R.I.P. David Silver East Hampton March 10, 2015 To the Editor, I never really knew David Silver, but when we met we always exchanged friendly greetings. I remember seeing him soon after the Bernard Madoff ordeal, when he told me how he had been “Madoffed” and had lost everything. In spite of that tremendous loss and betrayal, he was upbeat. He told me he had moved with his family from the city to East Hampton, and that his children were at the Ross School. Those whom he had previously helped so generously were now helping him. I’m sure none of that was easy, but he went on with characteristic good humor and optimism. On a personal level, my husband and I remain continuously grateful to David Silver for his determined and dedicated efforts to get the East Hampton RECenter built. We have been since Day 1, and continue to be, devoted and delighted users of that wonderful facility. R.I.P. David Silver. We remember him with great fondness. DORIS NATHAN TOM FRIEDMAN He Was the Real Deal Hampton Bays March 10, 2015 Dear Editor, I write this from across the country to share my memories of David Silver, who, sadly, died last week. I was lucky to know him for 25 years, and several years ago, while I was still teaching at Springs School, David stopped in and offered to volunteer and work with kids. I snatched my friend right up and together we planned math lessons for my fifth grade. As a successful businessman, David had much math knowledge to share with the students. He arrived early every time, eager to be matched with kids he could help. We planned lessons ahead of time, and off he’d go to the Commons Room. The kids greeted him and roared his name each time David would arrive. I watched his face fight back the urge to laugh out loud in appreciation, but his eyes would twinkle and he’d grin. I believe what made him effective as a tutor/teacher was that he was wise but so very young at heart. When he giggled it was contagious. I will always remember how after each session, David was interested to share what he noticed that the student could do. He proudly showed me their work and his observations were sharp. He rooted for children — always. Together with Patti, his loving wife, David supported young people from the East End community. They offered P.D.S. scholarships to college for East Hampton High School students for a number of years, as well as financial scholarships to the Ross School. Springs was not the only school where David Silver gave back. He volunteered in New York City when he lived there. When he moved here to live, I feel we were the lucky ones. This humble man was not only generous by giving financial support, but he delivered in person. He gave his time and shared his wisdom and common sense. I think of the lines attributed to Emerson: “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children . . . to leave the world a bit better . . . this is to have succeeded.” David Silver had all of that, and more. He was a loyal friend and a generous supporter to the community. The East Hampton RECenter is there in part because of him. It was an honor to call David Silver my friend and a privilege to share my students with him. He was the real deal. I’m sad and will miss him, but his giving spirit lives on. Hopefully, others will follow his lead. Sincerely, IRENE TULLY She Understood It All East Hampton March 8, 2015 Dear Editor, Frances O’Brien was a brave and intelligent woman who spared no effort in getting public officials to pay attention to the issues she was concerned with. Once she was convinced of the rightness of her position, she insisted on being heard and listened to by everyone. When I was present, to pull the weeds in her garden or fix her computer, I heard all about the lack of housing for senior citizens in East Hampton and what a problem this would be in the near future. I confess that I didn’t show much enthusiasm. How can you ever get the politicians in Town Hall, I would remark cynically, to actually plan for the distant future of old age? And since everyone in East Hampton with a house had the means to sell and move elsewhere, why not just leave for Florida or Arizona? Her response: “You’re here (long pause), are those the only arguments you can come up with for not doing anything?” Maybe, she suggested, you’ll figure it out when you get a little older. When I was in my late 50s and Frances was in her mid-80s, she announced that she was going to do a survey that would prove what was needed and that I was going to help her put it on a computer. Where did this persistent rationality come from? I’m convinced it came from the experience of growing up in the Great Depression, an event that few young people today can imagine. When the stock market crashed in 1929, my father, a few years younger than Mrs. O’Brien, had to go to work delivering milk at the age of 9. This wasn’t uncommon. Few people had any money. Some families had nothing to eat. Even children had to work. My wealthy friend Betty Babcock received a call one morning to please come to her Long Island grammar school because the children were hungry. Could she do something? In the 1930s you grew up quickly and learned how to stand on your own two feet, and you used your brain and did something or you sank. No helicopter moms were coming to the rescue. Young people learned how to stick together and get things done. So in 2004, a young Frances O’Brien, age 86, completed a well-thought-out, balanced survey of senior citizens, which was computerized enough to put into a database where you could cross the responses and actually find out what seniors wanted in the way of housing. The vast majority of seniors wanted to age in place, with services provided in their homes. But a substantial minority, which got larger as the respondents got older, wanted to give up their single-occupancy dwellings and move into more centrally located, affordable senior housing. This survey remains the only definitive survey of seniors in East Hampton on the subject of housing to this day. When our senior committee tried to use a Google app to do something similar through the library last year we couldn’t come close to the professional level of Mrs. O’Brien’s survey. So, was Mrs. O’Brien right? Or was it a case of, as the politicians say, “passion”? Do we really need senior housing in East Hampton? The 2010 U.S. Census figures in the 2014 East Hampton Town housing report shows that 40 percent of