Suffolk County Police Second Squad detectives are investigating the robbery of an East Northport doughnut shop in the early morning hours Dec. 2.
A man, police said armed with a large kitchen knife, entered Dunkin Donuts on Larkfield Road, jumped over the counter and stole cash from the register at 12:23 a.m. The employee who was behind the counter at the time was not injured.
The suspect was described as white or Hispanic, approximately six feet tall wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and a mask. He fled on foot to a waiting vehicle.
The investigation is ongoing. Detectives are asking anyone with information on this robbery to call the Second Squad at 631-854-8252or anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
Suffolk County Police Second Squad detectives are investigating a motor vehicle crash that seriously injured a pedestrian in Greenlawn Dec. 1.
Police said a 63-year-old man was attempting to cross Clay Pitts Road when a 2012 Honda Odyssey traveling east at about 9 p.m struck him.
The pedestrian, whose identify is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment of serious injuries. The driver of the Honda, Gigi Franklin, 54, of Greenlawn, was not injured.
The vehicle was impounded for a safety check and the investigation is ongoing. Detectives are asking anyone with information about the incident to call the Second Squad at 631-854-8252.
Parents listen to learn ways to discuss depression and suicide prevention with their kids during a seminar at Shoreham Wading River High School Nov. 30. Photo by Kevin Redding
“We need to change the way we think about mental health and teen depression .. .and we can start in our homes by keeping an open and honest communication and letting our kids know that it’s okay to say that they’re not okay.”
Ann Morrison, Long Island director for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, addresses parents in the Shoreham Wading River school district during a seminar Nov. 30. Photo by Kevin Redding
That’s what Ann Morrison, Long Island director for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, told an audience of parents at a seminar at Shoreham-Wading River High School Nov. 30, to help identify warning signs and risk factors for suicide in teens, understand the role of treatment in reducing risk and open a dialogue with their children about the topic.
The school district was impacted by two separate incidents of suicide in October and November. Both were high school freshmen. The school’s administration has been doing all it can to raise awareness and education for both students and parents alike ever since.
The AFSP gives different versions of the seminar throughout the country. Morrison’s presentation spoke specifically to parents. Those in attendance said it was much needed.
“It’s important with all the things that have been going on here,” Thomas McClintock said. “I know they wanted to address it with the children, but it’s good for the parents too, because a lot of us are in the dark on this type of thing. It’s not something you expect or anticipate in your own child.”
Morrison explained suicide has become the second leading cause of death among youth between the ages 10 and 24 in the U.S. after accidental injuries and yet, she said, “we aren’t really talking about it.”
“That’s where a lot of the issue is,” Morrison said. “We need to be more comfortable talking about one of the leading causes of death and why this is happening and how we can prevent it. This isn’t meant to frighten anybody, but to let you know the scope of the problem.”
According to the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor health risk behaviors that contribute to causes of death for teens, 17 percent of high school students reported having seriously considered attempting suicide in the previous year — 13.6 percent reported having made a plan for a suicide attempt in the previous year, and eight percent reported having attempted suicide one or more times in the last year.
“We need to be more comfortable talking about one of the leading causes of death and why this is happening and how we can prevent it. This isn’t meant to frighten anybody, but to let you know the scope of the problem.”
— Ann Morrison
Morrison said suicide is a mental health issue and marginally preventable.
The thought comes about when multiple factors come together, so it’s not related to just one cause, but underlying risk signals to look out for in teens are out-of-character bouts of depression, anxiety, aggression and agitation.
She said parents must act if they notice drastic changes in their children’s behavior, which might include withdrawal from activities they normally enjoy, isolation from friends or social media, changes in sleep patterns and appetite, unexplained rage, or giving away their prized possessions — something that commonly happens when someone is preparing to commit suicide.
“It can be very easy sometimes to mistake mental health symptoms for typical adolescent behaviors,” she said.
Also listen for statements like “I should go kill myself,” “I have no reason to live” and “everybody would be better off without me.”
Morrison stressed to the parents the key to helping prevent suicide among teens is to have a strong and supportive home, where it’s okay to reach out for help.
