tootboy
Try not to look too far ahead, but keep your eyes on the future.
NEWSDAY'S Letters to the Editor Tues Mar. 5th 2004
Number of Letters from the LEFT: 8
Number of Letters from the RIGHT: 2
LEFT LETTERS:
1)…“President George W. Bush is wrong to pursue his marriage amendment. Marriage has been evolving for centuries. For example: I'm white, my wife is black. Not so long ago, that fact alone could have gotten us arrested in a number of states.
We don't need a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. What we need instead is a federal law declaring that whatever individual states call same-sex unions, they will be considered the equivalent of marriage nationwide, that acceptance of same-sex religious marriage is up to each individual religion, and defines physical and economic attacks on same-sex couples as hate crimes. -Hugh W. Thompson Flushing”
I was watching an ABC news segment on polygamy. This one guy is ‘married’ to 15 women and may have 75 children at his ‘compound’. The silly thing is that he doesn’t want to go on camera because it may hurt his business dealings. Then why agree to do the program? My point is that almost all Americans probably are disgusted by polygamy. But if in Mr. Thompson’s words above, “marriage has been evolving for centuries” should we just let polygamy be legal just to be ahead of evolution? No. Same thing will gay marriage. Also, a federal law is in placed, signed by President Clinton, called the Defense of Marriage act to do exactly the opposite of what the writer thinks. And a law on any physical and economic attack on a same-sex couple is silly because it is already a law to attack any person physically. I’m not sure what an economic attack is. That sounds very vague
2) …”The Feb. 27 Charles Krauthammer column, "Gay rites go the way of abortion rights," uses the same old agrument that conservatives have used since the segregationist governors of the South: Blame the victim. There is no correlation between the movement for civil rights of black Americans and gay Americans. Civil rights are civil rights. Any social condition in which people pay equal taxes but do not receive equal treatment under the law is a violation of their rights. -Bill Taylor Brooklyn”
Huh? Civil Rights are civil rights? Huh again? I’m not sure about the point this person is making. But here are two problems with the facts: a)Conservatives construed as segregationist governors. Well, the segregationist governors of the South were all Democrats (also known as Dixiecrats). b)Rights are not guaranteed based upon how much a person pays in taxes. If you pay more taxes than me does that mean you should receive better treatment under the law (even though sometimes it does work out that way in our system). The truth is there is no equal tax-treatment under the law system. That would be communism since everyone is expected to do the same amount of work for the same amount of reward and treatment.
3) …”At the beginning of every school day, I would join my classmates in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. "Liberty and justice for all" was, to my young mind, supposed to mean just that. I also learned that "all men are created equal." By endorsing the divisive and unnecessary marriage amendment, George W. Bush has chosen to tamper with the very founding document of our country to further the social agenda of his religious-right minions, whose ridiculous arguments against marriage for gay people are based on bigotry, fear-mongering, willful ignorance and intolerance. -Michael Koy New Brunswick, N.J.”
Religious-right minions…Mr. Koy tips his hand and shows his cards. So religious people are evil minions. But doesn’t his precious Pledge of Allegiance use the words, “Under G-d”? Could he also be, EVIL (placing pinky to mouth).
4) …”In response to Raymond Keating's quest for an answer to the unaffordability of living on Long Island ["Why Is LI So Unaffordable? Ask the Politicians," Viewpoints, Feb. 17], I see the situation very differently.
Young adults 18-34 cannot afford to live here on Long Island due to the high cost of living, which includes the taxes (going up) and the lack of housing (demand raises prices, but fewer houses are being built). So, if we remove government restrictions on new housing (restrictive zoning, moratoriums due to groundwater concerns and initiatives to purchase open space), then we can build housing to the limit.
This will create more supply and put such a strain on services that taxes will even go higher and, with all the people living on top of each other, totally destroy the last bit of "quality of life" and sense of nature we have left.
More development has never lowered taxes. Government waste is a redundancy, not an oxymoron. -Larry Schmidlapp Editor's Note: The writer is a board member of the North Shore Land Alliance. Cold Spring Harbor”
Didn’t it seem at first if the writer was advocating to remove government restrictions. Poor writing on their part or poor reading on mine? Taxes are not necessarily dependant on the number of people in an area. I live in the most densely populated area of Suffolk county and yet my taxes are much greater than people in less populated towns. NYC, which is very densely populated of course, has lower taxes (sales, property) on its residents than people on Long Island. What is the correlation? I don’t know. What proof does Larry Schmidlapp have? He likes to state sayings, not research.
