Best $10
Middle Village
July 15, 2025
Dear Editor,
My wife loves a good rummage sale, especially the one at the Montauk Community Church.
While in Montauk last week, we drove past the church hoping to see the lawn sign, and there it was, shining in the sun displaying, “Rummage Sale Saturday.”
When she returned back home after shopping, in the trunk of the car, alongside a handful of mugs and candlestick holders, was a rather large, but amazing framed poster showcasing the 100th anniversary of The East Hampton Star. Probably the best $10 spent so far this summer. Now, it’s my job to hang it in the hallway.
LUKE PANTALEO
So Sweet
Bridgehampton
June 30, 2025
Dear Editor,
I was glad to read about Mariska Hargitay’s book “My Mom Jayne.” In 1959, I was working at an art agency on 41st and Madison in New York City. Our main client was Sealright Paper Containers. They were coming out with a new container with a full, rounded lip on top to make drinking beverages more comfortable. The agency hired Jayne Mansfield to kiss the cup and promoted it as “The lip that your lip loves to touch.”
When Jayne arrived at the agency, I was struck by how beautiful she was and so sweet, with a lovely voice. She was wearing a blue-and-white dress, white leather shoes, and matching purse. Her hair was very blond-white. She wore a large hat and had a terrific smile. For lunch we bought, at her request, a Nedick’s hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut.
When I walked her to the Otis elevator, she gave me a tiny kiss goodbye. I was 22 years old. A day I will always remember.
Jayne would be very proud of her daughter Mariska.
Sincerely,
ROCCO LICCARDI
Spared Noise
Montauk
July 14, 2025
Dear Editor,
Because of piping plovers my dog was spared the scary noise of the fireworks. She is happy with the birds we feed, as am I, but a blast from a firecracker sends her into a frenzy. She tries to hide and shakes all over the house.
Since July is almost over couldn’t you skip the upsetting noise this year? Please think about it.
Sincerely,
ROBERTA WICKLEIN
and DAISY
Buried in the Sand
Montauk
July 9, 2025
To the Editor:
Anyone strolling the Montauk Hither Hills beaches will notice they are dotted with piles of black cinders and half-burned firewood partially buried in the sand. Some idiots have taken to feeding their fires with wood slats stripped from the fencing erected to build and protect the dunes.
Members of our town council would do well to remember that they may impose all the regulations they wish mandating metal fire containers, water extinguishment, and removal of debris. Without effective enforcement, they are mere fantasy.
JAMES WIGGINS
Humor We Need
East Hampton
July 11, 2025
Dear David,
You have to laugh. The alternative is to despair, go mad, and give up. My mother, who never uttered a swear word unless pushed to the limit, would say, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” Words to live by, yeah?
Did the nesting piping plovers ruin your Fourth? What if they went ahead and Mama Plover whistled to her friends, and before you knew it, a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” happened right on Umbrella Beach? Imagine the horror. Never mind the 50th anniversary of “Jaws”; the kiddies would never go outside again. So chill. It’s just a day, a little blip. I heard fireworks anyway and I’m sure you did, too.
The $&@#* traffic. I hear you. As Crazy Eddie used to say, “It’s insane!” On the flipside, there’s staying home and reading or writing, planting a pot of herbs, sitting on the porch and daydreaming, G. and T. optional. Some shops even deliver. (What a concept.) When trapped in the car, I turn up my favorite tunes and sing. My windows are up because I don’t like bugs, especially the stinging kind. I keep pots of mint on the deck, as the wasps don’t like it, and a dryer sheet in my pool bag. They don’t like that smell either.
I write fiction but I love a good opinion piece, and I enjoy Baylis’s and Bess’s columns. Again, humor we need. Mom said it keeps the wrinkles at bay. So far, so good — no 11s between the eyes. Mom never got those at all. Must have been her positive attitude, plus the gene pool.
So Baylis is walking these days but considering a little marathon. I get it. Not the running, ever, but once upon a time I was a three-times-a-week spinning person who walked with so much spring I got a stress fracture. That’ll slow you down. Now it’s gentle stretching with one bum knee and the lingering memory of the long recovery after a total knee replacement four years ago. No thanks.
I’m not an ocean person like Bess unless there are no people on the beach, plus walking in soft sand with the knee is a no-no. I was always more of a bay girl and once we had an idyllic family house right on it. Times change and so do people. Anyway, I’m glad Bess is holding strong for her piece of heaven at Egypt. Wait till 60, Bess, you really won’t care a fig what people say.
