Letters

Letters to the Editor: East Rockaway, Lynbrook

Mar. 27-Apr. 2, 2014

Posted

A price tag on our veterans?

To the Editor:
While I was aware of the veteran’s exemption on school taxes and the Lynbrook Board of Education’s decision denying this exemption, I was greatly saddened when I read the article in last week’s Herald about this issue (“Vets get a break in East Rockaway”).
The more I read, the more upset I became. The school board said that more non-veteran homeowners would pay approximately $37 more per year in school taxes. I became more perplexed and angry as I thought about that number over and over again. Does this mean that the Lynbrook school board thinks that our veterans, some of whom are now disabled, are not worth $37 a year? Isn’t that figure less than what the average family spends at a McDonald’s or at the movies in one shot? Can any amount of money ever be put on what our veterans have done for us and our country?

I grew up at the end of World War II. My uncles, cousins and neighbors served our country, and we’re extremely proud and thankful that they’ve kept us safe.
I cannot fathom that a price tag could ever be put on the ultimate sacrifices that our veterans made for this country. You read in the newspapers every day about Wounded Warriors foundations that have cropped up to help our returning veterans. I wonder if board trustees would have voted differently if their son, daughter, husband or wife were a veteran, or if their family had ever lost someone in a war.
I have been told since I moved to Lynbrook 50 years ago that I lived on the wrong side of the village, and that the Lynbrook schools were the best — but I guess my husband, Don, who was a veteran, and I made the right decision buying our house on the wrong side of town.
Think of what they have just taught the students of their district: that if they join the military and serve their country, they’re not even worth $37.
God bless America and God bless the men and women of our armed forces and the veterans who were lucky enough to come home.

Anne Conway
Lynbrook

Shorting our veterans

To the Editor:
Regarding the veteran’s school tax exemption denied in Lynbrook, but approved in East Rockaway: I am a Lynbrook resident, and I am ashamed of my village — no, I’m disgusted. Why are we always shorting those who offer their lives in exchange for our freedoms?
Thank you, East Rockaway, for doing the right thing.

Alice M. Johnson
Lynbrook