Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 69

Letters Help Wanted Regarding Marilyn Kuzma's letter, "The Right to Human Dignity" (Sept. 13): Ms. Kuzma was outraged at conditions in the Bay Shore Social Services' office. It would seem from her letter that the great majority of us are insensitive monsters who laugh and joke as desperate people grovel on filthy floors. As a taxpayer and one who has first hand knowledge of the situation in Bay Shore, I'm angry, and I want my turn "to sound off," as she puts it.

Firstly, most of us involved in initial client contact are not caseworkers; we are social welfare examiners, receptionists and clerks. We have nothing to do with casework. We try to determine if a family is eligible for money that comes out of all our pockets. We work under enormous pressure as we are too few people to do the job, and we are very well aware that what we do (or don't do) has a crucial impact on the entire population of Suffolk County. We live in "Ulcerville" every day.

The client only has to suffer for a short while. Secondly, we workers have a "right to human dignity" also. This is all too often denied us by the persons we serve. The abuse, both verbal and sometimes physical, the workers are subject to for reasons beyond their control is unreal. They get high marks in the humanity column for just showing up at work.

What it boils down to is that we simply don't have sufficient staff to both service the people who ask for help, and protect the taxpayer. Quality suffers on both ends. We are harried and abused by everyone. If we dared become as emotionally involved as Ms. Kuzma feels we should, we would be paralyzed and unable to serve anyone's interest.

Neither. do we have physical space to remove ourselves from the public while taking our breaks or eating our lunch. Many of us work through both without pay. Ms. Kuzma should address herself to the County Legislature.

We would be glad to assist her. James McGrath Lake Grove Ouch, That Hurt! Many times I am pleased and astonished by the clever brilliance of your political cartoonist Tom Darcy. However, today's (Sept. 12) view (of a ransom note to Mr. and Mrs.

John Q. Public) was one that was all too dismaying. I am a teacher and taxpayer so the "ransom" note hit on two levels. I live in the school district with the highest tax rate in Suffolk County. Although my salary has more than doubled in the eight years I have been teaching, you may rest assured that like all others of the middle-class public am living no better now than eight years ago.

My boys and. I eat nutritionally, if not excitingly, on chicken, eggs and occasional hamburger. Entertainment funds include an occasional drive-in movie (the boys go free) and the local beach. Although my education is far beyond the average populace (30 credits beyond my master's degree), I am in no way compensated as one would be in industry. Policemen, firemen and sanitation men make more than teachers.

The majority of teachers are dedicated individuals- sensitive human beings who often have given up more lucrative careers to deal with children. It takes a special person to work with and be responsible for the education and welfare of young minds. The only way to achieve any unity, to keep ourselves on a par with the surrounding blue-collar workers, was to unify. The more militant aspects of teacher's unions probably do not reflect the feelings of most teachers. However, we must eat, in order to teach, in order to be able to pay our own taxes so our own children can learn and so we can survive.

Teachers do not use children as weapons. Don't you see that we are all caught up in the same vicious cycle? Nancy Allen Port Jefferson Station Boy, that Tom Darcy really knows how to hurt! Ransom, indeed! neglects to mention that the teachers paid the ransom: two days' pay for every day we stayed out. That's the price we paid for standing up for what we believed in. The economics of the situation should be clear to even the most simple-minded. Teachers are the same victims of the inflationary spiral as other workers.

Va Variations ons on a Concert I would like to thank you for your editorial, and other forms of booze were downed without "A Different Kind of Rock Scene" (Sept. 11), the slightest fear of being caught. concerning the rock concert at Roosevelt Race- If you have to be stoned or bombed to enjoy a way. Unfortunately it seems that the only time concert what does that say for the talent of the the public hears about a rock concert is when performers or the ability of the listeners to enjoy some sort of trouble took place at it. something while having all their senses intact? Hopefully your editorial has changed the After all, it is quite possible to get high on just minds of some people who believe that all rock the music, or the company you're with, without concerts are bad.

It is true that some of them do interference from drugs or alcohol. not turn out well, but the majority of all rock con- Debra Aanonsen certs provide good fun and entertainment for the Great Neck fans. Paul M. Hadella Regarding the article, "The Superfecta: MuPatchogue sic, People, Peace" (Sept. 9): I am appalled and disgusted by the filthy habits of people who atRegarding the Summersault '74 concert re- tend rock concerts.