the households in East Hampton have very low, low, or low-to-moderate income. Many of these households are occupied by seniors living on ever-reducing assets and fixed incomes. In 2010 there were 3,769 seniors over 65, some 17 percent of the population. In 2013, as more baby boomers passed 65, that number jumped to 4,585. In 2030 when all of the baby boomers are over 65, that number is projected to be 8,548, or 35 percent of East Hampton’s population, with some 2,350 seniors over age 85. We currently have 127 senior apartments in East Hampton, with a waiting list of 265. Already in 2010 we had 1,153 households, some 14 percent of all housing units in East Hampton, occupied by seniors 65-plus living alone. These people are the backbone of our community. When they can no longer maintain their single-family dwellings, when they become ill and frail, where will they go? Here in the summer playground of the New York elite there is nothing for them. The legacy of Frances O’Brien is that she understood all of this, well in advance of most of us, and she tried to get all of us to pay attention. And the question she asked — “What are you going to do about it?” — is now front and center for every resident of East Hampton. PAUL FIONDELLA Hearing Aids Mount Sinai March 10, 2015 Editor: Re: the March 5 letter about hearing aids, I recently purchased two hearing aids from Costco in Riverhead for $2,600. They also have lower-cost options. This price is almost half the cost I received from doctors. Tanya, who runs that office, is very pleasant to work with. Please pass this on to Lois Watts. The Costco phone number is 655-0130. Regards, PHILIP MAYER Two Thumbs Up East Hampton March 8, 2015 To the Editor, On behalf of several seniors who attended the lovely reception prior to the fabulous play titled “Grease,” we would like to thank the students and staff of East Hampton High School for their invitation. This wonderful performance took place from Friday, March 6, through Sunday, March 8. Each and every performer did an outstanding job and we truly enjoyed this delightful musical. Two thumbs up for these talented individuals. SUSAN C. FLAHERTY Who Is Keeping Track? Springs March 9, 2015 Dear Editor: After reading a lead article on Thursday, March 5, I became very angered by the “Worry Over Class Size” issue in Springs School. We have lived in the Town of East Hampton for over 40 years, and in Springs for 26 years. I am very aware of children on our street, and the overcrowding of certain houses throughout the hamlet. We have a problem in Springs. It needs to be addressed now, and by doing so we may be able to get the class sizes down to the recommended 22 students or fewer. I am aware that the school receives money from various governmental agencies for each student enrolled. I am also aware that many children who are in Springs School do not live in the hamlet. On our street alone there are children picked up at houses who do not live there. Buses also stop along the way at addresses where no one is living. What does Springs School plan to do about that? What documents are you requiring — on a yearly basis — to ensure that these children are part of our community, and not just using our facilities because we have one of the best schools out here, especially the English as a second language curriculum? When there are board meetings and they need votes, the only people who seem to attend are parents and children. That is not enough. We all have to attend, whether we live in Springs or own homes in Springs that are rented or leased out to tenants. Who is keeping track of the numbers of families in each home? Who is checking on whether these so-called “leases” shown for registration at the school are actual leases? Who is out there checking on where the children actually live and with whom? Let’s address these issues, and move forward in trying our best to keep taxes down, and enrollment at the school steady, but only for those children who live in Springs. Let’s get some outside help to check on the status of the Springs students, and make it a yearly process of updating their records. MAYDA IDONE A Horrible Precedent Amagansett March 10, 2015 Dear Mr. Rattray, I am writing to express my opposition to the proposed lot division off Indian Wells Highway in Amagansett on a personal and fundamental basis. It appears that the only reason for the subdivision application and related variance is to facilitate a sale to a buyer who cannot purchase the property unless he gets a second lot to sell to someone else. This is not a sufficient reason to allow the creation of two substandard lots out of a conforming lot. The subdivision is good only for them — and bad for everyone else. My property is next to the property in question and I believe that the subdivision will seriously and permanently alter the quality and character of the neighborhood that I value, in addition to diminishing the value of my property. The creation of two nonconforming lots on a very narrow property is out of character with the quality of the neighborhood, and the noise and disruption from two houses on this lot will seriously compromise the neighborhood as well as my quality of life. This area is one of the jewels of the Hamptons, and its character should be preserved for everyone’s benefit — not for the exclusive benefit of the seller and the developer. Moreover, approval of this subdivision would set a horrible precedent for development in East Hampton going forward. Every time a seller wants to maximize his sale price, all he will have to do is point to this precedent and more neighborhoods become compromised. If the town believed that 40,000-square-foot zoning was the preferred minimum lot size, then I cannot understand why the planning board would violate that just to satisfy the needs of one seller and buyer. I strongly urge the East Hampton Town Planning Board to reject this proposal. Sincerely, SUSAN LEADER The Community’s Dune New York City February 27, 2015 Dear Editor, Re: “Questions on Drew Lane Pool, Pilings,” Jan. 29. As an almost neighbor of David Zaslav, but more especially as one who values the reasons Mr. Zaslov, I, and many of our neighbors first came to this golden spot — its beaches, dunes, its tranquillity, sense of place, and its community values — I am aghast at his plans to injure the very dune that first attracted him here. To enlarge a pool already desecrating the dune with a