“You have to be a role model and let them know that in your home, it’s okay for open communication no matter what it is that they want to talk about,” she said. “We need to not be afraid to reach out and ask them if they’re okay. … Make sure you talk to them in private, [and] not at the dinner table, in front of siblings or handled very nonchalantly. Listen to their story, get them comfortable to talk to you, express care and concern. Don’t dismiss their feelings. What we think is a small problem to them might be a bigger problem in their mind.”
Debra Caputo, counselor at the Long Island Crisis Center, addresses parents in the Shoreham Wading River school district during a seminar Nov. 30. Photo by Kevin Redding
Debra Caputo, who works as a counselor at the Long Island Crisis Center, echoed the importance of listening. As someone who answers crisis calls on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, she said just simply listening to someone wrestling with mental health issues is helpful to them.
“When people call, we’re basically just listening and validating their feelings,” she said. “What they’re feeling is real. If we listen non-judgmentally and understand what they’re going through, it can make a world of difference. We want to reassure them they’re not alone and help is available.”
Morrison said that if there’s a true feeling that a child may be at risk or having suicidal thoughts, it’s okay to directly ask them if they are.
“It’s a scary question to ask or think about asking, but we know that when we ask, it opens that conversation,” Morrison said. “And should a child actually have those thoughts, in most cases, they’re going to feel comfortable telling you. Thank them for having the courage to talk to you and contact a mental health professional for an evaluation. Take it seriously. Don’t wait to act. Be calm. Listen to them.”
If you or your child is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The hotline is available 24 hours a day.
For more information about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and their services, visit afsp.org.
Setauket residents continue a Renaissance Technologies tradition
Stony Brook Cancer Center. File photo
Generosity, particularly towards Stony Brook University, runs in the family at Renaissance Technologies.
Lalit Bahl, a veteran of the hedge fund, and his wife Kavita, who are Setauket residents, recently agreed to donate $10 million to a new translational research program that will complement Stony Brook’s effort to understand and conquer cancer. The financial gift, which will support a metabolomics and imaging center that will provide individualized cancer care, comes two years after the Bahls donated $3.5 million to a similar effort.
Bahl said he was following a long-established tradition.
“Many of my colleagues at Renaissance have donated significant amounts to Stony Brook and in particular the medical side over the years,” Bahl said. “I’ve heard from some of them about some of the projects that they have been involved in. I’m sure that played some part in my decision to make this donation.”
Another compelling factor in that decision, Bahl said, was the prevalence of cancer in his family.
Jim Simons, former chairman of the Mathematics Department at Stony Brook, founded Renaissance Technologies, bringing in a range of expertise to understand and predict movements in the stock market. Simons and his wife Marilyn have made significant contributions to Stony Brook that have helped bring in talented staff.
Indeed, in 2012 the school recruited distinguished scientists Yusuf Hannun, the director of the Cancer Center and Lina Obeid, the dean for research and professor of medicine. Hannun and Obeid, with the support of other senior faculty in the Cancer Center, will help oversee the creation of an advanced metabolomics and imaging center in the new Medical and Research Translation building when it opens in 2018.
Lalit and Kavita Bahl pledge $10 million to new cancer research program. Photo from Stony Brook University
“We have high-powered, brilliant investigations in cancer medicine,” Hannun said. “This creates the capability that will allow them to take their work to the next level, in developing new therapeutics as well as in imaging studies.”
The new facilities include a cyclotron, which is used to create novel tracer molecules for PET scanning, hot labs that produce radioactive tracers for the cyclotron, two PET scanners and research labs.
Imaging will enable doctors to monitor patients, in some cases without excising a tissue sample or performing surgery.
The imaging will “distinguish between a tumor [that] is necrotic and dying [and one] that’s metabolically active,” said Obeid. That will help track and monitor the patient’s response to various medicines and chemotherapy in a noninvasive way.
Metabolomics is the study of the small molecules or metabolites that help cells function. Some of those metabolites provide energy while others could act as signaling molecules, and still others could be involved in other structural or functional effects.
In addition to new equipment, Stony Brook will add new scientists to its fight against cancer. During the first phase, the school will recruit an oncological imaging researcher, a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization researcher and a magnetic resonance spectroscopy researcher. In the second phase, Stony Brook will hire a new scientist in experimental therapeutics.
Ken Kaushansky, the dean of the School of Medicine, appreciates the progress the school is making in cancer research and is energized by the combination of philanthropic gifts and investments from the university.