These people are the worst ofcently held at Roosevelt Raceway: There were fenders of litter-bugging I've ever seen. two main faults. One was the sickening smell of Why are they permitted to leave the premises pot constantly permeating the air; the other was and not be held responsible for picking up the esthat the checking of coolers and cases for beer timated 35 tons of garbage left behind? If trash and other alcoholic beverages was not too baskets are not available why not? Does the strongly enforced. price of the ticket include the right to dump deBoth my younger sister and -I moved four bris all over? times in an attempt either to see, hear or sit, Breaking the dumping and littering law is a without success. If you did one, you were without punishable offense, is it not? Or does it just apply the other two.

to those over 30? Every place we went we saw people making Fran Goldman joints, smoking them or selling acid. Beer, wine East Northport None of us are to blame. I have to pay more for the services of the people I employ: electricians, carpenters, domestic help, etc. I pay or do without. I don't threaten them with fines or jail sentences if they refuse to accept last year's going rate.

Can anyone honestly believe the teachers are getting rich on their (net 2.2 per cent) increase? In reality, they are too busy filling out applications for loans to meet overdue bills to spend the "filthy lucre." Tom Darcy, you owe us an apology! Norma Shapiro North Merrick Ed. note: Tom Darcy comments: "I'm certainly not against teachers or the teachers' union, just against strikes when binding arbitration can be agreed to." A Sexist Ad? Everytime I turn a Newsday page I am confronted with house ads about your affirmative action policy, patting yourself on the back because you don't discriminate against employes because of race, creed, color or sex. I was almost convinced you were sincere when today a full page house ad with a 72-point head proclaimed: "The newspaper reader: he may be the toughest customer in the world." I resent your ad. I am a newspaper reader. I am a woman.

Marian Leifsen Coram Enough of Surveys Regarding the article, "Questions for Aged" (Part II, Sept. 10): It is incredible and absurd that almost $500,000 of our federal tax money and $70,000 of our county tax money is currently being spent for a county-wide survey to "determine the effectiveness of existing services to the elderly and the gaps that may need filling." Surely, we can still recall the millions of tax dollars expended by the 1971 White House Conference on Aging and the questionnaires Nassau County senior citizens completed at that time. Two thick volumes were published after the conference in 1972 and the recommendations in these volumes for needed services, housing, transportation, etc. must still be valid in Nassau County today. The needs are known and have been known for a long time.

I would recommend that Nassau County residents who receive the questionaires return them unanswered and instead demand that the $600,000 being spent on another survey be used to immediately implement the recommendations which came out cf the 1971 White House Conference such as: home aid for seniors to make it possible for them to continue living independently within their own homes; minibus transportation for the elderly who, often on discharge from hospitals require continuing care at hospitals, doctors' offices and therapists (this would keep them out of nursing homes); community aides in the Department of Senior Citizen Affairs who would seek out living arrangements for the desperate elderly who cannot afford Nassau County's rising rents, while at the same time they take action to bring about suitable senior citizens' housing at reasonable rents. Instead, what do we get? Another survey, another report, and another publicity release for Nassau County's Department of Senior Citizen Affairs. Ruth Ferman Rockville Centre Inequity Is No Surprise Regarding Leo Furman's letter (Sept. 9) describing his difficulties with the New York State bureaucracy: He tells us that as a retiree from a state job he receives no pension benefits as a teacher these last five years and that he has been harassed as well. This comes as no surprise.

It is not the first time we learn of some new inequity in the land. At the time that Leo Furman wrote to Newsday he could not have known that President Ford was about to grant pardon to our former leader, a pardon which most certainly would not have been offered the "common man." What is Furman to think? I am a high school teacher and am convinced that there exists- no more important work than helping young people to grow and to establish themselves as thinking, critical persons. Furman must have felt similarly if he moved to a teaching career at age 55. Surely his job, pension and other benefits must remain secure. We are giving the young a poor example by providing different standards for people in high and lower places, for the privileged and the "common man." Let's stop it now before our youth become further discouraged, perhaps even angry.

Olga Dufour Port Washington Letters should be kept brief and are subject to condensation. Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available, as well as affiliation indicating special interest in a subject. Anonymous letters are not printed. Address Letters Editor, Newsday, 550 Stewart Garden City, N.Y. 11530..