5) …”Howard Stern has been a fixture of my morning commute for over 10 years now.
The people and government officials who want Stern off the air just do not get it ["Stations pull Stern," News, Feb. 26].
They do not know how miserable it is to sit in your car stuck in traffic. Stern brings me a little bit of joy while trapped in the nightmare that is the New York area rush hour.
Stern is not and has never been marketed for kids. His show is for the thousands of people like me who could use a laugh in the morning while in a standstill on the Expressway. -Leonard C. Ornstein Baldwin”
The government is not trying to pull Howard Stern off the air. The stations that pulled him off the air are private companies. Howard is funniest when he is doing the news and such and when he has celebrities on but least funny when he’s doing the lesbian naked stuff. That just gets redundant after a short while.
6) …”I've been waiting for anyone in the media to ask this question of the current administration: What conditions have to be present to declare victory in the "War on Terrorism"?
Is it reasonable to believe that it's possible to rid the world of all terrorists?
Considering the likelihood that as this war goes on, and more and more anti-American sentiment is nurtured around the world, it can be argued that a war on terrorism is self-perpetuating. If that's the case, then the only ones who'll really benefit from it are those in the business of manufacturing the weapons of war. -Jim Caputo Kings Park”
So what is the solution, Mr Caputo? I’m guessing you don’t have the answer. Is it letting up and asking the terrorists to stop? Should we give in to their demands and all become Muslims? Should our women wear burkas? Should we not allow Jewish people to travel? Should we follow dictatorships instead of elected leaders? Should we all carry automatic weapons? I’m not sure what to do. I am sure of what NOT to do and that is let the terrorists dictate our actions. Terrorists do not want peace they want the elimination of everyone.
7) …”When was it, exactly, that Newsday - once one of the nation's most respected newspapers - became a Christian publicity sheet and flack for Mel Gibson?
The last few years' copious and constant page space devoted to every pious evangelical burp and grunt is one thing - though far from any definition of "news."
But the ludicrous minute- to-minute coverage of "The Passion of the Christ" - from the first skeptical rabbis to the first-day box office to the coverage of the coverage itself - amounts to a marketing launch that Gibson couldn't buy with a billion dollars.
Whether this is all a sop to the anti-Enlightenment devout or evidence that Pat Robertson secretly owns the newspapers, the readers were not being served. -Michael Atkinson Centerport”
Note: I can’t comment on the film as I have not seen it….So What planet is this guy on? Newsday’s a Christian publicity sheet? I guess Mr. Atkinson hasn’t read the articles about “The Passion of the Christ” because they have been fairly negative toward it and talks more about the negative messages it may contain and little of the positive messages it may contain. The fact is the movie is news because Hollywood and the media didn’t expect the American public to embrace the film.
8) …”So Alan Greenspan from his ivory tower has touched the "third rail of politics" - Social Security, telling us that we might not get the benefits to which we are entitled.
Well, I've got news for him and his free-market, ship-the- jobs-out, globalization crowd whose irresponsible management of the economy has sold this country down the river.
This is still America! And Social Security is my stake in America. I paid for it, and I'm not about to be cheated! -Dennis Fagan East Moriches”
How did Greenspan get so powerful? His position is not mentioned in the constitution and he’s not a member of the cabinet. How did he get to be the second most powerful person in the nation? I don’t know. I do know that people in the 1990’s were calling Mr. Greenspan a god. Now he’s evil (here comes the pinky again). Yes you paid for it Mr. Fagan and you deserve your money back but Soc Sec is not your stake in America. You can not put a price on your stake. It’s priceless. (Mastercard does not know I’m using this phrase…shhh!)
RIGHT LETTERS:
1) …”Regarding Richard Amper's Feb. 29 letter, "Change the Law," written in response to my Feb. 22 Currents oped, "It May Take a Village": In arguing that open space preservation is not a contributing factor to the housing crisis on Long Island, Amper omits two crucial facts.
First, wide-scale acquisition of open space depletes the supply and inflates the cost of land, thereby exacerbating the shortage of affordable housing.
Second, the open space movement has embraced restrictive zoning as a principal means of preservation. For example, Amper strongly endorsed the misguided effort to rezone Southold town for five-acre building lots. Proponents were roundly defeated in November by voters who recognized that they would be priced out of town.
