Letters To The Editor

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Airplane Noise

To the Editor:

Aviation congestion and noise is a long-standing problem, especially in the New York metropolitan area. As a Long Islander, I am familiar with the problems caused by airplane noise and know how frustrating it can be. I have heard from numerous residents of the Fourth Congressional District about the inconvenience and aggravation that stems from airplane noise. This issue affects the quality of life of thousands of my constituents on a daily basis and I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the ways I am working to address this issue in Congress.

Recently, I took a tour of the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facility located in Westbury, NY. The purpose of my visit was to learn more about air traffic control and to talk to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about some of the concerns that have been brought to my attention by my constituents. I was grateful that the Administrator of the FAA, Randy Babbitt, joined me on the tour.

The TRACON facility in Westbury is truly unique, dealing with some of the busiest and complex airspace in the world. I was happy to have the opportunity to see the effects that various runway configurations and flight paths have on my district.

The patterns that traffic managers designate for controllers to use to bring the planes in for landings now, as compared to a number of years ago, are different. I understand that the amount of flights has increased and that there is a greater need to safely move planes in and out of airports, however, it seems that noise is becoming less and less of a consideration.

It is for this reason that following my visit to the New York TRACON facility, I sent a letter to the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) asking him numerous questions about noise reduction procedures. I look forward to hearing from the FAA in regards to these concerns and working with them to find a solution to this problem, while ensuring the safety and welfare of those who fly.

In the coming weeks, I will continue to keep you updated on my actions in regards to airplane noise reduction. I encourage you to utilize my office as a resource and stay in contact as it enables me to better represent the beliefs and values of our district.

Congresswoman

Carolyn McCarthy,

New York 4th

Congressional District

Voice Your Opinion

To the Editor:

It is time to take a stand and do everything you can to SAVE Saint Paul’s School. A terrific new affordable plan developed by the Committee to Save Saint Paul’s Executive Committee was presented to the Mayor and Village Board of Trustees on June 29, 2010. Please take the time to learn what you can about this plan by visiting the Committee to Save Saint Paul’s website at www.savestpauls.org/news.asp or by going to the Garden City Historical Society website at www.gardencityhistoricalsociety.org After reviewing this option, that is much more affordable and rational than demolition, please offer your public comments to the Mayor and Trustees by September 30, 2010. Public hearings (and comments) will also be held at Village Hall on August 19 and on September 16. As a lifelong resident of Garden City and a founding member of the Committee to Save Saint Paul’s, I urge you do due what you can to support the effort to save and preserve this incredibly historic structure for our use and the use of our future generations. The historic significance of this structure is not only important to our Village, but to Nassau County, the Long Island Region, New York State, and the United States. Just as Grand Central Terminal was saved by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the “eleventh-hour”, we too can we save Saint Paul’s by getting involved with this important decision to AVOID and PREVENT DEMOLITION.

Robert Vassalotti

Member CSSP

Thank You For Welcome

To the Editor:

I was your florist in Garden City for Feldis for 7 years, I would like you to know that I have moved on to Rockville Centre.

The town of Garden City was amazing. I would like to say thanks to all the Garden City residents who have touched my life. From Althea Robinson, to Senator Hannon, to loyal residents like Candy Fee (whom we lost last year), and Mr. & Mrs. Edward Danks to the Gardners, Gibbons, Nakita, Jabour Families, and the unbelievable village that I called home, and businesses like TBCY, Hoffmans, Meat Market, Grimaldis, Leos, Garden City Pizza, Garden City Coffee Shop, thank you so much for embracing me as a friend and a townsperson.

I now work in Rockville Centre at Arts, so if I touched your heart and mind and designed the most awesome designs for you, thank you.

Ed Schneider

Swim Across America

To the Editor:

I am a Boy Scout in Troop 243 in Garden City, New York. On August 14, I will be swimming at Morgan Park in Glen Cove for Swim Across America, a great cause and a step in the fight against cancer. This year, donations will benefit the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Center, The Swim Across America Lab in NYC, the Children’s Hospital in Montefiore in the Bronx, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Fighting Chance.