Summer, like life, is fleeting after all, so eat the corn, but wait for the August peaches, sip a good rose or an iced latte from Bonfire or Buco. They are so nice in both places, and the line is short or nonexistent — and you get to walk under the fairytale tree at the Amagansett Library. Never gets old.
A wise woman told me a long time ago to “laugh at least once a day and don’t forget to please yourself because you sure as hell can’t make everyone else happy. Besides, it’s not your job.” More words to live by.
Pensively,
NANCI LAGARENNE
Routinely Bail
Amagansett
July 11, 2025
To the Editor:
A sentence in Christopher Gangemi’s article “Large Sandbags Outstay Welcome” (July 10) caught my eye: “Mr. Grecco is balking at one of the new provisions, which requires homeowners to obtain a ‘surety bond’ “ to cover the expenses in case they fail to keep their promises of future work (in this case the removal of the infamous geocubes blocking his neighbors’, including my friend Joe Karpinski’s, access to Napeague Bay).
I remember suggesting in a letter to The Star a year or two ago that homeowners obtaining natural resources special permits to tear up primary dunes should post a bond in case they failed to replenish them. Today, the builders of mini-mansions have an unparalleled freedom to lie to the zoning board about their future plans without any consequences.
Mr. Grecco, who plans to tear his house down and build a larger one landward, could, I feel, certainly afford to post a bond. His lawyer claims, “Nobody is issuing surety bonds for small residential practices.” Of course, if homeowners too routinely bail, leaving the bond company on the hook, that would be a deterrent. More people keeping promises would create the market. If he can’t get a bond, Mr. Grecco could probably afford to post cash. The cost of removing geocubes would certainly be less than the cost of installing them.
A less satisfactory but still useful fallback would be to require, every time an L.L.C. is the applicant (which is likely to be every time), that the individual owner sign a personal guarantee the work will be done. But the town would have to be willing to sue the guarantors, something they don’t appear to be very good at (at least not at winning anyway).
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Disregarded Goal
East Hampton
July 13, 2025
Dear Editor:
Nothing says summer like the sight of traffic moving in a $1.5 million roundabout. The untouched rural intersection of Two Holes of Water and Stephen Hand’s Path is now littered with a flock of some 20 road signs. Concrete curbing and suburban lane dividers adorn both a charming, winding country road and Long Lane with its preserved fields. Also featured is the must-have, bling-Hampton landscape accessory: imported Belgian block paving stones.
Before this “improvement,” the intersection showcased sweeping farm vistas in all directions. It was protected by the creation of the Hardscrabble Scenic Area of Local Significance. Two unobtrusive stop signs would have easily and safely slowed traffic.
Progress and efficiency? What about cyclists and pedestrians, who now lack safe passage through this new thoroughfare.
The town board disregarded a critical goal of the comprehensive plan, like teenagers blowing a stop sign. That goal required that planning reduce reliance on automobiles in favor of alternative sidewalks and bikeways. Imagine what $1.5 million could have achieved with that goal in mind.
The real cost of the town board’s failed vision is the erosion of signature views of our priceless rural landscape. Joni Mitchell was right: You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
JEFF BRAGMAN
Eased Traffic
East Hampton
July 11, 2025
To the Editor,
Kudos to East Hampton Town. The new roundabout at Long Lane and Stephen Hand’s Path has eased traffic congestion and has made the roadways much safer. Thank you for addressing our safety concerns.
BILL HURWITZ
Unit Was Cooked
Wainscott
July 14, 2025
Dear David;
In early June, I called for my annual air-conditioner tune-up because my unit didn’t work. I assumed that maybe a leak of coolant occurred. After a confusing diagnosis, I called for a second opinion. That evening, my lights blinked, and the TV went haywire for a few seconds. I shrugged it off as a glitch of some sort.
It turned out that the compressor in my unit was cooked, and the tech asked if I lost power. He installed a new Capacitor card and immediately pulled it out and requested a running hose to cool down the compressor, which got red hot and had to be cooled down immediately.
