ORIENT
Shop locally to fight inflation
I’m trying to understand inflation. What’s causing high food prices? Well, it seems that we have some mega- corporations in control, monopolies that can raise and keep prices high because there’s not enough competition. Today three grocery giants, Albertsons, Kroger and Walmart, control 70% of the market. They can charge what they want and blame it on COVID, the government, pick your favorite mark.
How to fix this? Remember the breakup of “Ma Bell” in the ’80s? It was broken into “Baby Bells,” giving us choice and lower prices for long-distance service. That is one way. Even the playing field. Economists have observed the ongoing weakening of antitrust enforcement. Kamala Harris has proposed a new federal ban on food price-gouging, so a handful of private companies can’t artificially raise prices. I like that.
Meanwhile, I have my own way of fighting monopolies. I shop locally, starting with farm stands for delicious, fresh produce and locally made goods. I shop at local stores — fewer food miles, less plastic — and I buy only what I plan to use, mindful that Americans throw out 30% to 40% of the food we buy. That’s wasting about a third of each dollar! To me it’s fun to stay local, cook creatively and never grace the door of a monopoly – I call it Yankee thrift. Also, I like investing in the North Fork; for every $100 spent at a local business, $52 recirculates here — vs. 14% from big corporate retailers. When it comes to restaurants, it’s even more dramatic, as local eateries recirculate 79% of their revenue, compared to 30% for the chains. According to the Civics Economics Survey, up to 90% of net new jobs in the U.S. are created by locally owned businesses. I like to vote with my dollar to keep the North Fork green.
Mary Morgan
SOUTHOLD
Grateful for vaccines
My husband had an aunt who, from the age of 2 until she died at 56, lived her life in a wheelchair from polio. She cried when her nephew, my husband, received his polio vaccine in school. She knew that his life would be so different from hers. If she, as well as millions of others who lived through the polio crisis, were aware that the “Project 2025” transition team hoping for a Republican victory in November are against mandatory vaccines, their disbelief would be epic. For those who oppose mandatory vaccines, remember the children who died or lived their lives in a wheelchair or iron lung. I, for one, am filled with gratitude for the scientists who made it possible for our children and grandchildren not to suffer from polio or the other diseases that vaccines have eliminated.
Rosellen Storm
GREENPORT
Keep on sailing!
The sea and the ships are inborn attractions and lifelines for those who reside on our coastlines.
Orient Yacht Club is one of the attractions and a charming spot. It is a sailor’s paradise on Long Island.
My daughters, ages 12 and 7 and students in Greenport, got sailing scholarships with the club program and are learning the art of handling sails and lines under the eyes of seasoned sailing instructors.
Pablo, the young sailing director, actively runs around the deck with binoculars [and] boards rescue boats to meet any SOS and to make sure the kids are enjoying smooth sailing and catching the winds, which is heartening for parents and guardians to watch and keeps them at ease. And the kids feel like the water is their “safe playground.”
The crew at the club are just amazing and friendly — always greeting sailors, their family members and well-wishers with a “Sailing ahoy!” yell. A big thank-you to Amy Herzig, Jimena and Mary.
All hands past and present deserve a word of praise for keeping Orient Yacht Club afloat since its inception in 1933.
Hina Muddassir
SOUTHOLD
Thank you!
I would like to thank Southold Rescue and the EMTs for their rapid response to my emergency. Everyone knew just what to do. A special
thanks to Fred Lee for his calm professional care and Michelle Salmon for her personal touch, the emergency room staff at ELIH for their immediate care, and Dr. Roe and Dr. Scott Czujko. My most heartfelt appreciation to each one of you.
Caroyln Haman
NEW SUFFOLK
Farewell to a ‘perfect good neighbor’
A well-known Cutchogue merchant closed his doors recently and this letter is to say “so long” to a family that served the hamlet well for over 40 years.
Bob Molchon opened his first Cutchogue Hardware back in 1983 in the King Kullen shopping center. At the time, he had the assistance of his mom and dad. We were Manhattan apartment dwellers who bought our first home on the North Fork the same year, thanks to my Aunt Pauline, who owned Four Sails Realty in Cutchogue. The house was perfect for us, small — three rooms and a garage — and cheap: $35,000, unheard of in this day and age.
We spent the next bunch of years fixing it up — with the help of Bob at Cutchogue Hardware. We did not own one single tool back then, not even a hammer! So Bob sold us our first hammer, hundreds of screws and nails, paint and brushes and everything else we needed to spruce up our weekend getaway castle.
Over the years, Bob’s was always our go-to place for any hardware needs and he always took care of us with a smile and that “perfect good neighbor” way of his. Several years later, Bob moved his business to property on Main Road (Route 25) slightly west of Depot Lane, where my aunt had her real estate office. Bob and his parents had the house picked up and moved to Alvah’s Lane so he could build a larger hardware store there.
When we moved to New Suffolk in 1996, Bob was right there for us, handling whatever hardware needs we had. The only difference was he had married and his sweet wife, Ellen, was also there to help, Later on, their two sons were behind the counter saying, “Can I help you?” And if they didn’t have what we needed, they would order it and have it for us in just a couple of days.
