In response to Katherine Aliferis' Letter to the Editor, I reiterate, "Just which part of the word 'illegal' don't those who unlawfully create and rent out apartments in single family homes understand?"

Ms. Aliferis suggests that enforcement of laws which regulate accessory apartments is an infringement of our personal liberties. Indeed it is, much in the same way that laws which regulate our speed on public roadways, prohibit the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to minors, and proscribe the establishment of brothels and gun shops in our basements, restrict those cherished "individual freedoms."

We are, after all, a nation of laws, most of which restrict our activities - and some of which tell us how we can and cannot utilize our property, both real and personal. I cringe to imagine a lawless, "anything goes" society, unregulated and unrestrained, where everyone is "free" to do what they will - with their property and otherwise.

"Enforcer?" No. That's the function of government. To maintain the peace and to assure that our laws (even the ones we may not like) are upheld. "Crusader?" You bet! We are all seized with an obligation, not only to the law, but to our communities, where maintaining a suburban quality of life within the bounds of the law is everybody's business.

The free alienation of property is a right protected by the highest law in the land. It is, to be sure, an essential freedom to be preserved. The right to undermine community, to establish a business enterprise while evading taxes, to create a dangerous environment for families, to overburden our schools, and to saddle our neighbors with the negative accoutrements that illegal rentals bring with them is not guaranteed. In fact, it is, as the law now stands, with rare exception, prohibited.

As a community advocate, I believe that we all have a responsibility to work toward preserving basic freedoms - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness among them. I suggest, rather than to preach, that we do a disservice to community, and cause a diminution of those freedoms, when we permit and condone the excesses and abuses produced by unlawful accessory apartments.

We must all be concerned about our freedoms, wary of those who, under color of legitimacy, would curtail personal liberties in the name of the common good. At the same time, we should not - we must not - fall prey to those who, for personal gain without consideration for the rights of others, would dictate our role as citizens, as neighbors, as participants in the very processes that keep us free, while themselves flaunting the law and exercising little regard for the freedoms we so revere.

Seth D. Bykofsky

West Hempstead