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Times of Middle Country

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Photo from Staller Center Facebook

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief,
Publisher

It may be summer, but the livin’ certainly hasn’t been easy. Events have been like rapid tidal waves breaking against the news shore. First came the fumbling performance by President Biden in his televised debate with ex-President Trump. Just as we were coming to some sort of terms with that, there was an assassination attempt on Trump’s life, with a bullet from a high powered rifle nicking his right earlobe as he began his speech at a rally in Pennsylvania. Millions of dollars then poured into his campaign chest. 

Next came Biden’s withdrawal, after his adamant refusal to do so, from running for re-election. That was quickly followed by Vice President Kamala Harris announcing her bid for the presidency a mere 105 days before the vote. She immediately garnered support from many other Dems and a rapid accumulation of millions of campaign dollars. Speculation about who her vice presidential choice might be now dominates the news. Somewhere in the midst of those events was the GOP National Convention and the announcement of JD Vance as Trump’s running mate.

It’s been a remarkable past month, and as the news has see-sawed between the parties, many have reacted with anxiety. I can suggest an antidote.

Go see the nightly selection of movies at the Stony Brook Film Festival at the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University. This year is the 29th such offering, and you can judge what Alan Inkles, the director, and his talented staff call “the best in new and independent films.” It is a contest, and we, the audience, decide the winners. There were initially over 2000 entries that the staffers pared down, and until it ends Saturday night, there is still time for enjoying the program. Tonight and tomorrow will feature two movies, each preceded by a short. Saturday, July 27, the closing night, there will be one short, one full length movie and then a presentation of awards to the winners.

To me, movies are magic carpets that take us away from our lives to other worlds. We meet new people in different situations, whose stories may make us laugh or tear up, and we go back home somehow aired out. One we saw was “The Strangers’ Case,” a moving story about the terrified society enduring the Syrian Civil War, as Assad’s forces want to squelch the rebels, and the desperate people who try to flee. We view their plight as they become refugees in another country, strangers in a strange land, risking their lives on rubber rafts over open ocean to get there.

The convenience of attending this festival is top notch. Parking in the adjoining garage is ample and free, and the drive to the Center and back home takes mere minutes and is usually without traffic. Admission is reasonable, and there is pleasure in experiencing the movie with neighbors as a community. And, as in all good movie theaters, snacks are sold in the lobby. I even enjoyed my favorite ice cream pop, an almond-crusted coffee toffee delight, one night during intermission.

Another way to escape the inevitable current events stress is with immersion in a family visit. That, of course, assumes we don’t start talking politics at the dinner table. It just so happens that two of my sons have birthdays two days apart and right around the time the Film Festival opens, and so we get a double distraction from the news. They come, with my daughters-in-law, and we celebrate together.

Each of us has our particular task. One of my daughters-in-law decorates the house with Happy Birthday banners. Another makes her fluffy chocolate-covered cupcakes to host the candles. My job is to provide the food — their favorite dishes, of course — and to fulfill any specific request for a birthday cake. This year’s star selection was a banana cream pie. We happily endured the annual sugar rush that ensued.

As you might guess, after the family leaves, we all go on diets.

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The circus is back in town but this time the adults will have all the fun.

Paranormal Cirque III arrives at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove from August 1 to 4 featuring a brand new show for mature audiences.

The circus will once again be under the big tent in the mall’s parking lot.

According to the press release, the show is not for the faint of heart, featuring “Acrobats of the Air, Illusionists, freaks, mysterious creatures and all the elements that make one think of a “normal” Circus but that of normal has very little,” all under a black and red Clown Castle tent.

A combination of theater, circus and cabaret with a European flare and spine-tingling soundtrack, the new show has “breathtaking implications always poised between fun and the most uninhibited fear that will transport you to a dark world inhabited by creatures with incredible circus art abilities. A crazy yet fun fusion between Circus, theatre, and cabaret in perfect harmony with the evolution of a show that brings you back to when we dream … and when we had nightmares and fantasies. Scare, encompass, amuse and surprise are the ingredients for a mixture of emotions impossible to forget. This is truly a Paranormal experience like no other,” read the release.

The innovative horror story features different shades of sexy and an incomparable storyline, the press release explains. Audiences can fall into a parallel world and end up surrounded by monstrous creatures with hidden talents with the circus arts. A few of the circus arts on display in this new production include the Wheel of Death, mystifying MAGIC, and more.

