SHELTER ISLAND

Kiely’s ‘galling’ claim

I was furious to read Stephen Kiely’s statement in the Suffolk Times regarding housing on Shelter Island [“Meet the Candidates,” Oct. 3].

As co-founder of the PAC that helped pass Prop No. 3 on the East End, it’s galling to see him claim he was “instrumental” in its passage on Shelter Island. He offered no public or private support to the volunteers who tirelessly canvassed and campaigned for its approval. I also served as chair of the Community Housing Fund Advisory Board (and currently chair the Community Housing Board), which was responsible for the Shelter Island Housing Plan that Mr. Kiely claims to have helped draft. In reality, he had no hand in its substance and only made legal edits. Those who truly deserve credit are our hardworking committee, our partners at Nelson Pope and the Shelter Island community. Reducing the plan to “Manor Houses” is wildly reductionist and misleading.

Additionally, Mr. Kiely has been an obstacle to our housing work, canceling or missing important meetings and “discovering” issues at the last minute on projects that have been in progress for months.

I urge voters to consider Mr. Kiely’s loose relationship with the truth and his tendency to claim the work of others as his own.

Elizabeth Hanley

CUTCHOGUE

Not enough

I want to express thanks to Congressman Nick LaLota for having the courage to break with his Republican MAGA colleagues to thwart their agenda on some key House votes. And just two weeks ago, for his vote to prevent a government shutdown. But that is not enough.

We have a constitutional crisis on our hands, as SCOTUS justices engage in corrupt behavior, with no enforceable ethics code in place. Beyond that, the Supreme Court has now created immunity for the president from liability for his or her criminal acts. We have a Congress more interested in promoting the agenda of a president/former president than in passing legislation in the best interests of their constituents. The Constitution grants power to Congress to be a co-equal branch of the federal government, to keep both the President and the Supreme Court in check. But Congress is failing to fulfill its oath to uphold the Constitution.

Note that the Republicans who’ve had the courage to step up to repudiate Donald Trump and endorse Kamala Harris are former public officials. But no such endorsements have come from Republican House members seeking reelection. The RNC, now controlled by the Trump family, seeks oaths of loyalty to Donald Trump in order to gain access to RNC campaign funds. Hence we have Mr. LaLota standing with Trump at the Nassau Coliseum rally. However, while Mr. LaLota campaigns proudly as a veteran, he makes no public statement regarding Trump’s disparagement of our military veterans.

For these reasons, the best vote for our congressional district is a vote for John Avlon. He is well qualified to stand up for democracy, as a presidential historian and author of books on Washington and Lincoln. And, most importantly, he won’t be pledging a loyalty oath to Kamala Harris.

Barbara Farr

MATTITUCK

The stakes couldn’t be higher

As someone who grew up in Mattituck and graduated from Mattituck High School in 2007, I still care deeply about the community, even though I no longer live there. I visit often, and I know how much Long Islanders value stability and opportunity. This election, the stakes couldn’t be higher. That’s why I’m urging my neighbors to vote for Kamala Harris for President and John Avlon for Congress.

Kamala Harris has moved to the center and supports policies that will directly benefit Long Islanders. Her plan to have Medicare cover home health care, a $6,000 child tax credit for newborns and expanding the small business tax credit to $50,000 will make a real difference. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s plan for across-the-board tariffs, according to economists, would spike inflation and hurt hardworking families. His instability is dangerous — his tweets move markets and his obsession with overturning the 2020 election, culminating in Jan. 6, proves he puts himself above the country.

Kamala Harris will need willing partners in Congress, which is why I’m also urging support for John Avlon. Current Congressman Nick LaLota has shown he’s more interested in doing Trump’s bidding than serving Long Island. LaLota’s refusal to back a bipartisan border security bill that would have increased agents and added technology to detect fentanyl is proof of that. Avlon, by contrast, will stand up for bipartisanship and help get things done.

Our community deserves leaders who are committed to us, not Trump’s agenda. Vote for Kamala Harris and John Avlon for a stronger future for Long Island.

TJ Wells

CUTCHOGUE

Consider this

I would like Harris voters to consider/ponder the following before casting their vote: Who is running the country right now? Don’t you find it odd that a few short months ago your candidate had the lowest approval rating of any vice president in decades? Now she is the hero that is going to save America? A candidate that the voters did not choose, by the way. She has been misleading about everything. The border is not secure, the president is not mentally sound, Trump did not ban abortion and Trump is not against women’s rights. Consider that she voted against banning men in women’s sports and against banning men from women’s bathrooms. Which part of women’s rights is she protecting? The abortion rights? They are not banned; the Supreme Court decided it was not a Constitutional issue and should be handled by the individual states.

