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By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Ah, the benefits of an older bladder.

Granted, that’s not generally the case. Usually, I get up in the middle of the night, realizing that the dream that involves the search for a bathroom is my brain’s way of telling me that I need to urinate in real life.

I shift my weight slightly toward the floor, hoping that the rocking motion of my body doesn’t move the bed so much that I wake my wife or the cat sleeping on her, who sometimes sees my movement as a starter’s gun to race toward the table in the laundry room to devour another can of the same food he eats every day.

I slide my feet off the bed and try not to step on our huge dog, who moves around often enough that he could easily be that furry thing under my feet. My toes can’t always tell whether that’s him or just the softer part of the inside-out sweatpants I’ve been wearing for a week. I also try to avoid the other cat, whose tail is like a spring waiting for me to step on so he can shriek loudly enough to wake my wife and terrify the other cat and the dog.

When I reach the bathroom, I try to urinate into the bowl but away from the water to avoid any splashing sound. I retrace my steps back to the bed, hoping the safe places to step on the way out from the bed are still safe on the return.

This past week, the bathroom routine gave me the opportunity to look at a rare event. I watched the extended lunar eclipse, which was the longest it’s been in 580 years. I crept out to the hallway to view it through a window, hoping I didn’t have to go out in the cold to catch a glimpse of Earth’s shadow. I was also concerned that the dog, even at 3 a.m., would fear that he was missing out on something and bark, negating my efforts to enjoy the eclipse in silence.

I was amazed at the shadow that slipped slowly across the moon. I took an unimpressive photo that captured the yin and yang of the light and shadow.

The next morning, I ran into some neighbors on my routine walk with my dog.

After saying how they’d stayed up all night to watch this rare event — they are retired and don’t have any time pressure most days — they started to recount their evening.

“I was tempted to dress in black and howl while I watched it,” the man said.

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“Well, you know, I figured as long as I was up, the neighbors on the other side who think it’s OK to play basketball at 11:30 p.m. should know I was awake and active.”

“Hmm,” I said.

“Yeah, and the other day, they had a party and threw beer bottles over the fence into our backyard. It took until late in the day for them to pick them up.”

“That’s terrible,” I said. “Sorry to hear that.”

As I walked back with my dog, who was eager for his post-walk breakfast, I realized we had never discussed the sights from the night before.

Sleep deprivation overshadowed a discussion of the observation of the Earth’s long shadow.

As for me, I was, for the first time, grateful for the momentary need to pee. The evening and the morning interaction that followed brought to the fore a collision of the mundane and the magnificent.

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By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

A local physician had a remarkable result. In clinical practice, he was treating a patient with severe migraines. The patient, 60 years old, had been experiencing migraines for 12 years. Recently they increased in frequency, and he was enduring six to eight debilitating headaches per month, each lasting more than 72 hours.  This equates to 18-24 headache days each month.

For those of us who suffer migraines, we know this must have been horrible. A migraine is not just a bad headache. It is as if a drill were unremittingly penetrating one spot in the head, all the while accompanied by nausea, vomiting and an inability to tolerate light. The aftermath is to feel hung over and unsteady. Migraines steal hours and days from the lives of the afflicted. 

The patient had tried various traditional medications, like zolmitriptan and topiramate to no avail. He also avoided possible migraine triggers like aged cheese, caffeine and red wine without success.

The internist, who specializes in lifestyle medicine, put him on a plant-based, high nutrient diet that he created of essentially low inflammatory foods every day. Hence he named it the LIFE diet, and its centerpiece is composed primarily of dark leafy greens, frozen blueberries, a banana and soy milk in a smoothie. These high fiber ingredients, when reinforced with flax seed meal, and a little pomegranate juice, can be made into a 32-ounce drink by a sturdy electric blender. The diet is further reinforced by eating more nutrient-dense veggies, like spinach, kale, arugula and romaine lettuce, for example, at subsequent meals in the day. These foods are thought to reduce chronic inflammation in the body.

The LIFE diet also limits dairy and red meat, whole grains, starchy vegetables and oils, according to reporter Sarah Jacoby, who interviewed the doctor for “Today” last Thursday, Nov. 18.

The results of the new regimen were dramatic. After two months, the patient was experiencing one headache per month. After three months, the headaches were gone. The patient suffered no further migraines. This result has lasted more than seven years so far.

