Official End
Montauk
November 9, 2026
To the Editor,
For many, the official end of the Montauk season was this past Sunday at 5 p.m. It was last call at the Dock. But it was much more than that. The highlight was the 3.3-mile race from the Montauk Post Office to the front of the Dock.
The past few years, 500 people have signed up to participate. This event raises much-needed money for the food pantry and other organizations. Great job, Mr. Watson and staff, and thank you for another great year.
JEFFREY PALERMO
From Near and Far
East Hampton
November 9, 2026
Hi everyone,
I’m sorry for the delay in reaching out to those who attended my birthday party. I’d like to start by thanking my niece Tieya, who went out of her way in making this a very special birthday,
I’d also like to thank those who helped her in planning and setting up, Holly and Scott at the Clubhouse, my family and friends who came from near and far, and those who called or sent cards or gifts.
Thank you all for making my 70th a great day. You’re all the best!
SHARON BACON
Not Enforced
East Hampton
November 6, 2026
To the Editor:
The Town and Village of East Hampton have some good rules and regulations, but they are not enforced and should be.
Bicycle riding on sidewalks is prohibited yet it is done a lot. Police can and should enforce the rule. They do sometimes but not very often.
Real estate signs have a limit of one year, but many stay up much longer. Someone should be in charge of keeping track and notifying companies that need to remove their signs, or the Town should remove them if the company does not.
The electric motorized bikes do not follow the driving rules and should. They pass cars illegally; they drive between cars, creating a third, skinny lane; they ignore red lights, and very often they even go in the wrong direction!
On Newtown Lane in the heart of the village, they travel in the middle of the street; cars going north, cars going south, bikes going in the middle. This is so dangerous to the drivers in cars, who often don’t see them nor expect them. And very dangerous to pedestrians because the electric bikes often don’t stop at crosswalks.
How about registering electric bikes, how about wearing helmets, how about following the driving rules? If there are no rules for electric bikes, then make some rules and enforce them!
JANE ADELMAN
Spare a Turkey
East Hampton
November 6, 2026
Dear Editor:
Every Thanksgiving, the president ceremoniously pardons two turkeys while millions of others face a different fate. But we don’t need the president’s authority to grant a pardon. Every one of us has the power to spare a turkey by choosing a compassionate Thanksgiving meal.
Annually, 250 million turkeys are slaughtered in the United States. Most spend their short lives confined in crowded sheds, subjected to painful mutilations, and denied natural behaviors. Their lives end in slaughterhouses, where some may be conscious when plunged into scalding water.
There’s more. Turkey meat can carry dangerous bacteria, while its cholesterol and saturated fat offer another reason to reconsider what’s on our plates.
Thankfully, celebrating without cruelty has never been easier. Our Thanksgiving table can overflow with savory plant-based roasts, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and other holiday favorites. Supermarkets and online recipes also offer delicious alternatives.
This Thanksgiving, let’s extend the spirit of gratitude to the turkeys.
Respectfully,
ELIJAH HANNESBURG
Board Fails
Amagansett
November 8, 2026
To the Editor,
Thank you for your thoughtful editorial “A Loud Message From Write-In Voters” (Nov. 5). I agree that we who wrote in Jerry Larsen’s name need to be listened to. But my reasons for writing in do not stem from “opposition to the so-called ‘land of no’.” My reasons have to do with opposition to the status quo, a town board that rubber-stamps everything the supervisor suggests, but fails to stamp out corruption, inefficiency, and waste.
Jerry Larsen may not be perfect, but he is also not Kathy Burke-Gonzalez.
ALICE HENRY WHITMORE
Privileged Access
Springs
November 5, 2026
Dear David,
Last week, 28 percent of voters across party lines wrote in a candidate for supervisor who wasn’t running and whose name was not on the ballot. This is a striking indictment of the status quo and a clear demand for change from local residents. Now is the time to use that energy to demand reform.
Start with fairer elections. The East Hampton Town Democratic Committee should withhold endorsements until voters choose their nominee in a primary. Thirty-eight people should not have an outsized say in our candidates or give one-party, insider, privileged access to large political contributions and resources unavailable to other contenders.