“There’s something remarkably catalytic about a brand new building,” Kaushansky said. He said he’s had regular discussions with people who want an opportunity to work in the new facility.
While the broader goal is, and continues to be, to make important discoveries that will help in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, Kaushansky reiterated the school’s desire to earn a National Cancer Institute designation. This designation, which has been given to 69 institutions throughout the United States, raises its visibility and increases the opportunities to become part of research initiatives, while it also improves the chances that an individual scientist will obtain research funding from the National Cancer Institute, according to that organization’s web site.
“We have far surpassed the threshold of cancer research needed to acquire an NCI designation,” Kaushanksy said, which he attributes to Hannun’s efforts. Stony Brook is “now focusing on building up our clinical research prowess. That’s the second major component. I like our chances.”
The next area Stony Brook hopes to build is cardiovascular imaging, Kaushansky said.
“We have some remarkable cardiovascular surgeons and some terrific cardiovascular biologists,” Kaushansky said. “We need some outstanding cardiovascular imagers to work with [them]. We can use the incredible tools that we are building to do to cardiovascular medicine what we are doing to cancer.”
I was honored to be named a Person of the Year by Times Beacon Record News Media for 2015.
While I was truly honored, I was more excited at the prospect of getting the word out about the work I do with my group: North Shore Drug Awareness.
After losing my son to an accidental overdose in 2012, I was given a voice I chose to use to help other families who are struggling with addiction — to share my failures and successes, and the resources I have found and acquired through networking.
The absolute most poignant part of this story is that my story was published. The original story — in which I was named a person of the year — was seen by a woman who recognized me in my photo that accompanied the article as a client in her accounting office. She immediately shared the story with her best friend — a friend who desperately needed help with her addicted children.
A message I received from her changed a life. Linda Cirone was absolutely paralyzed by her children’s addictions. Not only did she enable her adult children, but she hid in shame. She could barely function or participate in her own life, and in her message in my Facebook inbox, she used that key word — Help.
Tracey Farrell with Linda Cirone at TBR News Media’s honorary dinner. Photo from Tracey Farrell
I brought her with me to the honorary men and women of the year dinner, because her story of how she reached out to me was too important not to share. The power of that article could potentially save a life. And it did … her own.
This past year has been a roller coaster of change for her.
She chose to finally open up and share beyond the confines of her best friend and family members who would listen. She reached out through social media to the different parent groups that she learned of and began to realize she was so not alone. She began to share her story, which, like mine, has helped others.
Her children are still struggling, and while one is improving, Linda has grown in her own recovery. Yes, her own.
Addiction is a family disease and, as a parent, you too must learn to cope, or you will lose yourself in the process. She has learned to no longer enable like she did in the past. She has also followed a dream. She moved away from her children to the warmth of Florida, and now has a lovely condo on a small waterway. While she still feels the pull of her children’s addictions, she has also started to feel some freedom. Freedom to feel the sunshine, enjoy a nice day out with friends and family she has near her. This was not even an option to her a year ago — just a dream.
While her son was in Florida after we came up with a plan for him to seek outside-of-state rehabilitation, she met a woman who is the guardian angel for parents who send their kids to Florida for rehab.
The other day, as I opened my Facebook feed, I saw a post.
Linda checked in to the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County with that angel I spoke of. She attended her first task force meeting to help fight for positive changes in addiction services and housing in that area.
She has grown exponentially over this past year. She needed to. She was sick of hiding, but didn’t know where to look for help. And she found it. All because of an article in a local newspaper.
Tracey Farrell, previously Tracey Budd, is a Rocky Point resident who, since her son’s passing, educates others on drug abuse and assists in finding help for those who are struggling or know someone who is struggling with addiction. She is the founder of North Shore Drug Awareness Advocates and also a 2015 TBR Person of the Year.
Stony Brook Univeristy surgeon James Vosswinkel, left, is recognized prior to the Dec. 5 New York Jets game at Metlife Stadium. Photo from Melissa Weir
A lifelong New York Jets fan and Stony Brook University Hospital surgeon had the chance to take the field with the team.
The Suffolk County Police Department showed its gratitude to SBU Hospital Chief Trauma Surgeon Dr. James Vosswinkel at a surprise press conference at the hospital Nov. 29, with a little help from the Jets.