facetious argument of making it safer is compounding ravishment of the dune, not his dune but our dune, the community’s dune. Removing part of the dune, constructing additional buildings thereon, and inserting massive pilings into its heart violates the very sanctity of beach, dune, and sea. Sincerely, GEORGE W. GOWEN A Year-Round Issue East Hampton March 8, 2015 To the Editor: My husband and I live in Georgica Estates, a 65-home condominium community in the Town of East Hampton. We are located off Stephen Hand’s Path between 27 and Buckskill Road, in the direct flight path of aircraft approaching and leaving the East Hampton airport. When Georgica Estates was built in the 1980s, the aircraft using the airport were primarily of the small recreational variety, flying in and out during the day on summer weekends. Whether, as one write-up mysteriously noted, there were any noise easements for subdivisions in the area back then, no one could possibly have predicted the increased size and type of aircraft now here or the accompanying level of noise and disturbance that would develop. If this had been understood, the properties that have been built and sold here, in the nearby Dune Alpin community, and many more — with all that has brought to the local economy — would never have happened. In the past 10 years the sizes and types of aircraft, including large jets, and the frequency of their flights, have accelerated, with the added nuisance of countless helicopters taking off and landing from early morning into the middle of the night. The attractiveness of our homes for both enjoyment and as investments has obviously been dramatically affected. With the window having opened to get the Federal Aviation Administration out, which, thankfully, was accomplished, many, many South Fork and North Fork residents besides us have asked the East Hampton Town government for the changes now crucial to make, in how the local airport is perceived, used, and managed, and which the facts support. The local economy is not dependent on and has nothing to show for the insane jump in aircraft traffic over the past years. Thousands of local homeowners and vacationers are negatively affected throughout the East End; they are the core of the economy here, not a few aviation companies and their summer-commuter customers who seemed to be fine spending their summers here before there were cheap aircraft to take every weekend. While we were initially pleased with the progress the town board made since last summer toward strong airport noise-control legislation, the modified versions of the proposed laws released Feb. 11 were disheartening after such a compelling start. Worse yet is the maneuver of the budget and finance committee, somehow bound by a “consensus” regarding the financial sustainability of the airport to back out of providing its findings. Why can’t their numbers be shared, even if there is no “consensus”? Why can’t the numbers regarding the running of the airport be viewed independent of the projected litigation? How can they be so sure what that will cost, but not sure enough about the costs and revenues to run the airport with the proposed post-F.A.A. changes implemented? For the town board to have any credibility that it means to make the legal changes so many have fought so long and so hard for, there needs to be some way for the financials to be pulled out of committee and reviewed and shared. The above notwithstanding, we support the Town of East Hampton enacting the proposed laws regarding airport noise restrictions. We believe it is imperative that the town board reviews the newly enacted local laws, once adopted, and amends them as soon as possible after enactment so as to impose the one-round-trip-per-week limitation and the 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. curfew on noisy turboprop and piston aircraft. I would like to add that this problem seems to be accelerating to be a year-round issue, even if not at the summer levels. On Saturday, March 7, with doors and windows closed against the wintry weather, I heard what had to be jets from 5:30 p.m. until after 11 p.m. I logged in 11 calls to the airport noise number as the quiet of our evening was disturbed even at this time of year. I woke with Daylight Saving Time in place to some sort of craft — helicopter or piston plane, I am no expert — before 9 Sunday morning, March 8. No doubt the aviation companies are pushing off-season deals to cement their place here for the summer rush if the town doesn’t get this in hand. Sincerely, MARTHA PERLIN Baseless Claims Sag Harbor March 10, 2015 To the Editor: Yet another nefarious misinformation campaign is under way in East Hampton. Distributed by Colonia, N.J.-based aviation proponents calling themselves “Friends” of East Hampton Airport, the current campaign states immediate economic doom will befall the Town of East Hampton if access restrictions to our airport become law. The town board’s efforts to support access restrictions prove otherwise — evident in the prodigious body of work available on the public record — but aviation proponents have never given a darn about facts; they learned nothing from earlier failed attempts at hoodwinking the community into believing their drivel by accepting even more F.A.A. funds and the shackles that accompany such funds. The current misinformation campaign bears a striking resemblance to failed misinformation campaigns conducted by the East Hampton Aviation Association during the Wilkinson administration; Mr. Wilkinson is now a paid consultant to the aviation community. Over the past 14 months, after rigorous research and planning by the town board, many noise studies and financial analyses were conducted by independent, nationally renowned noise and environmental experts. Under the supervision of Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the board’s airport liaison, and the town board members Sylvia Overby, Fred Overton, and Peter Van Scoyoc, a subcommittee was appointed to assist in identifying ways through which the airport could financially support itself if access restrictions became law. That subcommittee included both noise-abatement activists and aviation proponents, as well as locally acclaimed business and finance professionals. Their conclusion: The town can maintain the airport without cost to taxpayers. Not a message the aviation proponents wanted to hear, and so they churlishly chose