Tickets range from $20 to $60 depending on availability. No one under age 13 will be admitted to the show. Guests aged 13 – 17 must be accompanied by an adult. This show has adult language and material.

The box office opens on-site on Tuesday the week of the show. Box office hours on non-show days is 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and on show days, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

Shows are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, and 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Sunday. To order, click here or visit www.paranormalcirque.com.

To see a preview of the show, click here.

 

 

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Big Lots

Big Lots has announced plans to close up to 40 stores by the end of this year and two Long Island locations are on the chopping block.The Centereach location at 231 Centereach Mall and the Carle Place location at 260 Voice Road are slated for closure and currently have sales of up to 20% off.

The announcement, made in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said the discount retailer would be shuttering 35 to 40 stores as its financials worsen in a tough consumer market. The company currently operates over 1,400 stores nationwide. The other five locations on Long Island — Bay Shore, West Babylon, Hicksville, Copiague and the newly opened store in Holbrook — appear to be safe for now.

“In 2024, the U.S. economy has continued to face macroeconomic challenges including elevated inflation, which has adversely impacted the buying power of our customers,” the filing from Big Lots said. According to the financial disclosure, sales dropped 10.2% between the first quarters of 2023 and 2024, equating to a loss of about $114.5 million.

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Social media applications. Pixabay photo

By Toni-Elena Gallo

According to News12 Long Island, thirteen Long Island school districts are suing social media companies Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook, citing increased mental health concerns among students.

South Huntington, Kings Park and Port Jefferson are just three of the school districts taking part in the class-action lawsuit.

South Huntington Union Free School District superintendent, Vito D’Elia, commented on his school district’s decision to join the lawsuit in a notice on the district’s website, saying, “We know the damage it’s doing to our students. We see it. We’re dealing with it. We see students that are more focused on their interactions on social media as opposed to their education. And, the ramifications are extremely dangerous.”

This stance was, recently, corroborated by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, when he said that “it is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms,” citing found evidence that more than three hours per day on social media can double the risk of poor mental health outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Social media use is a major component of the vast majority of adolescents’ lives. According to data obtained by Pew Research Center in 2022, up to 95% of youth, ages 13 to 17, use at least one social media platform, and more than a third use social media “almost constantly.”

A prime motive for joining the lawsuit is hiked mental health service costs, as students have been showing symptoms of internet overexposure.

South Huntington school district is seeking increased funding to employ more mental health professionals, as well as implement “social emotional learning lessons more,” including assemblies and workshops, on safe digital use.

Social media harm to students’ psyches has forced the school district to revamp their curriculum in recent years, with teachers having to focus on things “other than their actual lesson plans,” explained South Huntington Board of Education president, Nicholas Ciappetta, who added that the board’s decision to join the lawsuit was unanimous.

“There are costs associated with [our plans],” he said.

The lawsuit is also asking for the social media companies to implement appropriate and stricter safeguards including improved age verification, parental notification upon sign-up, improved management of age appropriate content and the design of their algorithms.

Ciappetta did add that the purpose of social media is not completely negative, or in vain.

“We’re not trashing social media,” he said. “[The school district] certainly uses it as a way of getting our message out. But if you look at any of the platforms, there’s a lot of negativity on there. And I think the negative always gets amplified. So you need a little more positivity and you need a little more kindness. And that’s something that the social media companies can invest in too. They can partner with us to promote that message.”

Joining the lawsuit comes at no cost to the school districts. Lawyers taking on this case will get a percentage of a monetary recovery, if any, that comes out of this legal challenge.

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File photo by Raymond Janis

America’s ‘war on opioids’

Fifteen years ago, a local 13-year-old boy died on his couch after overdosing from opioids. It was a shock to our community, and it set the ominous precedent for the opioid epidemic that has ravaged our country. As I often ask, why is it taking so long to stop the ever-increasing overdose deaths? Americans are dying inside our borders thanks to our adversaries who are funneling deadly drugs that have killed more Americans than multiple U.S. wars. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than 1 million Americans have died from opioid overdoses. In 2023, over 100,000 Americans died of overdoses, including an estimated 366 from the powerful opioid fentanyl in Suffolk County. 