He asked if I had a power outage. The compressor was burned out, and the unit should be replaced and not worth installing in a nine-year-old unit. I soon learned that businesses on Montauk highway lost A.C. as well. I filed a complaint with the New York State Public Service Commission, and an investigation has started,
Now, in addition to that, I suggest that people here check the Optimum cable bill, as they have discontinued some programs and raised the rates. Their programming is awful, with several foreign language programs and a 24-hour-a-day cartoon channel. A sitcom is broadcast simultaneously on two different channels.
The advice was to upgrade or downgrade my “package” to full streaming instead. When I added up the total, I would have to rob a bank to afford the cost. The next remark was, “That is the way it is!”
We are a captive audience here. No other service is allowed to compete. It is under foreign ownership and they could care less about the consumer. There are large numbers of senior citizens and hard-working families here who deserve a better solution.
Let’s hope the town board will look to rewarding us with an alternative TV service.
ARTHUR FRENCH
Been Left Out
East Hampton
July 14, 2025
Dear David,
I and many East Hampton residents recently received a two-sided, two-page letter from the mayor’s office titled, “State of the Village.”
As one would expect, it was a document praising the accomplishments of the administration, complete with numerous and gracious thank-yous, wishes to each and every one of us, and assurances that the administration was doing all it could to continue making “East Hampton Village the most beautiful village in the country,” and maintaining Main Beach’s new ranking as number 5 on the Top Ten Beaches in America.
We’re encouraged “to celebrate all that we’ve accomplished together as a village” and that the administration has and will continue “to protect and enhance the quality of life” and “peace of mind” for all its residents, “preserving the tranquillity and character of our village,” making it “livable for generations.” The language of inclusion is used extensively in the letter; when you look at the details, another narrative develops.
There’s not one word concerning the new noise law and its insufficient outreach to publicize and increase awareness of it to construction and landscaping workers, which are disproportionately impacting Latinos. The noise people object to is largely from houses being built by the wealthiest people in the town. The law impacts the poorest people in the town constructing these homes, who are further demeaned by the insensitivity and arrogance of Town Justice Steven Tekulsky, who scolds defendants deemed improperly attired, as they come to his court in the middle of a workday.
There’s not one word concerning the need for increased funding for students in our public schools for mental health programs, enhanced reading programs, math tutoring, or art and music programs.
Not one word about local police protocols concerning the increase in immigration arrests on Long Island and the fear of possible use of masked and unmasked ICE officers in East Hampton and East End workplaces and schools.
Not a word of concern for advocacy groups who are launching a rapid response action plan to document ICE activities. Why was the Homeland Security webpage (later taken down) recently exposing sanctuary jurisdictions that included East Hampton? East Hampton is not a sanctuary jurisdiction and was the only Long Island township singled out.
Not one word concerning a real estate transfer tax and other policies which could put a dent in the escalating, affordable housing costs and the growing gap between local earnings and housing prices, making it near impossible for working class and middle class residents to afford to live here.
Not a word about increased funding for Maureen’s Haven, the one organization in our community that is primarily concerned with the increased number in our community who are homeless.
Not a word about increased funding for the Retreat and the increased number of abused women in need of their services.
Because of federal grant cuts, organizations like Maureen’s Haven, The Retreat, various drug addiction, alcoholic, and medical services and programs are being stretched to the limit, and need for aid has only increased.
Not one word of whether East Hampton Village, one of the wealthiest villages in the country and world, will step up its commitment — financial and otherwise —- to these organizations and services.
Not one word in the report on land overdevelopment, growing income inequality, the subsequent loss of local businesses and affordable programs and educational opportunities offering visible paths to careers and a better life.
Not a word addressing the Plain Sight Project, which has documented the widespread use of slaves who built the village and created great wealth for many of the founding fathers of our village. There are many symbolic measures that could be taken — naming street signs after slaves that would hang alongside many of the signs now named for the village’s founding fathers would be one. Concrete responses could be in the form of scholarships to young promising students in the East Hampton Black community. Not a word acknowledging this historical reality and possible responses toward healing these past wounds and hurts.
Full sidewalk installations and renovations, dedication of a park for former Mayor Rickenbach, new tree installations with Belgian block enclosures, classic-style street lamps to create a “welcoming atmosphere,” more wooden benches, long-term parking-lot renovations, etc., etc. Sure — why not?
But, Mr. Mayor, don’t perpetuate this incomplete political narrative of the state of the village that benefits your political agenda that doesn’t include the majority of its citizens. Their needs and concerns have been left out of your report.