to block release of the report. Despite the incontrovertible and readily available studies and analyses, those deceptively calling themselves “friends” have littered residents’ door steps with their leaflets and baseless claims predicting economic demise of the town if access restrictions become law. The misinformation mission is intended to prevent any law restricting airport access of any kind. What gall — an out-of-town and out-of-state organization, fronting for nameless aviation operators, attempting to subvert the will of the people, and interfering in local laws that would protect residents across the East End from aircraft noise and toxic fuel emissions! The end object of their egregious campaign is solely to protect tristate-area aviation special interests whose commuter jet, seaplane, and helicopter flights to East Hampton are among their most lucrative routes, and operators will not surrender that financial windfall without a bloody battle. Several groups (including the local fixed-based operator Sound Aircraft) appear to be attempting to litigate the community into submission and have already filed lawsuits against the town and threatened more, in a shameful demonstration of the lengths to which they will go to protect their sky-high profits. (Sound Aircraft was angered by a tax increase the town levied on their airport fuel sales — the first such increase in 22 years!) The only punch in the gut that will come from restricting noisy aircraft at our airport will be to the pocketbooks of the so-called “friends” of East Hampton Airport, the perpetrators of aviation noise and toxic fuel emissions. With airport access restrictions in place, buyers, renters, and others will continue to line up to visit the Hamptons, and, if airport noise is contained, we will regain our reputation as a beautiful and peaceful resort area and can expect to attract even more visitors to invigorate our economy for years to come. PATRICIA CURRIE Aviation Comedy East Hampton March 9, 2015 Dear David, I am a community activist. For years, I have worked trying to solve the problem of noise caused by East Hampton Airport. Aviation interests find it intolerable that anyone should even imagine that their interest in flying when and where they please, or making money from those who do, might have to yield a bit to the natural desire of other people for the quiet enjoyment of their own homes. For years they attacked me with an outright fabrication, claiming that my interest in protecting the community from the scourge of airport noise was because I owned “developable property” near the airport and stood to make money. You can read that stuff in your own letters pages. Never had any such land, still don’t. These days, the blatant lying has given way to sly innuendo. Of my service as chairman of the East Hampton Town Board-appointed airport planning committee’s noise subcommittee, your competitor, The East Hampton Press, wrote a “news article” (yes, that needs to be in quotes) saying, “Mr. Gruber’s history of activism where the airport is concerned has left some raising questions about his motives.” Gee, given my history of activism concerning the problem of airport noise, what would be my motives for serving on a public planning committee created to address the problem of airport noise other than activism about airport noise? In truth, the shoe is on the other foot. Should the fact that the Louchheims, who own The East Hampton Press, have interests at East Hampton Airport lead us to question their motives in publishing scurrilous attacks and innuendo in the guise of news? The capacity of aviation interests for self-parody is seemingly boundless, as the Press article immediately proceeds to quote the former East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione. “ ‘Even to the fairest person, it’s problematic,’ Dominick Stanzione, former town board member and liaison to the airport, said of Mr. Gruber’s position on the committee. ‘[The Committee to Stop Airport Expansion] had a strong influence over airport operations, unfortunately, during my time on the board.’ ” Really? This is the same Stanzione, the very epitome of probity and fairness, who while a councilman sent himself on an unauthorized and undisclosed trip to Washington to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to issue the town another grant so that the town would never recover control over its own airport. Then he had the town’s aviation counsel hide his travel expenses in a legal bill. Might Mr. Stanzione’s covert, unauthorized lobbying against the interests of the people of East Hampton (followed by sticking them with the bill for it) lead someone to question his motives? “Influence” is not really the word Stanzione is looking for. What he means is that I got in his way by calling the F.A.A.’s attention to the multiple falsehoods in the F.A.A. grant application that he had the town submit in the hope of extending F.A.A. control over the airport for another 20 years. No grant was issued. Due to the expiration of the final F.A.A. grant agreement at the end of last year, the town has now recovered the power to regulate its own airport to control noise, something Mr. Stanzione apparently regrets. That might explain why the people of East Hampton showed him to the door in the last election. As entertaining as this perpetual aviation self-parody can be, there is something deeper here that needs to be addressed. The point of the whole smear effort by the Louchheims in the guise of news isn’t really directed at me so much as at the process the East Hampton Town Board established a year ago to address the noise issue. By design, the airport planning committee is composed of two subcommittees, an aviation subcommittee that consists entirely of people with aviation interests, and a noise subcommittee, that consists entirely of activists who have been leaders in community organizations working on the problem of airport noise. This structure was intended to ensure that the interests of both sides would be represented by those with the greatest interest in protecting them. Being a community activist on the issue of noise was not a disqualification for serving on the noise subcommittee. It was the necessary qualification for serving on the noise subcommittee. When appointing the members, the town board took note of their organizational ties. Likewise, the aviation subcommittee. For example, Cindy Herbst, owner