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Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Words pour out of our mouths like different kinds of liquids.

Sometimes, those words can offer necessary relief from white hot anger, agony or discomfort, serving as a cooling salve, bringing a smile to our miserable faces and turning, as the cliche would suggest, a frown upside down.

Other times, the words people choose to share can exacerbate an already inflamed state, serving as lighter fluid, threatening to turn us from a mild shade of pink into a deep red.

Words can also become an avalanche, forcing us to look elsewhere as a nonstop collection of words, phrase or ideas threatens to bury us beneath their verbal weight. Desperate to get away, we might hope the speaker gets distracted by a flying turtle.

A diatribe, lesson or self-aggrandizing soliloquy can be exhausting and irritating.

But, it’s not just the words and their effect that are so familiar in conversations.

No, you see, it’s the facial expressions. Many people have a remarkable ability to run the gamut of human emotions and thoughts without saying a word. A tightening of the skin around their eyes, a slight narrowing of the lids, a crooked smile, or a baring of teeth, which is probably the least subtle of the facial reactions, can reveal something about our inner state or disclose how we’re feeling about the world around us or, more precisely, the person in front of us.

To varying degrees, actors and actresses have mastered the art of using their often photogenic, compelling, or sympathetic faces to tell stories and, perhaps, to reveal the inner conflict we know they are feeling when, say, their sister asks them to be a bridesmaid when she’s planning to marry a person the actress has loved for years. Yes, that was a mildly amusing movie and yes, you probably know it.

The rest of us mere facial mortals, however, may not be as capable of altering our features to reflect the wide range of emotions we might reveal in response to the way we feel behind the masks we try to wear.

When I lived in Manhattan, I thoroughly enjoyed people watching. It’s a form of endless entertainment. Leaning on the railing at Rockefeller Center in mid December years ago, I watched an elderly couple gliding around the rink together, holding hands and glancing contentedly at each other, clearly enjoying the moment. With gloved fingers interlaced, they synchronized their legs as well as any pairs figure skaters might.

While I imagined that they had been together for decades and that they might have gone to an ice skating rink on an early date, they also could have been together for a couple of months or, perhaps, gotten married a year earlier.

Either way, their faces, which I can still picture decades later, revealed a keen and profound satisfaction.

Some people undoubtedly have mastered the art of the poker face, appearing interested or attentive when they are thinking about where to eat dinner later that night, what laundry they need to take to the dry cleaner, or when to sell a stock that’s been teetering with all the others amidst concerns about corporate profits and a potential slowdown in the economy.

Others, however, can reveal the equivalent of an SOS call, with a slight turn of their neck, widening eyes, and a faint but noticeable grimace around their pained mouths.

When we get to know family or friends well, we can read their expressions or hear the flat tone in their voices, knowing that the word “interesting,” or “you don’t say,” really means, “please stop talking. I’ll pay you to stop talking. In fact, here is a set of fake plastic ears that look like mine. Chew on them and, when you’re done, please recycle what’s left over.”

Sometimes, when I know someone well enough, I’ll watch their faces as they listen to a perspective that irritates them, a joke they don’t find remotely amusing, or a comment they don’t appreciate and I’ll recognize the unspoken but deeply held thoughts etched in their faces.

With all the finely tuned muscles in our faces and our ability to raise or lower our eyebrows, we can send signals that the attentive listener or others can read like a subtle or, perhaps more obvious, signal.

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A statue of Balto in Central Park. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Roman Eugeniusz

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief,
Publisher

While most of us know “of the famous ride of Paul Revere,” quoting Longfellow, there is another ride that happened 100 years ago that we can commemorate. It has to do with one of my favorite dogs. His name was Balto, an Alaskan husky and sled dog born in Nome, and he led a team of sled dogs, driven by Gunnar Kaasen and carrying vital diphtheria antitoxin through fierce Alaskan storms across the wilderness and into history. 

The serum was desperately needed to combat an outbreak of the disease. Planes such as they were in 1925, were grounded by the intense weather. The only hope for rescue was with the perilous trip by sled. Kaasen insisted that Balto was the true hero. A movie, a nationwide tour on the vaudeville circuit and a bronze statue in Central Park resulted.

