Letters to the Editor: It wasn’t my letter

Jamesport

It wasn’t my letter

As I’ve been asked multiple times why I would suggest building a ferry terminal on Long Island Sound at Pier Avenue, I’m writing to respond. While the author of last week’s letter and I may share the same name, I live in Jamesport and do not believe that moving the traffic problems further west to other small villages is a good idea. Indeed, history supports that an Iron Pier terminal is a bad idea. An elaborate structure — the “Iron Pier” — was built there in 1900 to serve as a transportation hub for people and goods. It was supposed to last forever but only survived about three years before it was destroyed by ice. The remains of this structure were incorporated into the carriage shed of the Homestead Barn, a centerpiece of Hallockville Museum Farm, by frugal farmers. This barn, by the way, is absolutely worth a visit!

Nancy Gilbert

Mount Sinai

EPA rollbacks: Don’t breathe easy

Twenty-five years ago, I founded the nonprofit Community Health and Environment Coalition to confront Long Island’s unusually high cancer rates and investigate possible environmental causes. Working with the New York State Department of Health, the Suffolk County Health Department, medical professionals, and residents, we relied on science and public-health data. Yet it was not until the cancer diagnoses among 9/11 first responders that the public fully grasped the delayed and devastating effects of toxic chemical exposure.

The recent rollback of key Clean Air Act protections announced by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is unacceptable. By rescinding the 2009 Greenhouse Gas “Endangerment Finding,” the EPA is discarding the scientific and legal basis for regulating dangerous greenhouse-gas pollution and weakening safeguards against one of the largest sources of air pollution: vehicle exhaust.

History has repeatedly shown that government action on toxic exposure often comes too late, as seen with Agent Orange, asbestos, PFAS, heavy metals, and microplastics. The public often pays the price long after exposure to toxic pollution has occurred. 

Pollution is not an abstract issue. It is a documented health threat linked to asthma attacks, emergency-room visits, missed school days, chronic disease, and cancer. The EPA argues that weakening these protections could save businesses money, but has it accounted for the cost of increased illness, medical care, and lost productivity?

Protecting clean air is not just an environmental issue. It is a public-health responsibility and, ultimately, a moral obligation. When those protections are weakened, it is the public, not polluters, who pays the price.

Sarah Anker

In addition to CHEC founder, Ms. Anker is a former Suffolk County legislator.

Peconic

Pothole plague

We have an epidemic in Southold. It’s spreading out and going deeper. 

It’s called a pothole — and these scars on our roads need an infusion of pavement material, and they need it now. 

Some say to wait until the pothole season passes, then use the filler. Some say the damage to the cars is too great, and we should fix the problem now, even if we have to revisit it. 

So what if it takes several infusions? Don’t we get multiple vaccinations for human diseases? Why not get multiple fixes for this ongoing problem? We should use our resources now to solve a problem that exists now.

Joel Reitman 

Shelter Island

Spring has sprung

Finally winter has receded and the “snowdrops” (Galanthus) are looking beautiful popping up through frost-free ground. The weather is now warm enough to open your windows and get some wonderfully delightful fresh air.

However, prepare yourselves, because in order to enjoy the fresh air you’ll need to put on your headphones or ear plugs to block out the sounds of the power blowers down the street.

The good news: Only nine months till winter.

Happy spring!

Angelo Piccozzi 

Cutchogue

What’s up with SCWA?

We moved to Cutchogue from the South Shore of Boston two and a half years ago. I have never lived anywhere where the water authority —here, the Suffolk County Water Authority — advertises on TV. How much are they spending running these ads?

It’s very concerning that water scarcity and quality is an issue on the North Fork. With several billionaires buying up large tracts of land and planning to build homes, are they at all concerned with the availability of water? It would seem that Southold shouldn’t be permitting additional homes being built if we don’t have enough water for the homes that already exist here. 

I’ve heard of SCWA’s plan to bring water to the North Fork — is this going to happen any time soon? What is the cost and when will it be started/finished? The constant TV ads make it sound like it isn’t a sure thing.

Susan Galligan

Cutchogue

Stubborn legislators

We are embroiled in a partial government shutdown involving the Department of Homeland Security. Each party has put forth a bill that, if passed, would end the shutdown. Now that’s the rub!

Neither party is willing to negotiate. Negotiations are only possible if both sides are willing to give something up in order end the impasse.

The American people be damned. The legislators are not inconvenienced, nor are their wages being held. But travel by plane is now more stressful than ever before.

Now, with military action against Iran, DHS needs to be fully funded. DHS was a result of 9/11 failures, established two years later. Its mission was to prevent a recurrence.

Stubbornness at this time is a danger to all of us. Two ways forward are possible. One is to negotiate knowing compromise is the only way forward. The other is to end the filibuster rule. 

I believe ending the filibuster is the correct way forward. Why? Because we the people live in the present, not in the future. We cannot predict the future, nor should we be afraid of it.

I also believe ending the filibuster will go a long way to ending party politics.

Bob Bittner 

Cutchogue

Who are we?

I am a 78-year-old American of Jewish heritage. For most of my life I’ve been proud to be an American and supported Israel. Those days are gone. With the Israeli war in Gaza — which many believe has been genocidal — violence and displacement in the West Bank, and now the U.S. war on Iran, I am embarrassed and saddened as an American and a Jew.

The administration has stated no coherent reason for attacking Iran. We have been told that they would have nuclear weapons in a week; then that we couldn’t allow them to have long-range ballistic missiles; then that we acted because Israel would bomb Iran and Iran would attack us; and that over the last 47 years they had killed many Americans. In my view, none of these explanations provides a convincing justification, except that Israel might bomb Iran — but not without our assent and cooperation.

Let us remember that in 1953 the United States helped overthrow Iran’s democratically elected government and supported the Shah’s regime until the end. That history still shapes the region today. Now we appear to be pursuing policies that could destabilize Iran again.

The president and secretary of defense speak openly about death and destruction, as if war were a video game. Why are we doing this? I honestly do not know. How many will die and how much will be destroyed before this war ends?

We risk becoming a nation that relies too quickly on force rather than diplomacy, while Congress refuses to exercise its authority.

I do not know how we will come back from this.

Gary Comorau