As you know, they keep the town running, care and love the community as well — and they vote, too.
Sincerely,
JIM VRETTOS
Catering to Richest
Amagansett
July 14, 2025
Dear David,
The East Hampton Town Board is resembling the Trump administration more and more in both their violations of town laws and their catering to their richest constituents at the expense of everybody else. Just as the Trump administration thinks it’s okay to violate the United States Constitution, so the East Hampton Town Board seems to think it is okay to violate our town comprehensive plan. The town board is destroying Amagansett and poisoning our water.
The only way to protect an aquifer is to buy the land above it to protect it from development and pollution from septic systems. The town board failed to buy four incredibly important parcels of land all on the high moraine of the Stony Hill Aquifer: the 20-acre Mary Stone piece, the five-acre Saskas (formerly Barnes) piece, the Bobby Flay piece, and the Dick Smolian piece. In addition, you can see your tax dollars being wasted by the demolition of the beautiful seven-acre forest that was one of the last homes of the endangered (and mostly extinct everywhere else) brown, long-eared bat. Just drive north on Abraham’s Path right off Montauk Highway and look east as soon as you cross the railroad tracks and you can see how the town board has wasted your tax dollars. No East Hampton Democratic board in history has ever destroyed the home of an endangered species. All of them before this board would have preserved this site to save an endangered species, but not a total phony like Kathee Burke-Gonzalez. Great Democrats like Tony Bullock, Cathy Lester, or Judy Hope would have never done this.
In addition, since the town board didn’t buy the beautiful piece at the end of Timber Trail, now Larry Kane’s latest spec house hangs over the Baker Kettlehole and has destroyed the wonderful feel of wild wilderness one used to get hiking there. That is 40 acres the town board neglected to buy of high moraine above the Stony Hill Aquifer that is the vital natural filter that is the only protection for all the well water for Springs, Amagansett, northern East Hampton, and Napeague, and the public water for Springs and Montauk.
Our town comprehensive plan mandates the town board to “take forceful measures to protect and reduce human impacts to high quality grounded drinking water resources, which exist beneath the land east of Accabonac Road, south of Red Dirt Road, north of the railroad tracks and inland from Gardiner’s Bay.” The comprehensive plan mandates “protecting the old growth American beech forest, rare on Long Island, corresponding to high quality drinking water resources, close to the most populated areas of East Hampton Town.” The comprehensive plan mandates the town “to establish a Multi Hamlet Priority Drinking Water Protection Area in Stony Hill, generally west of Accabonac Road, south of Red Dirt Road, east of Old Stone Highway and adjacent to Stony Hill Road and recommend all the land within this area be included for acquisition on the community fund preservation list. . . . The highest level of protection, acquisition, is recommended for all the parcels within this area.”
Now we are treated to the spectacle of the town joining the village and the Peconic Land Trust to buy 5.5 acres around already-polluted Georgica Pond, where fancy people can access this new preserve from their tony homes. I am always for preservation of anything in East Hampton Town, but when compared with the town’s failure to preserve the vital drinking water of two-thirds of the town’s population, it really shows where the priorities of this town board are: favoring their rich donors over the needs of the vast majority of the people of the Town of East Hampton. Gee, sounds just like the Trump administration screwing tens of millions of normal people’s health care for the sake of tax breaks to their billionaire friends. The purchase of those 40 acres of vital aquifer land would have been a small fraction of the $55 million dollar price tag for 5.5 acres of Georgica pondfront.
Sincerely,
ALEXANDER PETERS
President
Amagansett Springs Aquifer Protection
Who Stands Alone
Amagansett
July 13, 2025
To the Editor,
If you ever need to figure out who the real bully is and who the actual victim is, look at who stands alone. The victim is almost always isolated, carrying it on their own. All the while, the bully is surrounded by groups, enablers, and people who laugh as well as take part all along to keep it going. Those who are silent are the complicit bystanders.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Hope not Lost
East Hampton
July 9, 2025
Hi David,
I was fortunate to attend Guild Hall’s Hamptons Institute: Guardrails on Democracy this past Monday. Listening to Anthony Romero, Norman Eisen, and Susan Corke discuss grim realities about our democracy’s unraveling, prompted by moderator Jim Zirin, was sobering. But what was particularly uplifting was the standing-room-only audience of engaged people who care about civil rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law. We were reminded continually by each brilliant panelist that hope is not lost, that we must continue to work to protect each other.
