Letters to the Editor: Jan. 19, 2012

MOUNT JOY, PA

A brutal scene

When visiting family on the North Fork, I love walks and the outdoors, especially early in the morning. And nothing could have been further from my mind as I began my walk on Dec. 26 through Southold than the brutal scene I encountered.

Fifteen minutes into my walk, a man walked toward me and then into the woods of a residence. As I continued, a doe lying a few feet from the shoulder took a few steps before collapsing. Her side was bloody, there were abrasions on her legs, and blood seeped as she struggled to raise herself again. She was alive and in agony.

Just then, another woman ran across the street. As we discussed how to help the distressed doe, passengers from a vehicle joined us. After many minutes, the man reappeared, claiming the deer was his and was shot with his bow.

He took a rope, slipped it around the doe’s neck, and began dragging her. He never attempted to put her out of her misery and was not carrying any bow. All surrounding property posted “No Hunting.” When I questioned his brutality and why he did not end her suffering, he told me “to go back to the city and mind my own f-ing business.”

Not only have I never lived in “the city,” but I spent my childhood in rural Long Island and have been a resident of Lancaster County, Pa., for almost my entire adult life. Although not a hunter, I have no quarrel with persons who hunt for food humanely. I take issue with animal cruelty, which is what I witnessed.

The doe was not in a location where hunting was permitted, and there was nothing indicating that the harm to the doe had been inflicted by a bow. It was a Monday, on which hunting is not allowed.

I struggle with programs necessitated by the overdevelopment of land for residential and commercial use, but am cognizant that without it deer will suffer. Townships permitting hunting should provide adequate regulation and oversight to prosecute residents who believe they can do as they please to animals in cruel and brutal ways.

The image of that doe’s face as that monstrous man dragged her away was not the holiday memory I expected.

Jeanne Groeneveld

ORIENT

Attacking arthritis

As a person nearly 70 years old who’s had rheumatoid arthritis for five decades, I appreciated [the Jan. 12] article about arthritis in your “To Your Health” column.

Since being diagnosed I’ve been treated aggressively, medically and surgically, so I could carry on raising four children and working full time until recently. My two knees were replaced several years ago with extremely successful results.

Perhaps what have helped minimize my RA symptoms most noticeably over the past five years are these three things:

I now try harder to keep my weight where it belongs.

I try to maintain a sensible noninflammatory food diet.

I try to exercise daily.

And, of course, trying to get adequate rest and lessen stress helps us all when possible.

Susan Utz, RN

RIVERHEAD

No squealing rebuttal

Thank you for publishing a letter from one George Dengel under the heading “This is the year” (Jan. 5, 2012) regarding the elections in November 2012. It is gratifying to see our regional paper assume its role as a forum as this contentious political controversy unfolds. You will shoulder the onerous, but necessary, task of trying to present a fair balance among the wildly divergent points of view that characterize the political arena in this great and unusual nation.

I do not intend to debate the author of the letter point by point because, that would be pointless. I do sense that he is angry. He is angry at progressives, socialists and communists, apparently all the same in his observations. He is angry that these ideological rogues “hijacked” the “Democrat”(ic) Party. He is angry about “the injustices perpetrated on us by the social progressives.”

Well, I am a social progressive and I am angry about many things as well. I am most angry about a greatly obstructive Republican Party whose only apparent goal is to return the country to the “Gay Nineties”; that’s the 1890s, by the way. Indeed, those times weren’t so gay for a different 99 percent back then, that struggling, non-union mass of little people, literally little because many of them were children, often living in overcrowded tenements and working in fire traps and worse.

Social progressives (Democrats? Socialists? Communists? Whatever the soubriquet du jour adopted by the right wing happens to be) are essentially responsible for creating the middle class society we cherish and will soon lose if the Republicans, who seem solely dedicated to preserving only the interests of the 1 percent, hold sway.

In closing, at the risk of being snarky, this letter, as you will note, is definitely not a “squealing rebuttal.” To be sure, one stuck pig in the argument is quite enough.

Edward Weiss

FLANDERS

Do what’s right

It’s been said over and over that the only agenda of some elected to Congress is to assure that our president fails, and that they will do whatever is necessary to see that it happens!

Whatever happened to their sworn oath to act in a way that benefits their constituents? Is acting in the best interest of the country sitting on their hands when they are called upon to pass legislation that will assure that people have jobs, not lose their homes or be able to afford a good education for their children? Is acting in the country’s best interest being so close-minded that they do not care that the sick will not have medical care?

These elected officials should go back to their constituents and take a poll to see who wants any of the above! It is up to those in Congress to do the right thing for our country and put their pettiness aside.

This president will be in office for only five more years. What they in Congress are doing will last many a lifetime!

Betty Langhorne

MATTITUCK

Great opening play

The Peconic five-town region is now in the important game competing for up to $1 billion in state economic development aid, thanks to the newly put-together Peconic Sustainability Institute.

Thanks to Senator Ken LaValle and Assemblyman Fred Thiele, as a region we are now “in it to win it.” They have formed the PSI to represent us and compete for this state development aid to assist the five towns’ growth as a viable, sustainable region and secure our future.

As with any important “game,” to be successful we must all get involved.

Mr. LaValle and Mr. Thiele have put together the institute. Now it’s up to us as a region to play our hearts out.

Jack McGreevy