of Sound Aviation, is on the aviation subcommittee. Bonnie Krupinski, owner of the other aviation business at the airport, also sits on the aviation subcommittee. Is this suspect? Of course not. Who better to represent the interests of airport business owners in the process of redressing airport noise than airport business owners themselves? Rounding up the aviation comedy routine is Elliot Meisel, described in The Press as a member of the East Hampton Aviation Association. He is an aircraft owner. He too sits on the aviation subcommittee. Strangely, he thinks it is suspicious, hinting darkly that the issue of airport noise is “personal” with me. As opposed to what? Does he suspect that I am self-interested, as he is? Or is it suspicious that I am not self-interested, as he is? The essence of the matter is this: People who never do anything other than out of greed and self-interest cannot imagine that there exist other people who do things not for their own benefit but to make the community they live in a better place. Hence they have to fantasize hidden self-interest where they cannot see any, even to the point of inventing property interests that never existed. So here’s to you, Dominick, and to you, Elliot, and of course to the Louchheims and their ever-so-entertaining notions of journalistic ethics. As to your motives, nothing is left to the imagination. Everyone with an interest should please attend the East Hampton Town Board hearing on its proposed airport noise legislation, today, March 12, 4:30 p.m., LTV Studios, Industrial Road. Democracy works best when people stand up publicly for their interests and join with others who share them. DAVID GRUBER Do So Quietly East Hampton March 9, 2015 Dear David, The health, welfare, and economic burdens of disturbing aircraft noise are a tax — a hidden fee — that East End residents pay to live here. Many bear a great noise burden so a privileged few can enjoy faster access to our area. Access limits to East Hampton Airport proposed by the town board address a large percentage of those noise impacts, reducing the burden East End residents suffer to live here. These restrictions are the subject of a public hearing this evening beginning at 4:30 at LTV Studios in Wainscott. All the hue and cry about the ruin of East Hampton’s economy, should these access limits be imposed, sounds very familiar. Every time government initiates environmental policy for the greater good, business interests predict the downfall of the local economy. Time and again it is demonstrated that it is just not so. In fact, the very opposite occurs: Property values soar, and the economy improves. The access limits proposed by the East Hampton Town Board to protect the public from noise will not close the airport. Few of the noise-affected wish for that result. We only ask that those who choose air travel to reach our area do so quietly. We’ve asked nicely for decades. Now that the expiration of certain Federal Aviation Administration obligations has restored home rule, we, the people of this community, can determine what kind of airport we want. We can determine what kind of airport works for our community — not for the F.A.A., not for the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, not for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, or the Helicopter Association International. We can determine what kind of airport works for the East End community. If the ultrarich wish to travel to East Hampton airport outside of the proposed curfew, they must do so in quieter aircraft. That’s all. This is not a ban on private enterprise. It is policy as incentive, a time-honored tool used by government for decades, to incentivize the private sector to raise its standard operating procedures to better reflect community values. Our town has no obligation to ensure the fiscal survival of outside business interests who would profit guilt-free at the expense of East End residents’ health, welfare, quality of life, and sense of place. That sense of place is something we have paid dearly to preserve by spending millions of dollars to protect open space, farmland, and other important environmental landscapes, vistas, and ecological systems and the peace and quiet that goes with them. If rich folks want to come here, they are perfectly welcome to do so. We are simply requesting they do so quietly. Sincerely, KATHLEEN CUNNINGHAM Quiet Skies Coalition Entitlement Mentality East Hampton March 9, 2015 Dear David, Thank you for your insightful and accurate analysis of the issues in your editorial titled “A Different Noise.” You were spot on. I’d like to also thank Joanne Pilgrim for her thorough and honest coverage of airport issues especially in last week’s story on the front page of The Star. I second David Gruber’s comments, as Joanne accurately reported. David Gruber is spot on. I’ve learned while working with him, to highly respect his analysis of the data and the facts regarding the airport. I serve both on the airport noise subcommittee and the budget finance advisory committee’s airport subcommittee. I founded East Hampton Helicopter Noise Coalition, co-founded Quiet Skies Coalition, and I am a pilot. I want to say this in the most absolute terms possible: I do not want to shut down the airport, and I want the airport to be financially sustainable — and I believe it can be. The airport interest attack dogs are hard at work fabricating personal attacks and promoting baseless fear-mongering and doomsday scenarios about the future of the airport. To put to rest one conspiracy theory that is circulating about: At the first organizational meeting of the airport noise subcommittee, it was I who nominated David Gruber to chair the committee. The committee unanimously accepted the nomination. I made the nomination spontaneously without prior conversation with anyone. There is absolutely no conspiracy of collusion between David Gruber and any elected town official, period. I’ve been an entrepreneur for 49 years. I’ve written forward-looking financial statements for publicly traded companies. The entire worldwide economic system of reporting forward-looking statements is based on making reasonable assumptions, assumptions about certain historical events that will likely continue in the future. Projecting impacts of certain inputs is common practice and the standard is reasonableness using credible analytical and statistical analysis. I