As the former Suffolk County Addiction Prevention and Support Advisory Panel chair, I can tell you firsthand that the “war on opioids” is not even close to being over, even as we see a slight decline in death rates. We need to see this epidemic as a real war that our adversaries are waging against us and use military force to stop the needless deaths of so many of our fellow Americans. Those actions include sanctions on China, a hard crackdown on drug cartels and the border, and a united front throughout this country to address the carnage of the drug epidemic. 

That means putting some of the proposed $850 billion in military spending toward our own internal “war on opioids.” The Supreme Court recently ruled that the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma that produces OxyContin, cannot be shielded from liability. This decision holds the Sacklers accountable, however it also puts $6 billion in settlement funding, targeted to address the opioid epidemic, in jeopardy.

Let’s stop wasting time over political bashing and focus on what we need to do to make our country stronger and safer. We can end this war by uniting and finding effective strategies to identify drug dealers through law enforcement, providing services for those who need addiction and mental health support, and educating our kids on the dangers of opioids.

So much money has been made in legal and illegal opioid drug sales, yet no money can replace the loved ones we’ve lost who battled addiction and did not know they were casualties of America’s “war on opioids.” It’s time to end this war!

Sarah Anker

Former Suffolk County legislator and chair of Suffolk County’s Addiction Prevention and Support Advisory Panel. Current NYS Senate District 1 Democratic candidate.

A statement by Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey 

Violence has no place in our political process, whether in our capitols or on the campaign trail. We are thankful that former President Trump was not seriously harmed and we send our prayers to the loved ones of the rally spectators who were apparent victims of this callous assassination attempt. Kudos for the bravery and quick response of the Secret Service and members of law enforcement.

Kevin McCaffrey

Suffolk County Legislature

A statement from Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine

Hatred and acts of violence toward an elected official or candidate for office regardless of political affiliation have no place in this country. As Americans, we stand united on the principles that make our country strong. While there are no reported threats in Suffolk County at this time, my office will continue to monitor the situation.

Ed Romaine

Suffolk County Executive

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An aedes albopictus mosquito, better known as the Asian tiger mosquito. Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Mosquitoes can be much more than a nuisance as they search for their next blood meal: they can also pass along potentially dangerous viruses.

Long considered a tropical and subtropical health threat, dengue fever has reached record levels in the Americas this year. The illness has been traveling with Aedes mosquitoes that have been moving further north amid global climate change.

As of early July, mosquitoes in Texas, Florida and California have had one of the four viruses associated with the disease. Through early July, Florida reported 10 cases from local spread, according to an American Medical Association update.

Suffolk County residents who have traveled into areas that have dengue have contracted the illness, which has symptoms that are similar to the flu, such as high fever, headaches, body aches, nausea, vomiting and a rash.

Suffolk County has reported 12 cases of travel-related dengue so far through early July, which is more than all of last year and is the highest level since 2013, when 13 cases were reported for the entire year.

“We do have a fair amount of concern with global warming,” said Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. “Even if people do not believe in it, mosquitoes have changed where they’re located. There is concern that the mosquitoes” will continue their trek farther north.

Suffolk County is one of many places throughout the country and the Americas that have reported an increase in cases for a disease for which residents have generally had no exposure and, as a result, no natural immunity.

New York State Department of Health alerted medial professionals to consider dengue as a diagnosis if people who are sick have a travel history and related symptoms, Dr. Gregson Pigott, Suffolk County Health Commissioner, explained in an email.

Symptoms of dengue typically begin within two weeks of being bitten by an infected mosquito.

From January 1 through June 24, countries in the Americas reported more than 9.7 million dengue cases, twice as many as in all of 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Indeed, in Puerto Rico, infection levels climbed so high in early April that the Puerto Rico Health Department declared a public health emergency.

While a majority of dengue infections are asymptomatic or produce mild illnesses, the virus can cause severe cases and can be fatal, according to the World Health Organization.

“Anyone who lives in or travels to an area with risk of dengue is at risk for infection,” Pigott explained. “Children and those who are elderly are at higher risk for serious illness.”

People with dengue typically receive supportive care, which includes rest, pain medications and fluids.

Protection

Health professionals urged people traveling to areas with dengue to take a number of steps to protect themselves.

EPA-registered insect repellents, coupled with loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts and pants can keep mosquitoes away.

Additionally, people can treat their clothing and gear, including hats, shoes and socks, with permethrin.

“Don’t be around standing water, which is a wonderful place for mosquitoes to breed,” advised Nachman.

