Letters to the editor, March 3

Response

Hank Herman's column titled "Dead or Alive" (Westport News, Feb. 26) reminds me of the Scottish ditty that goes:

Oh, McTavish is dead and his brother don't know it.

His brother is dead and McTavish don't know it.

They're both of them dead and in the same bed,

and neither one knows that the other one's dead.

Nicholas Clarke

Westport

Westporters beware

On Thursday, March 4, Westport's Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a meeting open to the public to vote on a zoning text amendment for residential business districts in Westport to allow supportive housing (Text Amendment #604. P&Z Application #09-095). The Interfaith Housing Association (IHA), also known as Homes With Hope, applied for the text amendment. If passed, more than 40 properties in and around Westport will be eligible for supportive housing (see full list attached). We ask you to come and be voice for yourself, your family, your neighborhood, your town. This is not just an issue for the Crescent Road neighborhood and surrounding communities any longer. This is your issue, too.

Neighborhoods eligible for 32-1 Supportive Housing with this new zoning amendment include: Riverside Avenue, Saugatuck Avenue, Kings Highway North and South, Sylvan Road South, Church Lane, Jesup Road, Ludlow Road, Compo Road South, Main Street, Imperial Avenue, Myrtle Avenue and Morningside Drive North.

The IHA is an organization that provides affordable housing to the homeless for a variety of reasons including mental illness and substance abuse. They need this text amendment passed in order to apply for a 75-year lease at $1 per year on the Linxweiler property at 655 Post Road E. (on the corner of Crescent Road). They wish to use this 1.3-acre, historic site at 655 Post Road to build three to five, up-to-5,000-square-foot facilities, which will contain at least 12 apartments plus a parking lot of at least 12 spaces to house formerly homeless, mentally disabled individuals and families -- some of which suffer from substance abuse. This issue will also be discussed and voted on by the commission on the 4th.

The meeting will take place Thursday, March 4, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. This is your last chance to be heard before P&Z casts their vote.

Amy Staw

Westport

Dear Dr. Landon, please keep the library open

I have been a devoted parent at Saugatuck Elementary School (SES) since we moved to Westport in 2003. I am writing to tell you that the library is the heart and soul of SES. Just as every school has its own personality and traditions, so does SES. The SES library is an integral part of our unique educational character and we need a full-time paraprofessional to support it.

When I heard the position was cut last year, I was deeply saddened and surprised that the decision about where to make the cuts wasn't given to the principal ,since he or she would be in the best position to know were a cut would do the least amount of harm at a particular school. Cutting the full-time paraprofessional position at SES has done great harm. The library is an oasis at SES. I understand that the full-time position of library paraprofessional may not be crucial at other schools, but at SES it is an essential position and being without it has been a true detriment to the soul of the school and the education the children receive. Currently, there are times when children come to the library only to be turned away or find a sign saying the library is closed because there is no supervision available.

Needless to say, the position goes beyond the banal description of supervision. Our librarian and full-time paraprofessional provide intimate guidance and individual attention to the students, learn each student's taste and style, teach, read, entertain and contribute to the students love of learning on a daily basis. My description does not even begin to delve into all the hours spent organizing, cataloging, maintaining, videotaping, creating school-wide news reels, etc.

I am a storyteller and a professional teacher, and I can't tell you how many times I have seen and been part of the library being used to inspire the children, reinforce issues and themes they are navigating in their classes and instill in them the important skills they need to research a topic and back up a position. There is no other space at SES that is as warm and welcoming. It is essential that you reinstate the SES full-time library paraprofessional position. Our children depend on it. The library is their home away from home. Don't lock the door.

Susan Jacobson

Westport

`American people

deserve better'

Health care legislation is on the march. The month ahead will see an explosion in Washington Democrats' efforts to enact the most massive social policy change in decades. But are we ready for the tax increases that come with the legislation? Are we ready for record deficits and a full scale erosion of American values and our rights?

And why has Jim Himes so happily supported higher taxes without so much as a whimper in opposition to Nancy Pelosi's plans?

The House bill that Himes voted for relies on an income tax surcharge on individuals and couples. Even Senate Democrats disagreed with the tax increase, but not Jim Himes. He seems more than content to place the bill for the dismantling of our health care system firmly in the laps of his Fairfield County constituents.

It's pretty clear to me that residents in Himes' district are talking. Unfortunately, he's not listening. At least he's not listening to us. It didn't take long for Jim Himes to tow the party line and turn himself into the proverbial rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi. It's frustrating when your elected representative listens to Washington more than his own constituents. The people Himes represents deserve better ... the American people deserve better!

Michael C. Delli Carpini

Westport

`Apartheid Week' is

an affront

Every March, extremists converge on campuses across the country. For a week or two, they strive to sow divisions, encourage prejudice, and incite hostility.

They come as part of "Israeli Apartheid Week," a series of lectures, exhibits and events that single out Israel for fierce attack. Students are told the Jewish state is, by nature, a racist, colonial and oppressive state. They are told Israel should be boycotted, and even destroyed. They are told this by ideologues who distort facts about country while ignoring genuine oppression in the Middle East and across the world.

