Letters:
See "A Matter of Justice: Rev. Holly Haile Davis, DD"
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To the editor, Southampton Press:Reynolds Dodson is "troubled by those whose feelings toward the dead place an undo burden on the living." (The View East , SH Press Jan 25, 2007)
He refers to the human remains unearthed recently in Water Mill and questions whether they must belong to ancestors of the Shinnecocks.
He trivializes the reverence of people for their ancestors by referring to 'unhappy spirits'.
He links the attempt to preserve land and grave sites with the Shinnecock's plans for a gaming casino and writes about gambling as "socially corrosive".
It is their poverty that is socially corrosive.
He says "If the Shinnecocks would have us honor their values at the St. James Hotel, shouldn't they honor ours in Hampton Bays? "
What are our values?
Do they include preserving our environment?
Do they include justice for those whose land and living were taken for the profit of the few and justice for those whose very identity is under attack now in Federal Court by our own Southampton Town?
And what are the values of our native neighbors?
Isn't the attempt by the indigenous people of Long Island to preserve burial sites in Water Mill and in the Shinnecock Hills as much about saving the land and the environment as it is about saving the remains of their ancestors?
What would have happened to Westwoods had it not been under Native stewardship since 1640? Would it be another suburban sub-division or
'Parrish Pond' of ugly McMansions?
Think about it.
Anthony Ernst
Southampton