Many people feel the call to help in the fight against cancer and volunteer in Swim Across America. Thousands of people either swim in the Long Island Sound or help organize the event each year. Every cent goes to worthy organizations trying to find a cure for this terrible disease. For two years, my friends and I have collected donations for Swim Across America, knowing that the money would be going into the fight against cancer.

You do not need to be a swimmer to participate in this organization. Anyone can volunteer and make a difference in the life of a person suffering from this disease. If you would like to learn more about Swim Across America, go to http://

www.swimacrossamerica.org/

nassau suffolk. If you would like to make a donation, visit my online fundraising page at http://www.swimacrossamerica.

org/netcommunity/jimmysearson. Every amount would greatly benefit this wonderful cause. Thank You.

Jimmy Searson

Defeat McCarthy

To the Editor;

Time has a way of fleeting, the days, months, years and seasons blending into each other. This past winter dragged on with little hope in sight. If you find summer has its problems, please think back to snow, ice and the long dark days.

Our trustees have done an excellect job dealing with issues which would have baffled ordinary men. There seem to have been few permanent solutions as nothing becomes easier. We deal with problems one after the other and I believe it is not in our nature to quit. We must come together to decide the future of this Village we love so well and, at the same time, focus on state, national and international issues. We are surrounded by those who wish to see us perish.

Our country is in as rotten a shape as I have seen since I was a boy. I am angry because over a period of years we have allowed it to happen. “The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” Oh yes, I know. “The American people wave the flag, beat the drums and play the bugles.” Sadly, the term “American people,” no longer rings in my heart.

The famous author who lives in Garden City had this to say through a character in his latest novel: “The American People are Courrpy, Decadent and Afraid.” So, What do you believe?

In November 2011 we will go to the polls to vote in the most important election of our lives. We, the voters in the fourth C.D. have the obligation to defeat a politician who has never represented us and who is absolutely unresponsive. This election is not about party affiliation. If you judge it necessary to defeat the incumbent of the party you support, do so. Vote for the candidate you believe will work to help us to get out of the mess we have created. As always, the ultimate responsibililty lies with us.

Ms. McCarthy has thrown in with the Clintons and Obama. Heady stuff. Continuing McCarthy in the House is not to our benefit. At the very least we must force a political balance in Washington. Placing the political power and control in the hands on one party, any political party, is a disaster in the making.

Now is the time to cut the legs out from under Obama by denying him the control and support of the three parts of our government. We must first win in 2011 and then go on to win again in 2012.

Unless Obama resigns or is forced out before his term ends, he could be the presidential candidate in 2012. I believe the Democrats will risk revolution and will not allow Obama to run in 2012. I also believe the deal was cut in 2008, “One term for you, Obama, and then out. It will be Hillary’s turn in 2012.” (Although too horrible to contemplate). There is not a shred of difference between Clinton and Obama.

I will endorse a candidate to run against Mrs. McCarthy. He must first win in the Republican primary in September. His campaign will soon kick into high gear and I promise that you will learn much about Frank Scaturro that you will like. Please support him with your vote. Elect Frank to our House and once again, as played by Gary Cooper, Mr. Smith will go to Washington.

Frank is not the candidate of the Republican Party bosses. He is his own man, not a party hack. This should make him all the more attractive to you.

My mission is quite simple- defeat McCarthy, elect Frank Scaturro to the House and then on to 2012. At stake is the future of our country. We have made horrendous mistakes, perhaps fatal mistakes, but it may not be too late to rectify them.

Edward J. Heaney

Parental Duties

To the Editor:

