Ridiculous Weekend
Editor:
Two weekends ago, I decided to take my wife down to our place in Ocean City, Md., the Seawatch. I usually come down after when I thought, “all the summer crowds were gone to relax a little.” I have owned our place for over 30 years and used to enjoy the fall time there. However, instead of coming down to “hopefully” a somewhat peaceful place, I found we were ingulfed with modified “little cars” everywhere. These cars had been modified in every way; wheels, tires, spoilers, suspension, mufflers and tailpipes (you name it).
The worst part by far was the modified mufflers and tailpipes on these vehicles. You couldn’t hear yourself think on Coastal Highway. It was overwhelmingly crowded and ridiculously loud. The noise was unbearable. You couldn’t move going into town. How do you go to the restaurant? It was utterly ridiculous. Is Ocean City that desperate to promote this kind of stuff?
I mean no harm to the kids. I like kids, but this kind of activity is not good for Ocean City’s reputation. Older people want to come down and, yes, spend their money, but I will have second thoughts coming back again with this kind of nonsense.
Owen Landis Sr.
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Bring The Hammer Down
Editor:
Well, well, well, the low riding cretins came to our fair city, stared us in the eye and we blinked. It’s our city and we blinked. They were supposed to be in New Jersey, but as we found out, Atlantic City got the cherries and we got the pits.
Buckle up my brothers from different mothers, it’s time for the dreaded Velvet Hammer. And war.
First, we alert the 7,500 full-time denizens that Coastal Highway will have one lane south and one lane north. That whacking sound was the hammer. This excludes the two bus lanes. Inconvenience, of course, annoyance for sure. With enough advanced notice, people will take the bus for these days. Of course, the mayor will graciously waive the bus fares during this time.
Drastic maybe but think of the cretins sitting in gridlock and you whizzing by. That, friends, is not blinking.
Rob Dittler
Ocean City
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Renewable Energy Benefits Undeniable
Editor:
A September trip to Puerto Rico with a group of 22 others from the Delaware Maryland Synod ELCA was almost a year to the day from Hurricane Maria. The mission: to help pastors and parishioners of the Caribbean Synod ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) with their ongoing recovery from Maria’s devastation.
While in PR we watched the development of Hurricane Florence and I am thinking that maybe 2018 will finally be the year that the public, politicians and policy makers will finally accept the realities climate change presents. As we prepare for Michael, another new hurricane and at the same time hear new dire reports from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) we realize more and more how our crisis management mode for storms must change. As author and climate activist Bill McKibben has stated: “The time for changing lightbulbs is over”.
We must find the political will for a new more effective approach to the climate crisis. Our political leaders must advocate for the well-being of our communities and reject new fossil fuel development and promote development of clean renewable energy offshore. Leaders must stop rejecting the science that proves our use of fossil fuels is responsible for the huge volumes of CO2 (the greenhouse gas mostly responsible for warming our planet). Type in this link for many online references to climate change:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!ArC0KmQneSbAun-KyYoLX2RgP4fU
On Nov. 6 we have choices. We have a moral duty to protect our democracy and our future by voting for candidates that address the climate crisis by advocating for a just transition away from our over dependence on the use of fossil fuels. All of us here on the shore face wetter springs, hotter summers, and increasingly frequent flooding from coastal storms. We all see how the changing climate is adversely affecting our neighbors with floods in Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico and droughts and fires across the world. This means candidates must support the clean energy projects like offshore wind that are already underway.
Please note Andy Harris, Mary Beth Carozza, and Wayne Hartman are all local Maryland politicians currently running for office who consistently have rejected and placed roadblocks in the path of the prompt development of offshore wind. They have also denied the science behind the human causes of the climate crisis and have historically advocated new development of fossil fuel projects here on the Eastern Shore. The negative economic and environmental impacts of these delay and deny tactics are clear. The positive economic and environmental benefits of a $1.4 billion investment in clean offshore wind energy that will guarantee over 3000 good Maryland jobs is undeniable.
This letter is an advocacy for our health and the future of all people here on the shore. Since fossil fuels are non-renewable and our population is growing, Renewable energy is essential for our future. This is an issue for all our futures, not just those of us who are partisan. I urge you to join me in becoming a strong advocate for a clean energy future that will conserve a healthy future for life on our planet for generations to come.
Larry Ryan
Berlin
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Benefit A Big Success
Editor:
The 8th Annual Blues on the Bay to benefit the Macky and Pam Stansell House of Coastal Hospice at the Ocean was especially meaningful as it was held just months before the house opens to patients in early 2019. This event also marked the launch of our “Put Your Name On It” campaign. The campaign provides new opportunities for individuals to donate any amount to be a part of the naming of two patient rooms and a work room of the hospice residence.
The Stansell House will serve our most vulnerable hospice patients. They will receive quality care with the comforts of home and picturesque views of the Ocean City skyline and the Isle of Wight Bay. Events such as Blues on the Bay have been integral in the effort to raise funds and awareness about this critical new hospice facility for the Lower Shore.
A total of 200 people came to the event at Macky’s Bayside Bar & Grill on September 19 to support the Stansell House. We shared a first in a series of videos about the house and launched the “Put Your Name On It” campaign, which extends room-naming opportunities to the community and unveils new images of the project, a new web page – StansellHouse.org and feature profiles of supporters.
This year’s event raised more than $29,000 for the capital campaign. With the help of dedicated committee and board members, Coastal Hospice has raised $6.2 million, or approximately 75 percent of the amount needed to finish the project. A total of 2,100 individuals have donated to the campaign. The next phase of the campaign invites the public to contribute to the rooms of the Stansell House to leave a legacy for future generations to be served by this state-of-the-art hospice residence and community outreach center in Ocean Pines. Donations may be made toward the volunteer work room, or one of two community-funded patient rooms – the Veterans Memorial Room and the Family Tribute Room. This vital new facility will be home for terminally ill patients, as well as a base for palliative care, counseling, grief support and community wellness programs.
We would like to thank all who supported the house by attending Blues on the Bay. We are also ever grateful for Macky and Pam Stansell who open the doors of their restaurant every year as hosts of this annual event. The Stansells continue to show their commitment to Coastal Hospice and the vision of the new hospice home, now named after them to honor their generosity.
Alane K. Capen
Salisbury
(The writer is the president of Coastal Hospice.)