Time Travel With Dad
To the editor:
So it goes, indeed.
Thanks to Robert Kuttner for his essay “Time Travel With Kurt Vonnegut and My Dad” [May 2, page C3]. My father at age 20 was also captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and was transported ultimately to two different German POW camps. Much that we learned later about his time in the camps was devastating, heartbreaking, and sometimes heartwarming, but that’s not what prompted me to write.
My parents began driving my older sister and me to Wellfleet from Cleveland, Ohio in the late ’50s, before my two younger siblings were even born. Through a mutual friend who thought our dad and Vonnegut would hit it off, my parents, with by then four of us kids in tow, visited the author and his family on the Cape around 1960 or ’61. During that visit, neither Vonnegut nor my father mentioned the war, much less that they’d been in the same division and were both prisoners of war in Germany.
That by itself isn’t surprising. Dad was a lifelong student of history and especially all things World War II. But like so many who live through horror, he didn’t talk much about his experiences in the war for most of his life.
After surviving his ordeal, he decided that he would never have another bad day, and that is how he lived. My great joy, unlike Mr. Kuttner’s untimely loss of his dad, was being able to know my father until he was almost 93 (April 24 would have been his 100th birthday). My parents’ love story began with letters exchanged throughout his Army training and service, so I am also grateful to Mr. Kuttner for my next read: Edie Vonnegut’s Love, Kurt.
Karen Friedman
Wellfleet
Slow Down on Motta Field
To the editor:
The next step in the plan to redevelop Motta Field requires voters on May 14 to approve Question 2 on the ballot increasing debt and residential property taxes for a 15-year period to pay for the almost $12 million development. Please consider the following before you vote:
Voters at town meeting abandoned the current residency requirement for our fire and police chiefs despite first responders, like the current fire chief, warning about significant safety risks. The cited reason to take such a risk? The housing crisis.
The town has taken measures to ease the burden of residential property taxes for those living here year-round because many are on fixed incomes or salaries that do not keep pace with rising property taxes.
So then why vote to voluntarily raise residential property taxes on ourselves to fund something that is not at the top of the priority list?
How about instead of voting to spend $12 million all in one shot, we do this in phases? A smaller version to start — paid for by grants — to see if the Motta Field complex is going to be used to such an extent as to justify the expense in light of the many priorities facing this town (affordable housing, a new fire facility, EMS-ambulance services, flooding, etc.).
If it works, great. Make it bigger. If not, then while we may have lost some money, we have not tied ourselves to a 15-year debt of 12 million bucks to be paid by increased property taxes.
Pat Miller
Provincetown and Brooklyn, N.Y.
The writer is president of the Provincetown Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association.
Housing the Fire Chief
To the editor:
I am concerned about the change in policy approved at Provincetown’s town meeting allowing the fire chief to reside as far away as Wellfleet. The drive from the Wellfleet-Eastham line to Provincetown can take over 30 minutes at the best of times.
Think about recent fires in Provincetown. The fire at the White Dory this past winter displaced several people. The 2017 Surf Club fire at the start of the high season, with the town full of tourists and traffic, was contained only after the loss of several businesses. Maybe you have forgotten the “summer of arson” in Provincetown, when several homes were torched.
Fire Chief Michael Trovato says that the first few minutes of a fire can make the difference between containing the blaze and the fire spreading out of control. Even a small kitchen fire can produce panic and get out of control quickly. Is it wise to lose those precious minutes with our fire chief on Route 6?
Think back to ancient history. In 1998, what started as a small fire from a space heater became a five-alarm blaze that engulfed Whaler’s Wharf, the Crown & Anchor, Marine Specialties, and other businesses. The blaze was so large that fire companies from up Cape came to assist. Residents were out with garden hoses wetting roofs to prevent more fires starting from the airborne embers floating over town.
What would have happened in 1998 if our fire chief had been on the road for a half hour from Wellfleet instead of minutes away?
I hope we will rethink this decision. If we can spend $11.7 million on a playing field, how about buying a house for our fire chief, or at least providing an adequate housing stipend?
Steven Fossella
Provincetown
Life Stories
To the editor:
The recent obituaries of my good friends Dick Elkin [Feb. 22] and Tom Peters [April 25] made me recall the wonderful stories told in the New York Times after 9/11. How those stories gave us a sense of the individual, letting the reader learn, respect, and honor that person’s life.
The Independent’s obituaries do the same. Thank you.
Lisa Thimas
Wellfleet
*****
Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