It is self-evident that land-use policies on Long Island operate in law and in fact to exclude working families and young people. This unhealthy condition demands quick and decisive action by Island leaders that should not be rejected out of hand. -Dave Kapell Editor's Note: The writer is the mayor of Greenport. Greenport”
Preservation is a great idea. However, many times it hurts people. Sometimes preservationists think more of nature then they do about man but then they complain about man’s situation. 3 examples: The writer knows that preservation will increase housing pricing which will decrease the number of people who can afford the neighborhood. Then the preservationists complain that housing is too expensive...Spotted owls or whatever keep logging companies from working putting people out of work. But then the preservationists complain that people are out of jobs (“think of the children”)…The caribou in Alaska have more rights than the people of Alaska and the consumers of gasoline around the world. The oil from up there would be a tremendous help to the US, adding to our exports, lowering gas prices, letting us rely less on foreign resources.
2) …”The fact that families of the victims of the World Trade Center disaster do not want rescue workers - who sacrificed their lives in an attempt to save lives - to have a simple designation on a memorial as to who they were is unconscionable. On that morning in 2001, I did not see any civilians running up those stairs or toward those buildings.”
The South Tower collapsed without warning. However, there was ample time for the firefighters to run and flee before the North Tower came down.
The fact that many stayed is a tribute to their courage. Men of my unit at the North Tower were told other planes were unaccounted for and possibly inbound. When the South Tower fell they thought it was another plane hitting their building.
Still, they stayed. A firefighter's life is not any more valuable than another but by allowing a simple "FD" designation next to a name, it tells the true story of what happened that day. -Joseph P. Sapienza Editor's Note: The writer is a retired captain of FDNY Ladder Co. 9. Kings Park”
Note: I did not lose any members of my family on Sept 11th. I was there 2 blocks away and I saw many awful things. I also know many people who died and many people who lost loved ones. I don’t know what these immediate family members are going through. However, this was a national tragedy and national event. It belongs to all of us. Like Normandy beach, like the signing of the Declaration of Independence, like Pearl Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, and Neil Armstrong’s walk and JFK’s and MLK’s assassinations. I think that the family members are coveting the site and the memories of the site to themselves. The planes flying into the building and the burnt out shells of the Towers should be shown everyday to remind us of our work, the war, our families and how precious life is. The firemen and rescue workers do deserve extra consideration because I’m certain (in a hypothetical way) if you could ask the people who died what they would do they would say that the rescue workers should be put on a pedestal. This is not suppressing the non-rescue workers status but elevating the accolades of the firemen, policemen, and EMTs that perished. G-D BLESS THEM ALL
Number of Letters from the RIGHT: 2
LEFT LETTERS:
1)…“President George W. Bush is wrong to pursue his marriage amendment. Marriage has been evolving for centuries. For example: I'm white, my wife is black. Not so long ago, that fact alone could have gotten us arrested in a number of states.
We don't need a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. What we need instead is a federal law declaring that whatever individual states call same-sex unions, they will be considered the equivalent of marriage nationwide, that acceptance of same-sex religious marriage is up to each individual religion, and defines physical and economic attacks on same-sex couples as hate crimes. -Hugh W. Thompson Flushing”
I was watching an ABC news segment on polygamy. This one guy is ‘married’ to 15 women and may have 75 children at his ‘compound’. The silly thing is that he doesn’t want to go on camera because it may hurt his business dealings. Then why agree to do the program? My point is that almost all Americans probably are disgusted by polygamy. But if in Mr. Thompson’s words above, “marriage has been evolving for centuries” should we just let polygamy be legal just to be ahead of evolution? No. Same thing will gay marriage. Also, a federal law is in placed, signed by President Clinton, called the Defense of Marriage act to do exactly the opposite of what the writer thinks. And a law on any physical and economic attack on a same-sex couple is silly because it is already a law to attack any person physically. I’m not sure what an economic attack is. That sounds very vague
2) …”The Feb. 27 Charles Krauthammer column, "Gay rites go the way of abortion rights," uses the same old agrument that conservatives have used since the segregationist governors of the South: Blame the victim. There is no correlation between the movement for civil rights of black Americans and gay Americans. Civil rights are civil rights. Any social condition in which people pay equal taxes but do not receive equal treatment under the law is a violation of their rights. -Bill Taylor Brooklyn”
Huh? Civil Rights are civil rights? Huh again? I’m not sure about the point this person is making. But here are two problems with the facts: a)Conservatives construed as segregationist governors. Well, the segregationist governors of the South were all Democrats (also known as Dixiecrats). b)Rights are not guaranteed based upon how much a person pays in taxes. If you pay more taxes than me does that mean you should receive better treatment under the law (even though sometimes it does work out that way in our system). The truth is there is no equal tax-treatment under the law system. That would be communism since everyone is expected to do the same amount of work for the same amount of reward and treatment.