At this point, the local physician, teaming up with his brother, who is a medical researcher, wrote up the study and sent it to the highly prestigious British Medical Journal or BMJ that publishes medical case studies deemed important. Delighted when it was accepted for publication, the doctor, who is a passionate believer in the healing power of dark green leafy vegetables, was further pleased when he learned that BMJ, considering the study valuable enough, had sent out a press release to publications all over the world with a summary.

The response was overwhelming, a testament to the need for a remedy to a universal malady. As of this writing, more than 40 news outlets across the globe, including UPI and WebMD, have picked up the story, from Europe to the Middle East to Asia and Australia, translating it into a dozen different languages.

“I think this (case report) is a tremendous start in the treatment of migraine headaches,” added the local physician. “This is kind of revolutionary to have the ability to say, ‘Not only does it work, but it works in the worst case scenarios. And it works in a short period of time.’”  He has seen similar results in other of his patients.

Dr. Charles Flippen, professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, agreed, stating that the change the patient experienced was, “rather impressive,” especially how long the effect has lasted. He added, “Now a large sample is necessary to draw conclusions about the benefits of diet change on migraines or chronic migraines,” as quoted by Sarah Jacoby for “Today.” 

Dr. Dawn Buse, clinical professor in the department of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York said, “There have been some recent studies suggesting that major dietary changes can reduce migraine symptoms,” according to “Today.”

“Even though we don’t know the exact mechanism for migraine, the concept of an inflammatory process as part of the underlying physiology of chronic pain has been around for decades,” explained Flippen. “So the idea that you have a diet that reduces the production of pro-inflammatory substances would fit nicely with our current understanding of migraine … It’s not purely magic that it worked.”

For the doctor, whose work has now circled the globe, the satisfaction is enormous. “I went into medicine to help people. It’s beyond gratifying that I may be helping people to take their lives back by reversing disease with the LIFE diet,” he concluded.  

And the name of the local internist who authored the study that has gone viral: my son and our own columnist, David Dunaief, MD.

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Pixabay photo

As the days get shorter and the sun sets sooner, car crashes are more common. According to the American Automobile Association, after the clocks are turned back to standard time in the fall, more incidents happen between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

AAA recently reported that in 2020 there were 33,956 animal-related crashes in the state. Suffolk County, with 1,310 animal-related incidents, was the second highest in the state, tying with Monroe and behind Orange County. After the sun sets, residents are aware that animals can dart across the street, especially deer. Their sudden appearance on roadways in the fall is a regular occurrence as it’s rutting season for the creatures. It’s the time that they mate, and they have matters on their mind other than safety. 

While the last thing any driver wants to do is hit an animal, there are other dangers to look out for after dark. Pedestrians can still be walking in the evening hours. Many people wear dark colors and are hard to spot. The problem is compounded when they aren’t carrying flashlights that would draw attention to them.

While pedestrians can take care to wear the appropriate clothing and take a flashlight or wear some type of reflective material on jackets or shirts, experts advise drivers to pay extra attention, especially on streets that are lit dimly or not at all.

In areas where deer signs are posted or while traveling in busy areas where people may be walking, it’s best to drive slowly, of course, and keep more distance than usual between your car and the one in front of you. The same advice can come in handy when leaves are wet and can cause dangerous road conditions that make it difficult to stop. If a driver finds  a deer or a pedestrian close by, or tires slipping on leaves, the best thing is not to swerve suddenly and to brake slowly.

One last note, drivers need to make sure they stay centered in the lane. Many tend to gravitate more to the side when headlights go on; however, this can place vehicles even closer to pedestrians and animals. To make sure your car is centered in the lane, try to draw an imaginary line that goes from the asphalt to the sky. Look at the level of the horizon to stay on course if you feel you are gravitating to one side.

Driving at night can be a little tricky, but with extra care we can keep ourselves and our neighbors safe. 

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Flying? Are we really flying? Well, sure, why not, right? Everyone else is flying.

Wait, then again, everyone else seems to be flying. What if one of those other people is sick? Don’t think too much about it and breathe through your nose. Oh, you can’t because the two masks you’re wearing are pinching your nose? Well, tough! 

They’re serving drinks and cookies? People have to lower their masks to eat and drink, right? So, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of mandatory masks? Look away from everyone who’s breathing. Yeah, that’ll help.