East Hampton is one of only three towns in Suffolk County that operates this way and is out of step with the national Democratic Party’s approach to primaries as well. This January, 38 people will attempt to decide who the Democratic candidate should be for town board. This will effectively decide who will be on the town board. This is not democratic and is the primary reason we have very little accountability on the town board. Many local residents believe voters should choose before the party machinery weighs in.
We also need an honest conversation about people who live elsewhere deciding our local elections. New York allows people with more than one residence to choose where they vote, provided they have legitimate, significant, and continuing ties to that community. Under New York law, whether a voter qualifies to vote in a particular locality depends on the facts of their individual circumstances, including their intentions and conduct.
Whether a court decides a voter’s registration is legal does not necessarily mean it is moral. Those who live elsewhere should consider the moral implications of choosing a local government whose decisions people who call this town home live with every day.
East Hampton and Montauk voters sent a message that East Hampton Democrats should not dismiss. The election is over. Our demand for change is only beginning.
JACKI ESPOSITO
Their Voices Heard
East Hampton
November 9, 2026
To the Editor:
The dust is just starting to settle in the aftermath of the record-breaking and potentially transformational midterm elections last week. There are still votes that need to be counted, but more than 10,000 East Hampton voters showed up to have their voices heard. It is too early to develop a full analysis but worth highlighting some important facts about the results as we digest this inflection point in American politics.
Voter turnout for Democrats in East Hampton will likely be record-breaking for a midterm election. Local Democrats in East Hampton (and nationwide) have been energized by the dysfunction within the Republican Party and its leadership across the country. We were able to reach thousands of them through a coordinated program of advertising, texting, canvassing, and phone-banking — all centered around our campaign headquarters in Amagansett.
The local East Hampton voters were incredibly supportive of Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and the work of our town board related to affordable housing, coastal protection, water quality, public safety, parks and recreation, senior services, and emergency preparedness. This was evidenced by a landslide victory margin of 72.4 percent to 27.6 percent (almost 45 points!) over the write-in campaign candidate. We are thrilled by this outcome and proud of the electoral success of our entire slate of candidates up and down the ballot, including Kathy Hochul, Chris Murray, Tommy John Schiavoni, Stephen Lynch, and others.
I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to the members of our incredible East Hampton Town Democratic Committee and the army of volunteers that participated in our coordinated get-out-the-vote effort. There are too many people to mention by name in this short letter, but my enthusiastic thanks go out to all of them. Their incredible effort really made a difference in this campaign!
MICHAEL KOEGLER
Chairman
East Hampton Town Democratic Committee
Every Few Years
Amagansett
November 6, 2026
To the Editor:
Last week, in my scholarly reading, I greatly enjoyed Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s essay “Monster Culture: Seven Theses.” Thesis two is “The Monster Always Escapes.” As a movie-goer, I am heartily tired of seeing the ostensibly dead monster twitch in the last frame, as the titles roll. I do experience the frisson of fear in the next film when the monster’s head rises above the waves, the skyscraper roof, or the spaceship console.
The idea of parking on my tiny street, Dolphin Drive on Napeague, comes back every few years like that monster. There is no origin story; we know in general that some monsters were spawned by radiation, or engineered by mad scientists, but no one has ever explained why the idea of Dolphin Drive parking surged up for the first time about 10 years ago. I remember thinking even at the time that Donald Trump, who had not yet declared a run for the presidency, wanted to build or buy a hotel nearby.
Parking on Dolphin, in addition to singling us out for unique maltreatment not applied to any other equivalent street in town, would drive foot traffic over the already-crumbling primary dune that protects us from the ocean.
The monster is back. I write this on a Friday. On Monday night, Nov. 9, at an Amagansett Citizen’s Advisory Committee meeting, many of my neighbors will be there to discuss their dissatisfaction with the use of the nearby Atlantic Drive beach access as an entry point for a new instantiation of Truck Beach. The liaison, board member Tom Flight (the one who defected to Jerry Larsen) has already said that if the local folk want beach driving hours (applicable on every other beach access road between East Hampton and Montauk Point) reinstated, they must give something in return: Dolphin Drive parking.
