The Go-To Place Springs February 5, 2015 Dear David, Cries of joy were heard all over Bonac and beyond when the good news about the Springs General Store appeared in last week’s Star. The store is just as much a community landmark as is the Pollock-Krasner House, not just because Lee and Jackson shopped there. Under Kristi Hood’s outstanding stewardship, it’s a living monument to local enterprise, as well as the go-to place for great home cooking and local gossip. I’m delighted that I can continue to send our visitors there. Congratulations to the new owners for their sensitivity to the General Store’s history and their commitment to its future prosperity. With gratitude, HELEN A. HARRISON Director Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center Precarious Position East Hampton February 9, 2015 Dear David, I would like to thank Chris Cohen of Lazy Point for being kind enough to take the time to track me down with a phone call to inform me that our 80-foot work barge had dragged anchor and was precariously positioned in the west inlet of Napeague Harbor last Friday. Despite checking on the barge several times a week, I was unable to on Friday, and would have missed out on the opportunity to reposition it until Sunday or Monday. Who knows where it and its 600-pound mushroom anchor would have been by then! Thanks again to Chris, and take this as a reminder to behold the power of Mother Nature! Sincerely, John (Barley) Dunne Director East Hampton Shellfish Hatchery Cleared Our Highways East Hampton February 9, 2015 Dear David, I would like to give a big thank-you to Steve Lynch and all the employees of the Highway Department who have cleared our roadways of ice and snow. Great job. NAN FRENCH Happy Hearts East Hampton February 9, 2015 Dear David, On behalf of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, I want to thank all who helped make our annual Happy Hearts celebration this past Saturday a wonderful success for the young children of our community. The volunteers, including board members, parents, and students from the Ross School, and friends of the East Hampton community all helped to create a festive and happy gathering. As always, we are committed to providing the very best for young children and their families and look forward to continued efforts that support our mission. Wishing happy hearts to all, MAUREEN WIKANE Director Care With Kindness Springs February 9, 2015 Dear Editor Our community is blessed and fortunate to have a veterinarian like Dr. Nora Klepps living and working in our town. Her normal practice is to make home visits. When the declining health of Vail, our beloved 17-year-old terrier, rapidly became an emergency on a recent Sunday evening, Dr. Klepps made herself available and came to assist and relieve his suffering. I thought afterward what a disaster it would have been to have had to manage this emergency while traveling an hour to Riverhead. In her quiet way, Nora dispenses great care with kindness, compassion, and sensitivity, and all of this at affordable rates. She has been there day or night for our dogs. Dr. Klepps is a community treasure. CAROL BUDA Big-Box Businesses East Hampton February 4, 2015 To the Editor: Just as our thoughts and ideas lead to language and our words create actions, community concepts like “home” are codified into laws that protect and defend our common good. Such is the draft legislation to address the zoning of formula businesses. All who understand the connected values of our local economy and environment should applaud these ideas and support efforts for this legislation. Have you ever experienced a sense of homesickness while in your hometown because of the slow but consistent advance of radical change? When your local economy and environment begin to degrade and the basic reasons for living in your hometown evaporate, this profoundly disturbing psychological experience is called “solastalgia,” coined by an Australian philosopher, Glenn Albrecht, combining the Latin root for comfort (solacium) and the ancient Greek word algia, for pain. It is our unique and beautiful environment that attracts tourists and second-home owners to our towns in East Hampton, in turn supporting our local businesses. Locals and tourists alike love our beaches and bays and value our locally owned restaurants, stores, and services. Together, we support our local farmers, fishermen, landscapers, builders, and artists; we all love the local characteristics, which, together, we agree to call our home. When formula businesses, a k a big-box stores or global franchises, are accepted into a local economy without consideration, the resultant homogenization diminishes and finally eliminates our ability to source local products and services. When our hometown looks like everywhere else, and later, when formula stores proliferate in our hometowns like an invasive species displacing our local economies, the fundamental connection to our hometown is broken and can never be returned. East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby’s ideas for formula store legislation are right-minded, and the inherent difficulties we will face translating those ideas into verbiage for our common economic and environmental well-being should not be a detriment to enacting these laws, which foster economic growth while preserving the local characteristics, which is how we define our home. ALEX MILLER Immense in Scope Montauk February 9, 2015 To the Editor: I am truly alarmed by the Army Corps beach project for Montauk, as detailed in last week’s East Hampton Star. It is scheduled to begin in March — in just a few weeks! The project has recently changed, vastly expanded, and not been given due consideration. It is now immense in scope and will have a tremendous deleterious impact