Now I visited Central Park most Sundays, when the weather permitted, throughout my elementary school years, with my dad and younger sister. It was my dad’s way of giving my mother a few hours off and of having some time with us since he worked six days a week, left early in the morning, and only returned for a late dinner. He would cook us breakfast, and then we would walk through the Park, taking a different route each time until my mother would join us in the late afternoon with a picnic supper. 

Most often, he made sure our meanderings took us past the statue of Balto. I would climb up on the rock on which he stood, then sit astride his back, and listen as my dad read the words on the plaque adorning the site “dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the winter of 1925: endurance, fidelity, intelligence” Visuals of the trip would run through my mind as I sat there, courtesy of Jack London, whose books I read. I loved Balto.

But there is quite a back story.

For starters, Balto was an underdog in a literal sense. He was owned by Leonhard Seppala, a native Norwegian, sled dog breeder, musher and competitive racer, and was named after an Arctic explorer. Balto had a black fur coat, a small, stocky build with two white stocking front feet and was considered “second rate” as a racer by Seppala, who had him neutered at six months and used him to haul freight for short runs and help pull railcars with miners over a disused railroad track. Gunnar Kaasen, another native Norwegian and a close family friend of Seppala, with 21 years of dog sledding experience who worked for the breeder, came to know Balto and believed Seppala had misjudged the dog because of his short stature.

Early in 1925, doctors realized a deadly diphtheria epidemic could affect the  people of Nome, Alaska, and putting the city under quarantine, transmitted with Morse code that the town desperately needed more serum, whose supply was almost depleted. Mushers were summoned to relay the precious cargo. Radio, a recent invention, picked up the story, as well as newspapers, and followed the more than 20 mushers as they took turns through storms and strong winds. Kaasen was appointed to drive a team of Seppala’s dogs, and although Seppala wanted a dog named Fox to lead the team, Kaasen picked Balto. They left the town of Bluff with the antitoxin at 10 p.m.

Shortly after they started, a blizzard caused them to become confused and lost. Kaasen yelled, “Go home, Balto,” and the dog, used to hauling heavy loads, navigated his team through the wild winds. At one point, Balto unexpectedly stopped before some ice on the Topkok River that broke in front of him, thereby saving Kaasen’s life and that of the entire team, according to the musher. The package was delivered in time, and the residents were saved.

There is more to the story. Especially as money entered the picture, lies and deception, jealousy and hatred all became part of the human saga. But Balto will always remain my 100-year-old dog. 

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One in 36 children aged eight in the U.S. were diagnosed with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in 36 means that around 32 students are affected by ASD in a high school of 1238 students–the number of students enrolled at Smithtown High School West from 2023-2024. It means that 76 students from kindergarten to sixth grade in the Three Village School District may have trouble socializing, communicating and learning.

The number of adults impacted is less defined, with some adults going undiagnosed, though the CDC estimates 1 in 45 adults in the U.S. have ASD. These individuals are artists. They are educators, technicians, writers, engineers and leaders. They helped make our community, but our community was not made for them. 

Often people with ASD have to “mask.” According to the National Autistic Society, people with ASD sometimes mask in order to appear non-autisitic. Autistic people have described masking as “tightly controlling and adjusting how you express yourself based on the real or anticipated reactions of others.” 

ASD causes the person to have trouble communicating in social situations. They may exhibit repetitive behaviors called “stimming” or strictly adhere to a fixed routine. They may get overstimulated by certain sensations or experiences. Autism is a spectrum, so it affects everyone in varying degrees. 

People with ASD have helped shaped our society in significant ways. Greta Thunberg, for example, is a 22-year old environmental activist who inspired thousands to advocate for environmental protections. She is also on the autistic spectrum. 

Renowned actor Anthony Hopkins is also reportedly on the autistic spectrum and was diagnosed late in his life. 

Most people have some connection to a person who has ASD. Expanding consideration to the different needs and preferences of autistic individuals does not take much work. Offering different resources and services, like Father Andrew Garnett is doing in holding a sensory-friendly church service, is a great way to show that people with different abilities are valued. We can ask questions–what can we do to help? Perhaps we can communicate differently and avoid sarcasm. We can be cognizant of sensory issues. Most importantly, we can listen. Let’s make an effort to be more considerate to those with ASD and to learn about how we can make our community more inclusive, not just this April during Autism Awareness Month  but always. 

