Rendering of a planned 121,000-square-foot warehouse in Bohemia. 

Rendering of a planned 121,000-square-foot warehouse in Bohemia.  Credit: Venture One Real Estate LLC

Bravo to Cathy Young for calling out the Conservative Political Action Conference for presenting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the keynote speaker at its Dallas conference [“Hungarian strongman finds ‘right’ love,” Opinion Aug. 4].

Just three weeks ago, Orbán praised the antisemitic-inflected “great replacement” conspiracy theory in a speech condemned by Hungary’s chief rabbi — and described as “neo-Nazi” by an Orbán adviser who immediately resigned in disgust. Orbán once appointed an antisemite who had called Jews “the agents of Satan” as his ambassador to Italy, according to the Human Rights First organization.

Orbán is an unabashed, strident supporter of authoritarianism and has made on-the-record attacks against “globalism,” a widely recognized antisemitic dog whistle.

I would exhort Jewish conservatives and CPAC members to think twice before helping to elevate Orbán into a model for American leadership. Don’t do it. The stakes are too high.

— Steve Vitoff, Huntington

Cathy Young’s column is a real eye-opener on government control in a democratic republic. She wrote: “Hungary has opposition parties and reasonably free elections, though Viktor Orbán’s governing party has rejiggered election rules to make itself almost unbeatable. Newspapers critical of the government exist, but national television is in the hands of the state of Orbán cronies.”

In the past five decades, America has taken a seismic shift left. Our laws and policies, from global warming to genderism to the disappearance of religion from the public square, show this.

Now if you simply substitute the words “Democratic Party” for Viktor Orbán in Young’s column, we see how the left has easily changed our beloved nation over the past 50 years.

— Thomas E. Testa, Baldwin

Probation in fatal hit-run outrageous

Human life just got cheaper on Long Island [“Man pleads guilty in fatal hit-run crash,” News, Aug. 6.]

A man received five years’ probation and no jail time after pleading guilty to fatally killing Devesh Santani and leaving the scene of the accident.

Is Santani’s life only worth probation and community service as a substitute for a mere six months in jail? After fatally injuring Santani, Daniel Campbell did not even stick around to see if he could help the victim. Santani’s parents expressed disbelief at the sentence, and we all should be outraged by it.

— Arthur Auster, Melville

Warehouses are good, not big tax breaks

I was thrilled to read how active the warehousing business is [“Warehouses see boom on LI,” LI Business, Aug. 7]. What did not thrill me, however, is the way county and local Industrial Development Agencies grant tax incentives.

When an IDA offers millions of dollars in savings to a property owner, it shifts the tax burden back onto individual property owners with no leverage, usually homeowners or small businesses.

The tax discounts offered the developer / property owners allow them the ability to realize a higher price and value per square foot of the potential development. It is time for those property owners to offer their space at a more reasonable price, not one that can only meet the market price on the backs of the rest of us.

— Arthur Adelman, Sea Cliff

Reading about the new Long Island warehouses, I realized how great an opportunity it would be to place solar panels on these buildings. No need for “solar farms” that take up precious space, or turbines in our ocean. There must be many places where solar panels could be used — shopping centers, hospitals, schools, etc. This makes sense, especially during this heat wave on Long Island.

— Jeanne Klein, Williston Park

Key act missing from PACT Act coverage

The article “Military burn pits leave life-altering ailments” [News, Aug. 7] failed to mention an important section included in the PACT Act — the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.

The latter is a bipartisan bill intended to ensure that individuals — veterans, their families or others living or working on the Marine base in North Carolina between 1953 and 1987 — who were grievously harmed by contaminated water receive compensation for ailments and diseases that have arisen from drinking and bathing in this toxic water.

More than 1 million Marines and their families served at Camp Lejeune during those years and are being diagnosed with many toxic water-related cancers, neuromuscular diseases and other ailments.

It is disturbing to see the PACT Act coverage in major media failed to include the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.

— Christina Paino, Hauppauge

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