on our area. It will do far more lasting harm than good. Please, town board, reconsider. Do not rush into this. SARAH CONWAY Can It Be True? Sag Harbor February 7, 2015 Dear Editor, When you think of the years it took to get the East Hampton Town Board to give any consideration to the thousands of complaints from the greater population concerning the damaging effects of noise and air pollution resulting from activities at the airport, you have to ask, can it be true? Is the current town board really going to take corrective action? Right now, it looks like they will. Just think. A town government that responds to the will of the electorate. After fighting for such attention for many years, I’m beside myself with joy. I want to thank the town board for taking this on in a very open and honest fashion. They are an example of how government should behave toward its people. I want to ask the board to please pass the current proposal as it stands to get the required results. Any compromise to what is necessary would weaken its intended benefit and put the people at odds with the town and diminish the trust you’ve worked so hard to establish. Sincerely, GENE POLITO Strong Legislation Noyac February 9, 2015 To the Editor: I am a longtime resident of Noyac in the township of Southampton. I am also president emeritus of the Noyac Civic Council. Just like the over 500 members of the N.C.C., I have been negatively affected by the excessive noise caused by the helicopters flying in and out of East Hampton Airport. I have been an advocate for minimizing the noise for over the last dozen years. So I am grateful that the work of so many people here on the East End is finally culminating in giving the East Hampton Town Board the opportunity to pass strong legislation to mitigate the noise problem, an action that promises to return to us the peaceful, quiet enjoyment of our homes. I am in support of the legislation. Thank you. CHUCK NEUMAN Without F.A.A. Money East Hampton February 8, 2015 Dear David, A historic moment in town history occurred last week, when the town board, through Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, announced its proposals for access limits to protect the public from noise during the 2015 season! Finally free from Federal Aviation Administration grant assurances prohibiting their ability to do so, this town board has exhibited the critical piece of energy needed to bring relief to the thousands of residents suffering from disturbing aircraft noise impacts at all hours of the day, night, and time of year — the political will to do what is right! The Cantwell administration has taken this problem very seriously and we applaud Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s commitment to operating a safe airport that does not place an undue aircraft-noise burden on the non-flying public, local economy, and wildlife so dependent upon our peaceful environment. Freshman Councilwoman Burke-Gonzalez, who ran on an airport noise-abatement campaign platform, is delivering on her campaign promise to return the peaceful enjoyment of homes and properties to our communities, a remarkably rare event in the political arena. The town board’s commitment to operate the airport without F.A.A. grant money and the surrender of home rule those encumbrances bring ensures financial support of a safe, well-maintained, local airport for recreational use, one that no longer imposes unbearable burdens all over the East End. This town board is poised to bring about the most dramatic improvement in quality of life for many thousands of East End residents. They have done a remarkable job getting to this point and need our continued support to finally ensure peace and quiet in our communities. Most sincerely, KATHLEEN CUNNINGHAM Quiet Skies Coalition Its Silly Friends Wainscott February 9, 2015 Dear David, I wish to congratulate the supervisor and the East Hampton Town Board for announcing restrictions proposed at East Hampton Airport that should, once enacted, bring meaningful reduction of noisy aircraft, effectively reducing noise in and around the airport. I especially wish to thank Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez for her leadership, skillfulness in bringing people together to collaborate, and her knowledge and grasp of the complicated issues surrounding these proposals. In the past I stated noise abatement measures are failed policies. The two airports that substantiate this claim are Santa Monica Airport and Naples Airport. At East Hampton Airport we saw voluntary noise abatement measures utterly fail. The only way to reduce noise is by simply reducing noisy aircraft, as the town now proposes. Since it has the ability to do so after the grant assurances expired on Jan. 1, the town can implement restrictions. I am completely confident the restrictions once finally adopted will be a vast improvement over the wild and crazy operations of dirty, noisy helicopters and other noisy aircraft types. I am now concerned about the “Friends of East Hampton Airport.” Who are these friends? What type of friends are they? When the Friends first organized, their address was the same address in New Jersey as Jeff Smith and Eastern Region Helicopter Council. After several media reports and legal filings, it appears Friends are a coalition made up of Sound Aircraft, the fixed base operator at East Hampton Airport; Analar Corporation of New Jersey, Helicopter Association International of Virginia, Heliflite Shares of New Jersey, Liberty Helicopters of New Jersey, Shoreline Aviation of Connecticut, and the Eastern Region Helicopter Council. These are the Friends of East Hampton Airport! Its silly Friends are the very folks who caused the noise problems at and around the airport in the first place. It’s silly Friends “tortured” and “tormented” (the words of Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Tim Bishop) the folks all over Long Island. It’s silly Friends divided our entire East End community into two bitterly opposing sides over the noise caused by operations at the airport. It’s silly Friends don’t vote in East Hampton, nor in the surrounding communities. It’s silly Friends don’t participate in our community. It’s silly Friends don’t give back to our community. It’s silly Friends only bring noisy, dirty helicopters to wreak havoc on our community. It’s silly Friends are suing our town and suing the F.A.A. It’s silly Friends will most likely cost the town millions of dollars in legal fees that otherwise should be spent improving the airport. It’s silly Friends are filing complaints simply because our community wants the peace and quiet we once had. It’s silly Friends want to stop the folks on the East End to return to the peaceful enjoyment of their own property. It’s silly Friends don’t care about the quality of life of the folks on the East End. When I really think about it, it’s silly Friends are just carpetbaggers from New Jersey whose only interest is to fly folks on their magic flying carpets. It’s silly these folks are willing to give Friends over $500 to fly their magic carpets just so they arrive in 30 minutes, damn the folks on the ground. If it wasn’t so silly it would be crazy. With friends like that, East Hampton Airport doesn’t need enemies. FRANK DALENE Outsider Coalition East Hampton February 9, 2015 To the Editor: Your Feb. 5 story “Aviation Group Sues Town” clearly demonstrates the falsity of the accusations being made against the Town of East Hampton by that coalition of out-of–town and out-of-state aviation business interests calling themselves “Friends of East Hampton Airport.” Their propaganda asserts that the town is remiss in failing to provide for the safety of airport operations and claims that the town board’s recently proposed program to reduce the East End aviation noise pollution plague will harm the local economy and require taxpayers to support the airport. Your story pointed out that the town has been acting forcefully on taxiway repair, taxiway lighting, security fencing, an automated weather observation system, and removal of tree obstructions to landings. And the analyses by the town’s team of advisory committees have demonstrated that the town’s proposed noise-control program will not compromise adequate airport financing for safety and capital improvement, will not burden taxpayers, and will not harm the local economy . Not emphasized in your story, however, was that the bogus “friends” of the airport are nothing but avaricious business interests from elsewhere that want to continue exploiting our community. For example, the lead plaintiff in their lawsuit is a front for the Eastern Regional Helicopter group, based in New Jersey. Another, also based in New Jersey, is Heliflite Share, LLC. None belong to the East End. Their claims are as spurious as their coalition’s name. The town board’s new airport noise control program will finally succeed in bringing relief to suffering East End citizens despite the predatory outsider coalition. CHARLES A. EHREN JR. Residents in Agreement Orient February 8, 2015 To the Editor: The East Hampton Town Board should be commended for its thorough, objective, and transparent process in reviewing the aviation noise issue. The board’s recent proposals will significantly mitigate noise pollution while allowing residents to utilize the airport for recreational purposes, as it was originally intended. I expect their proposals will be widely supported and soon become law. Many do not realize the extent of the noise pollution problem and I thought a North Fork homeowner’s perspective might be of interest. We bought a home in Orient in 2013, having vacationed there since the 1970s. In our due diligence, I asked about helicopter noise, knowing that it was a problem around Mattituck Inlet. I was told that Orient only gets an occasional helicopter. Shortly after I became an East End homeowner, The Suffolk Times reported that the Eastern Regional Helicopter Council had proposed routing half of the flights following the north shore route (over Long Island Sound) to transition to East Hampton Airport over the Orient-East Marion Causeway. Their reason was that the causeway has low population density. In a cynical calculation, the aviation industry concluded that flights over the causeway would generate the fewest noise complaints. To his credit, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell fought this “solution,” noting that it would simply ruin the quality of life for a whole new set of North Fork residents. The causeway is two miles long and quite narrow. Most of the plots are two-plus acres, so there are few homes. It also boasts some of the most beautiful scenery on the North Fork. Last summer there were four active osprey nests. It also has Dam Pond, Oysterponds Creek, and the area’s only public beach, all while bordering the Sound and Orient Harbor. It is no wonder that significant causeway acreage is protected by the Peconic Land Trust. Yet this is the very land the aviation industry deemed suitable for 24-hour-a-day helicopter transitions to East Hampton Airport. This is like a group of aviation officials declaring Central Park suitable for flyovers since no one lives there. I quickly got involved with the Town of Southold’s helicopter committee and attended town meetings in East Hampton. The meetings were a pleasant surprise. Residents from both forks consistently framed noise pollution as an East End issue, noting that route changes would not solve the problem. As long as commercial helicopters utilized East Hampton Airport, certain