No masking passion over coverings

Recently, my friend and I masked up and boarded the Long Island Rail Road Ronkonkoma train to Penn Station ["LIRR riders want mask enforcement," News, Aug. 17]. Two young men without masks soon entered the train and sat in the seats in front of us. The conductor said nothing to them.

Later, my friend asked him if masks were mandated on the train. He leaned over our seats and loudly lectured us about all of the reasons why he couldn’t ask people to wear masks. His aggressive tone made us feel as though we were the ones jeopardizing the health of other riders.

We travel quite often into the city but won’t be taking the LIRR again until the Metropolitan Transportation Authority starts getting serious about enforcing the mask rules. Lives are at stake.

— Doug Dittko, Manorville

MTA Police Chief Joseph McGrann attributes the public and his own officers’ lack of mask compliance to "a little bit of confusion" about the policy. What’s confusing about the state requiring masks to be worn in indoor public transportation, including trains?

— Tom Sena, Merrick

We echo the call of our fellow riders and urge enforcement of the mask mandate on the LIRR and on all transit, in compliance with federal law.

With increased ridership and more crowded trains expected in September as schools open and businesses start recalling workers to the office — and particularly in light of the delta variant — enforcement of the mask rules is critical to give commuters a sense of safety while riding the LIRR.

The Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council fully supports a crackdown on noncompliant riders, and if requests to comply aren’t doing the trick, it’s time for the MTA Police to start coming onto the trains and issuing tickets.

— Gerard Bringmann, Patchogue

The writer chairs the Long Island Rail Road Commuter Council and Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.

What will it take to get the LIRR to enforce its mask mandate? I can understand that conductors may not want to get into full-blown confrontations with riders, but can they at least ask?

Perhaps police have to patrol every train or a sampling of trains. We’re talking about the short-term and long-term health of our fellow citizens and, perhaps, life and death.  

— Howard J. Herman, Great Neck

I am a fourth-grade teacher with a compromised immune system due to metastatic stage 4 cancer and I am fully vaccinated ["Masking kids should be parents’ decision," Letters, Aug. 16]. I had been teaching remotely since the start of the pandemic.

This fall, however, I’ll be back in a classroom full of unvaccinated students. To say that I am scared for my health is an understatement.

To those out there who think that masks should be a choice, I ask, "Do you stop at stop signs and red lights?" Why? Answer: because it saves lives.

Wear a mask for those of us who are doing everything humanly possible to stay alive.

— Alisa Marcal, East Meadow

It’s understandable that some parents feel they have the right to decide if their children should wear a mask in school. But every other child in that school has the right to remain safe. Those masks are to protect your child’s classmates, so maybe these parents should start taking other people into consideration and stop being selfish.

Or if these parents don’t want their children to have to wear a mask, maybe the parents should get the COVID-19 vaccine so we can achieve herd immunity, eliminating the need for their children to wear a mask.

— Tara Spataro, Massapequa Park

The COVID-19 virus is smarter than a good deal of the American public. Those who feel that virus mitigation is an affront to their freedom are causing those of us who believe in science and modern medicine to lose our basic freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

What is worse: a child wearing a mask in school all day or a child on life support? A parent receiving a virus-defeating vaccine or a child going through life without that parent?

Those who refuse to be vaccinated are putting the rest of us at risk because it was said — without proof — how bad being vaccinated can be, or that the government is trying to track and control us. We didn’t question the safety of the polio vaccine in the 1950s. We just accepted it, took it and eradicated a devastating disease.

The COVID-19 virus is mutating to a point where current vaccines might not work. It is imperative that people in this country, and indeed around the world, be fully vaccinated.  

— Michael Zisner, Bethpage

As the beginning of the school year nears and the mask debate heats up, I can’t help but shake my head at the claims of the anti-vaccine and anti-mask "patriots." These individuals deny science in the name of "liberty" and scream in support of "freedoms." They talk about internet "research" that supersedes science and logic and eclipses the advice of experts.

Some have threatened to pull their children from school if mask mandates are put in place. This would leave them with one of three options: 1) move (good luck in this market), 2) homeschool their children, or 3) send them to private school (at their own cost). 

It has never been more true that few things are more dangerous than when one believes that they have insight when  they don’t.

— Jason D’Angelo, East Northport

While I understand businesses need to operate to survive, what I don’t understand is why businesses push back on asking customers for proof of vaccination, masking and social distancing.

They claim they are afraid of losing customers. Are they not afraid of people dying or being seriously ill? They are going to lose customers because the vaccinated will not want to enter a place that does not value their health and well-being.

We, the vaccinated, should not have to fear having a meal or seeing a movie. We should not have to be in a hospital room because others were irresponsible.

  If we all are not vigilant, we could face another lockdown.

— Regla Robinson, St. Albans