I googled Norman Eisen when I returned home. A first generation American, his mother was a survivor of the Czech Holocaust. Norm worked in the family’s hamburger stand, went on to graduate from Brown and Harvard, where he earned a law degree alongside his classmate, future president Barack Obama. Years later as our ambassador to the Czech Republic, his home was the very building that had housed a Nazi headquarters. Karma.
Mr. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, spoke passionately about how prepared he is to continue to litigate and protect. Raised in the Bronx by immigrant parents from Puerto Rico, he was the first in his family to graduate from high school and went on to Princeton and Stanford Law School.
To me, these men, first-generation, hard-working, minorities, embody the American dream. A dream that’s at risk of disappearing.
Susan Corke, the executive director of Defenders of Democracy, spoke movingly about the fears she has as the wife and mother of people of color. She reminded us, urgently, that the court of opinion is as important as the Supreme Court and that our voices, our actions, our marches, our kindness all matter! We matter. We can, we will, and we must continue to defend our Constitution, our freedoms, and the targeted members of our community.
Many thanks to Andrea Grover and Guild Hall for an inspiring evening. Hope is resistance.
LYNN BLUMENFELD
Saw It Coming
East Hampton
July 8, 2025
Dear David,
“Nobody saw this coming.” Those were the words of Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the highest-ranking elected official in the county, referring to the flood in Texas that killed over 100 people last weekend.
I beg to differ. In fact, efforts were ongoing since 2015 in the aftermath of a similar flood event that killed 12 people in a nearby county to install an early warning system on the Guadalupe River. It was projected to cost $1 million. It was kicked around in the form of proposed legislation and grant requests from the county, to the River Authority, to the state, to the federal government. It never happened. But many saw it coming, on both the local and the worldwide level.
Climate disasters in the United States costing a billion dollars and up are doubling each decade. Since 1980, there have been 403 such disasters with a cumulative cost of $2.915 trillion. Hence, the drastic increase in homeowners insurance; mine went up 19 percent a couple years ago and 12 percent the year after that. Who knows whether the tragedy on the Guadalupe will even be included in the above statistic? Maybe 100 people and assorted cabins and campers won’t total up to a billion dollars.
There is a book, “Losing Earth,” by Nathanial Rich, which details the efforts of private and government scientists and politicians in the decade from 1979 to 1989 to warn the public and spur action on climate. There were high-level secret meetings of the nation’s top scientists and advisers to President George H.W. Bush to figure out what to do. The can was kicked down the road and nothing substantive happened. In the decades since, science has only refined and monitored the escalating threat. The critical science was well understood in 1979. The upshot of what we know now, with the aid of supercomputers and worldwide high-tech monitoring, is that the sensitivity of the planet to warming gases is worse than we thought; cataclysmic change is closer than we thought. Two degrees Celsius of Earth warming, once thought too horrible to countenance, is now believed to be built in.
Yet we are now ruled by a president, some would say a dictator, who has decreed that discussions of climate change are forbidden. Trump doesn’t want you to even hear about it. The statistics above come from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a government science effort he is defunding, just as he defunded the weather service that might have given early warning to girls on the Guadalupe. He has reversed the ambitious but still inadequate legislation Biden passed to address it, and worse, is pushing a renaissance of coal, a fuel that everyone agrees is the most-polluting fuel available. Insanity is too weak as a description of this idea.
Snap out of it, America. How many more times will we hear “Nobody saw this coming”?
DON MATHESON
On Bea’s Letters
Water Mill
July 11, 2025
To the Editor,
I always enjoy what Bea has to say, and liked Carol’s defense and expansion on Bea’s letters — and I finally found something in Brian’s recent diatribe worth agreeing with: the part about Kim and her huge derriere!
LOU MEISEL
Conservative Viewpoint
East Hampton
July 14, 2025
Dear David,
I have written many letters to The Star, although they are not very frequent. The last one was in October, when I felt it was necessary to give my opinion on the phoniness and incompetence of Kamala Harris. Fortunately, a large majority of the country agreed. I wrote that most of the people in this town and this state are extremely liberal. I feel that if they are thoughtful and consistent in their views, they are entitled to their opinions and I respect how they feel. I have a more conservative viewpoint, and I expect that people with differing political viewpoints will respect mine, even if they don’t agree with them.