Vosswinkel, a Jets fan who saved the lives of two SCPD officers critically injured in the line of duty, said he was “completely overwhelmed” to learn that he and 20 members of his staff were to be honored at the Jets’ Annual First Responder Appreciation Night at Metlife Stadium before the game Monday, Dec. 5.
“I don’t think either one of us would be standing here today as full capacity police officers if it wasn’t for the doctor and his care.”
— Nicholas Guerrero
SCPD Commissioner Tim Sini and Military & First Responder Liaison for the team, Steve Castleton, along with members of the police department and staff from the hospital, were present to announce the news to the trauma surgeon.
Alongside members of police and fire departments from across the tri-state area including the SCPD, NYPD and FDNY, Vosswinkel served as honorary team captain and helped with the coin toss before the Jets squared off against the Indianapolis Colts on “Monday Night Football.” Unfortunately the Jets were defeated by a 41-10 final score.
Vosswinkel said the honor is as much about the efforts of the hospital as it is about him.
“I may be the guy that’s most visible right now, but this is not about me,” Vosswinkel said. “This is about Stony Brook. Stony Brook cares. It excels in so many areas. It’s a true team here that truly cares about their patients. They put the extra time in; we go out to the community to try to prevent trauma. Everybody deserves credit here. We’re very happy when our patients do well.”
L. Reuven Pasternak, chief executive officer at the hospital, said at the press conference trauma is the leading cause of death for all Americans before age 45 and, in terms of trauma care, every second counts.
Vosswinkel leads the hospital’s trauma program, which is the only Regional Level 1 trauma center for Suffolk County, according to the New York State Department of Health. The center has been recognized as the top-ranked center in the care of pedestrian trauma and has some of the highest survival rates anywhere in the nation and state.
The two SCPD officers are on their feet again thanks to the emergency surgery done by Vosswinkel. Mark Collins and Nicholas Guerrero made sure their surgeon was invited to the event as they wanted to do something special as a thanks for giving them a second chance at life.
“I don’t think either one of us would be standing here today as full capacity police officers if it wasn’t for the doctor and his care,” Guerrero said.
Collins said he and Guerrero are thankful for each day they wake up.
Guerrero, a four-year veteran of the SCPD, was under Vosswinkel’s care for weeks in a medically induced coma after suffering a critical head injury when a hit-and-run driver in Huntington struck him in September 2014.
According to Vosswinkel at the time of the officer’s discharge from the hospital, Guerrero had “only a one in three chances of surviving.” Collins, a member of SCPD’s gang unit and a 12-year veteran, was rushed to the hospital in March 2015 after he was shot in the neck and hip while pursuing a suspect in Huntington. He was discharged only four days after the shooting occurred.
If it wasn’t for the immediate action of Vosswinkel and his team, the injuries could have been fatal.
Nicholas Guerrero, left, and Mark Collins, right, honor James Vosswinkel, who performed life-saving surgery on each of the police officers, at a surprise press conference Nov. 29. Photo by Kevin Redding
According to Sini, the partnership between the SCPD and SBU Hospital is integral to the law enforcement mission. He said the department relies on the hospital in the wake of unfortunate circumstances, and many officers wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for “the man sitting to my left,” referring to Vosswinkel.
“We call him Voss and he’s part of our family,” Sini said. “You’ve saved families from extreme tragedy; you’ve saved this department from extreme tragedy; and you’ve allowed two officers to continue to serve the department. We can’t thank you enough for that. What we can do is do our best to express our gratitude. But from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the SCPD and on behalf of Suffolk County, thank you very much.”
Castleton was introduced to make the big announcement, which Sini referred to as a small token of appreciation.
Castleton said when the announcement was being planned, he heard some “crazy” stories about Vosswinkel, like he often wears a Jets shirt under his scrubs and even repainted his office in the team’s colors. He spoke on behalf of the Jets organization and said it was extremely important to recognize medical staff.
“A lot of people forget that doctors and nurses are first responders … it’s not just policemen, EMTs, and paramedics,” Castleton said.
According to Castleton, the Jets players were insistent that members of the surgeon’s staff join them in running out of the stadium tunnel before the start of the game.