Okay, finally, we’re on the ground. 

Hey, this is a nice campus. The sidewalks are packed and filled with so much energy, not all of which is positive.

“Why are all these $#@! parents here this weekend? I have several tests and I don’t need them all staring at me!”

That girl is sharing her academic anxiety with her friend and anyone else within 100 feet of her. Subtle, real subtle! Tempted as I am to let her know that parents, likely including her own, make this sometimes miserable experience possible, I refrain. She might be my son’s current or future friend.

I ask two students for the location of a building. The first shrugs and points me in the wrong direction and the second nearly draws a map. Okay, one for two.

I sit just in time for the start of a talk by successful alumni, who connect their careers to the lessons they learned at school. Clever marketing! Other parents chuckle at the jokes. I imagine these parents as college students. In my mind, the presenters onstage become Broadway performers. Each of the two men and two women, which I presume is a well-planned balance of genders, does his or her rendition of “how I succeeded,” with the subtext, just feet from the school president, of, “keep paying those tuitions!”

When the session ends, the phone rings. It’s my son! He’s strolling across a lawn. Wait, is that really him? Much as I want to run over and squeeze him, I play it cool, congratulating myself on my impulse control. Well done, Dan. You haven’t embarrassed him so far, but the weekend is young yet, even if you are not. He adjusts his hair, a move I’ve seen him and almost all his friends do frequently, even while running back and forth on a basketball court. What’s with all the hair adjustment? I quietly ask for permission to hug him. Yay! He agrees. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and fight the urge to pick him up, which is probably best for my back.

As we head to his dorm, he tells me he hasn’t done laundry in nine days. I don’t know whether that’s a hint, as in, “Dad, while you’re here…” or a statement of fact.

We part company and I learn about the evolving world of the commercialization of college athletes, who can use their name, image and likeness to make money. He’s listening to a psychology lecture about, who else, Sigmund Freud.

At a football game, I wonder how it can be this cold in Louisiana. Aren’t we in the deep south? We leave before it’s over, waiting in the cool air for 11 minutes for an expensive Uber — they must know it’s parents weekend — to take two families who are heading back to the same hotel.

10 pm. Who eats this late? I’m usually half way to sleep by now. My older brother is undoubtedly already in REM sleep. My stomach is going to hate this. Shut up stomach!

Looking around the table at these families, one thing is clear: these parents adore their children.

This is part of the story of how these boys got here and, hopefully, will help them continue to learn lessons, like how to dress for a cold football game and how to make reservations in advance before a busy parents weekend so we can eat earlier.

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Pixabay photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

Talk about mixed emotions. That’s what we feel when we are driving along and suddenly see a deer running out from among the trees. They are beautiful and graceful animals, and we stop the car and point them out to our small children in the back seat, who are thrilled at the sighting, perhaps recalling Bambi. But there is a lot more to the deer story here in suburbia. 

Long Island is home to more than 20,000 white-tailed deer, and that number has been exploding because there haven’t been many threats — until now. As long as they could find enough food and survive particularly harsh winters, the occasional highway collision and the short hunting season, they were largely untroubled. 

However, they have been a nuisance to residents because they devour flowers and vegetable gardens. And while they can be the innocent carriers of an infected tick, whose bite causes the miserable Lyme disease, they are gentle enough souls who leap out of sight as humans approach.

Now it turns out that they may be a more serious problem to us. A new study in Iowa found that the deer seem to be contracting the coronavirus from humans and spreading it to one another. This means the deer could become a reservoir for deadly mutations of the virus that could then possibly be passed back to humans. In that event, another vaccine would have to be developed to target the new variant in much the same way as flu shots are modified from year to year. 

Researchers were astonished at how widespread the infection was among the deer population there, estimated at 80%. Deer hunters and others who handle deer (as road kill) are being urged to take precautions to avoid transmission, like wearing rubber gloves and a mask.

Researchers don’t know exactly how the deer get infected by humans, but they suggest it might occur when people in Iowa feed deer in their backyards, or through sewage discharges or anything partially chewed by an infected human, like a “splotch of chewing tobacco” that then might be licked by a deer. 

The study of the deer was led by veterinary microbiologists from Penn State, according to an article in The New York Times on November 9, and they were able to make their analysis by examining the lymph nodes of dead deer. But they have not yet been able to determine whether the animals were sickened by the pathogen. They also are going to examine other wild animals, especially mice, that live in close proximity to humans, to see if they too might carry the virus. 

