Editor:

 It’s time for a political structure change! Town meetings are outdated and favor retired people who have more time to spare. They take hours, going all night. A vote passed in Brewster’s Nov. 18 special town meeting at 9 p.m. The nay voters won a two-thirds majority by two votes. Everyone ran out the door thinking it was over. Of course, they wanted a recount, dragging it on and on all night. The vote then passed by much more than a tight squeeze because so many people left and because the losers got to get up there to sway a few votes as they voted yes for a reconsideration vote.

 I feel like the political system, democracy, just let me down. If it was such a close count, people should be told as part of the rules in the voter packet officially that they’ll automatically do a revote. That way people would have stayed and it would have been automatic. Secondly, our state needs to remove the town meeting period. So many people beg for it. Why can we vote for people in elections and certain state laws on our ballots, but not the local stuff? I should be able to vote from home. Those meetings are such torture! We live in 2024 not the 17th century.

Alexa Theoharides
Brewster

Editor:

 OK, so I have an idea on how to solve Brewster's two main problems, housing and water quality. First we will spend millions on a piece of land. That will raise taxes and the cost of living, the main reason we have a housing problem. Then we will spend millions more on a parking lot, swimming pool, tennis courts and all kinds of other cool stuff on that land. Then we will call the land First light, out of respect for the people who were here before us. I’m sure they would love to see all that cool stuff on their land. Then we will spend millions more and put 44 housing units on top of the sensitive Herring River watershed. Great ideas, right?

Paul Hufnagel
Brewster

Editor:

 As our nation deals with the issue of immigration, I’d like to share my father’s experience with you and the lesson I’ve learned from it. In 1927 at age 21, he immigrated from Europe, penniless and unable to speak English. As his ship entered New York harbor, he watched the Statue of Liberty pass and was inspired by her welcome and promise of the future. He later read from Emma Lazarus’s famous poem:

Give me you tired, your poor

 Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,

The wretched refuse of your teaming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

 As we enjoy the Thanksgiving season, I hope we will all think of so many immigrants in our country, like my father, who want nothing more than the opportunity to live a decent and productive life. In memory of those who came before and built this great nation, it is our duty to ensure that current and future administrations treat immigrants with kindness and humanity for the benefit of them and our great nation. We don’t need detention camps, the separation of families, Gestapo-like rounding up of decent people and the deportation of millions.

Erich K. Bender
Chatham

Editor:

 Did you know that most food trash is generated between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day? What are you doing with your turkey carcass?

 The Harwich Garden Club, with the public works department, initiated the food scrap program in Harwich on July 1. So far, we have collected over 10 tons of food scraps that would otherwise have gone into the landfill. Thanks to all who currently participate in this program, and we encourage others to give it a try. You can find the food collection bins at the transfer station. They are located at the garage door next to where you dump your trash. The Harwich DPW website has all the details about what can and cannot be collected.

 We are grateful to all who have embraced this program! Happy Thanksgiving!

Conservation Committee 
Harwich Garden Club

Editor:

 I was deeply saddened to learn of yet another local, racially tinged incident that occurred recently to a Black Monomoy High School student. For so many of us, life on Cape Cod is living our idyll but sadly, for our neighbors who are not white, or who are assumed to be undocumented, or who don't fit someone else’s idea of what a Cape Codder should look or act like, life can be deeply stressful. I do not know why someone chose to post a video of the young man selling Christmas wreaths for a school project on Facebook. Would they have done the same thing if the young salesperson was a 15-year-old white female? What we do know is that the responses to the post elicited such derogatory comments that it all had to be taken off Facebook. Why? Why do people feel justified in insulting and debasing other human beings? That young man is a son, a grandson, a brother, a nephew, a friend to people who care as deeply for him as the people commenting likely do for the sons, grandsons, brothers, nephews, friends in their lives. If each of us tried to live by the golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” we would have a happier, healthier Cape Cod.

Karen Boujoukos
Harwich

Editor:

As reported in these pages on Nov. 21 of the tragic death of Shannon Hubbard, on Oct. 13, in an illegal rental clearly warrants further investigation and possible prosecution. As a former prosecutor, I trust the Duchess District Attorney’s Office will determine, if the application of Section 125.15 of the N.Y. Penal Code applies to the owner of property.

 Manslaughter is defined as the reckless causing of the death of another person, even if it was not intended. The penalty is from three to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. If pursued, it may terminate illegal rentals in Duchess County and elsewhere and save lives. 

Mark Berson
Orleans

Editor:

 As we head into the holiday season, I notice that the town of Chatham has put up the plastic wreaths and garland with red bows along Main Street that are reused year after year. Our town has such charm and beauty on its own, it’s a shame that we can’t forgo the fake decorations. Other popular New England towns such as Newport, Bristol, R.I., Nantucket and Concord all have live evergreens. 

 The downtown stores all do such a wonderful job with their beautiful window boxes and festive decorated trees, it would be wonderful if our seaside town could have a more fitting holiday backdrop to showcase Chatham in a way that it deserves. 

Pam Hufnagel
Chatham