One need look no further than the event's title to understand its malignant nature. The canard that Israel is an apartheid state is an assault on the country's very legitimacy. Furthermore they ignore the fact that Israel was voted into existence by the United Nations. South Africa's racist, apartheid regime was rightfully dismantled, and this campaign seeks absurdly to cast Israel -- the Middle East's most progressive state and only liberal democracy -- as being guilty of similar policies and equally deserving to be dismantled.

Apartheid Week is an affront to Palestinian and Israeli moderates who seek to reach peace through compromise and mutual recognition. It opposes equality and tolerance by seeking to do away with the Jewish people's right to self-determination. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that Israel, which he described as "one of great outposts of democracy in the world," has an "incontestable" right to exist. Apartheid Week's push against King's truth can only impede the dream of peace and justice in the Middle East.

Steve Laitman

Westport

A bevy of birdhouses

Downtown Westport is brimming with harbingers of spring. Just peek in store windows to catch glimpses of more than 150 birdhouses created by artists from near and far to benefit Project Return programs and services.

The birdhouses are whimsical, powerful, magical, outrageous, nostalgic, humorous. Signaling the comforts of home, they remind us of what Project Return is all about -- creating a safe and warm environment for adolescent girls and young women in crisis. For the past 24 years, Project Return's Residential Program has provided just that -- love, security, guidance, structure, and laughter to girls, who, for a multitude of reasons, are no longer able to live with their families. Our Aftercare and Transitional Living Programs continue to serve young women who have graduated from our Residential Program. Teens living here in our communities who are struggling with a variety of issues are served through our community service HEAL program.

On Thursday evening, March 11, we will host our eighth annual Birdhouse Stroll to view the birdhouses to be auctioned off. Six of the artists represented have been creating unique designs for the fifteen years that the auction has been taking place, and we will be honoring them. They are local artists Miggs Burroughs, Howard Munce, Pat Scanlan, Dick Reilly, Carol Brezovec, and Cathy Osterhaut.

Stroll Festivities will begin at 6 p.m. with wine and appetizers graciously served up at Brooks Brothers, followed by artist-guided tours of store windows and their nesting birdhouses. Stops along the way for more hospitality at Brooks Brothers Women and Tiffany & Co. will provide opportunities to mix with friends and artists, and to reap the benefits of an eclectic array of enticing door prizes.

This year, as in years past, we are most grateful to those shops in our Westport community who are so graciously displaying these one-of-a-kind originals: Achorn's Pharmacy, Aghabhumi, Ann Taylor, Ann Taylor Loft, Arogya, Banana Republic, BCBG, Blue Mercury Cosmetics, Body Talk, Brooks Brothers Men, Brooks Brothers Women, Brownstone, Chico's, Coach, Crate & Barrel, Douglas Cosmetics, Dovecote, Eileen Fisher, Fast Frames, Fine Homes USA, Francois DuPont Jewelers, Gap, Jacadi, Janie & Jack, J. Crew, Johnston & Murphy Shoes, LF Westport, Liquor Locker, L'Occitane, Lucky Brand Jeans, Lucy's, Lululemon Athletica, Lux Bond & Green, Max's Art Supplies, Mitchell's, Oscars, Papyrus, Patagonia, Picture This, Plumed Serpent, Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Second Time Around, Shoe Inn, Shoes n' More, Silver Ribbon, Simon Pearce, Soleil Toile, Solstice Sunglass, Specs, Splash of Pink, TD Bank, The Avenue, Tiffany & Co., Touch of Europe, Vineyard Vines, Westport Historic Society, Westport Library, Westport Pizzeria, Westport Workout Wear and Williams-Sonoma.

And please mark your calendars for our always anticipated Birdhouse Auction, taking place this year on March 19, from 7 to 10 p.m. at an exciting new venue for us, the Rolling Hills Country Club in Wilton. For tickets and information, visit our Web site at www.projectreturnct.org or call (203) 291-6402.

Susie Basler, Executive Director,

Project Return,

Westport

Dear Toni Boucher:

Chris Powell's diagnosis of Connecticut's fundamental problem is right on the money, of course. You have spoken and written about the same problem persuasively and repeatedly and to anyone interested in turning Connecticut around, politically and economically, we know that there still are people in Hartford and the state in general who know what needs to be done and are willing to do it.

You are, of course, to be commended for your ongoing crusade to bring this issue to the general public's attention. So what does it take, today, to make the public really understand the critical nature of our state's condition and future? Looking at the national scene we can only hope that the recent spontaneous activities of the Tea Party movement will continue to reconfigure the Congress in the fall.

Is it too much to wonder whether a similar effort in Connecticut could not be successful in helping to secure the election of the right candidates in November? If Massachusetts can do it with Sen. Brown, why couldn't we look forward to a similarly effective campaign strategy by Connecticut Republicans?

Or are we still suffering from the Republican Party's dire results in 2008, when we couldn't even re-elect Chris Shays? If so, I can only hope there is still someone who is willing and able to undertake this crucial and essential task to save the State from itself.

I wish I was 40 years younger!

Please accept my sincerest appreciation for keeping your mind and efforts focused on the essential issues. You wouldn't be human if you didn't have some doubts about it all, once in a while. Let's just remember George Washington and Abe Lincoln when they faced more horrible odds. They had their doubts too but were clear-minded, like you, persevered and succeeded.

Frederik Engel

Redding