3) …”At the beginning of every school day, I would join my classmates in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. "Liberty and justice for all" was, to my young mind, supposed to mean just that. I also learned that "all men are created equal." By endorsing the divisive and unnecessary marriage amendment, George W. Bush has chosen to tamper with the very founding document of our country to further the social agenda of his religious-right minions, whose ridiculous arguments against marriage for gay people are based on bigotry, fear-mongering, willful ignorance and intolerance. -Michael Koy New Brunswick, N.J.”
Religious-right minions…Mr. Koy tips his hand and shows his cards. So religious people are evil minions. But doesn’t his precious Pledge of Allegiance use the words, “Under G-d”? Could he also be, EVIL (placing pinky to mouth).
4) …”In response to Raymond Keating's quest for an answer to the unaffordability of living on Long Island ["Why Is LI So Unaffordable? Ask the Politicians," Viewpoints, Feb. 17], I see the situation very differently.
Young adults 18-34 cannot afford to live here on Long Island due to the high cost of living, which includes the taxes (going up) and the lack of housing (demand raises prices, but fewer houses are being built). So, if we remove government restrictions on new housing (restrictive zoning, moratoriums due to groundwater concerns and initiatives to purchase open space), then we can build housing to the limit.
This will create more supply and put such a strain on services that taxes will even go higher and, with all the people living on top of each other, totally destroy the last bit of "quality of life" and sense of nature we have left.
More development has never lowered taxes. Government waste is a redundancy, not an oxymoron. -Larry Schmidlapp Editor's Note: The writer is a board member of the North Shore Land Alliance. Cold Spring Harbor”
Didn’t it seem at first if the writer was advocating to remove government restrictions. Poor writing on their part or poor reading on mine? Taxes are not necessarily dependant on the number of people in an area. I live in the most densely populated area of Suffolk county and yet my taxes are much greater than people in less populated towns. NYC, which is very densely populated of course, has lower taxes (sales, property) on its residents than people on Long Island. What is the correlation? I don’t know. What proof does Larry Schmidlapp have? He likes to state sayings, not research.
5) …”Howard Stern has been a fixture of my morning commute for over 10 years now.
The people and government officials who want Stern off the air just do not get it ["Stations pull Stern," News, Feb. 26].
They do not know how miserable it is to sit in your car stuck in traffic. Stern brings me a little bit of joy while trapped in the nightmare that is the New York area rush hour.
Stern is not and has never been marketed for kids. His show is for the thousands of people like me who could use a laugh in the morning while in a standstill on the Expressway. -Leonard C. Ornstein Baldwin”
The government is not trying to pull Howard Stern off the air. The stations that pulled him off the air are private companies. Howard is funniest when he is doing the news and such and when he has celebrities on but least funny when he’s doing the lesbian naked stuff. That just gets redundant after a short while.
6) …”I've been waiting for anyone in the media to ask this question of the current administration: What conditions have to be present to declare victory in the "War on Terrorism"?
Is it reasonable to believe that it's possible to rid the world of all terrorists?
Considering the likelihood that as this war goes on, and more and more anti-American sentiment is nurtured around the world, it can be argued that a war on terrorism is self-perpetuating. If that's the case, then the only ones who'll really benefit from it are those in the business of manufacturing the weapons of war. -Jim Caputo Kings Park”
So what is the solution, Mr Caputo? I’m guessing you don’t have the answer. Is it letting up and asking the terrorists to stop? Should we give in to their demands and all become Muslims? Should our women wear burkas? Should we not allow Jewish people to travel? Should we follow dictatorships instead of elected leaders? Should we all carry automatic weapons? I’m not sure what to do. I am sure of what NOT to do and that is let the terrorists dictate our actions. Terrorists do not want peace they want the elimination of everyone.
7) …”When was it, exactly, that Newsday - once one of the nation's most respected newspapers - became a Christian publicity sheet and flack for Mel Gibson?
The last few years' copious and constant page space devoted to every pious evangelical burp and grunt is one thing - though far from any definition of "news."
But the ludicrous minute- to-minute coverage of "The Passion of the Christ" - from the first skeptical rabbis to the first-day box office to the coverage of the coverage itself - amounts to a marketing launch that Gibson couldn't buy with a billion dollars.
