L E T T E R S
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A SECURITY FORCE OF ONE

To the editor:

I read with great interest and pleasure the article "Flossie's Legacy" (Jan. 24) and thank you for such a great article about a great lady. I had the opportunity to spend three summers in the late '60s with Flossie and will reflect her one request she made of me during those summers.

As a summer policeman we worked varied shifts and I asked Flossie for a quiet place to get some decent sleep. She immediately offered me the upstairs bedroom off the kitchen with its own half bath and outside entrance. She called it her secret room. She only asked than on my way to/or from work, I would walk through the house in uniform and say "Hi" to everyone. Certainly seemed fair at the time.

With the cast of characters always changing she thought it important to have her own security on site. To enter the kitchen from the back door in full uniform and walk through a group of people, saying "Hi" on the way downstairs, created looks on faces that was truly priceless. Flossie was always close and the question would always be, to some extent, who was that and what was that all about? Flossie, being a true Yankee, didn't say much and just let the event pass but her message got across. I don't know who got the better deal: Flossie with her built in security force of one on site or me with a $20 a week private room and a great friendship that lasted for years. Maybe we both did.

It would be interesting to somehow take a roll of the tenants over the years and see where they ended up. I would bet there are some real success stories to be found.

Best regards,

- John W. Courtland

Atlanta, Georgia A POEM FROM DEL

To the editor:

I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for the article about Flossie's Flophouse. I enjoyed reading it and thought it was very well done. Del used to tell stories about staying there when he first arrived on Nantucket back in the '60s. You really gave flesh and reality to my sketchy idea of Flossie's Flophouse. I thank you again for that great article.

Here is a Del Wynn poem featuring Flossie.

EVOLUTION Longhaired, red beard, hippie freak. Buckskin, bells and sandaled feet, Stepped ashore at twenty-three Thirsty for adventure.

"Flossie's Flophouse" India Street, rooms to rent, $15 a week. The simple life was mine to seek In the spring of "68".

The Bosun's Locker, Main Street bar, Folks would come from near and far. All were welcomed without question By the owner, name was Preston, Friend to one and all.

That first summer I tried my best To see the north, south, east and west And all places in between Of the most beautiful island I'd ever seen I now called Home.

Sincerely,

- M. J. Wynn Questions company's motives

To the editor:

There are 43,000 Stop & Shop workers throughout New England; including 6,500 in Massachusetts who are presently mired in difficult negotiations with their employer. These workers are in the fight of their lives to maintain quality, affordable heath care, fair wages and to save their pension plan from destruction.

The loyal workers at Stop & Shop are the reason why Stop & Shop is number one in market share in Massachusetts as well as the rest of New England. They have made sacrifices in the past to assure that Stop & Shop continues to be profitable.

Despite their hard work, Stop & Shop seems intent on turning its back on the very workers to whom it owes its success. The Grocery Giant ran ads in last weekend's papers in an attempt to recruit replacement workers in the event of a strike.

Stop & Shop also, in the middle of negotiations, cut back store hours and decided to eliminate service employees in the florist and seafood departments by making them self-serve departments. Stop & Shop workers in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts have already received unanimous strike votes from their membership due to the company's proposal.

Stop & Shop owes it to its workers and its customers to engage in real negotiations. Stop & Shop workers are among the most productive workers in the industry. They have shouldered the burden of the company's Enron-like accounting problems caused by its European parent company, Ahold.

Local 328 has always been Massachusetts' neighborhood union. More Massachusetts residents either are presently or have been members of Local 328 more than any other union in the state.

We are prepared to fight for our good jobs in our communities. Stop & Shop should think twice before turning its back on its loyal work force.

Sincerely,

- David P. Fleming

President UFCW Local 328 JUDGE OFFERS THANKS

To the editor:

It has been my honor and privilege to serve the Nantucket community as First Justice for the past sixteen years. I am also honored to be selected to serve as First Justice of the Barnstable Court. While

am excited about the opportunity to serve in my home community, I am sad to leave the Nantucket Court where I have been involved for over 30 years, as an Assistant District Attorney and as First Justice.