residents would not be able to enjoy their homes and yards. It’s a rare issue on the East End where the vast majority of residents are in agreement. This issue is complex, and I have been very impressed with the process by which East Hampton’s town board publicly weighed the issue and put together its recommendations. Please voice your support for its proposals today so you can actually hear your own voice while outdoors this summer. ADAM IRVING Quiet Skies and Peace Riverhead February 8, 2015 To the Editor: I would like to send my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Kathee Burke-Gonzales, and the members of the town board for the heroic stand they have taken regarding the noise pollution that has been plaguing the East End for over 10 years. The noise got worse and worse as the years progressed until it reached a crescendo this past summer. They were relentless, and so was the Town of East Hampton. I further commend the town board for not accepting Federal Aviation Administration funds and putting the airport back into the hands of the town where it belongs. The proposed legislation will go a very long way to provide quiet skies and peace over the East End. I applaud all of you for a job well done. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and the hearts of many North Fork residents. JANICE LoRUSSO Those Suing the F.A.A. Wainscott February 8, 2015 Dear David: It appears the helicopter owners and operators will not go quietly. Thanks to a courageous, thoughtful, and competent town board concerned more about quality of life for the entire East End than lining the pockets of a few inconsiderate out-of-towners, we are very close to enacting reasonable restrictions on the noisiest helicopters and other commuter aircraft who come and go 24/7 at East Hampton Airport. Having let certain Federal Aviation Administration grant assurances expire and preparing to exercise our right as proprietor of East Hampton Airport doesn’t seem to sit well with those from away who care only about the mighty dollar, so they have decided to sue the F.A.A. For the record, those suing the F.A.A. (not the Town of East Hampton — yet) consist of: • A helicopter service located in Princeton, N.J., Analar Corporation • A helicopter company registered in Delaware and located in Newark, N.J., Heliflite Shares L.L.C. • A helicopter company located in Kearney, N.J., Liberty Helicopters • A seaplane service located in East Haven, Conn., Shoreline Aviation • A helicopter lobbying organization located in Alexandria, Va., Helicopter Association International • The Friends of East Hampton Airport, a collection of these same individuals and a few more with contact information in New Jersey. These are but a few of the nameless, faceless profiteers who have taken the summer months from homeowners and taxpayers across Long Island in the name of convenience for a few and profit for themselves. It is important that residents of East Hampton and neighboring communities let their elected officials know that efforts to end the aerial assault above are appreciated. Please attend the East Hampton Town Board public hearing scheduled for March 5 at the LTV studios. Also, you can communicate your support directly to the East Hampton Town Board at HTOcomments@ ehamptonny.gov. Once again, it’s time for the community to make the noise so that helicopters and seaplanes do not. Yours truly, TOM MacNIVEN Suffered for Too Long Sag Harbor February 6, 2015 To the Editor: Bravo! We finally have a town board ready to protect the East End of Long Island from noise pollution! The Sag Harbor Citizens Advisory Committee (Southampton) congratulates and thanks the East Hampton Town Board for its decisions on controlling noise and pollution being caused by the commercial aircraft that have hijacked the airport. We have suffered for far too long under the constant barrage of noise pollution caused by helicopters, seaplanes, and jets buzzing our neighborhoods and communities. We fully support the town board’s efforts going forward! BOB MALAFRONTE Chairman Sag Harbor C.A.C. To Sleep Undisturbed Laurel February 7, 2015 To the Editor: I wish to thank the Town Board of East Hampton for deciding to control the noise and air pollution caused by commercial aircraft that have been disturbing our way of life on the North Fork. I look forward to being able to sleep undisturbed and to enjoy having dinner outside this summer. The town board has renewed my faith in democracy and they have my full support. MARGARET PISANI Living With Deer Montauk February 8, 2015 To the Editor, January was a nightmare for East Hampton’s deer. Hunting was relentless on town lands. This was because the town board wasn’t content to hold the standard weekday shotgun season. It opened considerable land to bow hunting and allowed both bows and shotguns all month long, including weekends. For deer in the village, January brought a different assault. The White Buffalo firm captured and sterilized 114 females, removing their ovaries. If the deer were pregnant, their fetuses were taken out as well. White Buffalo plans to return in February to resume its surgical operations. And next year may see a repeat of this January’s events. Some people favor expanded hunting and sterilization because, in their view, the East Hampton deer population has been exploding. But the two existing scientific surveys, conducted in 2006 and 2013, indicate a sharp decline in our deer population. Are there now too many deer? Neither the village board nor the town board has commissioned a new survey to see. I worry that January’s expanded killing and sterilization began wiping out a declining deer population. Our local officials should conduct a valid deer population study before proceeding any further. They also should commission