Editor:

We are asking Brewster Dog Park users to keep a watchful eye on their four-legged friends and clean up their dog’s poop. Preventing the transfer of diseases and parasites from one dog to another is a health issue for all that walk Brewster Dog Park. This is a community problem and needs to be addressed by everyone.

It is the responsibility of each Brewster Dog Park user to remove their furry friend’s bowel movement. Friends of Brewster Dog Park provide free mutt mitts for this purpose throughout both parks. Be sure to use them and transfer the bags to the Nauset Disposal waste barrel, not the recycling barrel, just outside Brewster Dog Park fencing.

As more people are not removing their dog’s defecation, our volunteer stewards are becoming frustrated, discouraged, and find their time at Brewster Dog Park extended. Their joy of serving the community is being diminished. Some have discontinued service! If you see a steward maintaining Brewster Dog Park, be sure to thank them. Your words are their reward and go directly to each volunteer’s heart. They are the true heroes of Brewster Dog Park!

Brewster Dog Park is your park. Community participation is necessary to maintain its cleanliness and friendliness. If you see a neighbor not observing their furry friend, cordially say something! Help maintain Brewster Dog Park as a world-class destination! Together we can solve this problem.

Carmen S. Scherzo, president
Friends of Brewster Dog Park Board

Editor:

A recent letter claimed Trump is “well within his authority” to execute drug traffickers without due process based on a secret Justice Department memo and Congress's 2001 authorization for use of military force. That claim collapses under even minimal scrutiny.

The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) authorizes force only against those responsible for 9/11 and those who harbored them. Drug cartels had nothing to do with 9/11 and Congress has never expanded the AUMF to cover criminal organizations or drug traffickers. Nor does a classified memo from Trump’s subservient Justice Department convert drug traffickers into enemy combatants. Such memos are not law, but mere executive branch opinions, this one obviously drafted to justify Trump’s actions. A secret memo cannot authorize killing people on the high seas and is another example of what George Will calls “a moral slum of an administration.”

The claim of a “non-international armed conflict” with cartels is equally unfounded. International law does not let a country declare war on criminal groups simply by relabeling them. And the Constitution does not permit the president to launch offensive lethal operations without Congress, especially when the targets pose no imminent threat to the United States.

We may disagree on drug policy, but no president, Republican or Democrat, has the unilateral power to wage a secret war and kill dozens of people on the basis of a self-serving secret memo and dangerously unlawful statutory interpretation. All Americans should insist that the rule of law, not immoral executive improvisation, governs when our government uses lethal force.

George Myers
Venice, Fla.

Editor: 

A frequent question asked about the proposed Pine Oaks Village IV in North Harwich is “How many people would be living there?” The breakdown of bedrooms per unit and occupancy of those units is as follows: 82 one-bedroom units, each of which a two-person max occupancy (82 x 2 = 164 people); 137 two-bedroom units, each with a four-person max occupancy (137 x 4 = 548 people); and 29 three-bedroom units, each with a six-person max occupancy ( 29 x 6 = 174 people). Total: 886 at full capacity.

In addition, according to a map posted on the town website but since removed, Mid Cape Church Homes Group (which is not a church and is not affiliated with a church) has plans to build more dwellings on Annasis Road besides the 242 POV4 Chapter 40B units. Shown on the aforementioned map are six buildings labeled as quadplexes. This, in conjunction with POV4, could easily add up to approximately 1,000 new residents in North Harwich. Currently, Harwich has a year-round population of 13,600. This would be an absolute overtaking of a historic and environmentally sensitive community. In addition, the traffic and safety issues of the area have been well documented.

As part of its funding plan, the developers will be asking the town taxpayers for over $7million in community preservation funds: $1,575,000 in phase one, $1,475,000 in phase 2, $850,000 in phase three, $1,555,000 in phase four, and $1,555,000 in phase 5 for a total of $7,010,000.

Seven million dollars in community preservation funds? For overtaking and changing a community forever? Irony is not dead.

Sherri Stockdale
Harwich

Editor:

I was quite reluctant to react to the Nov 27 “justification” (of extra-judicial killings) letter due to its sheer inanity. However, in the week since it was written/published, more has come to light regarding some details (that’s seven more days of Trump’s immoral indulgences).

Specifically, that an order was directed to re-bomb one small powerboat vessel that had two survivors clinging to its side after the initial blast. That is, if the communist-pinko-leftist-biased press can be trusted.