In Suffolk County, the arthropod-borne disease lab collects mosquitoes and sends them to the New York State Department of Health lab in Wadsworth, New York. Asian tiger mosquitoes, which have carried dengue, zika and chikungunya viruses, have been found in Suffolk County, Pigott added.

“No samples of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes that have been sent to the lab have tested positive for those viruses,” Pigott wrote.

While health professionals are on the lookout for potential cases of dengue among residents who have traveled, they are more concerned currently with West Nile virus, which people can contract locally.

Other local illnesses

As for illnesses in the county, Nachman has seen patients who have been battling a collection of viruses, including enteroviruses and Covid.

Residents who are staying around Long Island should continue to be careful about ticks that can carry Lyme disease. Anyone who is going hiking should consider long pants and long sleeves, as well as dirt on their clothing.

“If you take your kids out to hike, check them and you for ticks,” said Nachman.

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Photo from Unsplash/David Close

One of the many attractions of Long Island is access to our beautiful beaches. As we take full advantage of our island’s coasts in this hot weather, it is important to stay informed on the risks of the ocean. 

While deaths from shark attacks are uncommon — there were only two recorded fatalities nationally caused by a shark in 2023 — Long Island has seen an uptick in shark bites in recent years. Here, at least five people were bitten by sharks in 2023 and eight bites were recorded in 2022. 

Robert Moses State Park was a popular spot for sharks last summer with several bites and multiple sightings. Several of the bites occurred during the Fourth of July weekend, so while it’s possible more sharks may be visiting our coast, there was likely an uncommonly large number of people at the beach for the holiday, and therefore more people who were ignorant of shark safety. 

This summer, it is important to prepare for what the increased number of bites in the last two years have shown us: that we share the water with sharks. 

Experts trace the increase to the stabilization of endangered shark species, such as the sandbar shark, as well as warming water temperatures that are attracting prey closer to the shores. 

Luckily, there are many ways to prepare ourselves before plunging into potentially dangerous environments. 

An attack can be prevented by staying up to date on sightings and checking the state of the water. Last year, Robert Moses State Park prohibited swimming after a shark sighting. However, you don’t always have to wait for officials to take action in order to stay safe. 

Before swimming, it is helpful to observe the water yourself, making note of any schools of fish, dolphins and seabirds — signs that a shark could be nearby. Often, being alert to your surroundings is the primary way you can protect yourself. 

If the coast is clear and you choose to swim, stay with other swimmers and in the line of sight of a lifeguard. Avoid swimming when sharks are most active, at dawn or after dusk. To further protect yourself, don’t wear shiny jewelry — the sheen resembles the shimmer of fish scales — or bright colors.

Lifeguards and other officials have taken steps to diminish the danger, such as monitoring beaches with drones, patrolling the area and carrying bite-specific first-aid materials. 

The sharks visiting Long Island are primarily nonaggressive and on the smaller side. If you are in the water and see a shark, try to maintain eye contact. 

Remember, attacks occur when sharks mistake a person or surfboard for prey. They aren’t vengeful, malicious creatures as movies like “Jaws” might suggest, but an essential part of the ecosystem of the ocean. In fact, biologists and experts see an increase in sharks as a good sign that the ecosystem is stabilizing after years of overfishing.

 Swim safely this summer, keeping in mind that sharks, too, love our Long Island beaches. 

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A sand tiger shark, a common species that lives and feeds in coastal New York area waters. Photo courtesy Wildlife Conservation Society

By Sabrina Artusa

“Shark Week” originated as a Discovery Channel television program in 1988, appealing to the public’s long-standing curiosity of one of the ocean’s fiercest predators. Thirty-six years later, it remains one of the most popular programs, as well as the longest-running cable television event. It’s a testament to America’s fascination with these exotic fish.

Over time, the program has tended to succumb to fearmongering and docufiction — a combination of documentary and fiction — against these largely misunderstood fish. As a result, episodes have gravitated toward harrowing depictions of sharks rather than the research-backed realities of these creatures. Contrary to what episodes such as “Mystery of the Black Demon Shark,” and “Air Jaws: Fins of Fury” suggest, sharks aren’t malevolent creatures, but rather a necessary part of our ocean’s ecosystem.

Last year over 20 million people tuned into the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” event, so here is a little bit of clarity regarding the unique place of sharks on our Island’s shores.