Whether this is all a sop to the anti-Enlightenment devout or evidence that Pat Robertson secretly owns the newspapers, the readers were not being served. -Michael Atkinson Centerport”
Note: I can’t comment on the film as I have not seen it….So What planet is this guy on? Newsday’s a Christian publicity sheet? I guess Mr. Atkinson hasn’t read the articles about “The Passion of the Christ” because they have been fairly negative toward it and talks more about the negative messages it may contain and little of the positive messages it may contain. The fact is the movie is news because Hollywood and the media didn’t expect the American public to embrace the film.
8) …”So Alan Greenspan from his ivory tower has touched the "third rail of politics" - Social Security, telling us that we might not get the benefits to which we are entitled.
Well, I've got news for him and his free-market, ship-the- jobs-out, globalization crowd whose irresponsible management of the economy has sold this country down the river.
This is still America! And Social Security is my stake in America. I paid for it, and I'm not about to be cheated! -Dennis Fagan East Moriches”
How did Greenspan get so powerful? His position is not mentioned in the constitution and he’s not a member of the cabinet. How did he get to be the second most powerful person in the nation? I don’t know. I do know that people in the 1990’s were calling Mr. Greenspan a god. Now he’s evil (here comes the pinky again). Yes you paid for it Mr. Fagan and you deserve your money back but Soc Sec is not your stake in America. You can not put a price on your stake. It’s priceless. (Mastercard does not know I’m using this phrase…shhh!)
RIGHT LETTERS:
1) …”Regarding Richard Amper's Feb. 29 letter, "Change the Law," written in response to my Feb. 22 Currents oped, "It May Take a Village": In arguing that open space preservation is not a contributing factor to the housing crisis on Long Island, Amper omits two crucial facts.
First, wide-scale acquisition of open space depletes the supply and inflates the cost of land, thereby exacerbating the shortage of affordable housing.
Second, the open space movement has embraced restrictive zoning as a principal means of preservation. For example, Amper strongly endorsed the misguided effort to rezone Southold town for five-acre building lots. Proponents were roundly defeated in November by voters who recognized that they would be priced out of town.
It is self-evident that land-use policies on Long Island operate in law and in fact to exclude working families and young people. This unhealthy condition demands quick and decisive action by Island leaders that should not be rejected out of hand. -Dave Kapell Editor's Note: The writer is the mayor of Greenport. Greenport”
Preservation is a great idea. However, many times it hurts people. Sometimes preservationists think more of nature then they do about man but then they complain about man’s situation. 3 examples: The writer knows that preservation will increase housing pricing which will decrease the number of people who can afford the neighborhood. Then the preservationists complain that housing is too expensive...Spotted owls or whatever keep logging companies from working putting people out of work. But then the preservationists complain that people are out of jobs (“think of the children”)…The caribou in Alaska have more rights than the people of Alaska and the consumers of gasoline around the world. The oil from up there would be a tremendous help to the US, adding to our exports, lowering gas prices, letting us rely less on foreign resources.
2) …”The fact that families of the victims of the World Trade Center disaster do not want rescue workers - who sacrificed their lives in an attempt to save lives - to have a simple designation on a memorial as to who they were is unconscionable. On that morning in 2001, I did not see any civilians running up those stairs or toward those buildings.”
The South Tower collapsed without warning. However, there was ample time for the firefighters to run and flee before the North Tower came down.
The fact that many stayed is a tribute to their courage. Men of my unit at the North Tower were told other planes were unaccounted for and possibly inbound. When the South Tower fell they thought it was another plane hitting their building.
Still, they stayed. A firefighter's life is not any more valuable than another but by allowing a simple "FD" designation next to a name, it tells the true story of what happened that day. -Joseph P. Sapienza Editor's Note: The writer is a retired captain of FDNY Ladder Co. 9. Kings Park”
Note: I did not lose any members of my family on Sept 11th. I was there 2 blocks away and I saw many awful things. I also know many people who died and many people who lost loved ones. I don’t know what these immediate family members are going through. However, this was a national tragedy and national event. It belongs to all of us. Like Normandy beach, like the signing of the Declaration of Independence, like Pearl Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, and Neil Armstrong’s walk and JFK’s and MLK’s assassinations. I think that the family members are coveting the site and the memories of the site to themselves. The planes flying into the building and the burnt out shells of the Towers should be shown everyday to remind us of our work, the war, our families and how precious life is. The firemen and rescue workers do deserve extra consideration because I’m certain (in a hypothetical way) if you could ask the people who died what they would do they would say that the rescue workers should be put on a pedestal. This is not suppressing the non-rescue workers status but elevating the accolades of the firemen, policemen, and EMTs that perished. G-D BLESS THEM ALL
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