Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, March 17, 2017
43
READERS WRITE
Newspapers offer community valuable forum
C
ongratulations to my fellow Letter to the Editor writer, “Book stems from Letters to the Editor Great Neck resident Hal Sobel compiles Blank Slate Reader Writes Submission” (Joe Nikic — March 10). Surveys reveal that “Letters To The Editor” is one of the most widely read and popular sections of any newspaper. Weekly newspapers in Nassau County such as our own Great Neck News, along with sister publications the New Hyde Park Herald Courier, Williston Times, Manhasset Times, Roslyn Times and Port Washington Times, along with neighborly competitors including the Great Neck Record and others all offer readers a chance to speak out. The same is true with daily newspapers such as AM New York, New York Daily News, Newsday, New York Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Staten Island Advance. There are also numerous foreign language daily and other weekly newspapers in all five boroughs within New York City. Weekly newspapers tend to offer more space for writers than daily newspapers. Some daily newspapers have quotas of no more than one letter every 30 or 60 days per writer. Newsday is once every 45 days. Most daily and weekly newspapers will print letters submitted by any writer regardless of where they live so long as the topic is relevant to readers.
The Great Neck News and Blank Slate Media’s sister publications provide several pages each week for Letters to the Editor. This is more than any other daily or weekly metropolitan New York area newspaper . While the Great Neck News has never censored me, others periodically over the years have. Some of our elected officials have thin skins when it comes to public criticism in the pages of your local weekly community newspapers. It is amazing what some elected officials will say one day in front of one group or reporter and conveniently forget when speaking to a different group or reporter weeks, months or years later. When you write about a past quote reported in a previous newspaper article and bring their conflicted position to the public, watch out! The ability of some elected officials to influence either legal advertising, their own periodic holiday greeting or campaign reelection ads may have some sway over those weekly newspapers who may be too dependent on the revenues. Remember the old adage, never bite the hands that feeds you. Lucky for us Blank Slate Media remains totally independent of such efforts. It helps to have a snappy introduction, good hook, be timely, precise, have an interesting or different viewpoint to increase
your odds of being published. Many papers welcome letters commenting on their own editorials, articles or previously published letters to the editor. We continue to be fortunate to live in one of the few remaining free societies, with a wealth of information sources available. Sadly, most American cities and suburbs are down to one local daily or weekly newspaper. Newspapers have to deal with increasing costs for newsprint, delivery and distribution along with reduced advertising revenues and declining readership. Many of us have opinions on news not only from Washington, Albany, New York City, Nassau County and Town of North Hempstead but also neighborhoods and local issues which impact our communities and daily lives. I continue to be grateful that the Great Neck News along with other daily and weekly newspapers afford both me and my fellow Letter to the Editor writers the opportunity to express our views, as well as differing opinions on issues of the day. Thanks to you, ordinary citizens have the freedom to comment on the actions and legislation of elected officials in any Letters to the Editor section. Public officials use taxpayers dollars to promote their views, via mass mailings of newsletters, news releases, letters to the editor and guest opinion page columns.
In many cases, they are produced or written by campaign or office staffers who are paid for by taxpayers. The rest of us have limited time to submit a letter. In the marketplace of ideas, let us hope there continues to be room for everyone, including the Great Neck News, all your sister publications, along with all the other weekly newspapers. You may periodically see some familiar names including myself, Dr. Hal Sobel, Fred Bedell, Charles Samek, Morton Perlman, Dr. Stephen Morris, Esther Confino, Jack Lipsky and others gracing the Letters to the Editor section. Let us thank those few brave souls who are willing to take on the establishment and powerful special interest groups in the pages of your letters to the editor section. They fill a valuable niche in the information highway. Please join me along with your neighbors in reading your favorite daily and local weekly community newspapers. Patronize their advertisers; they provide the revenues necessary to keep them in business. Let them know you saw their ad. This is what helps keep our neighbors employed, the local economy growing and provide space on a daily or weekly basis for your favorite or not so favorite letter writers. Larry Penner Great Neck
Landlord abandons Trump attacks environment the handicapped F
I
n possible violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the handicapped ramp to 14 Vanderventer Ave. has been removed denying access to the building for the disabled and for anyone pushing a baby carriage or stroller. This will especially affect the many aged and disabled people who require the frequent services of Quest Labs which is located in the building.
If you rent space in this building, some of your customers, clients or patients now will be unable to come to your office. The tenants of 14 Vanderventer should complain to their landlord to get this matter fixed immediately. Donald S. Hecht Port Washington
Needed: a season without sex Continued from Page 16 million a year, a windfall that they will happily reinvest in buying the election of candidates who will do their bidding. Clearly, there should be a different sort of strike, one that would not require women to relinquish their work responsibili-
ties: they should strike sex. Women are considered mere vessels to incubate an embryo (an elected official actually said that), a lesser person with fewer legal and political rights than a zygote. Because sex in Trump’s misogynistic, rightwing America has come to mean enslavement.
rom the moment Trump chose Scott Pruitt, former Oklahoma Attorney General, to head the Environmental Protection Agency, the fate of the agency did not bode well. Pruitt had sued the agency more than a dozen times. He questioned legal authority to regulate mercury pollution, smog and carbon emissions from power plants. Trump pretends to care about clean air and water, but of course, his choice of Pruitt threatens the future of the agency. Since the EPA’s mission is to protect the environment, the president’s pronouncements regarding drastically abolishing regulations in every governmental agency naturally jeopardizes their success. EPA staff will be cut one-fifth, from 15,000 to 12,000 and dozens of programs will be eliminated when grants will be cut by 30 percent.
Trump has other priorities for the federal budget, planning to increase defense spending by $54 billion, ramping up security expenditures, and spending billions for his “great, beautiful” wall with money that could be better used to protect our environment. Programs that impact the health of our nation will certainly suffer. Pruitt does not connect our environment with health. Funding for the Chesapeake Bay clean up project will be reduced from $73 million to $5 million. Other projects such as brownfields cleanup, abandoned industrial sites, a radon program, climate change initiatives and funds for Alaskan native villages will be eliminated. EPA estimates that more than 450,000 sites need cleaning! The loss of so many essential
programs will disastrously affect our already suffering water infrastructure. Their Office of Research and Development stands to lose 42 percent of its budget and funding for the office’s “contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program”, a climate initiative launched by George H.W. Bush, is to be totally eliminated. Well, what can we expect from an agency head who, just last week, again announced that he is not convinced that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming? It does not take much of an imagination to anticipate the irreparable harm to our water supply and the suffering that will ensue. What a cynical and immoral assault on our society! Esther Confino New Hyde Park
LETTERS POLICY Letters should be typed or neatly handwritten, and those longer than 300 words may be edited for brevity and clarity. All letters must include the writer’s name and phone number for verification. Anonymously sent letters will not be printed. Letters must be received by Monday noon to appear in the next week’s paper. All letters become the property of Blank Slate Media LLC and may be republished in any format. Letters can be e-mailed to news@theislandnow.com or mailed to Blank Slate Media, 105 Hillside Ave., Williston Park, NY 11596.