Letters

We were very excited about being present for the discussion with Shinnecock leaders and some of our local Southampton leaders about the economic future of the Shinnecock people [Express Sessions event, March 11].

It was, however, somewhere between disappointing and enraging to see less support than what is needed to help the nation lift itself out of poverty. These “citizens of Southampton” must be offered the same level of opportunity for self-sufficiency and advancement than is taken for granted by the white students who make up the large majority of the schools out here in the Hamptons.

Where is the support for their proposed economic enterprises, including the casino and the wellness and medical marijuana center? Why isn’t the town, which continually voices great concern about any of its citizens living in poverty, offering to do whatever it can to put its economic power behind these ventures, such as moving to reopen a stop on the Long Island Rail Road near the college, and widening the road as needed to ease the traffic?

The Shinnecock have been more than patient in awaiting responses to their ideas over the years that will move the tribe ahead economically. They are also making a great effort to work in collaboration with the surrounding community as they move their projects forward.

But their openheartedness needs to be met with the same from the town. There are always ways of getting projects funded when the town gets behind them. The least we can do is make sure the Shinnecock are offered that same support as private investors, since we are living on the very land we stole from them and have gotten away with not paying any rent for the past 400 years.

Let’s make the changes necessary to work in a collaborative way with these original inhabitants of the lands upon which we live.

Let’s support our neighbors to make sure that no Shinnecock child or elder goes hungry, no teenager is without the resources to go to college or move ahead in whatever ways our thousands of white middle- and upper-class children are encouraged to do.

Come on, people — let’s evolve and reach out with some of the great wealth that exists out here.

Tabutne.

Heidi and Tom Oleszczuk

Sag Harbor