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File photo by Raymond Janis

Common-sense decision

At the Three Village CSD Board of Education meeting on April 9, a common-sense decision was finally made to remove the start time change from the 2025-26 budget.  After months of under stimulating banter and a constant “will they, won’t they” cliffhanger hovering over every meeting, four of the seven board members voted to hold off on this nonsensical and very costly change. Reality came into play as metaphoric light bulbs slowly began to flicker representing all that would be lost educationally for the majority of our students to satisfy a 30-minute time adjustment. 

Over a million dollars of transportation costs alone would have partially negated our IG Program, increased elementary class sizes exponentially, erased some secondary extra-curriculars and electives and slashed SEVERAL positions both in and out of the classroom.  And yet three members of the board continued to advocate for this change despite all that would be lost. 

How can these individuals truly believe the supposed benefits of going to school 30 minutes later could possibly outweigh the costs of what would be taken away?  The persistent rambling about the 30 minutes of “extra sleep” continues to stick in my craw, particularly at the secondary level.  If you want your child to sleep more, be a parent and tell them to go to bed.  We don’t need a million dollars in transportation to send them to their rooms.  Healthy sleep gains will be just as beneficial if they go to sleep 30 minutes earlier and still wake up for school, it’s a simple fact.  

We now wait on eggshells to see how our million dollars will be re-allocated.  The board has a lot of decisions to make before the May 20th vote and they need to carefully consider the fragile standing of this year’s budget. Three Village is in deep, and we need to save ourselves from drowning.  Cooler heads must prevail and a more realistic vision for our district needs to be added to the playbook to ensure success for the ones we are all fighting for, the kids!  I speak for many in the community when I express my satisfaction knowing that our tax dollars will be going to academics rather than bus rides.

Stefanie Werner

East Setauket

The EPA should be protected

A letter by Jim Soviero appeared in this newspaper on April 3 [EPA and media need accountability]  filled with innuendos and deceptive claims about the Environmental Protection Agency.  He calls for “accountability” for money already legally disbursed by the EPA as per the Biden legislation passed by Congress and signed into law, to fund beneficial projects to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution.

He’s echoing Lee Zeldin, our former Long Island congressman and now head of the Donald )Trump (R) EPA.  While in Congress Zeldin had a long record of opposing measures to safeguard air and water quality, instead serving the interests of the oil and gas industry, in spite of the fact that Long Island has no oil and gas industry.  If Zeldin really wanted “accountability,” why didn’t he protest when Trump fired the EPA Inspector General, whose one and only job is to hold the EPA accountable for its expenditures?  This IG, Sean O’Donnell, was appointed by none other than Trump himself back in 2020.  Could it be that Zeldin really wants not “accountability” but a more pliable IG to rubber-stamp the Zeldin-Trump agenda of climate denialism and environmental havoc?

Zeldin describes the mission of the EPA as “lower[ing] the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business.”  No – the EPA is not the Commerce Department. The EPA’s mission, embedded in its name, is to protect the environment. I remember when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so polluted with oil slicks it caught on fire –  many times.  When Los Angeles was covered by a thick poisonous smog on a daily basis.  All before the EPA.  The EPA’s mission is to protect us from sickness and premature death from damaged lungs, heart disease, asthma and other consequences of the unchecked release of toxins into our air and water.  And it’s also about energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that threaten us, our children and grandchildren.

In spite of the letter writer’s innuendos, the rightful recipients of the funding Zeldin is trying to snatch back are reputable and longstanding organizations run by qualified professionals with years of experience in engineering, finance and energy efficiency.  The funds are being used for such things as increasing the affordability of modern, efficient heat pumps to replace inefficient gas or oil heating.  And the organization Power Forward Communities, so sneered at by the letter writer, is a coalition of some of the most trusted nonprofits in the nation, including Habitat for Humanity International and United Way Worldwide.

David Friedman

St. James

Ward Melville track

 I’d like to thank Sabrina Artusa for her excellent article highlighting the success of the Ward Melville boys 4 x mile relay team and of my son Jon winning the state indoor 1600-meter championship. 

