Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor: April 10, 2025
BRAVO
To the Editor:
As tiny purple snow drop flowers awaken our sense of Spring joy, John Kaasik produced another School play, “Big Fish” that was pure joy. The Shelter Island students sang and danced across the stage with professionalism, talent and exuberance. Congratulations to all the crew, staff and students. And special thanks to John Kaasik who has been providing us with magical joy-filled shows for over three decades.
KAREN KIAER, Shelter Island
GONE, NOT FORGOTTEN
To the Editor:
Thank you Bob DeStefano for remembering John Feinstein after his recent passing for us in the March 20 issue of the Reporter.
Donna and I well remember John and his family on Shelter Island, from the Gardiner’s Bay Country Club and the fact that he let me as a scuba instructor use his pool to certify pro-bono Shelter Island police officers and firefighters as Open Water scuba divers so they could go on to Newport, R.I. to get their Law Enforcement certification.
More recently after we moved to North Palm Beach, Fla., we enjoyed many book lectures by John in southeast Florida.
John may be gone, but he will never be forgotten.
KEN WRIGHT, North Palm Beach, Fla.
COGENT AND CAREFUL
To the Editor:
Regarding Gardiner’s Bay Country Club’s use and misuse of water and its effect on the Shelter Island aquifer, the Hay Beach Property Owners Association has put together a document that is an incredible, detailed, cogent and forceful analysis of what GBCC has been doing over the years to avoid, ignore and breach the regulations formalized into regulations by the Town of Shelter Island.
This is all to the detriment of homeowners, particularly in Hay Beach, but in a great deal of Shelter Island.
The Town Board must look into this and determine if the GBCC is a bad actor in this regard and then do something about that. I urge everyone to read this analysis and forward it to the Town Board asking them for a response.
Dave Ruby deserves a medal for this work and certainly our vociferous thanks.
BOB FREDERICKS, Shelter Island
YES TO GEOTHERMAL
To the Editor:
I applaud the leadership of Meg Larsen as reported in the Reporter’s March 23 online article, “Federal project offers review of Shelter Island’s energy use.”
The moratorium on geothermal heat pumps should be revised to allow test sites for horizontal installations. We should also explore “community geothermal” which allows multiple homes to connect to a shared heatsink, which can be horizontal or vertical. It is time to re-examine the benefits and burdens of new systems that have been developed since the moratorium was instituted.
DAVID HOFFMAN, Shelter Island
VIGILANT, INFORMED, UNITED
To the Editor:
Thank you for covering the April 5 protests in Greenport (Reporter website, April 6, also, see page 6 ). It’s essential that we continue to spotlight citizens exercising their constitutional rights. This demonstration wasn’t just about one issue. It was about protecting the very freedoms that define us as Americans.
I’m proud of every individual who braved the weather to stand up for human rights, especially in a time when so many of them are under threat. Women’s rights are under attack as are veterans’ rights. Both are being dismantled under this administration. Social Security and Medicare programs that millions of Americans rely on are also under attack.
And let’s talk about Elon Musk — an unelected billionaire who now has clear and disturbing influence within our federal government. Democracy means government by the people, not rule by tech oligarchs. We didn’t vote for Elon Musk, yet somehow his opinions seem to carry more weight than those of elected officials. That should alarm all of us.
When I commented on the Suffolk Times post in support of the protesters, I received an onslaught of hostile, bitter responses, many from Trump supporters. It’s a dark reminder of how deep the divisions run in this country. These same people defend the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, an act of domestic terrorism that injured over 140 officers and led to multiple deaths. How can we call ourselves the land of the free when we justify violence in the name of power?
Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of democracy. Insults and misinformation are not. We must remain vigilant, informed, and united. The future of our rights depends on it.
DEBRA STEPNOWSKI FRAENKEL, Mattituck
SPEAKING OUR MIND
To the Editor:
With respect to the well written letter from Kathryn Cunningham (”The True Threat,” April 3), I agree that vitriolic expressions of hate should be condemned. I am offended by calling fellow Americans who support Trump “idiots” or “deplorable.” I am equally offended by bumper stickers with the name of Kamala and the image of a defecating dog over it.