First and foremost, why must anyone trade anything? If Atlantic Drive is the only street on a 20-mile stretch where beach access is allowed 24/7, it seems to me that demanding protection is a simple matter of equity, fairness, equality. Should I be asked, in fighting the dishonorable and inequal treatment of my street, to “trade” beach access on Atlantic Drive?
Secondly, who gave any of my neighbors, who do not live on Dolphin, the moral or legal right to give permission for parking on the street where I live? I am far too busy fighting the federal government and the pro-genocide forces 18 hours a day right now (for free) to be as intimately involved as I was in prior up-surges of the monster, but I did attend one meeting in which a neighbor said, “We have to give them something!” Yes, you are ready to trade me for your own privacy and peace of mind. Human nature can be so disappointing!
I could go on for paragraphs, for example, about the Trumpian tactics used by the original supporters of the idea, who surrounded the tiniest, oldest female members of our group at town board meeting and screamed in their faces, or Councilman David Lys’s role later as parking ninja. I will save that for later. I just want to say that I am ready, if necessary, to suit up one more time, wearing my “No Pasaran” (“They shall not pass”) T-shirt under my lawyer costume, to file litigation (as I did 10 years ago). I might even consider, at my advanced age, an act of civil disobedience, lying down in front of the bulldozer (I hope Mitchell Agoos is not at the wheel).
The simple, democratic solution is obvious: Reinstate the same beach driving restrictions on Atlantic Drive that apply everywhere else. And leave Dolphin out of it.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Long Years Ahead
East Hampton
November 9, 2026
Dear David:
Election night may have been the turning of the tide against the cruel and self-centered politics of the G.O.P. One Republican actually thought the election could result in the “extinction” of the party if there is no course correction.
One can only hope that the party will heed the anger vented by its constituency, but looking at how Trump 2.0 seems to be doubling down on the most hated of its policies, it looks like we (and the G.O.P.) have a long two years ahead of us.
The election results showed loudly and clearly that the American public has a very strong message about what it wants from its elected leaders: to listen to their worries and do something to help their pocketbooks and their kids.
The Democratic Congress has an enormous opportunity to cement its electoral success and further diminish the G.O.P.’s selfishly uncaring politics by taking voters to heart and moving legislation that helps cure the economic injustices wrought by the current administration. In doing so, it needs to recognize that its caucus has become more, not less, conservative and it needs to act and legislate accordingly.
We’re going to hear the word “impeachment” a lot over the next few months. We can put one impeachment behind us. The American voters have just “impeached” the president, in a way that cuts him to the core: They showed no love for him. So, it’s time to move on.
In this regard, one of the most important tasks for the Democratic Congress is to again level the scales of justice, bring to justice those whose lawlessness and corruption was so blatant, they seemed to be acting with impunity. This is the place to show that Americans are not chumps to be taken advantage of.
Here at home, the election results should teach our town leaders a lesson. The Three Musketeers (Messrs. Lys, Calder-Piedmonte, and Flight), who have turned the town board into a patriarchy, need to splash cold water on their faces. Thousands of their constituents have spoken out against several of their pet projects, yet they have turned a deaf ear. Boys, take a look at your vote totals and subtract 3,700 (the last count of the number in opposition to the Springs parking lot) and see where that leaves you on the electoral totem pole.
It’s time to realize that public service means that the public is the boss, not the other way around.
Sincerely,
BRUCE COLBATH
Satyagraha
North Haven
November 8, 2026
Dear David:
I found it interesting but very sad that immediately before our most-significant midterm election some members of our community choose to submit letters to The Star containing their usual bilious remarks with angry, fact-free statements. Most of us chose to be respectful — or just shut up until after the election when results were known.