Jackie Brown sends the ball up the field. Photo by Carla Sciara
By Desirée Keegan
The relationship between a star player and a coach can sometimes be complicated, but when they’re immediate family members, a special bond is needed to achieve success.
Jackie Brown’s athletic career has been unique — her mother Deb Brown has been coaching her for five years in both field hockey and softball at Port Jefferson high school, and was her basketball coach for two years. Despite having her mother as coach, playing time and accolades were never handed to her.
Jackie Brown was Long Island’s leading goal scorer, and led in overall points this season. Photo by Carla Sciara
“If anything, she’s probably had to work even harder with me being her coach,” Deb Brown said. “I hold her to a higher standard, and I put more pressure on her than anyone else. For instance, in practice, she does the most push-ups.”
Brown recalled a game when her daughter had a one-on-one with a goalkeeper and she told her daughter to do one move, but she did another. “I’m yelling at her, and that’s when the parent in me comes out,” she said. “As beautiful as it was, the ball did not go in.”
Jackie Brown said the constant push has aided her success in sports, especially field hockey.
“It’s definitely interesting,” she said of their relationship, laughing. “Sometimes I tried to step over her and she puts me in my place, but what’s great is we got to talk about all of the games afterward whether it’s me saying something bad or her giving me something to work on. She teaches me new things every year.”
Brown first picked up a field hockey stick at 6 years old. From there, she became involved in clinics and played for East End Field Hockey travel team. She decided to try clinics in basketball and softball, too, and joined the Long Island Bandits fast-pitch travel softball team.
“Believe it or not I thought she would gear toward softball,” Deb Brown said. “But she just loved field hockey so much. It’s been fun watching her grow as a player.”
Jackie Brown said field hockey ran in her blood thanks to regular visits as a young girl to the field with her mother, who has been coaching at Port Jefferson for 27 years. She said the style of the sport felt like a fit for her.
“It wasn’t the sport everyone else was playing, and I liked how you had to move the ball a certain way and work with your teammates,” Jackie Brown said. “A lot I learned from field hockey, like field position and power, also helped me play softball and basketball.”
Speaking of power, the midfielder and forward has a strong shot, along with the knowledge of nuances needed to score, which helped her become Long Island’s leading goal scorer and leader in overall points this season.
Jackie Brown is hoisted up by the 2007 Royals field hockey team following the Long Island championship. Photo from Nancy Gallagher
“Besides just having a good shot — a hard hit and accurate — her ability to read the defense and the goalkeeper makes it much easier for her to get around them and beat them,” Port Jefferson assistant coach Nancy Gallagher said.
Gallagher is also in a special position. She played for Deb Brown and graduated from Port Jefferson in 2010. She first met Jackie when the coach’s daughter would come to games when Gallagher was a player. The assistant coach remembered the team hoisting her up on their shoulders following big wins, and the girls would teach her the tricks of the trade.
“She’d practice, and I’d tell her to do it 100 times in a row if she wanted to get better, and she was so eager to learn that she’d sit there on the sidelines doing it 100 times in a row,” Gallagher said. “She’s the ideal player to coach because not only does she have the athletic ability to pick up skills quickly, but she’s also willing to put in the time and energy to make it an instinctive part of her play.”
Gallagher said the athlete not only knows the skills, but she understands what skills are used when and why, and then how to put them to use.
Adelphi University field hockey head coach Gloria O’Connor saw each attribute Jackie Brown possesses — even the field hockey standout’s recent 6-inch growth spurt.
“Jackie has great size and feel for the game,” O’Connor said. “She is a daughter of a coach, and therefore knows the game of field hockey from a whole different perspective. She competes hard, has passion and desire and is always putting in extra practice time. She demonstrates the ability of taking care of business both on and off the field.”
The feeling of knowing the team wanted her, and the fact that Adelphi felt like a “home away from home,” led Brown to sign a letter of intent this November to play with the Panthers.
As a member of three high school teams, vice president of the Student Organization, co-president of the Varsity Club and a member of the Yearbook Club and National Honor Society, Brown knows what it means to put in the time to improve.
Jackie Brown is surrounded by her family as she signs her letter of intent to play field hockey for Adelphi University. Photo from Port Jefferson school district
“It’s a lot to juggle when I go from one practice to the other, and then come home and do homework before going to another practice, but it’s manageable,” she said. “I learned how to be a leader on the field, work with my teammates and develop a strong work ethic.”