There is well established research that shows some pathogens do move back and forth between animals and humans, including those that cause yellow fever and West Nile. And we do know our dogs and cats can get COVID-19.

Also in the news is something called epizootic hemorrhagic disease, transmitted by the EHD virus that can kill deer within 36 hours of infection. This often-fatal disease is transmitted by biting midges. We call them “no-see-ums.” Deer do not catch it from each other, nor can humans be infected by either deer or midges. But stricken deer bleed to death, especially in late summer and early fall when midges are abundant.

While there is no treatment for EHD, the first frost kills the midges, ending the outbreak. The virus was first confirmed in New York in 2007 with small outbreaks in the state’s northern counties, according to Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. By 2020, the affected deer were found in the lower Hudson Valley, in other states along the eastern United States, and also in zoos.

“The dead deer do not serve as a source of infection for other animals because the virus is not long lived in dead animals,” according to the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab. Suffolk County has 139 cases reported and 8 confirmed as of last week.

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Colin Powell. Stock photo

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.”

Those were the words of respected military and government figure, former Secretary of State Colin Powell (R), who passed away Oct. 18 as a result of COVID-19 complications amid a cancer battle. A leader who reached the peak of his military career, he grew up with humble roots. Born on April 5, 1937, in Harlem to Jamaican immigrants, Powell lived within the difficult surroundings of South Bronx. As a young man, he witnessed a great deal of crime, drugs and a lack of opportunity within this part of New York City. Later in life, Powell served as a key spokesperson for a national mentoring organization that helped children who lived within at-risk areas to reach their fullest potential.  

Graduating high school, Powell enrolled with City College of New York, where he was accepted into the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Right away, he was drawn to the military discipline, liked wearing a distinctive uniform and performed well within an early team setting. Powell attained the rank of cadet colonel and led the drill and ceremony team for his college’s military program. By 1958, he graduated college and began his long and distinctive career within the Army. 

Powell served with distinction on two tours of duty in Vietnam from 1962-63 and 1968-69. He saw the start of the escalation of the war in Southeast Asia, and was present for the Tet Offensive. He observed the protests that were organized against the American government’s support of the war. Wounded twice, he saved two other soldiers after a helicopter crash. 

He was highly decorated, including the Purple Heart, for his combat and leadership in South Vietnam.

This officer from the mean streets of South Bronx began his climb through a series of political jobs that were tied to the military. While he was a combat veteran, it was perceived by his superiors that he had the ability to guide the armed forces during times of peace and war. Powell was respected for his calm and confident approach which was easy to follow. He attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and gained his master’s degree at George Washington University. 

After being promoted to major, he won a White House Fellowship and was assigned to the Office of Management and Budget during the administration of President Richard Nixon (R). By 1979, Powell began his rise within senior leadership.

Powell’s education, training and experience prepared him well for senior military and government positions. This climb of promotions and responsibilities was evident when he advised former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger (R). By 1987, Powell became national security adviser for President Ronald Reagan (R). 

With Powell being a combat veteran, it was no surprise that he would eventually command the armed forces during times of peace and war. He was commander of Army Forces Command during the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall in 1989 and was now a four-star general. In October of that year, President George H. W. Bush (R) appointed Powell as the first African American officer to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the Department of Defense. 

Powell led the military during the invasion of Panama in December 1989 through January 1990 to depose its leader, Manuel Noriega. This strategically located country between North America and South America dealt drugs, and the United States feared for the stability of the Panama Canal. American soldiers quickly took over the country, deposed Noriega and demonstrated the willingness of the U.S. government to intervene within Latin American affairs. Powell also oversaw the beginning operations of the U.S. military intervention in Somalia. The hope was the U.S. could bring humanitarian aid, comfort, food and stability to this strategic but troubled East African nation that was in the midst of a civil war.

Persian Gulf War

Perhaps within his career, the strongest role that Powell oversaw was the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91. Under its president, Saddam Hussein, Iraq invaded its neighboring oil-rich nation, Kuwait, and quickly overran its forces, taking control of the small country on the Persian Gulf. Hussein had the fourth largest military in the world and there were the concerns that he would invade Saudi Arabia with its vast oil reserves. Under the direction of Bush, American soldiers were quickly sent to Saudi Arabia to protect the kingdom under the name of Operation Desert Shield. 