One of the regular letter writers is Bea Derrico. I don’t know her personally, but she is consistent in expressing her conservative viewpoint. She clearly loves this country and does not show any mean-spiritedness in her writing. On the other side there are many regular letter writers on the left who attack her, writing with snarky sarcasm and even ad hominem insults against her. It was hurtful to see in the June 26 edition that three of the most offensive of them did just that. I won’t mention their names, but if you are a reader of this paper, you know who they are. One even suggested, maybe in semi-jest, that Ms. Derrico does not even read. I was tempted to write a letter at that time about it, but was pleased to see that in the following issue, on July 3, Ms. Derrico wrote a letter that slapped down these three letter writers and showed who they really were.
Another conservative letter writer who writes occasionally and intelligently is Carol Dray, whom I also do not know personally. She wrote a letter in the July 10 edition in defense of Ms. Derrico. She went on to describe many of the positive accomplishments of President Donald Trump, another person who comes under heavy fire from many of the letter writers to this paper.
To continue on what she wrote, Trump has been attacked from all directions. He has had to deal with the Russia hoax, the fine people hoax, the suckers and losers hoax, the laptop as likely Russian disinformation hoax. He has had lawfare waged against him by many, including Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Adam Schiff, and others. He has twice faced impeachment on sketchy grounds, both of which failed. He is often accused of making policies that benefit only the billionaires. Ask yourself how many billionaires benefit from no tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security. Bringing down the price of goods and services, as well as lowering the rate of inflation, benefits people in every stratum of income.
I think that most of the people in this town with liberal viewpoints are not as extreme and nasty as some of the letter writers that I referred to. I also think that people here, whatever their politics, want to see fairness to all groups, as well as a well-run, prosperous community and country.
JON HOWARD
In His Sights
Springs
July 10, 2025
Dear Editor,
Should Vladimir Putin conquer Ukraine, a former Russian territory, might he have in his sights on another former Russian territory? Alaska?
FRANK VESPE
‘Special’
Springs
July 10, 2025
Dear David,
I was reminded of Dana Carvey’s line as the Church Lady on “Saturday Night Live”: “Well, isn’t that special,” when I read that Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Nothing like an accused war criminal nominating a convicted felon and sexual molester for the Nobel Peace Prize.
SUSAN MENU
Far Too Silent
North Haven
July 14, 2025
Dear David:
We have powerful forces here in the Hamptons working diligently to counter attack and defend our democracy. Trump supporters seem to be acting tribally, not intellectually, so we must talk to them peacefully and seek a common understanding that makes sense.
Guild Hall presented a return of the Hamptons Institute series, with its first program on Monday the 7th, “Guardrails on Democracy.” The panel of top legal talent discussed the destructive flood of presidential executive orders and the nationwide legal activities being used to defend against them.
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Norman Eisen, the co-founder of Democracy Institute, a CNN legal commentator, and former co-counsel for the first Trump impeachment trial, joined Jim Zirin and Susan Corke for a current talk about how dangerous the “Project 2025” assault on our democracy is. They explained what they and others in the legal community are doing to respond.
Most important was learning how critical our own citizen role as active voters is to support their legal work. It cannot be successful ultimately without our pressure on politicians and MAGA supporters — that is critical.
We must actually talk to politicians and Republicans, not just among ourselves. We know, but we wonder if they understand the real risks and hardship they are responsible for causing. Our Republican politicians, friends and neighbors need to hear our convincing commitment to defending our democracy and we respectfully enlist their cooperation.
We actually outnumber MAGA supporters significantly and will vote them all out if necessary. We have been far too silent. Our numbers as voters count far more than our cash donations to advertising campaigns.
Trump bludgeoned all his congressional holdouts and they agreed to pass his obnoxious destructive “big bill.” Many of those Republicans feel abused and bullied. Although they still fear Trump, they need to fear more their voters for their job security. We must change their perception immediately.
July 17 will see another No Kings-style protest called Good Trouble Lives On. It is a national day of action to respond to the attacks on our civil and human rights by the Trump administration. Together, we’ll remind them that in America, the power lies with the people.
Coined by the civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis, “good trouble” is the action of coming together to take peaceful, nonviolent action to challenge injustice and create meaningful change.
Let’s speak truth to these people, and restore civility and good government.
ANTHONY CORON