Sharks on Long Island

Sharks are often on the minds of beach-loving Long Islanders due to a wide variety of visiting sharks, such as the dusky shark, the sand tiger shark, the white shark and the sandbar shark. The New York Police Department captured the first shark sighting of this summer season using drone footage. The sharks were seen off the coast of Rockaway Beach.

Sharks have been known to appear in beaches like Robert Moses State Park, Long Beach and Kismet beach on Fire Island. In the last two years, 13 people were involved in shark-related incidents. However, this isn’t cause for fear. Since the surge in shark sightings on Long Island, the NYPD and New York State Parks have implemented more thorough measures to track sharks, such as drone tracking.

A ‘hot spot’ for wildlife

Long Island, an under-researched area in regards to sharks, has optimal conditions for sharks. Their visits to our island are certainly not new, according to Oliver Shipley, Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences research assistant professor.

“In the summer the South Shore of Long Island is a hotspot of wildlife,” he said. “There is so much going on there. And it is a very productive system for all different animals, not just sharks.”

Shark research in New York began seriously 10 years ago. Stony Brook started tagging sharks for tracking purposes in 2017. In order to make scientifically sound conclusions, Shipley said SoMAS would need 10-15 years of data.

Is there an increase?

Researchers do not view the increase in sightings and incidents these past two years as an increase in the number of sharks. In truth, the numbers of sharks that exist along our coast presently are only a fraction of the numbers pre-1950s.

Shipley said that this “increase” of sharks is only an increase of people noticing them. There are more drones on the water and more people patrolling, which will result in more sightings. Indeed, five shark attacks were recorded during Independence Day weekend in 2023 — a stretch of days when there would have been more people than usual at the beach.

Some species of sharks, such as the sandbar sharks, have had dangerously low populations, leading to the species being listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species. The population’s return to a stable number could also contribute to increased sightings.

Warming temperatures could be bringing sharks up north. Shipley has noticed different animals associated with warmer habitats moving closer to Long Island — water temperatures are important for these cold-blooded creatures to regulate their body temperature — but the research assistant professor is hesitant to definitively blame climate change due to lack of data.

“It’s important to understand that this is a really complex thing that we are studying and there is not a single cause or effect scenario,” he said. “We have really poor historical data to compare to.”

“We are doing everything we can to plug the gap and find out as much as we can about this animal,” Shipley said.

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METRO photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

When our children were young, our first, primary and most important mission was to make sure they were safe and healthy.

We didn’t sit down at the beach because each of them had a tendency, like me I suppose, to head directly into the water. Sometimes, they weren’t on board with our efforts to protect them.

We would put them in a car seat and, almost instantly, they would arch their backs so far that it was impossible to strap them in.

Or we would try to apply sunscreen and they would wiggle away and giggle, as we dropped a glob of white cream on the floor or sprayed it into the air.

We made them hold our hands even when they didn’t want to touch us. Anyone who read last week’s column can understand why my children, in particular, might not want to hold my intolerably sweaty hand during the heat of the summer.

We also urged them to wear bike helmets, even though they weren’t cool, to wear mittens or gloves in the winter and to get enough sleep so they could function the next day at school or at their numerous basketball/baseball/softball/volleyball/music practices over the weekend or in the evening after a long day of listening to adults talk at them.

One day, after a particularly exciting and challenging basketball game for our son, one of his friends asked if he could bring him to a movie with his family.

“Uh, I guess so,” I shrugged, as I counted the basketballs I shoved into a mesh bag to make sure I had exactly the number the league had given me. “What movie?”

“Hunger Games,” my son’s friend said.

I looked at my wife. I’d heard that the movie was particularly violent and knew that our son, who was under nine, might struggle to make it through a PG-13 movie, particularly one that involved violence among children.

“Are you sure you want to go?” I whispered to our son, hoping that I could encourage him to do something else that evening that might not cost him and, perhaps, us some sleep.

“Daaaaddd,” he said, giving me the can’t-you-be-a-fun-dad-just-this-once look.

My wife and I locked eyes, trying to figure out if either of us should step in and suggest that we’d rather he didn’t go.

We rolled the dice, holding our breath as he jogged away from us across the gym.

We considered taking a nap before he came home, just to prepare ourselves for a restless night.

When he finally returned, he had a broad grin on his face.

“You gotta see the movie, it’s amazing,” he said.

We weren’t sure whether he was just being tough in front of his friend or if he really liked it. Each of the next eight times we asked, he never changed his answer or wavered.