Today, the impeccably schooled and worldly frat boy (assuming he was sober) Hegseth bemoaned how “busy” they are at the department of “war” and were unable to “hang around” to see the results of the initial attacks. To the letter’s points:

1) He concluded that the “evildoers” (stop: what evils have they been found guilty of?) based on his “searching” (where did he search, Fox/Newsmax clips?) should have been “taken out” to “save our citizens.” Exactly what threat are they to the U.S. citizenry? In between 20-22 boat strikes, why has not one scintilla of evidence been recovered proving that they are indeed drug runners? Not one bale of cocaine floating in the debris? (BTW, fentanyl is not manufactured in Venezuela.)

2) He claims his “search” reveals a “classified memo” and then goes on to cite this memo — why would anyone disclose the contents in The Chronicle of something “classified”? How did he obtain “classified” information?

3) How can we be in a “non-international” conflict when the allegation is that the foes are from Venezuela?

4) How are a few speedboats off the coast of Venezuela an “imminent threat”? To whom? How? What evidence does the administration have to prove any of this?

5) How are speedboats off the coast of Venezuela allegedly (with no proof of any narcotic substances or criminal records of any of the boats’ passengers) a “terroristic threat?” 

There will be far more deaths in the U.S. from a host of Trump administration newly enacted policies than a few rowboats (allegedly) containing “drugs.” Please, do I really need to take eight more paragraphs to list them all?

Mark Phillips
Grand Junction, Colo.

Editor:

It is with deep sadness after sitting through four hours of the zoning board of appeals’ final meeting of spell checking, approving waivers and conditions without a single mention of the six months of public input of concerns for the impact of Pine Oaks Village IV on North Harwich’s nature, environment, town character and residents that the ZBA unanimously approved the application. The ZBA will only list the names of people having submitted comments. No content — complete erasure of all public input during the hearings.

Also as stated by the ZBA, if there is a traffic concern or problem that is 100 percent on the select board. The select board has failed to solve any/all traffic problems. So, OK ZBA, let’s just add another 2,000 cars to the problem.

Interestingly, the ZBA did allow non-voting alternate member Marilyn Raatz to make an eloquent statement opposing the project with objections in line with the residents of Harwich. Main issues: size of development, impact of building on undeveloped land, tremendous potential negatively impacting the Herring River watershed, isolated location miles from basic resources, building “lodges” in an area zoned light residential, locking residents into perpetual rental debt never having a chance to build equity.

Yes, it is with despair that once again, “When man destroys something manmade it is called 'vandalism' But when man destroys something of nature it is called 'progress.'"

Patrick Otton
Harwich

Editor:

Your reported resizing of the Sundae School condo project prompts a key item for the Harwich Planning Board: It should require — or at least urge strongly — that the project reserve a continued sales outlet for Sundae School’s delicious, lucrative and extremely popular ice cream!

Jan Kalicki
Harwich Port

Editor:

High praise for the Brewster Garden Club and the members who created the holiday swags and the Brewster Men's Club for hanging them on every street sign along Route 6A. Thanks to these men and women who cheer my every drive along Brewster’s Main Street.

Beth Finch
Brewster

Editor:

When the Chatham Shopper News came into being six decades ago under the able hand of Eric Hartell, my editor at The Cape Codder scoffed at the possibility of competition. "Won't last six months!" he said. Happy to see how wrong he was. Congratulations on your 60th anniversary! Thank you for your honest news coverage and for your insight into what makes our community so unique. You have shown that a newspaper can survive and prosper in this uncertain time if it does its job!

Paul W Kemprecos
Dennis Port

Editor:

While it has not been as widely reported as 40 percent funding cuts in medical research or the CDC destruction, this administration has almost completely eliminated efforts to identify and combat the next pandemic, according to Science Magazine.

RFK canceled billions of dollars in emerging pathogen drug and vaccine research, eliminated all $800 million in “bird flu” vaccine funding (the most likely future pandemic). He stopped all surveillance for emerging pathogens and U.S. international cooperation. This also makes the U.S. increasingly vulnerable to new biological warfare threats. 

However, China increased their anti-pandemic research and increased all scientific funding by 8 percent. President Xi Jinping sees China as the “primary center for science and…innovation.” China publishes 33 percent more scientific papers in high-quality journals than the U.S., has more scientists than the United States and Europe combined, and awards twice as many STEM Ph.Ds.

When the next pandemic hits, any life-saving vaccine or drug you can find may be labeled “Made in China.”

The former head of the (now closed) Office of Pandemic Preparedness said, “There is no historical precedent for any cabinet secretary to dismantle our ability to detect and respond to a threat, and then to advertise it almost gleefully, as if he is encouraging people to…take advantage of these vulnerabilities.”

The next pandemic may be the first strike in a biological war for which we will have no defense. This could be Trump’s most significant legacy.

Fitzhugh C. Pannill, MD, FACP
Orleans