impartial, scientific research on the extent to which deer are actually damaging vegetation. Perhaps such studies will indicate that the deer population does in fact need to be controlled. But even so, there is a method that is more humane than expanded hunting or sterilization. It is immunocontraception. It is less invasive than sterilization and it isn’t permanent. The vaccine lasts two or three years. As we consider ways of living with deer, it’s important to remember that they are not just population statistics. Like us, they are individuals with families and emotions. And each deer wants to live as much as we do. We have a moral obligation to behave respectfully and compassionately toward them. BILL CRAIN President East Hampton Group for Wildlife Thiele Is a Spokesman East Hampton February 8, 2015 Dear David, PSEG-LI is at it again. And our assemblyman, Fred Thiele, is calling them on it. Long Island has one of the highest utility rates in the country. We don’t need another 3.5-percent increase to fund a utility that is neither transparent nor open to conversation. Fred has been in the people’s corner for a long, long time. He hasn’t ignored any facts, as Jeff Weir, the public relations man for PSEG-LI, would want you to believe, and he’s certainly not a relic. Fred understands that things have not been made better for PSEG’s customers across Long Island. We don’t need to be funding an archaic overhead transmission line that is leaching toxic chemicals into our air, soil, and groundwater. And we don’t need to fund their fancy brochures informing us of how great they are, because they aren’t. It’s time to stop squeezing the ratepayers’ pocketbooks. No more installations of toxic poles, and no dangerous Smart Meters to monitor us. PSEG has spent the last year bulldozing its way across Long Island, destroying our neighborhoods, and endangering our lives and the environment. The lack of consumer oversight is of great concern to Fred. Governor Cuomo should be reinstating a citizens’ oversight advisory committee. In addition, he should be giving the Public Service Commission authority over PSEG-LI. Isn’t it ironic that the P.S.C. has oversight authority in every area of the state except Long Island? What’s up with that? Assemblyman Thiele challenged PSEG when he said that “the utility has done nothing but put their hand in our pockets since it took over operations of Long Island’s electric power grid.” He understands how things are going, and he’s speaking up for the people and the environment. He has submitted legislation, with State Senator LaValle, to ban pentachlorophenol in New York State, a 2013 environmental conservation law prohibiting the use of penta with regard to new or existing transmission utility poles or facilities. Fred Thiele is a spokesman for the people he serves, not for big business. And he’s completely right when he was quoted last week in The East Hampton Star that “in the end, there is no accountability to the people of Long Island.” And that’s not right! Sincerely, HELENE FORST Breath Test Refusals East Hampton February 9, 2015 To the Editor: T.E. McMorrow’s article (“Trial Illustrates D.W.I. Test Glitch,” Jan. 29) fails to paint a complete picture regarding breath-test refusals and should not be read as encouraging drivers to refuse to take a chemical test. People need to understand the consequences of a refusal before taking that step. There is an immediate suspension with no relief as far as driving is concerned. It could result in a six-month suspension, or a year if it is the second time. There are mandatory fines, starting at $750. At trial, a refusal could be used as evidence against the accused. Of course, there are ways to fight a refusal‚ both before and at trial. The flip side is that if a chemical test is taken with consent, it could result in a reading where a reduction to a violation is possible, or, in some cases with a very low reading, probable. I have been handling D.W.I. cases on the East End for 30 years. I have been told by some jurors that they don’t want to convict based on a chemical test. In my experience, nothing beats good testimony by the arresting officer regarding the circumstances of the arrest and the results of field sobriety tests. Also, there are a variety of ways to attack readings resulting from chemical tests. There are a number of good trial lawyers on the East End who can get an impaired with a refusal. The manual is available online to anyone who wants to purchase it. The bottom line is that one should not drink and drive, but if stopped, the driver should ask to speak to a lawyer A.S.A.P. STEPHEN A. GROSSMAN Trouble Kept Following Syracuse February 7, 2015 Dear Editor, My name’s George Pelaez. I moved to East Hampton on June 24, 2004, to go to a better school. I went to East Hampton High School. The reason for this letter is because I lived in a wealthy town with a low-level crime rate, but I was looked at as a criminal after high school. Trouble kept following me. I moved back to Syracuse, N.Y., Dec. 10, 2011. I was sentenced to three years’ probation on Aug. 9, 2012, by Judge Cahill for a crime I did not commit. I was set up by two individuals [. . . ]. I was ordered to pay over $1,000 in restitution. Since I left East Hampton, I’ve been happy. I never went back to visit my family or my friends. I now live in a city where the crime rate is sky-rocket high. Every day I turn on the news I hear about a drug bust, rape, murder, prostitution, gang violence, stabbing, kidnap, guns, and much more violence. A lot of homeless families here in the city of Syracuse. I believe I’m the same person I was when I left East Hampton. I just don’t understand why the police here in Syracuse don’t bother me or my probation officer never checks up on me. But when I lived