Sometimes when in the company of my grandchildren surrounded by sophisticated toys, video games, talking machines and awesome looking super heroes, memories clearly return of my own youth back in Spain where I was born and grew up. The Spanish Civil War had just finished. My father had two jobs in order to meet the financial burden required by his 9 children, wife and a domestic helper. Since age 5-6, everyone walked to school, which was strictly segregated between boys-girls. There was not such a thing as ‘school bus’. Almost everybody walked to school and went back home the same way for lunch. Most after school activities, took place within the patio of the school which was kept open until 7 or 8 or at the street and a small square nearby. Playing soccer with a ball made of discarded clothing and old newspapers well tied with rope, boys jumping over each other shoulders, running a short distance to a predetermined line to declare a winner or just simply talking and making plans for Saturday-Sunday and which almost always consisted of going swimming at one of the city two public pools or to see a cowboy movie. My hero was Ken Maynard whom I and a whole bunch of my friends wanted to emulate some day in our future. There were no guidance counselors, activity planners, sport directors, swimming instructors, or any other kind of teacher or associate to design activities or to supervise our playing except Saturday afternoons when a teacher took us to play a soccer game against another school team. That was the biggest excitement of the entire school body although very few times did we win. My daily routine consisted of going to school in the morning, return home for lunch, back to school, play after finishing during one or two hours and to be home not later than 5-6:00 PM. One or two hours were dedicated to ‘school home work’ before and after dinner. Although my mother strictly prohibited reading and possessing comics, we always found a way to introduce some home and to interchange them between my brothers and friends. Occasionally, one of my sisters who had a grievance against one of the boys, would tell my mother who in turn would rush to the daring culprit confiscating the ‘sin’ and give a long and painful ‘ear squeeze’ to the ‘sinner’. For those of us lucky enough to have a radio at home, we would hear the daily news about the war in Europe and some ‘patriotic’ music during and after dinner. Life was very simple and yet, methodical but uncomplicated as far as entertainment was concerned. It also applied to our parents who took us to mass every Sunday morning and afterward, treated us to some ice cones and a walk through the public park ‘El Salon’. That was the whole family Sunday routine. We did not have computers, TV, I-pods, electric toys, talking devices or anything resembling the type of toys so common in today’s young generation. In most cases, we used our imagination to create games and even make toys. Today, my 9 years old grandson Christian is, by far, much better and well versed in the world of technology that I am. He will use the Skype to guide me through and solve my ‘technical’ difficulties. My oldest 20 years old Evan, is, to me, a sophisticated technology guru. In an instant, he will solve a problem that I have been trying to fix for hours and even days. A true genius!

When my own children came to this world, activities did indeed gradually increase but they were all manageable. The boys played together with other children in the neighborhood in a large open space owned by the municipality. The traffic on the street where we lived, was minimal. Bicycle riding was a daily routine. Indeed, it was safe to let them play in the neighborhood. My wife stayed at home and we were also spared the sophisticated devices and toys of today. How dramatically have things and habits changed. It is a completely different world and bringing up children, much, much more complex. In those days, I believe that a boy-girl life was less demanding, less complicated. In today’s daily life with so many responsibilities and danger, I am not completely sure that the multiple daily activities or a child are, necessarily, each and every parent delight, a cherished and eagerly desired daily duty for which the parents anxiously and impatiently await to start although it is also true that some of those ‘duties’ may and do in fact bring gratification, pride, contentment and satisfaction to many. A ‘home-run’, a touchdown a basketball game or some correct notes from a musical instrument, swimming, ballet class, drawing, singing and many other lessons and activities executed by the child, can and do make a parent proud and happy indeed. Amazingly however, most of today’s parents are always ready and apparently eager to participate, to direct and to manage their children never ending activities. How can parents do it all is truly a task of epic boundless proportions and specially, and as it occurs in most cases, when both parents work full time. A true wonder of the human seemly unlimited determination and spirit. Sometimes I cannot help and even dare to ask myself: How is it possible...to endure such great physical and emotional cost...? Indeed, when I compare my youth activities and my parents ‘burden’ there is not the most remote resemblance with today’s world. What will the future bring to next generations...? I guess I will never know but I just shiver at the thought and feel a little ‘sorry’ for the parents. As for the present, I offer my admiration to my overworked sons and their wives. They are my true heroes!

While I understand why such activities are necessary for the physical and even mental development of our children, I wish that some of them could be done more sparsely, shorter, in order for us grandparents to have more opportunities to see and enjoy the presence and company of our grandchildren. Presently, we must patiently wait until those other ‘priorities’ (some of which we cannot attend due to age, distance and other physical reasons), are finished. I know that this wish is just a quixotic dream. Unfortunately.

Antonio Moreno