My name is Rose Lipton. I am a 7th grader in the North Shore School District. I am doing a very special project you may be interested in writing about in your paper. The name of my project is Rose’s Walk 4 Darfur.

In April, I will be Bat-Mitzvahed. As you may know, part of doing this involves doing a mitzvah (a good deed). In honor of my grandmother, Sonia Lipton, who is a Holocaust survivor, I plan to walk the length of Long Island from Montauk to Atlantic Beach to raise awareness of the genocide happening in Darfur today.

My walk, which will be about 106 miles over all, will be over a nine-day period during spring break starting on April 1st. I am looking for other concerned people who will join me in portions of my walk. Together, maybe we could make Long Island (and maybe the world?) take notice!

I have been mapping my route out with my mother’s help and I have been getting some advice from the rabbi at my temple, Rabbi Liss at North Country Reformed Temple in Glen Cove and from a student advisor at my school, North Shore Middle School in Glen Head. I already have some people interested in this cause and may be walking portions of the route with me.

I will keep you updated of my plans. You can visit my web page at the Save Darfur organization if you would like to learn more about the genocide occurring in Darfur. My Darfur web page is www.savedarfur.org/page/event/detail/w7h.

Rose Lipton
Via e-mail

We’ll keep the light on for you. – DR

A STUDY IN CONTRASTS

Re: SUN HAMPTON/MAROONED - HOW TO MAKE THE TIDE RISE FASTER

Thanks for Victoria Cooper’s article “Sun Hampton” (Feb. 16, 2007, p. 27).

The new, East Hampton-based, green energy company she describes, and your decision to cover it, reflect rapidly growing awareness of global warming and other pressing environmental issues.

Or so I thought. In “Marooned,” on page 21 of the same issue, you describe your apparently regular practice of sitting in your full-size SUV on the beach, running the engine for an hour or more while writing stories for Dan’s Papers.

Using a V-8 engine as a heater? I doubt the irony was lost on your readers. (And I won’t even get into the issue of driving on the beach.)

Reed W. Super
Senior Clinical Staff Attorney
& Lecturer-in-Law
Environmental Law Clinic
Columbia University School of Law
New York City
Via e-mail

CHOCK-FULL ROUNDTABLE

Dear Dan,
Dear Emily,

Thank you for the extremely well written and informative article in this weeks Dan’s Papers. The Artists Dinner at Alison’s was a full house!

Thanks again!
Tom Steele
Via e-mail

Must have been the food. – DR

RE: RESORT TOWN MAYOR

Dear Dan
Dear Robin,

We do enjoy reading your paper and although a bit late (we were away), we would like to respond to an article published on January 19th.

We would appreciate your printing the attached letter this week.

Thank you.
Submitted by:
Thomas Adamo, Vice President
Pattersquash Creek Civic Association

P.S. Personally we liked the idea of changing the name but we would have to incorporate as a village first.

We got it …… Mastiff Beach, lol!

It has been said many times that any publicity is good publicity so it is interesting to see our name mentioned by Dan’s Papers.

Most people who come down to the waterfront in Mastic Beach are pleasantly surprised after all the bad press they have heard.

As a peninsula, we have beautiful sunlight and open bay views better than most hamlets. We have three marinas, private docks, a beautiful golf course, several historic sites, and access to miles of Fire Island National Seashore. There are town plans for main street revitalization and many newly built and rebuilt homes. While there are “pockets of resistance” inland and a main street in critical condition, we are currently addressing those problems. We of the Pattersquash Creek Civic Association are actively working very hard to improve our area. We have joined together with the Mastic Beach Property Owners Association Quality of Life Committee, The Mastic Park Civic Association, The Smith Point Beach Property Owners Association and the Smith Point Community Development Corporation to address important quality of life problems in the Tri- Hamlet community.

Just as in the Hamptons before the boom, many of us are entrepreneurs, professionals, artists, writers, editors, lawyers, nurses, schoolteachers, principals, and military veterans who started as weekenders, and who enjoy the same waterfront as the Hamptons, but cannot afford 3-50 million dollar water views. We share the same water for the price a middle or upper middle class person can afford for a second home.

We are trying harder, so it would be nice if you would try harder to say something positive about our town. The “down and out” stigma does not quite apply anymore.

Letters to Dan