Read the Reporter Letters to the Editor for the week
To the Editor:
Last Saturday evening, my wife suffered a seizure in our home on Lake Drive. The Shelter Island Emergency Medical Services ambulance and Shelter Island Police Officer Richards arrived within a few minutes of my 911 call. Their cool and composed professionalism allowed me to calm down and give them the information that they needed. My wife was not very responsive when they arrived but was smiling and talking by the time we got to the North Ferry, on our way to Eastern Long Island Hospital.
In lieu of a 24/7 emergency medical facility on the rock, we have our EMS ambulance crew. They do much more than just quickly transport a patient to the emergency room. They are effectively a mobile extension of that emergency room.
We need to maintain the high standard of excellence that our EMS crews have proven many times. The same holds true for the members of the police and fire departments. As we approach budget season in Town Hall, I hope that the Town Board will make the full funding of these vital departments the priority. While the board and I might have our differences on other issues, I hope that we can all agree on this one.
This week we remember all those who perished on 9/11/01. That includes the many first responders who took the risk to save others. Many of our own first responders went to Ground Zero that day, only to find there was no one left to save. But they, too, took the risk. We should never forget that.
Our grateful thanks to the Shelter Island EMS crew, (we didn’t get everyone’s name but we will), Officer Richards, the North Ferry, the ELIH ER team and the 911 operator who deciphered my frantic phone call. Thank you all.
VINCENT NOVAK and ELIZABETH SWEETNAM
Shelter Island
Step by step
To the Editor:
I am writing to applaud Herb Stelljes’ article from August 29 (“A grand vision for the future of us all”). I agree with all his concerns and ideas. As a summer resident who has basked in the beauty of Shelter Island for almost 20 years, I, too, would like to see more environmental planning. The critical human element and a core group of people can be cultivated using the “Transition Town” handbook.
I suggest anyone interested in the future of Shelter Island go out and buy or, through your local library, check out this incredible book that is changing towns all over the world. The book is a manual for change, beginning with a core group who come together to change their local town and by extension, the global environment.
If a Transition Town group is formed and has regularly scheduled meetings open to the public, I am sure many will join in a proactive environmental vision for the Island. The book guides you step by step and there is also a web site: Transitiontownus.org.
Good luck and see you at a Transition Town meeting!
CAROL AVERY
Demarest, New Jersey
A plea for peace
To the Editor:
I am gravely concerned about the current persecution of Christians in the Middle East and other regions where they are a minority. I am equally concerned about persecution of other religious minorities in these same regions or anywhere.
In the face of broad persecution I am very disappointed about the silence of many governmental and religious leaders across the world community.
In so many places in the Middle East and elsewhere, thousands of Christians have been forcibly displaced from their homes and their churches and monasteries have been destroyed. Many Christians have even been kidnapped, tortured and killed. At the same time, many people of other religious traditions are also suffering from similar religious persecutions.
My Pax Romana friends at the United Nations and I have issued an appeal to governmental and religious leaders and to the UN to begin a global campaign to end persecution of religious minorities. For this purpose, we recommend:
• Local and national religious leaders in the Middle East, North Africa and other affected regions demand that their members never participate in religiously directed violence against Christian or other religious minorities.
• Local and national governmental leaders in these regions protect Christian and other religious minorities in their communities and ensure safe conditions.
• Local and national governmental leaders in these regions hold accountable all persons perpetrating the persecution of Christian or other religious minorities and make them pay reparations for lost lives and for rebuilding destroyed homes and religious buildings.
• The UN develops a plan of action for ending the persecution of religious minorities, beginning by sending fact-finding missions to those areas of the Middle East and other regions where religious minorities are currently being persecuted.
• An international fund be established, financed mainly by private donations, for the support of persecuted religious minorities.
One can only hope and pray that the entire world community, and in particular governmental and religious leaders, recognize the desperate plight of Christian and other religious minorities and that these officials across the world undertake a vigorous campaign to stop the persecution.
JOSEF KLEE
Former UN official
Shelter Island