Now the store is empty, and we miss Bob and Ellen. Yes, there are many more hardware stores now and nice people work in them, but no one has come close to the Molchon family in taking care of our hardware needs.
Happy retirement, Bob and Ellen; you will be missed.
Lauren and Jack Grant
CUTCHOGUE
LaLota’s not good for our district
Nick LaLota may be a very nice fellow, maybe even someone you’d like to have a beer with. But like so many other politicians, he’s turned out to be a phony. Mr. LaLota’s been running a campaign ad claiming we should vote for him so he can reinstate Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required migrants to stay in Mexico until their asylum claims can be heard in a U.S. court, and change the tax law to restore the State And Local Tax deductions Republicans took away from us.
As reported in Wikipedia, the “Remain in Mexico” policy has been widely criticized by human rights organizations for exposing migrants to attacks while they await processing. Given that, the Biden administration ended the policy. Now Mr. LaLota wants us to vote for him so he can reinstate it.
First, he doesn’t tell us the policy he’d like to restore has led to the abuse of migrants. Second, he fails to point out that he is but one of 435 members in the House of Representatives and doesn’t have the authority to implement, end or restore the policy. But he apparently thinks voters are too uninformed to know this.
Mr. LaLota also claims he’ll reverse the legislation that put a $10,000 cap on SALT deductions. There’s virtually no chance that a Republican House will ever vote to change that law, because by limiting these deductions from federal income taxes, taxpayers in states like New York, California and Illinois pay more in taxes to support the Southern states, which take more from the federal government than they pay in. New Yorkers pay more to support those states than we get back from Washington.
The sad fact is that Nick LaLota is not good for his constituents. He’s had numerous opportunities to show that he will fight for us, but he’s nowhere to be found in the fight. Is this really someone we should be sending back to Congress? Let’s give John Avlon a chance to serve our needs. If he goes to Congress and doesn’t stand up for us, the way Nick LaLota is not standing up for us,we can throw him out too in the next election until we find someone who will truly represent New York’s 1st.
Michael Levy
SOUTHOLD
Should they have endorsed Trump?
Today, the Suffolk County PBA announced that it was endorsing Donald Trump for president. I have no problem with organizations making political endorsements, but this one strikes me as weird. In the first instance, Mr. Trump is a convicted felon. Yes, he has the right to appeal, but until and unless the conviction is overturned, he is a felon. Should the PBA be endorsing a convicted criminal? The second issue is that on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump sat at the TV while the Capitol Police were attacked by his supporters. It’s hard to see how he can claim to support police while he watched police attacked and seriously injured. I don’t believe that this letter will cause the PBA to withdraw its endorsement, but I do believe that people should be aware of this strange contradiction.
Steve Curry
MATTITUCK
Choose decency over ‘weirdness’
Whether a member of one of its founding families or a relative newcomer, everyone who lives on the North Fork is proud of its long and rich history. We have buildings still in use that date from the colonial period, and neighbors whose ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. Our history is not, however, unblemished. As readers of this paper are aware, in the 18th and 19th centuries slave ownership was not unknown here. More recently, In the 1920s, when membership in the Ku Klux Klan reached its peak nationwide, there were more Klan members in Suffolk County than anywhere else in the country outside of Alabama.
The campaign of the former president and his chosen sidekick offers little in the way of public policy (OK; no tax on tips), but their election in November would undoubtedly excite and invigorate the reactionary impulses that abide in our community.
This is an appeal to independent voters, and to anyone who in the past could not be bothered to vote at all. The stakes in November could not be greater. At its core, this election is a contest between those who believe in democracy and those who don’t. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the only candidates in the race who favor democratic government — and they need your vote. Come join them. It’s time to flip this district back to the Democrats. Cast your vote for decency, and help to wipe out, or at least tamp down, what Gov. Walz aptly calls the weirdness on the other side.
Dave Warren
GREENPORT
Just an American
I, like millions of others, am an American. I believe in America and all that it was founded upon. And while those basic statements are fundamentally true for most in this country, it seems as though we have to wear our credentials and belief in those statements around our necks and on our sleeves — for fear that the “team color” that many also want to see may ostracize you and question your fundamental belief.
It is sad that we have reached this point of divided allegiance with “team colors” being more important than the simple fundamental belief and behavior that we are all Americans.
And while there may be many who do not know me well enough to understand, I think there are many who will agree and see themselves in what I am about to say.
I don’t make fun of the way people laugh. I don’t call people stupid because their belief is different from mine. I don’t disparage their family or heritage because it is foreign to me. I don’t ignore what my parents tried to teach me or disrespect the legacy of hard work that built this country.
I believe any person should entitled to earn a living in order to support their family, their community or others that are truly needy. I believe we should all be engaged and try to make our circle of the world a better place than it was yesterday. But while I believe every person should have an opinion and be free to express it, I do not believe it should be demonized because it is not one that is shared by the “team color” that may be on your arm. Because for me, having different beliefs, opinions, family heritages and even laughs is not defined by team colors but instead by what made America a great country of Americans.
I don’t wear a badge or a sign around my neck or a band on my arm that defines my team colors. I don’t have to — because I am simply an American.
Richard Vandenburgh