SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Vested Interest and Self Interest Get Results

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Newsday last month ran an Associated Press story headlined: “A rising concern? After straws, balloons get more scrutiny.” I was surprised that no mention was made in the story of Suffolk County’s action against balloons. For Suffolk in 2005 passed a law prohibiting the release of 25 or more helium-filled balloons. It’s enforced by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.

How Suffolk enacted its balloon law—in the face of some odd resistance—is an important story. Indeed, a book I am writing (my seventh) starts off in its first chapter with the story to begin to illustrate a major point of the book: how vested interest, self-interest are keys to how things happen or don’t happen, no matter the economic or political system or what nation is involved. A company sells a product or a process and it might turn out to be toxic and life-threatening. But that vested interest, that self-interest will drive most companies to stick with and keep pushing their poisonous product or process. Government sets up an office, starts a project, and it might turn out to be meaningless or dangerous, but a vested interest is created and it’s hard to end what has begun. The government program is pushed on.

The Suffolk balloon story started when then County Legislator Lynne Nowick of St. James (now a Smithtown councilwoman) received a letter from several third-grade students about helium-filled balloons falling into the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound and, being mistaken for jellyfish, were ingested by sea animals which died. They urged legislative action by Suffolk. The children noted that the state of Connecticut had banned the mass release of helium-filled balloons because of the harm they cause to marine life,

Ms. Nowick conducted research and found that helium-filled balloons represent a common form of floating garbage offshore and regularly kill marine life, especially turtles. She wrote her bill prohibiting the release of 25 or more helium-filled balloons and introduced it. A legislative no-brainer, you’d figure.

But then along came something called the The Balloon Council. 

This is an organization—that still exists—based in New Jersey of manufacturers, distributors and retailers of balloons. As it states on its website—www.balloonhq.com—it was formed “to educate consumers and regulators about the wonders of…balloons.”

“At the time that TBC was established [in 1990] several state legislators were considering well-intentioned but ill-conceived laws, which would have severely limited consumers rights to obtain full employment from balloons.” The efforts of The Balloon Council “have helped curb this negative trend.” The Balloon Council notes the states that passed “balloon release bans” before it “was formed” and lists not only Connecticut but Florida, Tennessee and California. But then it has a longer list of states in which “TBC has been successful in defeating restrictions in” and this includes Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin and Hawaii,

“The Balloon Council—Affirming America’s Ongoing Love Affair with Balloons,” it trumpets at the top of its website.

Vested interest. Self-interest. And never mind the damage caused by the release of balloons and their falling into waterways.

The Balloon Council lobbied in Suffolk against Ms. Nowick’s measure.  Nevertheless, it became law. It declares that “the release of helium and other lighter-than-air balloons into the atmosphere has a deleterious effect on the environment when they inevitably deflate.” Many of these balloons “land in the ocean or Long Island Sound.”  It speaks of how “research has indicated that marine life and animals ingest these as they appear near the surface because they believe they are spotting jellyfish or other edible resources.” They then “either choke on the balloon or the balloon will form an intestinal obstruction either of which will sentence these animals and marine life to a painful death.” These balloons, further, are a “source of pollution.”

As to any need for helium-filled balloons, a Florida-based organization called Balloons Blow, which has been active since 2011, states “all released balloons…return to Earth as ugly litter….They kill countless animals [and] are also a waste of helium, a finite resource.” “Find Alternatives,” is the heading of a section on its website—www.balloonsblow.org “Balloons are not the only thing to decorate with. There are many safe, fun, and eye-catching alternatives to balloons for parties, memorials, fundraisers, and more! “

That’s another major point of my book, titled May We Choose Life—that virtually all polluting products and processes are unnecessary. There are alternatives in harmony with nature. But those with vested interest, self-interest, destroy sustainability with their lethal products and processes—and deny the harm they are causing. The balloon article in Newsday quotes the executive director of The Balloon Council as insisting that there is no proof that helium-filled balloons are causing the death of marine life.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.  

Op Ed - Israel's Unwavering Friends In America

Israel’s Unwavering Friends in America

By Perry Gershon

For decades, Democratic Party support for Israel was never questioned.  But recently, the GOP has taken up the pro-Israel cause, offering blind support while ignoring certain Israeli actions criticized by prior American governments.  Simultaneously, many Democrats have been critical of Israeli policy, even to the level of questioning the long-term bond between our countries. There is an inaccurate, but perhaps growing, perception that the Republicans are better for Israel than we are. 

As a Democratic candidate for the House in NY-1, I affirm traditional Democratic Party principles and stand in solidarity with Israel as our sole true democratic friend in the Middle East. The Democrats’ support for the Jewish State dates back to Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, and has not wavered in the 70 years since.  While Democrats are known for their “big tent” and diverse views, there are certain issues shared by all wings of the Party. Support for Israel must remain one of them.