Usually standing next to Bush, Powell had a direct and easy approach toward identifying the military objectives of the United States and the growing coalition of foreign military forces. For several months, he worked with nations around the world, including those Arabic countries from the Middle East to thwart the tyranny of Hussein. Before the land war started, there were some 750,000 coalition forces, with the United States as the most dominant partner with 540,000 armed forces, many stationed in Saudi Arabia.  

At first, Bush hoped that air power would be enough to dislodge the Iraqi army, without committing a large amount of soldiers. The president feared excessive casualties through the strength of the Iraqi army and its known use of biological and chemical weapons. Powell understood the concerns of Bush, but he was tasked with creating a plan that would succeed in ending this conflict and restoring the previous leadership of Kuwait. Looking at the president, Powell with Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf at his side outlined the plans.

Powell provided Schwarzkopf with abundant resources that comprised a superior military force created within the post-Cold War world. In the background, the former Soviet leaders must have openly wondered how they would have fared within a conventional war against the United States and the major nations of the West. 

At the head of this massive force was Powell and many other senior military figures who wanted to gain a victory in order to preserve peace in this region and to also end the negative stigma over the American loss of the Vietnam War. Many of these officers were older leaders who had served in Vietnam, and were pleased to oppose the Iraqi military. 

Always a firm figure, Powell was the architect of a military force that was transported thousands of miles away and equipped for desert warfare. After several long months of waiting, the coalition was poised to move into Kuwait and Southern Iraq. 

The Allied air war destroyed the Iraqi air force, tanks, troops and Scud missile sites which targeted Saudi Arabia and Israel. That Thanksgiving, Bush, a former aviator of World War II in the Pacific, and Powell traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet Schwarzkopf.  

After the holidays, time ran out for Hussein who refused to pull out of Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm began Jan. 17, 1991, through the roots of the plans that Powell and Schwarzkopf created to defeat the well-entrenched enemy. American armor and aircraft “blitzkrieged” Iraqi positions in Kuwait and Southern Iraq. Aggressively, they cut off and destroyed any chance of the Iraqis from being resupplied, and prevented an easy retreat away from the fighting. Inside of three days, the war was over. The Iraqi forces fled, were captured and killed during this short, but intense war.  

And so Powell guided these operations that successfully obliterated the presence of Iraq in Kuwait. This local hero from meager beginnings did not attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. However, he often saw many younger officers and soldiers from the inner cities who reminded him of his own background. The immense American strength during the Persian Gulf War shocked our friends and foes toward the swift resolve of this country to carry out large-scale fighting.

Secretary of state

Retiring from the military in 1993, Powell soon joined the Republican Party, and later served as the first African American secretary of state from 2001 to 2005 for President George W. Bush (R). 

Powell made the controversial case which tried to persuade Americans that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after 9/11. As in the military, Powell was respected by his foreign counterparts as a secretary of state directing American foreign policy overseas. He went against the Republicans in 2008 to endorse the election of the first Black president, Barack Obama (D).

A man who positively operated in the background, Powell could be considered to be this generation’s equivalent of Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks and Hank Aaron. Through his regular approach, Powell broke the color barrier through his military and political accomplishments. And within his many decades in uniform, he was one of the most trusted American military and government leaders representing the strength of this nation. Powell passed away at age 84, and is survived by his wife Alma and three children.

Rich Acritelli is a social studies teacher at Rocky Point High School and an adjunct professor of American history at Suffolk County Community College.

Rocky Point High School students Giana Imeidopf, Sean Hamilton and Zachary Gentile helped with this article.

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A living room in one of the Overbay apartments in Port Jefferson. Photo from the Northwind Group

Throughout the last few weeks, we have been listening to what different candidates have to say when it comes to revitalization and development of our towns. 

One of the biggest taglines of most elected officials is that they “want to keep young people on Long Island.”

That’s great, and young people appreciate the sentiment, but what many don’t realize is the stresses it takes to buy a house in today’s market. 

Most young people — such as postgraduate professionals — would love to buy their own place at 24 or 25. Unfortunately, many cannot and instead choose to rent as a temporary solution.

While there are mother/daughter suites across Long Island, and plenty of accessory apartments that people utilize, legal and illegal, there are other options popping up from Huntington to Selden — larger apartment complexes, such as the ones built and being built alongside local train stations. 