Jon began running cross-country when he entered seventh grade at Gelinas. He did not show a lot of promise over the course of his first two races, finishing nearly last, but his junior high coach, Claudia Rippe, encouraged him and made running fun and enjoyable.

Jon joined the varsity cross-country team at Ward Melville as a freshman and head cross-country, winter track and spring track coaches Ryan DeLuca and assistant coach Brian Liebowitz took Jon’s running to a whole new level. These two coaches provide training and instruction on every aspect of being a successful runner, including diet, stretching, warming up, cooling down, training, preventing injuries, getting proper rest and most importantly being a good teammate and leader. 

As a freshman Jon won the Suffolk County 800-meter run championship and the next year was the Suffolk County sophomore  2-mile champion. That same year during winter track he ran the fastest 1000 meters in the United States for a sophomore. Over the last five years,coaches DeLuca and Liebowitz runners have been named to multiple all-conference, all-county, all-Long Island and all-state teams in all three running sports. Their knowledge of their sport and dedication to their runners are exceptional.

I don’t know if Jon was either the strongest or fastest runner in his state 1600-meter victory, but I’m fairly certain he was the most experienced runner in the field. Of the 12 runners, Jon ran the best race strategically — by far.   Over the last four years, the Ward Melville coaches have provided Jon and his teammates the opportunity to run over 50 races in major invitationals at some of the fastest indoor tracks on the East Coast located throughout New York and New England.  By comparison, Jon has friends on other teams who’ve told him they rarely leave the Island to race. 

I am so impressed by the Ward Melville cross-country and track programs and the quality of athletes that coaches DeLuca and Liebowitz have consistently produced  — especially given how physically challenging the sport is. A few years ago one of Jon’s teammate’s sisters remarked, “You know what you do for a sport, other sports do as a punishment.” Funny and true.

David Seyfert

Stony Brook

WRITE TO US … AND KEEP IT LOCAL 

We welcome your letters, especially those responding to our local coverage, replying to other letter writers’ comments and speaking mainly to local themes. Letters should be no longer than 400 words and may be edited for length, libel, style, good taste and uncivil language. They will also be published on our website. We do not publish anonymous letters. Please include an address and phone number for confirmation. Email letters to: [email protected] or mail them to TBR News Media, P.O. Box 707, Setauket, NY 11733

 

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Their names fly by after the final scene amid music that often recapitulates what we’ve just heard in a movie theater or at home during a streaming film. 

In fact, oftentimes, the streaming services will suggest the next film before the credits role, giving us the option to move effortlessly from one movie to the next without pausing to allow the movie to resonate or to squint at the names during the credits.

Every industry is filled with the invisibles. These are the people who make stuff happen, but who are not at the center of an effort.

Take dining out. We see the maitre d’, the waiter or waitress and we might even acknowledge the cook or the sushi chef. But, really, numerous invisibles are a part of the food process, from the fishermen who woke up before sunlight to catch the fresh fish we’re considering eating to the farmer who planted and harvested the vegetables to the truck drivers who ship these products all over the state and the country.

We are often a part of a bigger industry that relies on the services of others, many of whom we don’t know or see but who contribute to our lives.

Products like pharmaceuticals rely on numerous contributions. Patients take a drug during its clinical trials, tended to by doctors and nurses, while scientists may have discovered a potential target for an illness or a disease and then searched for a small molecule that might change our fates or improve our condition.

The invisibles also glide by the way homes and the tops of trees pass as a part of a blurry landscape when we’re riding the Long Island Railroad.

We walk by people as we navigate a crowded sidewalk towards a Broadway show or on our way to an important appointment in the city.

We sit at a traffic light to turn left, waiting for the cars we can see, but not necessarily the people in them, to pass us so we can get to our destination.

When children are young, they see and observe everyone. As my wife and I used to say, “the recorder is always on,” whether someone is lecturing about what children should know or do or is setting an example or, as the case may be, a counter example.

I was on a plane recently when a mother holding a baby in front of her stopped to wait for others to put away their luggage. Unconcerned about social convention, the young child stared at my wife and me, then shifted his eyes and looked directly at the people in the row across the aisle.