Consider the border, this administration let our citizens lose their jobs and be banned from restaurants because they refused a vaccine but then opens the border to anyone, vaccinated or not. How does that make sense? I am not against immigration, but if you come in illegally and get a phone, money, housing, isn’t that a slap in the face to the legal immigrants who worked hard and followed the laws to achieve the American dream?

Your candidate supports the WHO pact for the future. This “pact” allows the WHO to determine what is disinformation, what a catastrophic event is and how they will handle it. This is globalism; slowly dissolving our nation to allow unelected elites rule over us.

Don’t get me wrong, I think both parties are equally corrupt. Trump wants to get rid of the corrupt officials and give the country back to its citizens. This is why they hate him and want you to hate him as well. It shakes up the status quo.

You don’t have to love Trump, but you should love this country and the freedoms that it offers. Trump’s vision is for less government, more transparency and one that wants to take care of its citizens first. I can’t see anything wrong with that.

Jennifer Mannino

ORIENT

Vote on facts, not fear

Do you know what fear-mongering is? The act of deliberately arousing public fear or alarm about an issue. Fear makes you stop thinking; you just follow-the-leader, whoever it is.

Vote on the facts, not fear. Fact: Under the Obama administration immigration was at a 50-year low. Why? He enacted a policy helping neighboring countries provide jobs for their citizens. People immigrate here for job opportunities. Biden and Harris have continued that effective policy, and it’s working.

Fact: Illegal entry is going down, not up. Based on border arrests, according to Forbes, it was lower in July 2024 than during Donald Trump’s last month in office. Kamala Harris said she will “get the bipartisan border bill passed” — needed to reassert control over the border, allowing closure when overwhelmed, ending “catch and release” and detecting drugs. Under our American system of government, the president is not an authoritarian, he/she needs Congress to pass laws — which the president can veto or sign into law.

Trump wants to change our democratic system. He wants to be an authoritarian. Forget Congress making the laws. Forget our fair system. He has promised to deport every immigrant living here illegally (an estimated 11 million people). Those are people who overstayed their visas, or who are awaiting their asylum determination (a 10-year wait in a backlogged system.) Who are they? My sister-in-law? My friend? My neighbor?

He wants to weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies. Is that me? Is that my family? I don’t want to live in fear, do you?

Mary Morgan

CUTCHOGUE

Enemy of the people?

Since 2017, when Trump declared the American media to be the “enemy of the people,” the following have occurred:

• Trump was impeached twice; once for seeking foreign interference in a presidential election and once for inciting an insurrection against the United States government.

• Trump was found civilly liable by a jury of his peers to the tune of tens of millions of dollars for defaming a woman he sexually abused (it was called “rape” by the presiding judge) and then calling her a liar.

• After a lengthy trial, Trump was found civilly liable by a New York Supreme Court judge to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for engaging in massive fraud.

• Trump was criminally indicted for retaining and refusing to return national security documents, including documents containing nuclear secrets.

• Trump was criminally indicted on charges relating to the insurrection he had called for on Jan. 6, 2021.

• Most recently, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have spread lies that FEMA will be denying assistance to Americans impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton, falsely claiming that our government has run out of money because it is supporting illegal migrants.

• Trump and Vance have also spread lies claiming legally documented Haitians have been killing and eating the pets of American citizens in Springfield, Ohio, and calling for them to be thrown out of the country.

• Last week, it was disclosed that while Americans were dying from a shortage of tests right after the COVID outbreak, Trump sent drastically needed diagnostic kits to Vladimir Putin for Putin’s personal use, putting him ahead of ordinary Americans who were dying. All of this on top of completely botching the handling of the COVID pandemic, in which more than a million Americans died, while incompetently and ignorantly proposing the injection of bleach into our bloodstreams.

If the American media is the “enemy of the people,” what do we call someone who is a proven sexual predator, fraudster, liar, insurrectionist, twice impeached loser and convicted criminal who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans due to his incompetence? Is there even a word for someone like that?

Michael Levy

NOTE TO READERS

Per our letters policy, this week’s paper, dated Oct. 17, 2024, is the last issue for which we will consider election-related submissions for publication until after the Nov. 5 election. This includes any matters concerning the upcoming local, state and national elections. Issues of local import that do not involve candidates currently up for election will be considered per usual.