Letters: Don’t turn North Fork in modern Cape Cod

JAMESPORT

Preserve the
North Fork

Letter-writer Jim Dreeben hit the nail on the head when he said we don’t need another shopping center in Jamesport. People coming to the North Fork are not looking for another shopping center. That is more than covered on Route 58 in Riverhead. What they are coming for: open spaces, farms, wineries, farm stands, etc. A relative visiting us from Cape Cod a few years back said, “The North Fork is the way Cape Cod use to be.” That is what the property owners are trying to preserve.

Richard Seery

SOUTHOLD

More than baseball

It’s Oct. 16, 1969. I am 7 years, 5 days old, and I have returned home from school and can’t wait to watch the last game of the World Series.

To my surprise, my father is home also and, together, I in my Catholic school uniform and he in his work clothes, we witness our New York Mets achieve what was thought to be impossible. They win the Series and become baseball’s best.

Baseball isn’t always about baseball. Sometimes it incorporates other times in one’s life that become more important than anything. You see, the Miracle Mets’ winning was great. The two-bedroom apartment that my dad and I witnessed it in was great. The black-and-white console we watched it on was great. Yes, that time of my life was great. However, it wasn’t until years later that I found out just how great that day really was.

My dad told me when I was in my early 20s that he had been offered a free ticket to that miracle of a day on Oct. 16 to see the Mets win the World Series. I was in disbelief when I asked him why he would turn down a ticket for that game. His response to me was, “I asked if there were two tickets and they said no, so I declined.”

He went on to explain that if I couldn’t go, he would rather watch the game on TV with me. I thought to myself that this man really loves me. How unselfish for him to choose a black-and-white TV versus Shea Stadium, just to have me by his side.

I will never forget that day when I found out he turned down that opportunity. I will never forget the ’69 Mets winning the World Series. But most of all, I will never forget how much my father loved me.

You see, baseball isn’t always about just baseball. It is a piece of our lives that is woven into so many other aspects of our lives.

My father died a young man. I am so grateful to have known him, and I only wish that someday I will leave an impression as strong on my own son. We are Mets fans and we will always dream bigger than any other fans on the planet. Our hearts are just a little bit bigger.

Michael Fedele

WADING RIVER

For fighting
mandates

I am glad to hear that Assemblyman Dan Losquadro is standing up for Riverhead parents, students and taxpayers. For far too long, teachers have had to pay for craft supplies and other items out of their own pockets, while a bloated state government refuses to pay for its own bright ideas — leaving local property owners to sign the receipts when they pay their school tax bills.

Should local taxpayers have to foot the bill to buy every sixth-grade student a calculator they will only use once during their standardized math test? The pencil-pushers up in Albany have been acting like nosy neighbors for far too long, all too happy to tell you how to live your life, but never there to pay for any of their well-intended schemes. Teachers are on the firing line every time school tax bills come out.

When good ideas become unfunded mandates, local school taxpayers lose. Assemblyman Losquadro, thanks for speaking up on this important issue.

Brian Mills

JAMESPORT

Hoping for change 

In regard to $4 gas prices, let’s just say that the fact there is more drilling in the U.S. today is to the credit of Bush and all the permits his administration allowed. Obama has shut down drilling on the East and West coasts and restricted drilling in the Gulf. On top of that, he has over-regulated the refiners so that five refineries on the East Coast have shut down and three more are on the verge of the same because of stringent regulation. The speculators are foreseeing that the future is only to get worse. Obama once said he would also bankrupt the coal industry. The U.S. Secretary of the Interior admits Obama cut back drilling permits 37 percent.

Meanwhile hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars go to failing solar companies like Solyndra and others. I and others use a lot of gas for our trucks — $5,000 estimate this year alone. My 90-year-old mother is paying $4 for heating oil. Her Social Security check has been stagnant three years now. The cost of food and more continues to rise. My son is graduating SUNY and has to look out of state for a job. Maybe North Dakota — there’s an oil boom and 3.5 percent unemployment there. I say hope for change in 2012!

Chet Kutscher

LAUREL

Where the blame lies

Mitt Romney is very critical of President Obama’s efforts to build consensus with our allies concerning world unrest.

Mr. Romney would have us driving tanks and flying bombers into Syria instead of trying to work with the U.N. and supportive nations. Mr. Romney is critical of the president’s working toward U.N. action. He would rather the U.S. go it alone.

I guess Mr. Romney sees a lack of “GOP macho” in Mr. Obama. This is an example of the GOP unwillingness to understand that the days of the U.S. acting unilaterally as the world’s police force are over. That did not make sense, does not make sense and is now over.

George W. Bush got us into two endless wars as a result of 9-11. He enacted tax cuts for the wealthy but never acted to fund the wars. The huge budget deficit resulting from these inexplicable actions has us handcuffed today.

Of course, to listen to the GOP, this is the president’s mess. It wouldn’t do to let facts affect the story line. Mr. Romney’s other rant is that the president is causing the severity of the recession and the slowness of the recovery. The fact that we can’t get anything other than incomprehensible gobbledygook out of Congress does have something to do with that.

Early in the game the president and the House speaker had a fleeting budget agreement. Cuts in entitlements were actually on the table along with revenue and tax increases. The suggestion of tax increases caused the GOP to go ballistic, and this flash of logic flamed out.

The fact that the European financial system is looking very scary and is causing the Dow to dive is quite logical. Blaming the resultant falling market and investor nervousness on Mr. Obama is totally illogical. But what did you expect?

In reality, the GOP push for debt reduction has some logic, but the time is not now. Restoring the economy and then fixing the debt is the path to recovery. The GOP program of fixing the debt with the economy in the tank will drive us to ever deeper recession and disaster.

Howard Meinke