Just Sayin': Holocaust and masks, working in cold, potholes and police

Conflating Holocaust with mask wearing

I am an educator and lifelong resident of Bayville, a proud graduate of the Locust Valley Central School District. I have always been proud to call my community home. I am shocked and revolted by what I recently saw on the streets of my community: a van bearing a likeness of a child and a mask alongside a likeness of Anne Frank. I presume the van was commissioned by a parent in the district, trying to compare the mask mandate to the horrors of the Holocaust.

In 2018, I attended the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers’ Program. For two weeks, with a group of teachers, I visited the concentration camps and ghettos of Germany and Poland to seek some understanding of why the Holocaust happened. Our goal: to learn and educate future generations about what happened under Nazi rule, to prevent those horrors from happening again.

To think that someone in our community thought to conflate the millions of deaths, torture and indescribable monstrosities of the Holocaust with wearing masks is abominable. I am overwhelmed with sadness and disgust.

The bitter irony? All of this occurred on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

— Ev Mason, Bayville

Let’s thank those who work outside in cold

It’s winter, when wind and snow collide, and many of us stay inside. Yet there are men and women working outside in our service.

We should say thank you to all those working outside this winter who serve us — mail and newspaper carriers, santitation workers, crossing guards, bus drivers, and truck and delivery drivers, alongside brave firemen and courageous police officers.

They are the unsung pillars of society keeping it all together. Let us remember to thank them.

— Susan Marie Davniero, Lindenhurst

Can LI roads be like those in other states?

I recently drove to Cape Cod, taking the New London ferry to Connecticut. I drove through three states to arrive at my destination. I did not encounter one single pothole.

It is not the same story when I drive from Riverhead to Huntington on the Long Island Expressway. It is a white-knuckle drive while I play dodge-the-pothole. I’ve already had to replace a tire on my new car. Enough of our tax dollars are not going to repair our roads.

Why can other states have good roads while driving in New York is like driving on a minefield?

— Lillian Carey, Riverhead

Viewers don’t see all the events in chases

Although this is in no way a justification for police brutality, the "final moments" are all the public usually sees on TV and in print of the all-important series of events leading up to an inflammatory "conclusion" of police encounters with suspects. I’m referring to events like a high-speed chase or the physical confrontation initiated by a suspect just before the "sensational" video clip that is replayed ad nauseam.

All training aside, once a suspect has set in motion a confrontation, law enforcement personnel could fear bodily harm or death.

Let us not forget that police officers arehave the same feelings of self-preservation that we all do.

— Michael Genzale, Shoreham