That night, all of us slept well.

Fast forward to today. Our kids are watching and streaming whatever appeals to them. Somehow, one of them asked if we had seen the series “Black Mirror,” suggesting it was a modern version of “The Twilight Zone.”

The first episode, with Salma Hayek, was clever and amusing at the same time. Playing herself, Hayek was particularly funny. Psychologically, it was what we thought and expected.

Then, we watched a few more episodes that became darker and more unnerving. Both of us lost some sleep after watching scenes that exceeded our gore threshold.

We started a text chain with our children, letting them know that we liked the first one and then felt as if the program did a bait-and-switch on us, taking us in a different direction from the psychological into the painful and gory.

They instantly offered their thoughts on different episodes and what they advised was appropriate for mom and dad to watch.

Our kids sent messages like “this one is not scary” and “I think it’s safe to watch.”

At least as far as some TV programs, we’ve come full circle. We are no longer trying to offer them parental guidance, at least where movies are concerned. Maybe they can help establish a new film rating system for sensitive parents.

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Pixabay photo

By Leah S. Dunaief

Leah Dunaief,
Publisher

In some ways, the 2020s appear to be similar to the 1920s. We humans like to look for historical parallels, I think, in hopes of using the past to predict the future, futile as that might be. Call them coincidences between the two centuries, if you will, but let’s look at them and judge if history is repeating itself.

The most obvious is the raging coronavirus pandemic of this century and its resemblance to the Spanish Flu that began in 1918 and lasted into the early 1920s.The flu killed some 50 million people worldwide, with 675,000 being Americans. Covid killed 6.5 million, including 1.1 million in the United States. 

And although no plans existed for coping with a pandemic in 1918, individual cities did implement  school closings, banned public gatherings, issued quarantines and encouraged social isolation. Public health and medical advances have made huge strides, which account for the global change, although the world population has quadrupled in the last 100 years.

We can compare cultural shifts, too. Liberal views toward equality of women and minorities, drug use and sexuality blossomed then, as well as backlashes to these ideas, setting us up for issues that have followed. Marijuana became popular in what was termed “The Jazz Age,” especially among musicians and those in show business. These themes, along with their inherent tensions, are prominently with us today, even if we consider that we have made significant progress in some ways. 

Geographically, more of the population began to live in cities than on farms then, and that holds true for our cities and suburbs now. But the divide today is not so much physical as generational. Social media and video games are the provenance of the young, while older Americans still read, watch TV and film.

The stock market and the financial world are strikingly similar while a century apart. Stocks are roaring today, much as they did in the Roaring Twenties. America’s wealth more than doubled in the decade of the 1920s. But it was a time of immense economic prosperity for upper-class white American men. Most Americans, with minimal wages, only experienced income inequality. It was also a time of the one percent owning a widely disproportionate share of that wealth, some 23.9 percent. 

Sound familiar? And because the wages of the working class were not brought along with that of the wealthy, as consumers, they could not keep up their vital role. Consumers are responsible for as much as 70 percent of the economy. Depression followed. Again, today the top one percent own some 26 percent, and again income inequality is rampant.  

Then there was Prohibition. In 1920, the 18th Amendment banned the making and selling of alcohol. But alcohol didn’t simply go away. It went underground, making petty gangs who transported and sold liquor into powerful forces in the country. Fast forward 100 years and we have drug lords with the same sort of influence over society as a result of similar incredible profits. The legalization of pot is clearly an attempt to learn from the century-old Temperance Movement. The turnaround in policy toward cannabis has provided a big economic boon, as the product has made its way into fiber, food and medicine.

Technology in the 1920s was dramatic and had a profound effect on people’s lives. Fridges, vacuums, telephones, radios, electricity and automobiles changed daily living. Again, major technological innovations, coming along at an exponentially faster pace, are transforming lives today. Consider internet expansion, 5G connectivity, 3D printing and artificial intelligence among most recent debuts. A few people are amassing unprecedented wealth with these marvels. Here we go again with an ever-increasing wealth gap. Plus, both centuries saw workers worried for their job, first with industrialization and now with knowledge. Advancing technology provides miracles and threats. It is also a crucible for social unrest in both centuries.

And then there is transportation. Lindbergh crossed the ocean in 1927. We are on course to fly to Mars in 10 years. Both centuries’ 20s hosted marvels. But the 1920s set the stage for WWII. 

Are we learning from history?

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