The mother continued to look straight, anticipating the moment when she could continue past us on her way to her seat.

Social convention keeps us from looking directly at people for too long. We don’t want to make them uncomfortable and, sometimes, we also don’t want to encourage everyone to engage in conversation with us.

As we pass through various grades, we become selective about our friends, no longer feeling the need to invite everyone in class to birthday parties.

When we’re older, we attend larger gatherings and we greet everyone. Well, no, not exactly everyone. We may not spend much time chatting with the busy waitress, getting to know members of the other family at a wedding, or connecting with the Uber driver who took us to the catering hall.

We don’t need to acknowledge everyone all the time. That would be impossible. Some people also enjoy the freedom a cloak of invisibility provides. Some of my favorite parties, in fact, were those where so few people knew me that I had no social responsibilities or obligations, allowing me to dance with arms flailing and shoulders shimmying with a relaxed grin pasted across my sweaty face.

And yet, there are those times, when someone is sitting alone or is taking another long drive, when a few words might provide the kind of connection that helps them feel seen.

To return to the movie example, we sometimes watch characters who are otherwise ignored or written off who become central to other people’s lives. Those people may be waiting for an opening or an acknowledgement or for the opportunity to feel our recognition and appreciation. We can be moved by people who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago, but we can also move with those who share time and space with us today.

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Pixabay photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief,
Publisher

The bright yellow forsythias and the pink azaleas, along with the dramatic magnolias and the delicate cherry blossoms contradict the miserable March weather we have been enduring. 

But, you can’t fool Nature with adverse temperatures. She has her own calendar. Further proof of the season may be taken from the runny noses and watery eyes of the allergy sufferers, and the appearance of the tiny ants around the kitchen sink. And if you are among the lucky ones, you know what that means: call the sprinkler guys and the pool crew to get on their schedules, check who will be available to mow the lawn this year, and have the air conditioners tuned up and filters changed.

Yup. It’s spring.

If you have a boat, even a small one, it’s time to remove the shrink wrap, polish the teak and the hardware, check the engine, and if it is a sailboat, carefully look over the sails and count the life jackets. Maybe there is a new person who has joined the family.

If you have a garden, this is planting and seeding time. Get out the mulch and start spreading. Straighten the hose lines. Perennials are up, annuals are going in. Take a good look around the neighborhood. There seems to be a riot of daffodils throughout the yards and villages this year. And the fruit trees are bursting with color. Maybe it’s the contrast with the grey and the rain that’s been surrounding us.

There are chores we no longer need to do. I don’t know how many of you remember, but we used to have the snow tires removed and the regular tires put back in their place. We would ask that the winter oil in the car be emptied and replaced with the summer oil at the gas station. We still need to give the car a thorough cleaning, however, and put the snow brush back into the trunk. The shovels and walkway salt go into the garage and, if we have one, the snow blower is returned to the far corner.

Inside the house, we need to put the heavy winter coats in the back of the closet, take off the long underwear if we wear that armor against the cold, put away the turtlenecks and shake out our lighter shirts, blouses and pants to prepare them for the warmer temperatures. Might as well look at the bathing suits, too. Maybe we need a new one this year.

Those who go on trips in the summer may well be studying locations and fares around this time, if they haven’t already. I’m not part of that exodus, however. Where can you go to enjoy the season better than right here on the shores of Long Island? Others agree. They are my warm weather relatives and friends, and I welcome their company. We should start to get the guest room ready.

Amid all that activity and bustle, we must be sure to stop every now and then to enjoy the birdsong coming from the many bushes. And if we look hard enough, we can see birds’ nests in the branches of the trees and under the edges of porch roofs.

On a final note, spring is also the time when the world’s major holidays are observed: Ramadan, Passover and Easter.  The holidays all include prayers for peace. Would that we could all celebrate the holidays concurrently in a world filled with only peace: no more warfare, no more hatred, no more violence.

Since we are all people praying for the same blessing, why has it been so impossible to achieve? Will it ever happen? May we someday truly turn our swords into plowshares?

Enjoy the marvel of the new season in peace.

