Don't stop youth from playing sports

Sports are a vehicle to release, enjoy, relax and complement our lives [“High schools not ready for sports,” Editorial, Aug. 28]. To stop these activities for students who rely on sports to excel in education, avoid derelict behavior, and create a well-adjusted life, both socially and physically, is a complete failure by administrations. The residual effects are immeasurable. I believe that we’d see increases in crime, suicide, unemployment, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and other negative results. One cannot compare youth and high school sports to the professional or college levels because, to me, one is a foundation and the others are the canopy. This stoppage concept needs to be reexamined.

Elaine Gauck,

Bethpage

PSEG should pay for generators’ gas

I have a question for management at PSEG Long Island [“Senators to PSEG: You pay for spoils,” News, Aug. 29]. A customer service representative informed me that PSEG will not honor my claim for $80 of gasoline I used to power my generator after Tropical Storm Isaias. She acknowledged that PSEG would reimburse residents for spoiled food and medication that cost more than $80, but it will not reimburse for fuel. I don’t understand the logic.

Sam Levant,

Huntington Station

Limits apply unless you’re a celeb

So celebrities coming from quarantine-listed states are exempted from the two-week quarantine [“NY: No quarantines for MTV VMAs performers,” Flash!, Aug. 28]. How does this make sense? COVID-19 is dangerous and easily passed, especially from advisory states. But self-quarantining is only for the average person — celebrities need not apply. How hypocritical is the New York Department of Health?

Judy Riccuiti,

Bayville

About that lack of climate change

With Hurricane Laura, intensified in a warming ocean and pushing a raging storm inland 40 miles, and out-of-control wildfires raging in record hot and dry California, President Donald Trump can’t convince us that climate change doesn’t exist. We need to tackle global warming with renewable energy, and on Long Island, offshore wind is our best hope [“Lawmakers’ pitch for wind energy,” Our Towns, Aug. 27]. Credit goes to Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) for initiating a bipartisan letter to the Department of the Interior chief demanding to get ridiculously delayed wind farm approvals back on track. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx) signed, too, and also deserves credit. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has made it easier to site renewable energy projects within the state. It’s the federal government that’s holding us back.

Star Anthony,

Port Washington

A shocking way to understand COVID-19

When I was a kid, my father told me that we’re the only country in the world that removes the head on shrimp before selling or serving them. The reason was that the shrimp industry believed the heads are so unattractive that many Americans would stop eating them, hurting the industry. The story may be apocryphal, but I’ve often thought about it. When I watched an autopsy, I had a similar thought. Dying is real, with nothing romantic or heroic about it. It sobered me.

As a longtime teacher, I suggest to school districts that every willing high school student should witness an autopsy. It would probably shock them. But they would see the brutal results of dangerous living — driving fast or after drinking and while texting, or using drugs, etc. I think we have sanitized the coronavirus, just like the shrimp. TV devotes hours of coverage to it, displaying rising numbers, but it’s packaged so the true horror is hidden from view. I think if TV coverage showed what our doctors and nurses are seeing — the groaning, gasping, catheters, bedsores, kidney failure, brain damage and the potential lifetime harm — Americans would be shocked into a much less cavalier state.

Bruce Stasiuk,

Setauket

Nero fiddled, and Trump tweets

The character faults in both presidents in the op-ed “The Nixon-Trump fault line” are shown to be troublesome, though President Donald Trump’s faults are described as much more severe than Richard Nixon’s [Opinion, Aug. 3]. The actions of both presidents can be viewed as unacceptable.

I had the now-regrettable privilege to vote for Nixon on three occasions, but I can proudly say I did not vote for Trump. I found most disturbing the description of Trump appearing to have no capacity for shame. Evidence for this claim can be found in Trump’s spectacular mishandling of our crippling coronavirus pandemic. Rather than using his office to coordinate a serious response led by medical experts, Trump keeps playing politics, trying to minimize the crisis and reopen the economy, undermining the advice of medical experts while touting his own magical cures.

His actions I liken to the Roman emperor Nero. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and Trump is tweeting while millions of his citizens become infected with the coronavirus and tens of thousands more die.

Robert Ambrose,

Medford