in East Hampton I was looked at as a criminal when there was only a piece of paper signed by someone who swore I commited this crime I didn’t commit. I’m just starting to get myself back to where it should have started when I got out of high school. After I was arrested and out on bail the police kept harassing me every time I drove on the street, giving me tickets for driving over a yellow line or running a stop sign and speeding because I wouldn’t give them information because they wanted to make detective. My understanding is that in Suffolk County the law enforcement officers there are overpaid for little crimes they must solve and convict someone they believe did the little petty crime. They don’t risk their lives every day. You can’t drive after 9 p.m. during the cold season in East Hampton or else you get pulled over and harassed and have your car illegally searched. The police here in Syracuse risk their lives every day and night trying to stop gang violence, gunshots, and drugs. Everywhere I go I have a drug addict asking me for money or a drug dealer asking if I want to buy. It’s so open here. Not once has a law enforcement officer here in Syracuse violated me in any manner like the way East Hampton police did. Officer Mario was dating my cousin back in his high school days and one day he pulled me over and said he will shit on my life. Just doesn’t make any sense. Hopefully someone in a powerful chair will respond to my letter and help me understand. My advice to the young generation of East Hampton is to get out fast when you can. Hopefully one day these individuals who set me up will feel some sense of guilt and come forward and will tell the truth! I read The East Hampton Star every week from my Syracuse home. Thank you. GEORGE PELAEZ Destination Deer Park Amagansett February 4, 2015 Dear David, Surely you will agree that the solution to our local deer problem is an East Hampton Town deer park. Gathering our ruminant quadrupeds of the family Cervidae into one fenced, wooded spot will allow us to properly neuter, vaccinate, and care for these omnivorous yet vulnerable creatures. I submit that the East Hampton Town Deer Park could provide a destination for landscape clippings as well as day-old baked goods (my deer are fond of Goldberg’s “everything” bagel). I submit that deer are a cost-effective pruning resource, if my ivy and boxwood can stand as testament. I submit that deer poop is a challenge. But it could become a business opportunity — think East Hampton Deer Doo fertilizer. I submit that there may be an appropriate place for deer-stalking and culling, but permits will only be granted with the permission of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, as well as Mothers Against Having Their Kids Shot in the Woods During Weekends in January. All good things, DIANA WALKER A World Without Amagansett February 9, 2015 To the Editor, A few years before our son, Lysander, was born, we walked across the hills of western Uganda to come face to face with a group of habituated mountain gorillas who skirted through the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park as the dark souls of a primeval timeless forest. A baby gorilla stared at us clinging to a bamboo twig marshalling all the curiosity of a 6-month-old, without suspicion, without anger. To see into its eyes from a few feet was watching the first stirrings of conscience from the arboreal root of our beginnings. What could it be thinking of the pale, white, human construct that had intruded on its paradise? A few miles away farmers cultivated their fields, some having never seen a gorilla in their lives. A small baby was sitting in a field by itself, in the background smoke was rising as if the aftermath of a war zone. On the other side of Uganda’s Lake Edward and Lake Albert, an actual war zone that has wreaked havoc in the Congo continues to challenge the future of this endangered species that numbers only in the hundreds. Aggravating the civil war that has cost the lives of thousands in this region, so rich in minerals such as gold and coltan used for devices so dear to our hearts, like cellphones, are the multinational groups, like Total and the British oil group SOCO, that have had their eye on the oil in the region. SOCO had wanted to run seismic tests and finally decided to pull out of this volcanic world heritage site of ineffable rain forests only a few months ago. Africa’s oldest national park, set up in 1925, may yet be saved. Bowing to public pressure, Desmond Tutu, the British government, and world conscience at large, SOCO decided it was not in its best interests to desecrate one of the wonders of the world. Let us hope the Chinese don’t do to Virunga what they have done to the rest of Africa. Let’s make sure they never even set foot there. This kind of response is a triumph for sanity, but the question remains what kind of operating manual exists in the hearts and minds of those entrepreneurs who thought of desecrating such a unique place on earth and others like it, such as the Arctic or the rain forests of the world. Like sister companies drilling in formerly pristine habitats in Canada and the Arctic and Australia, one really has to question the prerogatives and priorities of Anglo-Saxon civilization as a whole. Britain started the Industrial Revolution, and the aftermath of this world-numbing change in human behavior is only coming to haunt us in the last few years. The Virungas may be saved, especially if no Chinese oil company starts to drill there, but what of the rest of the planet? Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio should be applauded for producing a feature documentary film, “Virunga,” which will win the Academy Award in a few weeks’ time. It is most appropriate that he should win his first Oscar, not as an actor but for a documentary film fighting to salvage an utter and irreplaceable jewel in the biosphere. Where are the other voices in Hollywood and business-minded tycoons who make millions and billions every year? What are their priorities? Or are their children just trophies? We need answers because it is costing the earth the lifeline to existence. Our unconscious industrialism has almost bankrupted the organic world in the last 150 years. How much evidence do we need to realize that we have entered the danger zone? What indeed would Charles Darwin do today if he saw warlords carving up the forests of Africa so we could make house calls with our cellphones, of which most of us are guilty? What would he say to the native people who have been sacrificed for the fruits of globalization? What would he say to those great flaming eyes in the jungle who share part of our DNA chain? Darwin figured out who we are in the physical and evolutionary spectrum of existence just eight generations ago. But it behooves this generation, all of us, in the next five years to come to terms with the vertical axis of our place. Who we are in relation to life, and what we are leaving the next generation? In 40 years’ time, a blink of an eye, most of the world’s fish could be gone. The story of the Lorax is being played out now. The seeds in the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault, where our son saw his first polar bears, will not replenish the forests of the world. Do we love Creation enough to fight for the generation, or are golf games, the Super Bowl, and digital distractions enough? Is Disney with its animated films preparing us for a world without the non-human, without the animal forms that began childhood on this journey called life? In the gorillas’ eyes the answer has already been written, as Diane Fossey well knew. In the startling eyes of bonobos and chimps, which have been seen making fire, and orangutans sacrificed in the excoriated fields of Indonesia for palm oil, lie the mirrors of our innermost selves. Time will tell if the most recent of the great apes, humans, are truly great after all. On our own front, the Republican lack-of-mind set that seeks to roll back any environmental action is demonic criminality at its worst. If we survive the 21st century, behavior such as that represented by the conservative branch of government and business will not be allowed into public office, and if they stole from the public good and the environment they would have to spend serious jail time, because it is murdering the life-support system of the planet. To quote Ansel Adams, who had never been to Africa but who understood the wonders of the American wilderness, “It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save our environment.” CYRIL CRISTO She Fit Right In Southold January 23, 2015 Dear Editor, We all think of Sophia Loren as a woman from Italy, but I remember a time that she would be regarded as a part-time Greenporter! The first time I ever saw her she was almost by Claudio’s restaurant, with an old relative with her. She was about 8 or 9 years old, very healthy and beautiful. She walked toward me slowly — I was about 4 or 5 — and gave me the widest love smile, really beautiful! She had wide blue-green eyes that I could see. Her hair was curly and short, brown, and, like Shirley Temple, light in color. We walked down the block and she started to run when she saw Richie Mitchell, whose father owned Mitchell’s restaurant. I tried hard to keep up. We went through a door that led to the top of the department stores to a broken-down hallway. I could hardly keep up with their play. In those days more Italians seemed to live in this seaport. I remember seeing many Italian fishermen, dressed in green, gather by Martocchia’s newspaper store every day. Richie Mitchell, now grown older, would stand by them wearing large movie-star sunglasses, by his fancy Thunderbird convertible, every day without fail. Sophia Loren had a nice apartment on First and Main Street. Now she was big in height! I would enter her apartment that had an Italian-aire “nice-class,” and stand with her as people would come up. She would tell them to go in another room, in an almost cross manner. I was a teen now, and she was in her 20s. I would go along with her when a broker tried to find nice little apartments for when she came back over from Italy. She didn’t mind taking the Sunrise bus and fit just right in. She liked to be seen all bejeweled in gold necklaces in the mid-’50s. ANITA FAGAN Chickenhawk Politics East Hampton February 4, 2015 Dear Editor, A recent article found on the Internet succinctly displayed key questions about our military and defense structures with no popular assent and an increasingly remote position from the society they protect. The question asked is, where is the debate on military spending and entry into wars? Military budget votes follow one-sided debates and zero opposition. Highway trust fund bills that had bipartisan support cannot get passed. Whole national election campaigns are fought without a mention of wars and the military. We have been at war for more than 13 years in Iraq, yet no vital discussion concerning the proper ending of it takes place. We are the only country in the world that has invaded, and remains fighting in, other countries, with no involvement of our own people to agree or disagree. Our military budget is about equal to that of the next 10 nations of the world combined — three to five times as much as China, seven to nine times that of Russia. The whole world spends about 2 percent of its total income on its militaries; the U.S. spends 4 percent. We are buying the wrong things and paying too much for them, but the Pentagon remains sacrosanct. U.S. senators