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In last week’s issue, two local hikers walked from Robert Moses to Montauk. Garbage littered their path throughout the journey: a jarring contradiction to the beautiful coastal landscape. In another article, our Long Island Congress members conferred about offshore drilling and wind power. In public hearings over land use, constituents and town officials negotiate green space and vegetative buffers. Environmental issues are interwoven into the fabric of our community, embedded in almost every field or industry. 

The younger generation, as the inheritors of our community, are faced with mounting environmental concerns with energy storage, renewable energy and climate change. While previous generations had leeway to push environmentalism to the side, the younger generations can not afford to ignore the diminishing health of the environment.  Programs such as the one offered at Stony Brook University, are paramount in ensuring that these students have the tools to do so.

At Stony Brook University’s second annual Long Island Youth Climate Summit, teenagers learned how to get involved with environmental movements. We wholeheartedly agree with local officials who recognize the importance of a university program that provides an important and necessary opportunity for students to learn about these issues. 

Further,several political leaders such as Suffolk County legislators and Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine attended the conference; however, while democratic officials were well-represented, republicans were in shorter supply. While we don’t know what kept other officials from attending, or if they were aware of the event at all, the disparity suggests a potentially problematic political divide in how we approach environmental topics that can impede progress.

This was only the second time the Climate Summit occurred, but it is a huge step in closing the gap between environmental misinformation and increasing awareness of growing environmental concerns such as the warming climate and weather-related natural disasters. Long Island has its fair share of environmental problems and we have to make sure the next generation is aware and ready, not only out of necessity but out of appreciation for the gift of our world.

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File photo by Raymond Janis

We need the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act

Toxic microplastics have invaded the Long Island Sound, harming wildlife and making their way into human bodies, too. Unfortunately, you can bet on this problem to get worse, because plastic production is projected to double nationwide in the next 20 years.

Plastic is polluting our lakes and oceans, filling our landfills, spewing toxins from garbage-burning incinerators and making us sick. On top of all that, it costs taxpayers millions to deal with all the waste that plastic pollution creates. We need to control this monster. Thankfully, New York is on its way to doing just that. 

Long Island’s state legislators can do their part by helping pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act: a bill that’s already backed by two thirds of New York voters. It will reduce plastic packaging by 30% over the next 12 years, require at least 75% of remaining packaging to be reused or recycled by 2052, outlaw 17 harmful chemicals and materials used in plastic packaging and require large companies to pay fees on packaging, thus reducing local taxpayers’ burden.

Plastic pollution is out of control, but we can live with safer packaging. Our health depends on it.

Judith Enck

President of Beyond Plastics and former EPA Regional Administrator

The reality of renewable energy on Long Island

In his letter [Feb. 27] about the transition from our present fossil-fuel- based electrical economy to one based on renewable energy, George Altemose calculates what he believes the necessary area that must be covered by solar panels in order to supply Long Island’s energy, including charging large batteries to carry us through several overcast days of low solar generation.

If the number of square miles of solar panels Altemose calculates appear daunting, it’s because he overlooks several important factors in our plan to end our use of fossil fuels on Long Island — the same fossil fuels that are producing the climate change that is now so obviously here.

First, it is planned that the largest source (49%) of our renewable energy needs will come from offshore wind turbines that will generate energy even after the sun goes down and solar panels stop producing; solar generation will be much less than that.

Second, the Long Island Solar Roadmap, released just before the COVID-19 outbreak after several years of research by the Nature Conservancy and the Defenders of Wildlife, indicates that 5,000 MW of solar generation — a number equal to Altemose’s worst-case scenario — could be installed on just one quarter of Long Island’s “low-impact” sites consisting of large flat roofs, carports, industrial land, brownfields, etc., without impacting any residential or wooded areas. But Long Island won’t need such a massive installation because we’ll have plenty of wind energy.

Finally, while we are a physical island, we are not an electrical island. The LIPA grid is currently connected to the mainland by five high voltage underwater cables that are used to import energy from New Jersey, Connecticut and Westchester when that is needed here. In addition, the Propel New York project will add two new cables linking us to the Bronx and Westchester. These would normally be used to export offshore wind energy that is landed here to locations in the New York City metro area and upstate, but they could equally be used to import energy from mainland sources if that were needed here.

