LETTERS: Postal Service, Bill O'Reilly, child stabbing ...
Postal Service model's antiquated
Kevin Hassett's column about the Postal Service ["Send the Postal Service to a profitable operator," Opinion, Oct. 14] leaves out one important fact.
The business model is not profitable for any company that is forced to deliver first-class mail at the same cost per letter to its citizens, whether you live in a city, a suburb or down a mountain road in New Mexico. If a private business were to take over, I would pay 25 cents per letter here in Nassau County, while others in remote areas would pay more.
Having worked 22 years for the Postal Service, including 11 as a carrier, I agree we do many things wrong. Someone should look into why management is so top-heavy. Maybe the problem is with the people managing the system, not the system itself.
Lawrence Levine
Westbury
O'Reilly deserved a reality check
I applaud Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar for walking out on Bill O'Reilly ["On TV: They should talk, not walk," News, Oct. 15]. He was doing what too many people do: painting all Muslims with the same brush. It was radical Muslims who attacked us, not the Muslim population as a whole.
O'Reilly finally apologized and amended his statement, and that's when Goldberg and Behar returned to the stage. Bill O'Reilly is a rabble-rouser and needed to be put in his place.
Ana D. Cruz
Perspective needed on stabbing
No one is denying that the stabbing of a child is horrifying ["At malls, parents nervous after boy's stabbing," News, Oct. 12]. Unfortunately the media stir up too much paranoia after such an event. I'm sure the odds of a child being attacked by a dog are far greater than his or her being attacked by an emotionally deranged individual bent on stabbing some child unknown to him.
Kenneth Lang
Lights serve to deter crime
I read with amazement the article about Islip's new restrictions on "light pollution" ["Dimming the lights," News, Oct. 14]. I live close to a building that has been an ongoing victim of vandalism, graffiti "artists" and thieves. The walls were beginning to look like some of the subway trains found in the movies. The building is across the street from an elementary school.
The building's manager agreed to light the perimeter from closing at 9 p.m. to sunrise. The moment that idea was put in place, all the late-night activities ceased. Fewer troublemakers are hanging out in the parking lot.
My question is, which would you rather have, a dark sky or walls with cuss words all over them?
Mike Sabatino
Islip
'It's depressing, it's frustrating' A Newsday investigation revealed that Grumman Aerospace knew toxic chemicals were leaking into the ground in Bethpage. Newsday Associate Editor Paul LaRocco and Deputy Editor David Schwartz explain.