believe that has been followed to a very high degree in the budget finance committee’s reports and analysis up to the end when airport interests began demanding certainty and guarantees. Nothing is certain, and there are no guarantees in forward-looking statements. I believe very strongly the airport is financially sustainable. Furthermore, airport interests wish to make us believe the use of the airport is a right, that the town owes them a job. This is simply the entitlement mentality that pervades our society today. The existence of the airport is a privilege. The use of the airport is a privilege. The town owes no one a job. The town owes no one a living at the airport. Helicopter pilots attacked me by targeting my house. A helicopter was confirmed by AirScene to be 10 feet above the roof of my house. Airport interests are personally attacking me as I take a stand in supporting aircraft restrictions. It’s so silly that airport interests do the same thing over and over expecting a different result. If it wasn’t so silly it would be crazy. Wait, it is crazy! Sincerely, FRANK DALENE Airport-Noise Denial East Hampton March 10, 2015 Dear David: Among the unfortunate aspects of local aviation opposition to airport noise regulation is the continued denial that there is even a problem that must be solved. Local aviation continues to claim that only a handful of homes near the airport are adversely affected and that “they should have known better when they bought.” How people should have known that commuter helicopters, not even worthy of mention in the 1989 Airport Master Plan, would grow into a huge problem in the last decade is unclear. But the fact is that thousands of homes are affected all over the East End and the complaint data shows this clearly; more than 22,000 complaints about East Hampton Airport last year, 10 times the number of complaints at major metropolitan airports such as O’Hare. Airport-noise denial (let alone the complete lack of sympathy for anyone affected by this noise pollution) is akin to climate-change denial. No problem ever got solved by denying its existence. Here’s why helicopters are such a problem. What follows was not written by airport noise opponents, but in an article in Aviation Week, dated March 1. They at least understand the reality. “There are numerous characteristics of helicopter sound that cause it to be objectionable to many within earshot. [. . . .] The distinctive aerodynamic rotor blade slap noise generated by helicopter rotors is difficult to disguise. [. . . .] The loudness of a helicopter’s noise signature is an obvious factor . . . of course, moving traffic from one place simply shifts it and thereby assaults the calm elsewhere.” Now that the F.A.A. is no longer in control of East Hampton Airport, it is time for the East Hampton Town Board to act to give us back the peace and quiet of our own homes. It has proposed strong rules. It must now adopt them. SUSAN McGRAW KEBER Feel-Good Intervention East Hampton March 4, 2015 To the Editor: In response to Nan French’s Feb. 19 letter to the editor, “Worse Than Barbaric,” I couldn’t agree more. The decision to brutalize wild animals is an ongoing feel-good sentiment orchestrated by people transplanted from New York City who haven’t a clue as to how the natural order of wildlife functions. I could throw up when listening to their dialogue and opinions. I find myself wondering what planet these people live on. Do they not comprehend the basics of the law of nature and predator versus prey, which has existed since all species inhabited the earth? If that doe that has been sterilized continues to live, then it will compete with other deer for survival, especially during this year’s severe winter. So in order to feel good about the one deer’s survival, the fact is that its very existence compromises the rest of the deer herd to available habitat and to the survival of not this doe, but to other deer, as well as to other creatures and to the natural vegetation affected by the impact of their feel-good human intervention. Let’s be very clear about a basic fact: All wild creatures live and die by predation, be it natural wild predators, disease, or by humans. At least humans have the knowledge to perform this in a way predation is regulated, in order that the remaining prey species will continue to survive at a sustained level, according to habitat requirements. That has certainly not been the case in the past, but present-day wildlife management supported by hunters has come a long way. I said to myself quite some time ago, no more writing to The Star in the futile attempt to inform people who will not listen to the facts because their minds are already made up, or do not want to hear the facts because of their emotional stand on the lethal aspects of the natural role and sound wildlife management. It is what it is, folks. As Pogo once said, “I have met the enemy and he is us.” In reality and truth, DON LEHMAN Nothing to Lose East Hampton March 7, 2015 To the Editor: Bibi Netanyahu quietly paced the floor in his hotel suite. In three hours he would be addressing the U.S. Congress. No one in the room spoke. No one could believe this was actually going to happen. Bibi felt like a dealer in a carnival that just pulled into an oil town called Out of Sight, Missouri. Those poor hicks won’t have a chance. When he finished they’d be calling him Churchill. Bibi never felt comfortable with Obama. He didn’t have an agenda. Asked too many questions. Used words like perspective and future. George Bush was like an open book. Monosyllabic and straightforward. When the invitation to speak arrived six weeks ago most of his aides thought it was a terrible idea. Breaking protocol, alienating Obama, disrespecting their most important ally. Bibi had another take on it. With a tough election coming up he had nothing to lose. The first foreign head of state to address the U.S. Congress. How bad could the publicity be? Bibi looked out at his audience and understood their desire, their obsession with kicking someone’s ass. Restoring America’s sense of power in a world where the metrics of war had castrated 70 years of military empowerment. Sept. 11 still burned in the collective egos of this group, and Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t sufficiently quench their thirst for revenge. He was aware that in the 1950s the British had convinced the Americans