Just Sayin’: Can we land an answer to helicopter noise?

Ever since U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer helped facilitate the “North Shore Helicopter Route” with the Federal Aviation Administration, Jamesport and Northville in Riverhead Township have been brutalized by the pounding and vibration of helicopter noise.

This route was touted as keeping aircraft one mile off the shore and around Orient Point for noise abatement. The operators and pilots take advantage of “opt out” verbiage at their discretion with Phil Mickelson-like justification as being to their advantage. The “noise abatement” as described by the Eastern Regional Helicopter Council as per their “Fly Neighborly” program is being realized by those between Sands Point and Belle Terre. If you live east of Calverton, you are tormented by choppers.

Until Schumer wakes up and hears the rotor slap, and rights this wrong, we on the North Fork will continue to be subjected to this auditory abuse. We don’t deserve this. Make them fly around Plum Island. It’s only a few dollars.

Robert A. Skinner, Jamesport

Using our green space, roads as trash cans

We should be ashamed of our country. When you ride along our verdant roads and exit ramps of expressways and notice that coffee cups and beer cans are as ubiquitous as dandelions, you must agree there are pigs living among us.

There is a soliloquy in “South Pacific” that tells us that we have to “be carefully taught” to be prejudiced. As a young parent, there was a commercial about litter that showed an Indian crying as he observed the debris along the river. I had the feeling that if young children were taught not to litter, they would retain a level of respect for all aspects of life. Unfortunately, that lesson was apparently skipped by recent generations. When a child sees dad toss his cigarette out the car window, maybe along with his coffee cup, that is the lesson he or she learns.

I recently went to the fishing dock at the end of Great East Neck Road where there is a bait and coffee shop, and people enjoy the beautiful seascape. The trip back along the coffee cups and beer cans strewn along the shoulder is what evoked this essay. The punctuation mark was the pickup truck driver in front of me with the “Red White and Blue” flying from the side, tossing his beer can out the window.

Tony Bruno, Babylon