and congressmen press for aggressive military action, a k a wars, which, of course, they will never serve in, and none of their children will serve in either. If more members of Congress or the business and media elite had had children in uniform, the United States probably would not have gone to war in Iraq. Politicians say national security is their first and most sacred duty, but they do not act as if this is so. Serving military are lionized, paraded at football games and public events, then sent back to the front while the lawyers, dentists, doctors, and office workers return to their everyday lives uncaring and devoid of interest. We pay little or no attention to the structure of our military and the details of its existence. We don’t care. Very senior officers sometimes position themselves for after-military second-career employment, while receiving pensions in excess of their pre-retirement pay by thousands of dollars. This creates a seamless interplay of corporate and military interests and creates a huge quasi-military structure of contractors like Blackwater and Halliburton. Politicians distance themselves from the military and don’t talk seriously about whether the United States is really threatened by the chaos in the Middle East and elsewhere, or is in fact safer than ever, as some have argued. The United States has such a strength advantage over any rival that it is pointless to worry about strategy, weaponry, and leadership. And we don’t! We honor our troops but do not think about them. Only a small sliver of the population has a direct stake in its own interests, and for the nation’s. The system is based on lies and self-interest toward the end of keeping the money moving. Politicians say they are just doing their jobs, moving military manufacturing money to their districts. It was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961 who said that business and politics would corrupt the military and vice versa. Such a view today would be considered dangerously antimilitary, and condemned. The industrial complex, said Eisenhower, “has a total influence economic, political, and even spiritual, that is felt every day in every city, statehouse, and office of the federal government.” In other words, a population untouched (or seemingly so) is far less likely to care about it. Persuaded that they have no skin in the game, they will permit the state to do whatever it wishes to do. Solution? The American people must say yes before we go to war again. That way they will be involved not only periodically but continually, and they won’t be inconvenienced if the talk turns to military matters. Unprovoked military intervention in foreign affairs, as a weapon for propagandized political purposes, is chickenhawk politics at its worst. RICHARD P. HIGER Guantanamo East Hampton February 1, 2015 To the Editor: After reading Richard Flanagan’s opus “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” (the building of the Burma road during World War II), I was struck by the rationale, in the book, explaining the cruel and inhuman punishment of the Australian prisoners of war. In Japan’s culture, captured soldiers are totally disgraced and are worthy only of seppuku (suicide). The Australian prisoners were considered less than human and treated that way. The question of cultural identity and mores is one of the central bugaboos of our current world. Who we are as a people is constantly being brought into question by a never-ending media and social media avalanche. Guantanamo and the Keystone pipeline are two prime examples. That Guantanamo ever existed is a constant reminder of our colonial ambitions and behavior in Latin America. Imagine the opposite situation? That it is filled with so-called terrorists becomes absurd, because we have defined these people as others, meaning not worthy of the basic human and legal treatments due to any criminal, prisoner of war, or possible lawbreaker. Since our laws didn’t allow for this kind of treatment under any circumstances, we were obligated to write a subhuman classification into our legal system. Unlike the Japanese cultural rationale, we hold ourselves to a higher moral ground, despite Guantanamo to the contrary. The lives of the 120 or so prisoners at Guantanamo are a minuscule blip in the larger world-picture. Does anyone really care about them? Our problem is not what they might have done but that they exist. Keystone falls into the same category. Does anyone really give a crap about Nebraska? Normally the pipeline would have zipped through Congress with little or no debate and ruckus. The oil companies would have made a call or two and it would have passed. Keystone’s story is uncomplicated. It brings poor-quality, unneeded oil through a bunch of states, while creating very few jobs and huge profits for the oil companies. Business as usual. Keystone will have, like Guantanamo, no negative effects on the country unless there’s a major spill from a break in the line. But the public uproar has made it clear that the Keystone pipeline is simply a money grab, a way for wealthy oil companies to become even wealthier. Their insistence on pushing it through is not about what’s good for the country or the American spirit of enterprise and innovation, it’s a greed trip. A symbol of entitlement. A statement that says screw the American people. But that’s not who we really are — or is it? So, we look at Guantanamo and Keystone and understand that neither one of them is really necessary. Small blips on a massive radar. But our insistence and our determination to keep them both alive raises the question of who we are as a country. What do we see when we look in the mirror? NEIL HAUSIG
Published 4 years ago
Last updated 4 years ago
Letters to the Editor: 02.12.15
February 12, 2015