I want to publicly thank the staff at the Nantucket Court for their professional competency and dedication to the Court. Clerk Magistrate Roxanne Viera and her staff, Jennifer Larrabee and Darlene Hull, have worked under less than adequate physical facilities and have done an outstanding job. Chief Probation Officer Tom Jekanowski is a dedicated professional who with his staff, Linda Aquiar, has maintained the highest standards of service to the Court and to the people of Nantucket.

I want to thank and congratulate Judge Joseph Macy who will serve as your acting First Justice. Judge Macy is an outstanding Jurist who has presided at numerous sessions at Nantucket Court over the years and has been a great asset to myself and this Court. I know he will serve you well.

I would like to thank the people of Nantucket for the many kindnesses extended to me as I have traveled to and from this Community over the years.

As your First Justice I have always strived to serve the cause of Justice for everyone in the community. I have dedicated myself to applying the law as I see it and the facts as they are presented to me. I have traveled the District Courts of Southern Massachusetts for twenty years and at one of the courts copied the following quote which I carry with me and expresses my feelings at this time:

"Judges seek neither thanks nor applause. They have a job to do, and they do it, day in and day out, without complaint, grateful for the honor of being able to do this important public work. All they ask is public understanding of how difficult it is to sit in judgement of their fellow human beings in a complicated and imperfect world."

Nantucket is a special place and I have been proud to be a part of it and I do hope to return from time to time as a visiting justice.

- W. James O'Neill

RETHINKING HARBOR PLAN

The following letter was originally sent to the Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Plan Review Committee and is reprinted here at the author's request.

Dear commissioners:

The proposed Harbor Action Plan is an ambitious undertaking, for which I applaud you; it represents a lot of work. But I do not believe it is ready to become official town policy.

This Action Plan will affect all of us, every day, through the choices and facilities it will deny us, the regulations and bureaucracy it will ask us to submit to, and the taxes and fees it will require us to pay.

I believe the Action Plan concerns itself with many problems that are not really problems. For instance: our water is clean (as Chapter 2 reports). We all know this because if it were dirty, people would not swim in it, fish would not live in it, and America's billionaires would not be fighting to build homes next to it.

The Action Plan would better concern itself with our real problems, for instance: Where can I keep my boat up? We need more harbor, not less. Banning docks will not help. We need an Action Plan that creates more harbor, more docks.

The Action Plan is a long and complex document: 157 pages, 8 Appendices, 4 chapters of technical text, resulting in 47 "issues," 8 major "goals," 28 "objectives" and 97 "recommendations." In a letter I cannot go into every detail but

I ask you to consider a few questions:

+ Why should we want to change the traditional look of the waterfront? Why get rid of the boathouses and other quaint buildings to industrialize the place?

+ Why encourage government takeover of the docks? Will a government bureaucracy run the waterfront better than individual proprietors?

+ Should we favor certain special interests over the rest of us? Should we promote fishing over sailing?

+ Is it wise for the town to add more red tape to things already micromanaged by the state and federal governments. Should the town redefine for the state, "water-dependency?" Rewrite the building codes? Re-adjudicate "riparian rights?"

+ Should we undertake grand schemes without an understanding of their need or consequence? Should we be banning fertilizers, destroying pond flora and chasing away wildfowl without knowing why? Or whether it will do good?

+ The town's waterfront social clubs provide more people harbor access, in less space, than any other use. Why make them against public policy?

+ Why should we try to force our natural environment into some new engineered form?. Do we really need to exterminate species that have been here longer than we to achieve some utopian scheme? Will it work? Do we want to pay the cost? Will there be unforeseen consequences?

+ Finally, why can't our children feed the ducks? Isn't this what Nantucket is all about?

Nantucket was created by a free, industrious people. They worked together and respected the rights of their neighbors. In the 1880s, before the age of modern machinery, they created the Jetties, making the harbor useable at low tide and doubling its size.

Imagine what we could do today.

Sincerely,

- Alfred Sanford

MURRAYS THANK ISLAND

To the editor:

The family of Philip C. Murray wishes to thank Dr. Diane Pearl, the staff and nurses at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, the caregivers, and the EMTs on the ambulance for the kind and loving care given to our husband and father during the last days of his life.

We are grateful and overwhelmed by the response of friends and the entire community.

- Elizabeth, Trish, Diana, John,

Andrew, Matthieu, Michael, Lauren, Caroline and Gregory