As Brown departs for college in 2017, her mother said she too may be hanging up her whistle at Port Jefferson. The head coach will receive a coach of the year award during the Suffolk County awards dinner, while her daughter will receive her second All-State honor and an All-Tournament nod following the No. 2-seeded Royals’ appearance in the Class C county finals.
Gallagher said the recognitions are well deserved, especially for her former coach.
“She’s very humble,” Gallagher said of Deb Brown. “No one can argue about how much she cares and dedicates herself to these girls and to this program. The success not only during these past couple of season but over her whole tenure shows it.”
Despite a hesitancy to talk about her daughter, Brown is even more proud of the success her daughter has had over the years than her own accolades.
“When I have to get the job done I do rely on her heavily to get the job done for Port Jeff,” Brown said. “I kind of downplay what she has accomplished over the years, but she’s worked very hard for this, and she deserves recognition. I’m probably retiring this year, so it’s bittersweet, but it’s great to go out with her after how well she’s done. I’m very proud of her. It’s been a heck of a ride.”
There were two extra place settings during our Thanksgiving weekend. They were for a couple we met when my husband and her husband were serving at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, some 50 years ago — a golden anniversary of sorts. The idea that we met half-a-century ago and have maintained our connection is astonishing and lovely because we were quite fond of them then and are happy to still be friends now. When they left the service, about a year before we did, they returned to their home state of North Carolina, and we, of course, returned to New York. Over the years, we have kept up sporadically through Christmas cards stuffed with letters about our lives.
Our family wound up at Sheppard because we made the right decision for the wrong reasons — as so often happens in life.
Just after my husband began his internship at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, he came home one evening somewhat puzzled. “Look,” he showed me paperwork, “if I agree to enter this lottery called the Berry Plan, I will be allowed to finish my residency in the specialty I choose, but then I will have to go into the military for two years. The benefit is that I will not be drafted out of my training before I finish, but I will delay starting my practice two years while I am serving Uncle Sam. What should I do?”
“Do it, do it!” I urged. “They will send us to Germany or Japan and we will get to see the world.” I yearned to travel and we had not had the chance or the means. The year was 1963, and aside from a few military advisers in Vietnam, there was no war involving the United States. There was a draft but we were at peace.
“OK,” my husband said, still seeming dubious. “But only about 5 percent of those who apply are selected.” He went off the next morning with the completed paperwork and the two of us promptly forgot about the whole matter. That is, until the next spring when he came home and announced, still unsure what he had gotten us into, that he had been selected. I was happy at the prospect of travel in our future.
With the benefit of hindsight, you know that by 1965, we were in a hot war and I will tell you that many physicians were drafted out of their specialty training and sent to Vietnam as general medical officers. Some of them never returned.
We, meanwhile, now had one child and a second on the way when we were sent to Texas. It was not Germany or Japan, it wasn’t even California or New Jersey, as we had requested when asked by the Air Force, but it was — just by dumb luck — stateside, which meant we could be together. In fact, we had a house to live in, our first, with a washer and dryer, and each child had his own room. Wichita Falls is not a particularly beautiful place, as far as scenery goes. There were no real trees, little grass, no bodies of water and only an occasional bit of mesquite shrub blowing across the brown dirt. But it was heaven for us, and we were thankful to be there for the duration of the two years. We learned to eat chicken fried steak and barbecued beef on a bun, and before too long our third child was on the way.
It was on the base that we met our friends, who were serving under similar circumstances. He was a pediatrician who worked alongside my husband at the hospital, and with his wife they also eventually had three children, went home and started their professional lives together. But we stayed in touch, as I have explained, and they have rejoined my family with lots of conversation and laughter.
Old friends are treasures because they are irreplaceable. We are older now, quite a bit older, and we might not have recognized each other immediately on the street. But the basic persons that we were are intact.
Verbs await like a collection of colors, quivering, shaking and jumping on their palettes to define and describe the unfolding scene.
What verbs will we use to describe the future president of the United States, whose name itself can be a verb?