All these carefully researched plans assume a rapid increase in the number of electric vehicles (these will be charged mostly at night, when electrical demand is lower than in the day), and the replacement of air conditioners and furnaces with efficient heat pumps that will reduce summer peak loads while increasing the lower demand we now have in the winter.

A massive transition to renewables is happening here and in the rest of the world; many major countries are well ahead of the United States because the United States is held back by those who would deny climate change in order to advance their own financial or political interests.

Peter Gollon 

Former LIPA trustee, Energy chair, Long Island Sierra Club Huntington

The EPA should be protected

A letter by Jim Soviero appeared in this newspaper on April 3 [EPA and media need accountability]  filled with innuendos and deceptive claims about the Environmental Protection Agency.  He calls for “accountability” for money already legally disbursed by the EPA as per the Biden legislation passed by Congress and signed into law, to fund beneficial projects to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution. 

He’s echoing Lee Zeldin, our former Long Island congressman and now head of the Donald )Trump (R) EPA.  While in Congress Zeldin had a long record of opposing measures to safeguard air and water quality, instead serving the interests of the oil and gas industry, in spite of the fact that Long Island has no oil and gas industry.  If Zeldin really wanted “accountability,” why didn’t he protest when Trump fired the EPA Inspector General, whose one and only job is to hold the EPA accountable for its expenditures?  This IG, Sean O’Donnell, was appointed by none other than Trump himself back in 2020.  Could it be that Zeldin really wants not “accountability” but a more pliable IG to rubber-stamp the Zeldin-Trump agenda of climate denialism and environmental havoc?

Zeldin describes the mission of the EPA as “lower[ing] the cost of buying a car, heating a home, and running a business.”  No – the EPA is not the Commerce Department. The EPA’s mission, embedded in its name, is to protect the environment. I remember when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so polluted with oil slicks it caught on fire –  many times.  When Los Angeles was covered by a thick poisonous smog on a daily basis.  All before the EPA.  The EPA’s mission is to protect us from sickness and premature death from damaged lungs, heart disease, asthma and other consequences of the unchecked release of toxins into our air and water.  And it’s also about energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that threaten us, our children and grandchildren.

In spite of the letter writer’s innuendos, the rightful recipients of the funding Zeldin is trying to snatch back are reputable and longstanding organizations run by qualified professionals with years of experience in engineering, finance and energy efficiency.  The funds are being used for such things as increasing the affordability of modern, efficient heat pumps to replace inefficient gas or oil heating.  And the organization Power Forward Communities, so sneered at by the letter writer, is a coalition of some of the most trusted nonprofits in the nation, including Habitat for Humanity International and United Way Worldwide.

David Friedman

St. James

Support our libraries

Please support our libraries in your publication! Interviews with librarians and patrons, and analyses of how our libraries support our communities. There are books, yes, but there is so much more. Our libraries are threatened, and we need to save them. They build community, support learning and critical thinking, offer classes and access to, e.g., internet to those who need it. And best of all, they’re a place you can go to get a lot without paying for anything.

Bente Videbaek

Port Jefferson

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The cover of the first issue of The Village Times in 1976 by Pat Windrow

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief,
Publisher

Two happy milestones have marked this week. My oldest grandson turned 30, which we celebrated in style, and The Village Times, the flagship of Times Beacon Record News Media, was started exactly 49 years ago.

First the details of the birthday bash.

It happened Sunday afternoon at the ballpark, Citi Field, the home of the Mets, or what we Old Timers used to call Shea Stadium. Now if you knew my grandson at all, you would know he is a fierce and utterly loyal fan of the Mets since his earliest years. You could gather from that bit of information, that he is mighty stubborn about his loyalties. After all, there have been many incentives to switch support to other, more winning teams, right? And who could blame him? But that is not his style. His loyalty is boundless. And of course, the Mets have gradually rewarded him for his patience.

Thus, it was no surprise that he wanted to share his special day with the Mets, and in his honor, they won the game. But I get ahead of myself.

It’s worth relating how beautiful Citi Field is, especially so for me, a die hard Yankee fan who spent many afternoons during my teens in concrete-riven Yankee Stadium. 

