Bartering With Klara
To the editor:
Regarding last week’s obituary for Klara Muller [page A16], I just wanted to say that I was able to experience a barter with her one winter by working in exchange for housing.
Mr. Raymond Duarte’s words explaining the true nature of her character were right on. He captured her essence and did share parts of her life that I think many others had no clue about.
Because of the stories she shared with me and some great recipes, she’s one person I won’t forget.
Drew Carnelli
North Truro
Blasphemers
To the editor:
I was moved by your Oct. 14 editorial regarding the blasphemous tree cutting of several properties and your concern that you received only one letter expressing outrage over these actions [“Silence for the Trees,” page A2].
Everyone I have spoken with about these tree removals is outraged, but I realize that sharing our personal opinions with our friends isn’t enough. I’ve appreciated how thoroughly the Independent has covered these events and hope you know that your words aren’t falling on deaf ears.
As with so many aspects of modern American life, the privileges of private property seem determined to override the common good. Those of us who value clean air, forested land, unpolluted waters — along with human rights — need to speak out on your pages.
Candace Perry
Wellfleet
Cutting Trees for Housing
To the editor:
Your Oct. 14 editorial bemoaning the lack of expressed concern for the loss of trees to clear-cutting is surely a welcome kick in the pants to anyone who does not see such as a tragedy. Folks who clear-cut their property in violation of any regulation should be subject to all penalties allowed, and doing it in any case should result in community opprobrium. Those are givens.
However, I bet this newspaper would not object to clear-cutting by a town (or an individual in a town) for the purpose of expanding the base of “workforce” housing. Eastham is leaning toward the decimation of forest land for housing, and Wellfleet (and Truro?) are begging private land owners to pony up land for the same fate.
Deforestation is an assault on any community, regardless of the perpetrator or purpose. Voters who fail to rail against it are being irresponsible.
Dan Katz
Truro
Junk the Junkets
To the editor:
Massachusetts laws prohibit state employees, including elected officials, from accepting gifts and gratuities valued at $50 or more. Members of town committees are subject to the same rule. Yet the State Ethics Commission created an administrative exception to that law for travel. Legislators can simply declare that the proposed travel serves a “legitimate public purpose” (LPP). For more than a decade, a Boston-based organization that lobbies on Beacon Hill for pro-Israel bills and resolutions has funded costly junkets for invited legislators.
As a resident of Eastham whose complaints about lobbyist-funded travel to Israel were rejected by the State Ethics Commission in 2015 and 2016, I’m glad to see a proposed remedy, HR 3240, is now on the state’s legislative docket.
Lawmaker trips to foreign and domestic destinations may serve an educational purpose. Yet when such travel is funded by a lobbyist that supports pending legislation or wishes to reward certain senators and House members for past legislation on the lobby’s behalf, it raises a serious issue of conflict of interest.
Conflict of interest and the appearance of conflict by elected officials (as well as by other state employees) are forms of corruption that erode citizen trust in government. HR 3240 would forestall such corruption by eliminating the LPP exception. If you agree, please tell Rep. Sarah Peake and Sen. Julian Cyr.
Michael Hager
Eastham
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