to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected government. Would they be dumb enough to do it again? He knew the Americans lived mostly inside their own heads. Constantly fabricating bad guys to fuel their need to save the world. Searching for a reason to unleash its pent-up military energy against an empire of evil. Bibi thought that his American pals were the easiest marks on the planet. Keep it simple, avoid getting bogged down in the details, and remember that history doesn’t exist. The only thing that mattered was the attention at home. So, Bibi made his speech. The same one from 20 years ago. Not great by his standards. He gave them what they were looking for. Got many standing Os. Walked out heroically. Churchillian, they said. Back in the hotel suite his aides were jubilant. Compared to the nursing-home audience in Hebron this was a piece of cake. In the carnival’s office they counted the night’s take. Dreaming about the next town where so many people with so little consciousness have so much money to steal. NEIL HAUSIG Invitation Incident East Hampton February 28, 2015 Dear Editor, Searching for political or social topics about which to write to The Star has never been easier. The election of Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, and their total abandonment of any attempt to govern, has eased the path of commenting to the point of simplicity. Watching these newly elected Republican congressmen act with maniacal arrogance and hubris, in complete disregard of the needs of the country and the voters they were elected by, presents only the dilemma of selecting which of an array of missed management of the government to comment on. After considering all the unnerving activities of these cretins, led by 50 or 60 blockheads who have gerrymandered themselves into positions of power in Washington, one scary, bone-rattling, and continuing activity raises its head above all. Above immigration reform, same-sex marriage, Homeland Security finance, Hillary Clinton-bashing, Ferguson, the Affordable Health Care Act, and even the Boston bombing, it is the racially charged, constant demeaning, undermining, and attempted diminishment of President Obama, all to the detriment of the country and the world. To do what the Republicans and their conservative and ultraconservative minions are doing in opposing every initiative of the president regardless of merit is tantamount to treason. It belies the very precepts and foundation of our democracy and now, with the latest insult and weakening of the president’s leadership around the world, it is a wanton political and scurrilous attack on the president and the country, We have a black president, twice elected to a position of leader of the free world, so to speak, and rather than take advantage of that fact to exhibit to the world the wonders of the United States, we have the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives joining the “birther” crowd, the “community organizer” crowd, the “doesn’t love America” crowd, and inviting the prime minister of a foreign nation to come before a joint session of our Congress without notifying the White House, and disrespecting the president and his political party as well as denigrating the intelligence of the American people, while trumpeting and seeking support for what this man wants the United States foreign policy to be. All the while he wholly disparages the foreign policy not only of the United States, the country that invited him to air his views, but the allies, China, Russia, England, and France, with which it is joined. This prime minister wanted to solidify his re-election, only two weeks away, with a rah, rah, sis-boom-bah, college cheer-type speech. He did so. Speaking as a self-promoted expert on foreign affairs with better credentials than our president, secretary of state, State Department, and the equal level of the same from Russia, China, England, and France. Would the speaker of the House violate protocol and history and undermine the country and its allies, whose long and possibly successful efforts to quash the nuclear threat of a nuclear-armed Iran are thriving, if the president was not black and the constant subject of a voracious and continuing racist attack never condemned by the speaker or his party? I doubt it. See the racist comments of right-wing media hacks like Hannity, Limbaugh, and Levin, who repeatedly use code words to downgrade the president or the comment of a public official in Ferguson, Mo., who wrote in an email that “Obama won’t be around long, blacks can’t hold a job for more than four years.” This entire invitation incident is sickening and drives a wedge between two longtime, necessary friends and allies, for no reason except to stick a finger in the president’s eye. Netanyahu was part of the cheerleading group for the invasion of Iraq; he was wrong. Netanyahu declared that Iran would have the bomb in a year, five years ago; he was wrong. Netanyahu has no solution to the Iran conundrum other than war. He is wrong. Obama needs our support to keep the peace and deprive Iran from nuclear capability. Not our derision or roadblocks. RICHARD P. HIGER One Wrestler, One Fool Springs March 4, 2015 To the Editor: Netanyahu, Obama, and Iran, the issue of the century and beyond. However, hold it, not so fast. Are you — we — aware that this is only the start, the beginning of this match? One way or another, this one will come to an end, to a conclusion, sooner or later. The results of this particular issue are at this stage still unknown, but several other points are learned, and clear. At stake are the Churchillian versus the Chamberlain approaches. Which one will prove right, and which one will, for sure, become passé. One wrestler, to be a historic hero, and the other a fool. Fascinating, isn’t it? Can hardly wait. And one more very interesting happening emerged from this tragic, comical, dramatic episode. Simply put: What is wrong in planning and inviting major players in major controversial foreign issues — issues that affect us and are in debate in our government — to describe, detail, educate the Congress, and primarily the American people, the ones who may have to pay? Never in the history of debating, trying to resolve controversial issues, were the details brought out and clarified in such a short time. Not a bad precedence. Isn’t this what the Congress was created for? EDWARD A. WAGSCHAL To Understand War Sag