Campaign promises to “help Americans” might be questionable when it entails limiting women’s choices, kicking out hardworking immigrants who keep this economy going, and taxing us with tariffs. I am not sure that is really in the interest of Americans.
Musk … well, how many thousands of our neighbors have lost their livelihoods by his teenage helpers firing federal workers indiscriminately? And Musk is threatening to end Social Security. To be factual: Previous administrations did trim the federal workforce, but strategically, not by swinging a chainsaw. O.K., we should not vandalize Teslas owned by those who purchased them before the current regime. It is not their fault. But refusing to buy Teslas and protesting may be a form of resistance against an unelected person making illegal changes in our government.
Be careful: To deny Americans the right to protest and to criticize their government officials (something that Trump has been doing for the last eight years) is to silence citizens. Democracy only exists if we can speak our mind.
Maybe Trump supporters might want to listen to see if perhaps they have been fed misinformation. Just maybe, maybe, Trump is not really all that concerned with you and me. I am willing to listen to Trump supporters as long as we can examine facts. Finally, I do agree that both sides of the aisle need to work together to keep our country strong and great — something we already are, or were, before January 2025.
WENDY TURGEON, Shelter Island
TEACHING METHODS
To the Editor:
The April 2, 2025 article, “New curriculum at Shelter Island School is student-centered” reviewed talk-heavy, introspective methods being instituted in the schools.
I can’t comment on how these methods work for English instruction. But I do know that they are neither new nor successful for teaching mathematics.
Mathematics achievement in the U.S. is alarmingly bad. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA,) recently tested 15-year-olds and ranked the U.S. 28th out of 37 OECD countries in math. Within the 50 US states, New York is a mediocre 23rd in math.
When I got my Ph.D. in mathematics, about two-thirds of my fellow graduate students were U.S.-born and it was taken for granted that the U.S. was the source of mathematical innovation. I now teach graduate students at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU. It’s rare to see one born in the U.S..
The U.S.’s swoon in math rankings is the result of many factors, some of them cultural. But certainly a key culprit was the disastrous set of standards published in 1989 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The NCTM argued for a touchy-feely-talky approach to mathematics instruction, just like the one described in the Reporter’s April 2 article.
This started a series of heated debates (amusingly called the “math wars”) in which actual mathematicians and scientists pointed out that designers of bridges,buildings, and bombs can’t talk their way out of getting the math wrong.
I’m sure that Shelter Island’s educators want the best for Shelter Island’s students, but using 1989-era methods is not the way to produce quantitative excellence. I urge them to avoid the mistakes of the past and to use more rigorous instruction methods that produce the kind of mathematical achievement that the U.S. can now only envy from afar.
KENNETH WINSTON, Shelter Island
MAKING CONNECTIONS
To the Editor:
The Shelter Island Republican Committee (SIRC) would like to invite you to keep in touch with us by visiting our website and using the “subscribe” button at shelterislandrepublicans.com/
We are very proud to announce Amber Brach-Williams as our candidate for supervisor, Ken Lewis for highway superintendent, Amber Wilson for town clerk, Meg Larsen and Tom Cronin for Town Council. I encourage anyone who would like to have a face-to-face meeting with any of our candidates, to use our committee email, which I monitor daily.
The SIRC has always prided itself on encouraging free thinkers who can make intelligent, rational decisions. It’s a principle in how we screen potential candidates and assist in their campaigns. As a person who respects and seeks human interaction over other modes, I intend to continue in that spirit as chairwoman. Our time here is fleeting. Before we know it, the next generation will be replacing us. I urge everyone to think about how you would like Shelter Island to be when you are gone. We are one Island. When we are side by side doing beach cleanup, sweating in a 10K, enjoying a Legion Hall or church fundraiser, we don’t ask each other to check our political affiliation at the door. We simply help a neighbor. I hope to make this innate, bipartisan essence of our Island even bigger by encouraging as much work across the aisle as I can. I invite you to roll up your sleeves and join me.
A big “Thank You” to Gary Blados, our outgoing chairman, who I have worked alongside for the last six years. It’s a thankless job, and Gary gave it his all. We have big shoes to fill, so I’m grateful he’s still here to guide our new incoming committee.
We look forward to connecting.
JULIA WEISENBERG, Chairwoman, Shelter Island Republican Committee
