Islanders fans, seniors' visuals, 'cleanup man'

Islanders fans should be ashamed of themselves

My daughter and I sat down Wednesday night to watch the Islanders’ playoff Game 6 against Tampa Bay on TV and listened to the fans’ beautiful singing of our national anthem. Then we saw a great game won by the Islanders in overtime ["Islanders force series to Game 7," Sports, June 24].

The fans and team went wild, as did we, and as the Islanders started to raise their sticks and skate around the rink to celebrate with their fans, beer cans start raining down, hitting a few players. At this point, the team started skating off the ice to the dressing room.

What a disgrace, and why would management sell beer in cans instead of paper cups as they do in many arenas?

Shame on those fans who threw the cans, and what a black eye for Long Island — and it was on national television, no less.

— Albert J. Prisco, E. Northport

I agree with the reader regarding the Islanders fans’ singing of the national anthem, but when did it become appropriate for thousands of fans to chant a vulgarity at Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos ["Singing the praises of Islanders fans," Letters, June 24]?

I saw hundreds of children at the game Wednesday night and was appalled. Have some class, fans. — Louise Walsh, Levittown

Seniors' visuals get an A+ after a rough year

As a teacher for 23 years, I’m finishing one of the most hectic and memorable years of my career. I have seen my students persevere through the roughest school year of their lives. So I was thrilled to see a two-page spread featuring students and their visual memories of this school year ["Senior project," News, June 20]. Kudos.

Monica Klein, Deer Park

‘Cleanup man’ efforts hit nerve about LI tidiness

Nice story about Mel Silverman trying to do more than his part in keeping the roads by his Coram neighborhood free from trash ["Meet the hamlet’s (reluctant) cleanup man," Our Towns, June 21]. It’s unfortunate he feels he must do this because many people have such little respect for the environment, roads and places they drive that they just throw garbage out the car window. New York City and Long Island have the filthiest roads I’ve ever seen, especially on parkway entrance and exit ramps and areas where traffic slows.

Silverman’s idea to replace red-light cameras — and I’ll add speed cameras, too — with "trash" cameras is spot on. Respect for anything these days seems out of the norm — authority, other drivers, property and road cleanliness. Maybe it’s time to enforce littering with a fine that will benefit the beauty of our roads.

Gerard Porcelli, Farmingdale

My hat goes off to Mel Silverman. The litter on Long Island roadways, streets and parking lots seems to be worse than ever, and people complain. Silverman has done something about it. It is easy to see an injustice and complain but quite another thing to take action and try to rectify the problem. If everyone took responsibility for one’s own trash, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and we wouldn’t need the Mel Silvermans of the world, but that is wishful thinking. Meanwhile, maybe his actions will move others to follow his lead and take responsibility

Charles J. Brown, Levittown

Thank you for focusing the spotlight on Mel Silverman, the Coram cleanup guy. Over the years, our Syosset civic group has discovered many unsung heroes like Mel, who quietly and unassumingly pick up litter along Long Island’s roads. Thank you to all these volunteers who make Long Island more beautiful!

Laura Schultz, Syosset

The writer is president of the civic nonprofit RESIDENTS for a more beautiful Syosset.

Cheers for Mel Silverman!

This reminds me of a time about 20 years ago when I was at a local mailbox mailing a letter with my 7-year-old son. Some guy drove by and threw a drink bottle out his car window onto the grass nearby. I picked up the bottle and drove after him, intending to return his property, but he turned into a 7-Eleven and went inside. My son and I snuck up to his car and put the bottle on his car roof. We scurried across the street and set up a suitable observation point. Oh, how I wish we had a cellphone camera to capture his look of dismay when he came out of the store and saw the bottle on his roof. This story, though, has a happy ending. After scratching his head in wonder, he put the bottle where it belonged — in a trash bin.

Mike Mehary, Amityville