Low-pay workers, water usage, Holocaust education, gangs, Pence

Low-pay workers merit livable wages

For too long, working people have relied upon sporadic and unpredictable wage increases [“Raising the minimum wage helps all of us,” Opinion, March 24]. They all feel the effects of the rising cost of living, and low-wage workers, many of whom have families to support, are being hit the hardest.

It’s time that New York breaks the cycle of poverty wages. Long Island’s working families deserve a livable minimum wage. It would not only help workers make ends meet, but it would benefit their employers, who budget better by planning for scheduled increases.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, based in Washington, raising and indexing New York’s minimum wage would benefit more than 2 million workers.

A recent Siena College poll showed 70% of New York voters, including 82% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans, support indexing the minimum wage.

Equalization and indexation are critical to preventing the erosion of wages over time and will serve as a valuable recruitment and retention tool for the workforce. This policy needs to be implemented to deliver a better future for our state’s working people.

 — John R. Durso, Bellmore

The writer is president of the Long Island Federation of Labor AFL-CIO.

Funding water reuse makes sense, too

The article “Experts: Boost LI water reuse” [News, March 23] and editorial “A needed fight for clean water” [Opinion, March 24] speak to two relatable topics for water providers. They highlight a counterintuitive dynamic in Long Island’s landscaping culture that impacts affordability, sustainability and our environment.

Water providers are investing more than $1 billion to address emerging contaminants and improve water quality. The unfortunate reality is that a significant portion of the investment is so we can have the capacity to use drinking water to hydrate our lawns.

Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of gallons of treated effluent water from our sewer treatment plants go into our waterways completely underutilized. States such as Florida and California put this water to better use.

Continued funding for treatment projects that provide higher quality water is needed, but we’d argue that an equal level of funding for water reuse also makes sense. If water used by irrigation systems comes from an alternate source, we likely could cut the investment in new treatment systems in half while yielding the same level of quality and safety. With more than 140 golf courses on Long Island alone, significant volumes of water could be saved with water reuse.

 — John Kilpatrick, Bayville

The writer is chairman of the Long Island Water Conference.

Never fear teaching children the truth

I could not agree more with Randi F. Marshall’s column “Need consistent Holocaust education” [Opinion, March  23].

To learn about the Holocaust is to learn what pure evil is and to realize that people are capable of treating each other that way. We should never be afraid of teaching the truth because the truth always has something positive to teach us.

When I retired from teaching elementary school, I had the honor of performing in what I would consider the perfect lesson about the Holocaust, the play “The Diary of Anne Frank.” I played Otto Frank, her father, for many years at Bayway Arts Center in East Islip. Schoolchildren of all ages were bused in to see the play, and a discussion followed each performance.

I believe that the truth of what they saw that day made each one a better person.

 — Julius Jacobs, East Islip

Worry about gangs, not the rhetoric

Riverhead school board member Laurie Downs only stated her beliefs when she expressed fear that Riverhead was in jeopardy of becoming gang-infested [“School board member quits after Brentwood comments,” Our Towns, March  29]. Unfortunately, we seem to place greater value on not hurting anyone’s feelings than cleaning up violent street gangs. Could she have said it more sensitively? I guess so.

Her comments were “hurtful” and “painful”? Some communities have more gang violence. Sweeping it under the rug and not confronting the problem will not solve it.

Let’s clean up the gangs, erase violence and then worry about the rhetoric. Meeting the problem head-on, talking about it and then putting words into action will be a start in helping to clean up communities and schools with gang members.

 — Michael Limmer, Wantagh

Pence has obligation to testify on Trump

Not only did former Vice President Mike Pence refuse to testify before the House’s Jan.  6 select committee, but he also attempted to quash the subpoena [“Report: Judge rules that Pence must testify,” News, March 29].

Doesn’t Pence, if he witnessed possibly illegal conduct by then-President Donald Trump, have a moral obligation to voluntarily come forward to testify?

It’s time for Pence to set aside posturing and politics and show he’s an American patriot.

 — Steven F. Lowenhar, Dix Hills