Well, for starters, he tweets. We know that fact through his candidacy and it’s a pattern that continues now that he is assembling a cabinet and as he awaits his turn as president. His tweets represent his direct-to-the-people message, cutting out the middle man of the media. As with pharmaceutical companies that market their products directly to consumers, sometimes Trump’s tweet messages, which crackle like thunderbolts from his fingers, should come with a warning. For example, “Don’t operate heavy equipment while listening to these tweets, which may cause shortness of breath,” or, “If you find yourself shouting approval or disapproval in response to these tweets, try not to read them in church, in a library or any place where shouting could cause a crisis.”
When he communicates with the populace, with American leaders or with foreign leaders, what verbs will fill the canvas?
He often seems to warn, to threaten and to demand. Maybe he believes American greatness starts with a tough president who insists America and its interests go directly to the front of any line.
In recent days, he has weighed in on the discussion about the election, claiming widespread voter fraud prevented him from winning the popular vote “beauty contest.”
Through his tweets, he also leveled attacks against reporters he derides for disagreeing with him.
I get it: As an agent of change, Trump may feel it’s his job not to highlight everything that’s going well with the country or to shout encouragement. That, he may believe, would be like telling a kid who has struck out continuously that he’s having a great game.
Shifting from the visuals of colors on a page to the sounds at a pep rally, will the Trump presidency repeat similar notes with a single tone? Will he continue to castigate, to criticize, to claim and to attack? Those are just a few of the verbs that describe the approach Candidate Trump took on the contentious campaign trail.
At some point, does President Trump become like a strong-willed character in a compelling novel? Will his experiences enable him to make a transition to becoming a president who emits a different tone and who leads to a symphony of greatness that comes from every part of the country?
Will the cajoling, the criticizing and the arguing transition to educating, inspiring and elevating? Yes, I know his approach and policies may help educate more Americans and may help bridge the gap between the testing levels American students reach compared with students in other nations.
Certainly, as Trump demonstrated during his campaign stops, he can and has rallied people. What actions, what verbs, will describe the way Americans and, indeed, people around the world, react to his message? As an agent of change after the polished rhetoric of President Obama, Trump may not want to compete and, indeed, may sprint away from the pontifications his predecessor proffered.
That, however, doesn’t preclude Trump from the kinds of verbs we hope we can employ to fill the pages of the next four years. Will he encourage, empower and reassure Americans about the government that supports, protects and serves them?
Councilman Mark Cuthbertson speaks in Huntington Station about the problems at Melissa tavern. Photo from Stephen Jimenez
Huntington Station’s Melissa Restaurant Sports Bar & Grill has officially run dry.
After local officials fought to close the establishment, which has been plagued with numerous criminal and violent incidents, the tavern willingly decided to stop serving liquor.
According to a press release, the owners of Melissa tavern, located at 1419 New York Ave., voluntarily forfeited the license to state regulators last week. The tavern owners could not be reached for comment, and it is unclear whether the establishment will remain a dry restaurant or if ownership will change hands.
Since July, Huntington Town Councilman Mark Cuthbertson (D) has been urging the New York State Liquor Authority to revoke the license to curb the safety issues taking place at and around the tavern.
“This is great news for the Huntington Station community and I applaud our police, civic leaders and residents who assisted the town in applying constant pressure to put an end to violence and crime at Melissa tavern,” Cuthbertson said in a statement. “For far too long, this establishment has been a detriment to the quality of life for Huntington Station and I am pleased to announce Melissa’s last call is history.”
Inspector Chris Hatton of the 2nd Precinct agreed this is a victory for safety in Huntington Station.
“Absolutely this is a positive step,” Hatton said in a phone interview. “We’ve had a lot of incidents there in the past several years both inside and outside the tavern. It did draw crowds that tended to engage in criminal activities.”
According to the Suffolk County Police Department, Melissa tavern has been cited with 127 incidents in a five-year span, including a shooting in the parking lot this past March and a stabbing inside the establishment in September.
Cuthbertson worked with local officials and state offices to ensure the end of liquor sales at the tavern.
“Our first priority is public safety,” he said, “and I am pleased that the town had the support of the New York State Liquor Authority, the Suffolk County Board of Health and the Suffolk County Police Department.”
Jim McGoldrick, a Huntington Station resident, agrees that this is an improvement for the community.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” he said in a phone interview. “This is the best thing to happen to Huntington Station in a few years. Children can’t be exposed to the type of violence that was taking place there. It sends a message that this won’t be tolerated.”
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