Letters

I read with concern a Letter to the Editor published a few weeks back by a Republican turned Democrat turned Republican former member of the Southampton Town Planning Board [“Political Pollution,” Letters, October 3]. He was lauding the sole Republican Town Board member and her crusade to have all election signs removed from public properties. He seemed to relish the fact that the board member “instructed the Highway Department” to remove the signs in question. It was a “you go, girl” kind of thing.

While true that the signs have grown in number over the years, it is also true that the electoral process and the candidates running have become more important relative to the future of the town. As such, the signs, too, have become more important. They tell me who to vote for, who not to vote for and when to do it. They are relevant.

The writer spoke of the fact that they pollute the town and are an eyesore. They are temporary, and I really don’t see them much after the election is over. The argument holds no weight.

I think what we really have here is an attempt to sway the election process. By taking the signs down, the voting public or those who might have to be encouraged to vote lose a vital source of much needed information.

I liken it to banning books in our schools or prohibiting the publication of an endorsement for president in a major national newspaper by the paper’s owner — where misguided adults attempt to impose a political point of view on our children and the electorate. Rather than let the American political and educational process play out, they want to manipulate. Simply remove that which you don’t like or that which does not support your political perspective. No transparency.

As we enter the bell lap of this most important election cycle, America is humming. Interest rates, the mechanism that makes the economy run, are coming down. Employment numbers are great; the stock market is setting new records daily. Crime, especially violent crime, is down. True, retail prices are high, but that is an artifact of the pandemic that needs to be addressed in a bipartisan manner.

The border crisis we have today is the collective responsibility of the last six elected presidents and their inability to put a comprehensive plan in place. These are things that Kamala Harris, John Avlon, Sarah Anker and Tommy John Schiavoni will effectively address on the state and national level.

If the local officials who were so concerned with election sign placement were more prudent and strategic with the placement of their own signs when they last ran for office, they would not have been so badly trumped.

William R. Kearns

East Quogue