners and businesspeople of the existence of the law and the need to comply with same. This would probably end two-thirds of the violations within months through voluntary compliance.
Individual follow-ups by code enforcement could then focus on remaining problems. However, numerous suggestions made over the last five years for such an informational mailing have elicited no response from town officials.
2. When the Town Zoning Code was revised in 1984, the Town Board took notice of conditions UpIsland and even at several locations along County Road 39 in Southampton and included the following language: "Any motor vehicle habitually parked so that markings, signboards, merchandise, images, etc., positioned thereon or located therein as business advertising may be viewed from an adjacent street or highway shall be deemed to constitute a 'sign' [for which a permit is required]."
At the time, nothing like this actually existed in East Hampton. Now, however, a number of such situations are painfully evident along our main roads. Two cases which arose just within the past year alongside the Montauk Highway (one in Amagansett and one in Montauk) are particularly tacky. However, requests to town officials that enforcement of the 1984 vehicle sign law be started have thus far brought no action. Can Jericho Turnpike be far behind?
3. We are in yet another building boom in our town. A visit to almost any neighborhood will show numerous houses under construction or in renovation. But there is a new twist this time.
It seems that on many of these projects, the contractors are now working seven days, right through the weekends. No doubt good for their bottom line. Not so good for everyone else. The sounds of heavy trucks, earth movers, cement mixers, hammers, power saws, and portable generators now punctuate the weekends in many East Hampton neighborhoods where year-round residents, second-home owners, and seasonal visitors - all of whom themselves work hard all week and have made substantial financial investments in their homes - are simply trying to relax and enjoy the beautiful place where they live.
As I write this letter on a Sunday morning, an UpIsland demolition crew is gutting a residence down the block - adding emphasis every minute or two by throwing lumber out of the windows into a nearly empty steel dumpster.
Forgive me for being old-fashioned, but I think these men should be home with their families. What they shouldn't be doing is stealing from the occupants of five or six nearby homes in this community a quiet Sunday otherwise to be enjoyed with family and friends.
It would be a simple matter to amend the East Hampton noise law (Town Code Chapter 106) to prohibit all audible construction noise on weekends (leaving painters, paperers, plumbers, spacklers, and electricians completely unaffected, incidentally). This would provide a modicum of relief to the residents of what is supposed to be, after all, a rural resort community!
A potential side benefit would be at least some reduction in the number of slow-moving trucks clogging the Montauk Highway on the weekends. Such a simple step - combined with the others I've mentioned - would help us hang onto at least a little bit of what has made our town such a special place to live, and seems to me the least the town fathers and mothers can do for the taxpayers.
What remains to be seen is if anyone around here has anything approaching Rudolph Giuliani's vision and guts.
Sincerely,
RUSSELL STEIN