Now admittedly, we did have a luxurious situation. The cost of a box at the park was shared. We entered from a designated parking lot, after waiting on a short line, and were guided  past giant pictures of Met greats like Jerry Koosman and Tom Seaver, to a manned elevator that took us swiftly to the fourth floor.

We stepped out into a spacious hallway of patterned marble floors, paneled walls, high ceilings with recessed lighting and multiple wooden doors that led to individual suites. Overstuffed armchairs lined the walls. And you should see the bathrooms.

Staff greeted us all along the way and led us to our room, where more overstuffed seating, fruit and salad awaited us. At the far end was a sliding glass door leading out to cushioned balcony seats that accommodated most of the 18 of us as we watched the game. 

Happily both suite and balcony had heaters, although the weather, while chilly, behaved nicely. The early morning rain had stopped. More ballpark food arrived throughout the afternoon, but it was hard to tear ourselves away from the balcony as the Mets won what turned out to be a pitchers’ duel, 2-1. I can hardly wait to see how we will celebrate his 40th.

As for our newspaper anniversary this past Tuesday, it came and went quietly as we enter our 50th year. We were busy putting out this week’s papers. But we will certainly whoop it up at various community events throughout the year until we reach half a century.

It’s easy to fall back on the well-used cliche, “time flies,” but it is astonishing to me and to those who were involved in the start-up, like our general manager, that we have reached almost five decades of publishing hometown news. So much has happened, so much has changed, but not the mission of the newspaper. 

Our goals have always been steadfast. We strive each week to bring vetted news, information and even some fun to our readers, originally with newsprint, and now with the additional platforms of the 24/7 website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and the weekly podcast, The Pressroom Afterhour,  which is also on Spotify. 

We promise our staffers that, if and when they leave, it will be with more skills than when they arrived because we invest in our people. And the third and last part of our mission is to support and give back to our readers and advertisers in whatever ways we can, starting with working to create a sense of community.

Frankly, we consider ourselves incredibly lucky to have survived almost 50 years, as we see hometown papers fall around us. Last week, while I was attending the New York Press Association Convention in Saratoga Springs, two more papers closed down, leaving their neighborhoods unprotected.

We continue because you support us. Thank you.

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Alex R., who was demonstrating in support of President Donald Trump, talking to an anti-DOGE protestor. Photo by Steven Zaitz

Words matter, as we might tell a first grader in our home or a high school student struggling to share a thought without cursing.

The same holds true for adults, especially those who disagree.

Whatever any of us might think of the policy to make English the official language of the United States, having a way to express ourselves clearly and to be heard by people on the other side of any issue is critical.

We live in a deeply divided country, where one “side” delights not only in its successes but in the failures and the struggles of the other.

This isn’t a plea for everyone to sit around chanting together or to urge us all just to get along, much as that might increase the peace and lower stress and fear.

We don’t just need English: we need a common language. We need to hear each other and to understand what the other side suggests, proposes or believes.

In a country that celebrates rugged individualism, we should be able to listen to an idea, whatever it is and wherever it comes from, and consider its merits.

It seems like spectacular hubris on the part of either side to imagine that the best policies only stem from those with whom we agree.

Take efficiency. The benefits of being more efficient in everything we do is that we can use resources better. People invested in stocks, for example, want their companies to be efficient because executives use that money to build profits.

During protests, people make competing signs that emphasize a point. Many of those messages, however, rarely acknowledge the other side or reach beyond slogans.

We need to listen to each other, to search for common ground and to make persuasive arguments that everyone can evaluate.

We need to study and learn the foreign language of those on the other side of an issue and work to adjust those words, and the ideas behind them.

Language, reflects culture and ideology and, at its root, can help us improve our lives and the lives of our children, who move together from preschool to adulthood.

Living with a verbal impasse that demonizes the other side hurts others as much as it does ourselves.

Together, our society of individuals can become more successful, efficient and peaceful if we speak the same language and build from a common foundation. Making labels and hurling insults might feel good in the moment, but it doesn’t bring out the best in us.

Words, like technology, are not necessarily good or bad. The way they are used determines their impact. Most of the people we acknowledge in the community seem friendly enough and don’t deserve belittling labels. If we start with words designed to help coalesce, we might find ways to improve our lives while feeling proud of the way we communicate in front of our children.

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