Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor: Aug. 31, 2025
TRANSPARENCY
To the Editor:
Thank you, Cathy Ann Kenny, Treasurer of The Committee for New Leadership, for your recent letter to the Reporter. Your concern has since been addressed and the required reports filed. You will be relieved to know we paid our postal box fee.
In the interests of “transparency” often called for by your current candidate for supervisor, please explain to the community how the Shelter Island Democratic Committee was cast aside for A Better Island for All and now, voila, The Committee for New Leadership.
Frankly, most residents see this as a three-card monte game of political sleight of hand.
JULIA WEISENBERG, Ph.D Chairwoman, Shelter Island Republican Committee
PREDICTIONS
To the Editor:
Since 9/11 we have been told, “If you see something, say something.”
Right now, I see a leader checking off all the boxes needed for a shift from democracy to authoritarianism.
In light of this, I am saying something, not because I want these things to happen but because it is becoming increasingly likely that they will and you should know. Hence, some predictions.
First, provided we have mid-terms and the GOP does poorly in them, each and every loss will be contested legally, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It will take forever. These challenges will be used to justify the vice president’s refusal to certify the elections, which will forestall the swearing in of the “new” Congress, thus retaining the GOP super-majority indefinitely.
This blatant effort at breaking the democracy will result in civil unrest. That is what it is designed to do, by the way, because it will justify the widespread martial law I predict to follow mid-terms.
Donald Trump is already warming up by doing his National Guard flex here and there. After all, you have to know who your friends are in such times and now is a good time to test commander fealty.
After that, I expect I.C.E. will be “re-purposed” for general population control. That would explain their new budget, which is bigger than most countries’ entire military budgets.
Then the “Patriot Act” will be fully deployed against the very people it was meant to protect, as per the predictions ignored at the time of its birth. ‘Them’ will have become ‘us.’
Ultimately it comes down to how many in each branch of service, be it civil or military, took their oaths of office seriously enough to resist this attempted overthrow of the system.
Let’s hope I’m wrong.
PAUL SHEPHERD, Former councilman, Town of Shelter Island
WHAT CAN WE LEARN
To the Editor:
The August 21 edition of Reporter provided a timely focus on police training to manage school shootings, highlighting one of the many ways our police work with the community to provide a safe environment.
As the first sentence acknowledges, school shootings are a horror no parent wants to experience, and the police are helping to avoid more tragedies. However, stating it is a “harsh reality of today’s world” suggests school shootings are common worldwide. Statistics speak otherwise.
Most places in the world do not have the rate of school shootings seen in the USA. World Population Review publishes data on school shootings of at least one person other than the shooter, on school grounds serving elementary through university and vocational students.
The five countries with the most school shootings between 2009 and 2018 in rank order are 1.USA with 288 incidents, 2.Mexico with eight incidents,3. South Africa with six incidents, 4. Pakistan with four incidents and 5. Nigeria with four incidents.
But what about more recent data, that also accounts for population? The data again informs us that the USA stands out from other countries by having more school shootings. In 2025 there was an average of one school shooting a week in the USA, more school shootings than occurred in all European Union (EU) countries combined. The USA, with about 333 million people has had about double the number of school shootings as the EU, which has more people — approximately 450.4 million.
School shootings are not a given reality. Rather we in the USA have made a choice to live with them. We could just as well make a different choice, to support change and learn from other countries that have found ways to keep schools safer.
ANNE BOGARD, East Marion
IMPORTANT MEETING ON ISLAND WATER QUALITY
To the Editor:
Please come and learn how you can do your part to help protect our water quality. This is important and useful information for each of us on Shelter Island.
Please join us at the Sept. 4 Water Quality Improvement Advisory Board (WQIAB) meeting at 6 p.m. at Shelter Island Town Hall in person or via ZOOM.
Rachel Friedman, the Water Quality Outreach Specialist with the Peconic Estuary Partnership, will give a presentation to help homeowners understand why upgrading their septic systems is key to protecting our water quality. Additionally, the grant application process will be explained in detail, step by step.
Learn how you can get financial help replacing your outdated septic system with an Innovative Alternative (I/A) Onsite Wastewater Treatment System (OWTS) by utilizing Suffolk County and New York State grants, along with an additional rebate available to Shelter Island residents.
Please come with any questions that you may have about this process and stay after the presentation if you would like the opportunity to have one-on-one assistance with your application.
We encourage everyone to join us in this important effort to protect our water quality.
You can register for Zoom attendance through the Shelter Island Town Website.
We look forward to seeing you on September 4 at 6 p.m.
ALICE DEUPREE, Menantic Creek Keepers Conservancy
