COVID masks, testing lines, redistricting and more

Dangerous moments require safe actions

People respect the mask mandate and signs when they go to a doctor, supermarket or post office ["Experts warn winter surge may be just starting," News, Jan. 3]. But when they’re at a pharmacy, why do they ignore it?

I am a pharmacy technician, and all day I see sick people, often without masks, coughing, sneezing and touching everything in sight, and spreading germs all over.

If I mention the mask mandate, I am often told that it does not apply to them, because they were vaccinated and even boosted, or that it’s not mandated. Some are nurses and senior citizens who get angry at me for telling them.

I certainly do not enjoy wearing a mask all day at work or anywhere else, but I feel that I am protecting myself, my family and everyone around me. You can be asymptomatic and still give someone COVID-19.

People are scrambling to get tested and searching for home test kits. My store sold hundreds of kits in less than three hours last week.

Normally, when we see a dangerous situation, we instinctively stay away to remain safe. My New Year’s wish is that everyone would use that logic to stop COVID so we can all enjoy a happy, healthy and safe 2022.

— Jackie Ehrlich, Amityville

Why don’t restaurants on Long Island ask for proof of vaccination? Almost every restaurant in Manhattan does this. There would be fewer sick people infecting others and crowding our hospitals.

— Joan Stadt, East Rockaway

Long lines for kits bring out anger

The traffic backup with people trying to get COVID-19 testing kits, coupled with the long lines of people at testing sites, made me angry ["Thousands line up for free virus testing kits," News, Jan. 2].

This is not a Third World nation. This is the United States of America, where there should be a thousand testing sites and a million testing kits available. It seems that everyone on all levels of government has dropped the ball. People are rightfully getting angrier and angrier.

— Rich Corso, Oceanside

Redistricting shows politics’ toxic effect

Suffolk County’s redistricting plan reflects yet another confirmation of the toxic effect of identity politics, which places external physical appearances above internal beliefs and values ["Dems OK redistricting plan," News, Jan. 1].

I assume that predominantly minority immigrant communities have the same needs as more established nonminority communities. These needs include public safety, good schools and libraries, reasonable property taxes, competent governance, and responsible fiscal management.

When the county legislature’s then-outgoing presiding officer, Robert Calarco (D-Patchogue), said that the redistricting maps are necessary to reflect the county’s changing demographic shifts, "keep communities of likeness together" and "address the minority population growth," I believe he was really saying that political messaging must concentrate on our differences rather than on our similarities.

While this is not new in our country, it seems to have become a foundational strategy in the new Democratic Party and arguably is resulting in a worsening of race relations, as judged from polls.

As our society becomes more balkanized, with the complicity of big tech, big corporations and big governance, it will become increasingly more difficult to find common values that will allow us to address the challenges of our time and instead obsess on the trivialities of superficial appearance.

— Marc Schenck, Albertson

Amended housing law hurts neighborhoods

What is the Town of North Hempstead (or any other town for that matter) thinking? Allowing legal cellar bathing facilities and separate cellar entrances does nothing more than permit the addition of illegal cellar apartments ["Making amends," Our Towns, Dec. 31].

With a separate entrance and a shower, all one need do is plug in a microwave and you have a complete separate dwelling that additionally burdens the already overloaded infrastructures of school districts and water and sewer authorities. And let’s not forget something as simple as residential street parking.

These mistakes ruin neighborhoods and can never be reversed. Sure, they increase property values for greedy landlords, but the damage they do to the concept of the residential single-family neighborhood is immeasurable.

— Robert Sacklow, Plainview

Feeling gratitude for a humble broadcaster

Words can’t express how bad I feel about John Madden’s passing [" ‘The gold standard’ on and off the sideline," Dec. 29, Sports]. Even my beer tastes flat.

Madden had the gift of honestly expressing his beliefs. He temporarily transported me to a better place. Neither he nor his partner Pat Summerall gave any indication they had a sense of self-importance.

— Paul H. Schmutz, Nesconset