These developments have been instrumental in keeping young people in our area because, in many cases, the couple fall in love with the town and then proceed to buy a house there. The apartments are simply starter homes to give these new working professionals the freedoms they need to grow up.

A big argument that comes out of the development of different areas is that it makes the place “too urban.” While these complexes bring in more people — but not many — they are just adding a bit to an already developed community. 

Take Huntington village or Port Jefferson — these two areas are already considered downtowns. Adding apartments to a place that resembles a small city isn’t completely out of the ordinary. 

Embracing the development where appropriate can be good for our communities. It can help our children and our neighbors start their own lives. It may look a little different than 30 years ago, but this is the new normal.

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Have you ever watched someone who was cheering for their team at a sporting event?

Aside from the potential enormous and mindless consumption of calories in the form of hot dogs, chips and beverages, superfans scream at the players, tilt their heads when they want a ball to move in a particular direction, or beg a higher power to help their player outperform people on the other team whose fans are pleading for the opposite outcome.

As fans, we have little control over the result of a game, especially if we’re watching it on television. Sure, home field advantage likely helps some teams and players, as fans urging their favorites on, standing and shouting at the tops of their lungs could inspire athletes to raise their level of play.

But, really, all of that pleading, begging and cheering into the ether or at the blinking lights on our screens gives us the illusion of control, as if we have some way to influence games.

We generally don’t accept or give up control because we like to think that, somewhere, somehow, our wishes, goals and desires mean something to a deity, a guardian angel, or a fairy godmother. To be human is to hope to control the uncontrollable.

Give me the inspiration to pick the right lotto numbers, please! Let me ride the subway with my future spouse. Keep me from hitting the curb on my driver’s test!

Millions of Americans sit each night with a remote control in their hands, surfing channels, changing the volume and traveling, without getting up from the couch, from a program about ospreys to a fictional story about a female secretary of state who becomes an embattled president. We sometimes revel in the excitement that comes at the point that teeters between control and a lack of control. When we’re young, we ride a bike with both hands. At some point, we take one hand off the bike. Eventually, we learn to balance the bike with no hands, as we glide down the street with our hands on our hips or across our chest.

In our entertainment, we imagine people who have higher levels of control, like wizards with wands or superheroes who use the force to move objects.

When we become parents, we realize the unbelievable joy and fear that comes from trying to control/ help/ protect and direct the uncontrollable.

When our children are in their infancy, we might determine where they go and what they wear, but we generally can’t control the noises they make, even by finding and replacing their pacifiers. These noises are their way of preparing us for the limited control we have as they age.

They make numerous choices, some of which we feel might not be in their longer term best interest. We can see the bigger picture, which can be as simple as recognizing that taking eight classes while working part time at night and joining the marching band is likely creating an  unsustainable schedule. We know how important the basics — sleeping, eating, exercising — are to their lives, even if they make impulse driven choices.

One of the hardest parts of parenting may be knowing when to give them the space and opportunity to make decisions for themselves and to encourage them to learn from their choices.

Parents are lifetime fans of their children, supporting and encouraging them, leaning to the left to keep a ball in play, to the right to keep it out of a goal, or higher when we want their voices to hit the highest notes in their range during a performance of “West Side Story.”

It’s no wonder so many parents are exhausted and exhilarated after a big moment in their children’s lives: we might not have done anything but sit in a seat and clap our hands, but we tried, from a distance and in our own way, to control the uncontrollable.

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METRO photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

One hundred years ago, it was the “Roaring Twenties.”

The Flappers were the icons then. They were women who shortened their skirts and shortened their hair. They wore makeup and looser clothing, smoked cigarettes in public, drank alcohol, drove cars, and otherwise reveled in what would have been considered unacceptable behavior in the past.

Oh, and then there was a more liberal attitude toward sexual behavior. It was, in a couple of words, more relaxed. Or so they say.

It seemed that after the carnage and sacrifices of World War I, the goal was to have fun. The Great War had dramatically changed lives, bringing women for the first time into the factories to replace the men, forcing them to manage the farms, making them the breadwinners on a national scale. They won the right to vote. When the men returned, they carried with them from across the Atlantic some of European culture and broader horizons.

