LETTERS: LIPA, Levy and schools

Bakery owner should learn some patience

Regarding "Shops in Seaford still feel storm's sting" : I am disturbed by the attitude of bakery owner Kathy Fehn; she feels she was "treated like garbage" by the customer service department at LIPA. I, for one, am totally amazed at how fast LIPA (with the help of outside companies) was able to get the electricity restored to the many communities that were affected by this storm.

Dealing with downed trees and utility poles is dangerous; this is not something to rush. LIPA is right - restoring power to the areas where the most customers are impacted is a priority. There is no reason why Fehn should waste LIPA's time with more than a dozen phone calls. She needs to learn to wait her turn, just like all the other consumers and businesses did.

Barbara Rowan

Wantagh

Levy's party switch

Steve Levy's switch of party affiliation is the exemplar of blatant opportunism by an unprincipled man.

Richard M. Frauenglass

Huntington

Forget the "party line" and support a man like Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who is for the people first . Most politicians who run for office worry about what's good for their party, not what is good for the people who live in our state.

Life on Long Island is becoming too expensive; Levy knows our needs and concerns especially. He is proving he is tough enough to withstand the fights he must endure to get unpopular jobs done, because it is in our best interest.

Nancy Firneisz

Center Moriches

Teachers, schools can't fix society's ills

Twenty-six years in the classroom leads me to believe that the constant call for "better teachers and improved schools" are misguided , because so much that hampers student learning is less an educational issue than a cultural one.

American teenagers spend seven hours a day hooked up to electronic devices, more time than they spend with their schoolwork or with their parents. Rates of casual sex are shocking. The availability of drugs, the allure of materialism - the list goes on. What magical methodology do people think teachers have to compete with the tidal forces of American culture?

Childhood obesity is another serious problem. No one suggests that doctors or hospitals are primarily to blame because the problem is so evidently cultural. Why, when we feed our children a figurative diet of high fat, high sugar and caffeine, do we see the problem to be with our teachers and schools?

Without doubt, education is part of the solution, but first we all need to recognize the extent of the problem.

Joseph Bonasia

Smithtown