Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

Rename sports complex

To the Editor:

I normally don’t write to the editor, but recent events leave me no choice. As a parent, we do our children no favors by handing them everything. Rather, as parents, we should lead by example. Honesty and hard work may be difficult at times, but they are the road best traveled. Dean Skelos represents nothing more than greed and dishonesty. He tarnished what should have been a great legacy.

If we truly want to make a statement about who we are as a people in Rockville Centre, let’s pay tribute to a young man who represented the good in humanity, John Darcy. John was a 17-year-old village resident and sports enthusiast who died in 1999 from complications during neurosurgery. To know John was to know a person who demonstrated honesty, hard work, integrity and good sportsmanship. He was a fantastic example of what good looks like.

Come on, Rockville Centre. Let’s rename the sports complex for someone who played on the field, demonstrated the above attributes and was a true role model. The John Darcy Sports Complex would reflect the good in our community, just as John did.

Bill Blackford

Rockville Centre

Silver and Skelos are now felons

To the Editor:

Their trials grabbed headlines for weeks, as evidence revealed that they were more contingent-fee kings than state legislators. In Sheldon Silver’s case, the defense argued that his prosecutors didn’t understand “how sausage was made in Albany.” In Dean Skelos’s case, benevolence — defined in English history as a forced contribution to the sovereign — added $300,000 to his son’s coffers.

End of story? Not quite, and at the conclusion of Dean’s trial, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara asked an important question: ”How many prosecutions are needed before Albany gives the people of New York the honest government they deserve?” My answer, to quote Buzz Lightyear’s trademark cry, is, “To infinity, and beyond!”

The convictions of both former majority leaders were predictable. Albany is a culture of money, plain and simple. The full spectrum of concerns that facilitate dishonesty need to be understood and properly reacted to in court.

What is my opinion about the Skelos verdict? The jury had no choice other than to find him guilty. The evidence against him and Adam was overwhelming. The loss of his representation will have serious consequences for the balance of power in Albany. In defense of Dean, as parents, we all try to do our best for our children. In my day, it was giving out Republican campaign literature to secure a competitive lifeguard job at Jones Beach.

Hal Peterson

Rockville Centre