Honest reflection with facts never seems important to some folks, who prefer dominance by hostility and deceit. Our democracy has been under attack for over 10 years by a president-endorsed firehose of lies pushed on us by MAGA. The fabricated disturbing news, the monumental corruption, and the horrifying fatalities both domestic and worldwide seem acceptable to MAGA leadership. Censorship of details of fatal military losses in Iraq remains policy.
We have had our fill of it! We do not seek retribution, but rather repair, the peaceful return to a proper democracy — a true democracy when conflicting opinions can safely be spoken together and negotiated to action in a peaceful and healthy way.
Some say the midterm elections were all about voting against Donald Trump. The dominant issue was actually widespread political corruption and the wars that are sucking up all our money, affecting every citizen’s “affordability.” MAGA reminds me of Auntie Mame (played by Rosalind Russell) who enjoyed saying, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death”.
Midterm results showed the voters’ tide turned drastically away from this business as usual. Self-serving greed and corruption, the nasty behavior, and twisted reality seem to be on the way out. Voters want more respect for their own lives, health, and economic situation, as well as better support of education and science. Regaining respect among allies would be nice, too.
Many exit surveys, along with the absence of certain Republican lawn signs, suggests former MAGA supporters likely stepped back to allow opposition a chance to succeed. This so-called “blue wave” was not to endorse the Democrat Party’s shabby, ineffective behavior or some budding radical ideology. Midterm results gave our newest representatives, together with any recently sobered incumbents, a brief and fragile opportunity to recover, rebuild, and repair the damage being done to our democracy and civility. We must urgently show we can all cross those proverbial political aisles to perform effectively through cooperation, rather than retribution and recrimination.
It is alarming to see this president, typically not accepting his own responsibility, doubling down with the appointment of the Satanic Steven Miller as his chief of staff — a real Halloween treat! Trump’s new red hat on the Resolute Desk is emblazoned with the word “VETO.” That says a lot about protecting his brand of cooperation.
“Satyagraha” is a Hindi term introduced by Mahatma Gandhi to describe his successful strategy of useful resistance. It combines the words “truth” and “power” to indicate that passive resistance alone is not good enough. There has to be some power to reach the truth, which is the absolute goal.
Our new Congress, and all local leadership, including the likes of Nick LaLota, need to realize MAGA is now history, and it’s time to listen and work with the other half of their constituencies with respect and concern.
Some folks might prefer to call on their chosen god to save us all, but I would suggest we first respect each other and try to save ourselves, by ourselves, as is often taught in many scriptures. We have a lot of work to do and repairs to fix, so let’s get together and do that very important thing. After all, we still have a 250-year-old democracy to take care of.
ANTHONY CORON
Must Be
East Hampton
November 9, 2026
To the Editor,
You know that inflation is bad when $220 million won’t buy an election. Must be the work of socialists.
TOM MACKEY
No Such Luck
Stuart, Fla.
November 5, 2026
To the Editor,
The entire system is rigged. All the politicians are actors. Even Cardinal Burke has sold himself out to the other side of righteousness. Then the Catholic church “cancelled” Fr. Chad Ripperger?
It is very obvious that all the “right” people are being persecuted and the “left” people are winning the culture war. Well, “they” killed J.F.K., R.F.K., Anwar Sadat, Indira Gandi, Yitzhak Rabin, Benazir Bhutto, Muammar Gaddafi, John Lennon, and Charlie Kirk.
Donald Trump is the Trojan horse of our times, and he could have been the latest Paul Revere. He has the gall to ask for a Nobel Peace Prize?
The biggest statement he said after the election was all about his $100 million ballroom? I agree England is now under Sharia law but at least when their politicians lose an election, they step down from government the next day. No such luck here.
So, who gets murdered next — Russel Brand, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Shawn Ryan, Megyn Kelly, Nick Fuentes, Candace Owen? It is amazing how many people are still asleep since Covid. Maybe the spike proteins are working overtime to brainwash everyone?
My bet is the New York communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani and A.O.C. run in 2028 and win, and we deserve it!
