Editorials

Among his greatest blunders, President Donald J. Trump’s decision to assassinate the top Iranian army commander may prove to have the longest lasting consequences, both in the Middle East and in this country.

Far be it for us not to comment when a bit of oyster news crosses the transom.

It may be self-serving for us to speak about the role of the local press in today’s closed-loop media ecosystems, but several responses from readers last week to an editorial about the sharp rise of anti-Semitism and its ties to a tone set by the president got us thinking.

Fires in two huge South Fork houses, one in Bridgehampton on Dec. 19 and another in Water Mill on Saturday, should remind residents and visitors of the tremendous commitment of our volunteer firefighters and ambulance personnel.

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. is now former Mayor Rickenbach after stepping down on Dec. 20, closing out 27 years in the post. Mr. Rickenbach first began service when he joined the village Police Department in 1958. He became a village trustee in 1988. He has seen the village in times of boom and bust and ably oversaw and balanced the desires of residents first and foremost with summer visitors and businesses. This has been no simple task, but Mayor Rickenbach handled it with aplomb, and with the continued support of the community.

No matter what the project is, there are always going to be people opposed to it. It is just human nature to watch out for one’s own interests, to suggest that new infrastructure and essential services are fine as long as they are put somewhere else.

As 2019 rumbles to an end, it is fair to think about the year to come and to make wishes about things that we think should change and things that we would like to see improve.

As evidenced by the police-blotter stories in the South Fork newspapers, spray-painted swastikas have turned up with some regularity over the years here — at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor, written in shaving cream on Newtown Lane in East Hampton on Halloween, and on a soccer team photograph at East Hampton High School, among other places.

Something had to be done. The North Main Street bridge had only 10 feet of clearance beneath it, and the one at Accabonac about three inches less than that.

A new sewage treatment system may be installed at a public restroom at the edge of Herrick Park in East Hampton Village using money from the community preservation fund, which should give both environmentalists and good government observers pause.

Why the United States has remained in a state of war in Afghanistan for 18 years is not clear. It is not clear to the American people. Nor is the purpose clear to U.S. military and Foreign Service leadership, much less Congress. We were lied to.

As the House Judiciary Committee takes over the process of impeachment looming over the Trump presidency, one central figure with strong East End ties will almost surely not appear at any hearing, though his actions are close to the core of the allegations. This is a person whom many on the South Fork social scene have sat next to at a benefit or lifted a glass with at an informal dinner. Unlike Paul Manafort, who has family here and had owned a Water Mill house that helped him launder millions in illegal foreign payments, Rudolph Giuliani, a part-time Bridgehampton resident, could be considered a regular on the circuit. How he went from an apparently mild-mannered former New York City mayor and Hamptons summer hobnobber to someone making a mockery of both the legal profession and democracy itself is a matter of speculation.