Just Sayin’: Washington should outlaw cellphone robocalls
A view of the call-blocking option on a cellphone. Credit: /
I graduated from college in 1977 and had no student loans. I avoid carrying a balance on my credit card. Yet, I get several robocalls every day on my cellphone offering help to pay my student debt and lower my credit card interest rates. I even get offers of free cruises.
I use the “block this caller” feature on my phone to avoid future calls from those numbers, but I get “spoof” calls from similar numbers and local area codes.
Sen. Chuck Schumer says he gets the same calls. He calls this nuisance an epidemic. He says the national Do Not Call Registry is no longer effective, and he supports the Repeated Objectionable Bothering of Consumers on Phones Act, or ROBOCOP. I don’t see why all legislators don’t already back this bill.
We have a right not to be annoyed by telemarketers.
Mitchell Ostrover, Glen Cove
Why doesn’t Curran get a shout-out?
I recently attended two public concerts in the Town of Oyster Bay, one at Burns Park in Massapequa and another at Syosset-Woodbury Community Park.
I have attended these events for years and always tolerated the town supervisor, first John Venditto and now Joseph Saladino, opening the concert by extending thanks to local elected officials, judges and corporate sponsors. This list always included then-County Executive, Edward Mangano.
I was disappointed, but not surprised, that Saladino didn’t acknowledge the current county executive, Laura Curran, at either recent event. There never seemed to be an issue in the past acknowledging the executive when it was a Republican, but now that the executive is a Democrat, I guess that individual is not worthy of the same courtesy and respect. I consider this to be the height of partisanship by the supervisor.
Robert Pergolis, Plainview
Alexa, can you please help teach manners?
Many of us have Amazon Echo and Echo Dots in our homes. We work very hard to teach our kids proper manners, yet here we have devices that teach them that it’s OK to tell “Alexa” (or worse yet, yell at her!) to do something without first saying the magic word (please).
The programmers missed an opportunity here, as I’m sure Alexa would agree!
Rick Meuser, Huntington Station