I once told my daughter that if Hillary picked Oprah for vice president, she would win by a landslide. She obviously picked a loser and then lost herself. My daughter was shocked and begged me not to write about it, as it would give her ideas. So much for releasing the Epstein files. And “no new wars?” You fill up your gas tank lately? Hello?
In closing, quote, “I believe Americans are good people, but the United States will be taken over and destroyed from within by the Zionist lobby. Americans do not realize this. They are becoming decadent. The Zionists will use that to destroy them,” end quote, Muammar Gaddafi, 1986. And so, he was removed, eliminated, and shut up just like the rest of them.
We are the fools in this parade. The slaves who work, pay taxes, and foot the war bill for the rich and famous who never fight for anything except fake elections.
Last week, the Archdiocese of New York agreed to an $800 million payout to settle nearly 1,300 sex abuse claims. Remember, it is not the church you worship but the Lord himself. Angels surround all of you! And so it goes my friends, so it goes.
WILLIAM H. ADDEO
My Amendments
East Hampton
November 6, 2026
To the Editor,
Below are my suggestions for amendments to the United States Constitution:
Ranked choice voting, wherein voters are allowed to rank candidates, is used for all federal elections. Individual states and territories determine their separate election parameters such as number of candidates to be ranked with space for five or more, number of candidates listed on ballots, and whether write-in-ballots are allowed — without ranked choice voting, bad actors will begin to finance candidates with little chance of winning, but able to draw off votes from valid contenders. Ranked choice voting selects the candidate that the public prefers to anyone else.
The Supreme Court shall have nine members. If there is a vacancy in the federal judiciary, the president shall nominate a replacement that must be confirmed by 60 percent of current senators and 60 percent of current House of Representatives members; otherwise, the vacancy continues unfilled — the judiciary should be as non-partisan as possible and should be recognized by the public as non-partisan.
The attorney general of the United States shall be elected on the first Tuesday of November of every odd year. The winner is determined by adding three times the percentage of popular votes plus the percentage of the electoral votes won. He becomes attorney general on Jan. 1 at 12:01 Eastern Standard Time of an even year having been elected the prior November. The attorney general will control the executive Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The president recommends pardons. A pardon is inoperative if it is rejected by the attorney general or by more than 50 percent of either House of Congress. Prior presidential pardons are rescinded if, going forward, the pardon is rejected by the attorney general or by more than 50 percent of the members of either house of Congress. If a former pardon is rejected, the recipients are incarcerated again, and monetary or other penalties are due with interest of 10 percent per annum — the pardon amendment reduces the corrupt occurrence of selling pardons.
The United States Treasury may collect and attach, currently and retroactively, all funds of a foreign source received by United States elected officials including the president, citizens, immigrants, and businesses for the purpose of influencing United States government policy. Either congressional law or federal judiciary may settle disputes of such collections and attachments. The appearance of impropriety is sufficient for the government to win such disputes. Interest at 10 percent per annum is also due dating from the reception of such funds — this will discourage foreign actors from trying to influence U.S. government officials.
Reduction-in-force of civil service employees can only be done by congressional law. individual civil service employees may be terminated for incompetence or corruption, which an employee may appeal to a federal judge. Presidents are not allowed to invoke a reduction-in-force.
Inspector generals that investigate executive departments are appointed by Congress jointly or by each separate house of Congress. The percentage of Congress agreeing to their appointment is X+50, where X must be greater than zero, and is important. The percentage of Congress agreeing to termination or replacement of an inspector general is Y+50. Termination or replacement is effective only if Y is greater than or equal to X divided by 2. Inspector generals have subpoena power and may enter their departments unannounced. They check that congressional spending is used wisely, send corruption to the attorney general, and recommend laws to improve government efficiency. Neither the president nor executive officials may fire nor impede inspector generals.
Congressional law may tax internet usage. For example, but not limited to, tax may be applied to advertising, to influencer income, to artificial intelligence income, and to social media income.
United States national security organizations may designate foreign countries, and foreign or domestic organizations or individuals as losing internet privileges in the United States or its territories. Internet providers must obey these restrictions — prevent North Korea from reaching the United States via the internet.
GARY L. RUSSELL