NHL punishments don't make sense

The New York Rangers said the team was "extremely disappointed that . . . [Tom] Wilson was not suspended for his horrifying act of violence" "NHL fines Rangers $250G for critical rant," Sports, May 7].

The spontaneous act on ice by the Washington Capitals forward prompted a $5,000 fine and no suspension whereas the measured words of complaint from the Rangers organization incurred a $250,000 fine. To anyone who witnessed the act, it is inconceivable that the major punishment was for the Rangers’ reasonable response.

I speak more as a human than as a Rangers fan. Had these actions occurred on the street, Wilson might be looking at jail time. The league should review those tapes and apologize to the Rangers.

One wonders what message the league is sending. It seems that the league believes it more important to bully teams into submissive silence than to mete out appropriate justice.

Richard Peters, Merrick

Priority shouldn’t be 200 mph train

The latest efforts to bring high-speed rail to Long Island fail to meet the region’s more immediate infrastructural needs ["Push for 200 mph train from NYC to Long Island to Boston," News, May 10]. While planners should always look toward the horizon with a hopeful eye on progress, the most important task of envisioning for the future is crafting realistic and responsive plans.

In 2016, the federal government suggested NEC Future, a high-speed rail proposal to modernize the Northeast Corridor used by Amtrak that this latest attempt echoes. The plan was scrapped when the federal government instead opted to upgrade existing infrastructure along the northeast corridor — a move that they argued would net the greatest benefits for riders with minimal environmental impact.

Instead of bringing high-speed rail to Long Island at this time, policymakers should focus on encouraging transit ridership post-pandemic, and hardening our transit system by taking steps such as replacing the Long Island Rail Road tunnels beneath the East River, or expediting electrification east of Ronkonkoma.

Planning is essential to ensuring a sustainable future, but such efforts mean nothing if they eventually wind up sitting on a dusty shelf.

Richard Murdocco, Commack

Editor’s note: The writer is an adjunct professor in Stony Brook University’s public policy master’s program.

As a lifelong Long Island resident, I can think of about 100 infrastructure projects that Long Island needs rather than the proposed $105 billon bullet train from to Boston. Since when are we traveling in droves to Boston?

How about figuring out a way to allow me to drive from Northport to Manhattan in under two hours? How about fixing and streamlining the disgusting and inefficient and forever unreliable Long Island Rail Road? How about doing anything that in any way would make moving around Long Island easier for all of us overburdened taxpayers? Let’s start with these suggestions.

Adrienne Bryant, Northport

Cheney responding to election facts

A reader asked, "How does Liz Cheney immediately default to the side of the party that smeared her father . . .?" ["Cheney unlikely new hero for me," Letters, May 9] The reader misses the point — Rep. Cheney (R-Wyo.) has not "defaulted" to any side. Nor did she "fall in line with the same people who hated her father." Cheney’s response was not political but an answer to the lies and conspiracies of people incapable of accepting facts, as the reader seems to be.

I will not discuss the facts behind the reader’s accusations that the war in Afghanistan was not based on "false pretenses," but regarding the 2020 presidential election . . . the integrity of the election was backed up by judges, many of whom were not only appointed by Republican-elected officials but who also were appointed by President Donald Trump himself. It was also backed up by Attorney General William Barr and state Republican Party attorneys general, and Trump-appointed Homeland Security leaders who stated the election was the most secure, and by Trump-appointed intelligence agencies.

It is sad that the reader, like many others, would choose to believe Trump and the GOP’s "Big Lie," and turn a blind eye based on their need for political and individual power.

Lynn Gergen, Lido Beach

So Rep. Liz Cheney is a hero for stating the obvious. I guess then that all of us who are not habitual liars, cheats, adulterers, traitors, insurrectionists, etc. are heroes as well? Good to know!

Ernst P.A. Vanamson, Sayville