It was a time of positivity, of innovation. A key word was “Modern.” Labor saving devices were invented, like the washing machine and vacuum cleaner. The radio came into its own and into living rooms. Thanks to the Ford Model T at $260 in 1924, cars became affordable, offering more freedoms. Credit became cheap, and the economy surged. Presidents Harding and Coolidge issued tax cuts; the stock market took off; people flocked to the cities where they drank, danced new dances, thrilled to jazz and partied. With prohibition came the bootleggers, making it all more exciting. This also gave birth to organized crime figures like Chicago’s Al Capone. By the end of the decade, it was estimated that three-quarters of Americans went to the movies every week. F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the decade in his novels.

Life was not all fun, however. An anti-Communist “Red Scare” gave rise to nativism and anti-immigration movements. Quotas were set that limited Eastern Europeans and Asians in favor of Northern Europeans and Brits. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Southern countryside to Northern cities was seen as a threat and gave a couple of million people impetus to join the Ku Klux Klan by the middle of the decade. Discriminatory hiring and housing practices led to urban ghettos. The horrific Tulsa Race Massacre took place in 1921. The NAACP moved into higher gear. Finally, in 1928, the first African American congressman since Reconstruction was elected to the House from Chicago.

There was what historians call a “cultural Civil War” as well. This consisted of city-dwellers versus small town residents, Protestants versus Catholics, Blacks versus whites and “New Women” versus those with old-fashioned family values.

Many of these themes are repeated a century later. Women, of course, are still working toward a more equitable playing field in the workplace and in politics. Our society has become more liberal, embracing gay marriage, for example, and health care reform. Connectivity, thanks to the internet and social media, defines us in a much more sophisticated, two-way fashion than the radio did. And technology innovation advances at a faster speed than most of us can catch up. Just as the assembly line revolutionized the production of cars, electrically powered self-driving vehicles are taking to the road. While indoor plumbing was replacing outhouses, today’s toilets can be connected to the internet and send up-to-the-minute diagnostic urine samples to physicians.

Just as there were threats then, we see them now. Will artificial intelligence or AI put those with lower skills out of work? There are still outcries against immigrants, attributing fears to them from COVID to taking away jobs. Climate change is a more powerful catalyst for environmental protection than Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. The stock market and the economy have reached unimaginable heights. And while nationalist groups are longing for the imagined glorious past, activists are working toward national ideals that have never quite been realized.

We are just emerging from a kind of world war a century later, the villainous COVID-19 pandemic. How will our decade be named?

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Rich Schaffer, head of the Suffolk County Democratic Committee, congratulates Errol Toulon Jr. on his win. Photo by Rita J. Egan

Tuesday was a busy night where candidates across Long Island came together to wait for the 2021 election results. 

TBR News Media spent the last month interviewing local officials and their opponents on the ballots, listening and reporting on what they can bring to the table if reelected or elected.

We congratulate the winners of this year’s races, and we are looking forward to working alongside them. 

But there is one thing that concerned us as our reporters waited to hear the announcements of both parties late Tuesday night. 

Several candidates did not actively campaign this time around, including for example William Amato who ran on the Republican ticket against Errol Toulon Jr. (D) for his seat as the Suffolk County sheriff.

Toulon, who has been county sheriff since 2017, was declared winner with 141,931 votes (54.30%). Amato somehow came close with 119,357 (45.67%).

Interesting for someone who never showed his face at any debate or public outing. 

It seems as though voters just went down the row for whatever party they chose. Did anyone take the time out to research which candidate would actually be there for their constituents? 

We know that this speaks more of what’s going on in the nation than about the candidates themselves. We understand the political divide and we don’t blame anyone for their beliefs. 

But it’s disappointing to think that someone who had no intention of actively being there throughout the campaign could have won such an important position. 

Would Amato have been ready to serve if he had won those extra few thousand votes? 

We encourage voters to do their part — submitting a ballot is just part of it. Read your local news, listen to debates and educate yourselves on what is going on in your community. Instead of voting for someone who may not actually be qualified, it’s important to understand who’s behind the name and what they can bring to the table.

Remember, if you don’t like your choices in a race, you don’t have to vote for anyone in that column on your ballot. Send a message to local political committees that asks for strong candidates who are ready to serve, instead of rubber stamping someone who just happens to belong to the same party as you.

Elected officials have difficult work to do, and if someone isn’t showing up when it comes time to campaign, that’s not a good sign.

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