Harbor March 9, 2015 Dear David, A brief résumé: I’m a retired N.Y.C. police lieutenant, served two years in the Korean War, still not over, and received a master’s degree in theology. Most modern-day theologians believe we are involved in another Roman Empire. History is full of fallen empires. Is it our turn now? I may have the evidence in my next letter. To further understand war, I’d like to draw upon a well-known theologian, Karen Armstrong, a former Catholic nun who spent seven years in a convent, realized the life didn’t fit, and left to write on religion and violence. After a dozen books, Karen wrote “Fields of Blood.” She believed modern society has made a scapegoat of faith. Much like a mantra, Karen heard religion has been the cause of all major wars in history. An odd remark, since the two world wars were clearly fought for secular nationalism. When they discuss the reason people go to war, military historians acknowledge that many interrelated social, material, and ideological factors are included, one of the chief being competition for scarce resources. I would add money is the bottom line, alongside large-scale corruption. Powerful corporations call the shots, while we the people are left out of the equation but pay a high price, our tax dollars. In the interim, 90 percent of the people killed are innocent civilians. Notice the sanitized camera focused on the debris, rarely the body parts. Remember our pre-emptive war against Iraq, based on a sea of lies and fraudulent complexity reported in The New York Times and elsewhere? For the first time, the mainstream churches spoke out loudly. Pope John Paul II joined the chorus — no more wars in the name of God. A few years ago the Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Tutu tried to warn us these numerous wars in the Middle East had destabilized the history of the world. A wake-up call! During our pre-emptive strike on Iraq, millions of people demonstrated around the world, the largest ever. Their message was clear: “Enough of war!” The human spirit is alive and well. Finally, all our allies and friends joined the protest here at home. Our credibility was questioned and we paid a high price in the West too. Many nations no longer trust us. Early on in Karen’s book “Fields of Blood,” she spoke of The Times’s 20-year war correspondent Chris Hedges, who aptly described war as the force that gives us meaning. Can we deny the accusation and look in the mirror? The truth will set us free, our history. We’re still in Iraq and Afghanistan 13 years later. No exit strategy, only tactics that have run amok. Promises after promises — a con job that made fools of the American people until another surge in ISIS. No American ground troops, a bit of humor. Anyone trust our government? Bless our soldiers, pawns of power. ISIS may be a hard sell. Every religion has its fundamentalists or extremists or man-made religions. We’ve been there before and lost. A lesson in history our only hope. In peace, LARRY DARCEY Climate and Today Wainscott Match 7, 2015 Dear David , Well, here we go again concerning climate and today. Carbon dioxide does not drive climate. It never has and it never will, as far as humanity will be concerned. At its current concentration of between 380 and 400 parts per million, it is at a low level not seen in about 390 million years. There are graphs online that can show this; it takes all of two clicks to reach them. In more recent history, say the last 550,000 years, the Hudson River Valley has been under water, only in the form of glacial ice, about four times. The last retreated about 18,000 years ago and the E.T.A. of an equal amount of glacial ice to a depth of 50 feet over Manhattan is likely to be in 30,000 to 40,000 years. I have my doubts about seeing that, though I’ll try. The ice melted away over the last 12,000 years, causing sea levels to rise at least 300 feet (some think 350 feet). However, there is zero evidence that Manhattan Island has been under liquid water in the last 550,000 years. Just guessing here, but I think we’re safe for a few years from rising seawaters, now estimated to be about one to two inches over the rest of this century. Couple that with isostatic rebound and East Hampton/Long Island will probably see no change in local sea levels. There will be continued erosion. The only way to mitigate that is to add nice clean white silica sand at Montauk Point by the hundreds of thousands of cubic yards. The money would be staggering, yet it is being wasted now in the billions of dollars in carbon sequester schemes that will produce no measurable result. As for the condition of the Atlantic conveyor system, the Gulf Stream, and associated currents and countercurrents, there is no change; possibly a slight speed-up. This as per NASA’s recent study. Again, a Google search and two clicks and you’ve got the information. Well, David, it looks like we’re safe from nature as much as we can be. It does bother me that there is absolute silence here regarding the pure savagery committed in the Middle East in the name of Islam. Men, children, women crucified, burned to death, hacked apart, shot, to cries of Allahu Akbar! They have murdered Christians, Jews, other Islamic sects, Kurds, they have sworn an oath to Allah to destroy Israel, England, and the “Great Satan,” the United States of America. Politicians here say Islam means peace. It does not, it means submission. “Salaam” means peace, and they are not crying Peace to America, but Death to America, so why the deception? Iran is desperate to develop a deliverable nuclear payload. The only thing I can think of is that they think a nuclear attack on Israel would bring on the end times, as per the Koran. They have declared war with Israel and America and will pursue it as best they can. They have killed and will kill more Americans. The question is, how do we stop them from this savagery. Today, economic measures and isolating Iran, then negotiating, can work. If we do little, as we are now, the time when the ayatollah ruling Iran will listen shall pass, making military confrontation and only their complete defeat work. Hopefully, David, our president will do what it takes to keep another war from starting. Right now, timid negotiations with all carrot and no stick will have negative results. Sincerely, PETER C. OSBORNE
Published 4 years ago
Last updated 4 years ago
Letters to the Editor: 03.12.15
March 11, 2015