Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor - Jan. 20, 2011

Use poll savings on garbage collection

To the Editor:

I want to thank the mayor and the village board for embracing my concept, articulated publicly at village board meetings over the last year, to consolidate voting to one polling place at the Recreation Center. I have been very impressed with the school district’s single-polling-place voting operation and I hope the village can mirror or exceed its high standard of efficiency both in parking and voting.

I request that we use the savings generated by this consolidation of voting districts to restore garbage collection the day after holidays, as I also publicly requested of the board. It is hard to “pre-package” your garbage the day before a holiday family meal.

In addition, no matter how many notices, calls and press releases the village issues, the bottom line is that the community is confused and garbage sits on the street for days, not befitting our beautiful community.

Jeff Greenfield

Rockville Centre

Outlaw mass murder technology

To the Editor:

Once again a mass shooting has occurred in the United States. A mentally unstable young man was able to get a semiautomatic pistol, this time with an extended clip, and murder six people, wounding 13 others. There has been the usual outcry about how he deserves the death penalty. There will be more calls for gun control. The gun-rights folks will claim that if everybody at the rally had a gun, it would not have happened. The role of the Internet in politics is already being thrown into the pot.

But what will not be discussed are two things: First, we are the most violent nation in the industrialized world. Second, we allow a technology that facilitates mass murders.

Any time I see a headline proclaiming “Six … (10, 20, 30) people shot to death,” I know one essential fact about the murders without reading the story: clip-fed, semiautomatic weapon. You can’t kill that many people with a revolver unless you tie them up and execute them.

I served two tours in the Army in Vietnam as a member of the 1st Infantry Division. I was an artillery mechanic. Compared to the infantry, I had a vacation, and I know it. But I was there. I served in an armament platoon. I have fired everything from a Colt 45 to a 155mm howitzer, including mechanized flame-throwers. I only had to fire my rifle in anger once. Actually, it was more like sheer terror. But I do understand guns and the men who use them. I was one of them.

So first, we must outlaw the possession of all clip-fed semiautomatic weapons (except for the police and military, of course). The federal government buys them back at double their retail value. We must make the simple possession of one a crime, subject to a jail sentence. If one is used in the commission of a crime, the sentence should be doubled.

If we implement these measures, within three years these weapons will become very scarce, and very expensive. The murder rate will go down significantly. For those who want a handgun for personal protection, they can have a revolver. Personally, I recommend bear spray. It will stop a charging grizzly at 30 feet.

But more importantly, we need to have a national discussion about why we are the most violent nation in the industrialized world. If you step across the border to Canada, where many people own guns, you are 50 percent less likely to be murdered; in Great Britain, 60 percent less likely; in Japan, 90 percent less likely.

There are historical reasons for this. I would suggest that the three leading reasons are slavery, an inherently violent institution; almost 300 years of frontier wars with the Indians; and that we won our independence in a long, bloody, revolutionary war. In fact, in Texas, the motto God, guns and liberty! makes perfect sense. I have my liberty because I have my gun. I have my gun because God wills it.

But I don’t want to live in Texas.

Ed Thorp

Rockville Centre

Thorp is a longtime member of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

A show of concern

To the Editor:

On behalf of the Fortnightly Club of Rockville Centre, I would like to send thanks and kudos to the Georgette and Company Salon for coming to the rescue of one of our members.

Pepe and his staff realized something was wrong when their client, our member, did not arrive for her regular appointment or call, as she usually does if she can’t make it. Pepe sent a couple of his staff members to her home, where they discovered she had fallen and broken her hip and immediately called for emergency help.

Our member is now in rehab and on her way to recovery, thanks to the staff at the Georgette and Company salon.

The members of Fortnightly commend and thank Pepe and his staff for their caring and compassionate actions.

Marilyn Nunes Devlin

Rockville Centre