There cannot be a wedge between Jewish American voters and our Party, and it is imperative that we as Democrats stay true to our basic principles.  As your future NY-1 congressman, I pledge to hold to the following ideals that should be representative of us all:

• Israel is our strongest ally in the region. The US must remain committed to Israel’s security and ability to defend itself. This includes the maintenance of secure and defendable borders for the Jewish state.
• Americans must unite in opposition to the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) Movement. Despite claims to the contrary by its advocates, BDS is no more than a statement of anti-Semitism under a 21^st century guise.
• Hamas is primarily responsible for the current border violence in Gaza. We must unite in absolute condemnation of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. The Hamas-initiated rocket fire from Gaza must halt.  If true peace is to be achieved in Gaza, either Hamas must abandon its violent ways and accept publicly the legitimacy of the State of Israel, or it must relax its iron-hand control of Gaza and let a new governing entity take control.
• The United States and Israel must remain committed to a true two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Without a two-state solution, Israel will lose either its Jewish identity or its democratic identity, neither of which is acceptable. If there is no entity to negotiate peace for the Palestinians, the process must wait until such entity surfaces.

None of this is new or groundbreaking, nor should it even be controversial. These are democratic principles, and as a Democrat, I have a strong personal commitment to them. 

Many may try to confuse voters by suggesting that Democrats who criticize individual policies championed by a particular coalition of the Israeli government do not support Israel. This is a specious claim. As in America, Israeli governments change. Neither Democrats who criticize Trump, nor Republicans who criticized Obama are unpatriotic, much less haters of America. Americans have criticized many of our allies’ policies for years.  Why would a different standard be applied to Israel?  

My support for Israel is rock solid. The Democratic Party’s support for Israel remains unwavering, and those within the Party who question such support are misguided and unrepresentative. I am proudly running for Congress in NY-1 as a Democrat, confident that the Democratic Party was, is, and always will be, a true friend of Israel.

 Perry Gershon is the Democratic Nominee for the House of Representatives, NY-1

I Traded Long Island Traffic For White Sand Beaches And Ended Up With Red Tide

By Stacy Altherr

Red Tide: The Struggle is Real (and Smelly)

Photo courtesy of ABC Action NewsTwo years ago, I left my home in Miller Place for the sunny west coast shores of Sarasota, Florida. I was thrilled to leave behind two-hour commutes and white-knuckle snowstorm driving for the turquoise waters and warm white sands of Siesta Key and Sarasota.

The views all over town are just stunning; dolphins and pelicans frolicking in the waters, sunsets that take your breath away, and bright blue skies with paperwhite clouds above. They call it “Paradise’ for a reason.

Then, sometime in the middle of July, the usual turquoise waters took on a rather dull green hue. It was gradual in the beginning, but within a week or two, toxic red tide algae bloom, or karenia brevis, had swallowed up the coastal waters, stretching 150 miles at one point; from Naples to Clearwater Beach along the Gulf Coast. There’s nothing new about red tide – there was an outbreak when I got here in the summer of 2016 and there is textual evidence it was around in the 1700s – but what is different now, say many, is the severity and the effect it is having on life here on the Gulf Coast.

Why so bad this time? That is being argued by scientists, residents and politicians alike. Some say that it is a natural occurring phenomenon, while others say nature is being exacerbated by pollution led by lax environmental controls by state leadership. One thing is true. Something is feeding the toxic red tide monster, making it bloom bigger and stronger and more resilient. 

Larry Brand, a professor of marine biology and ecology at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, was quoted in the New York Times last week saying red tides are about 15 times worse than they were 50 years ago, and this year’s bloom is exacerbated by pollutants discharged from Lake Okeechobee, to the north and inland of Sarasota, as well as other environmental factors.

The discharge from Lake Okeechobee is not causing red tide, but can be making it worse, scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory in Longboat Key said at Thursday local public meeting, also noting there is no quick fix for the problem.

The consequence of red tide is evident all along the shoreline and beyond. Here in the Sarasota area, small dead fish that normally wash up during red tide are now so numerous they are being forklifted and hauled away by the tons.  Larger sea life, such as dolphins, loggerhead turtles, manatees, and even sharks, are also washing up onshore- killed by the deadly neurotoxins produced by the red tide.  The smell is something so horrific, it is impossible to tolerate more than a few moments at a time; like a carful of teenage boys after an intense summer sports workout that just ate tacos. And it causes respiratory issues, even several hundred feet away from the beach. Some of the local shellfish are off limits because of the neurotoxins in the red tide, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Needless to say, this is not the place people want to spend their hard-earned vacation dollars right now, so August became a bust for the end of the summer tourist season. I own a small café on Longboat Key, a beautiful beachside community just north of the city of Sarasota, and, while it is usually slower this time of year, is a virtual ghost town. My sales are down an average of 60 percent this month. 

I am not the only one hurting, of course. The whole Gulf Coast is reliant on tourism, and even Siesta Key – often named the Number One beach in the country – is empty. One hotel is offering two night free to anyone who spends $250 in town shops and restaurants. Beachy restaurants that often have waiting lists have just a few patrons. 

Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency, which may seem odd to those up north, but the effect of red tide is about as damaging to businesses as a hurricane. State officials have noted that money will be used to help small businesses, but when I call, they are only offering no-interest bridge loans of 180 days. Not much of a help.

And as sorry as I feel for me, I feel worse for those tourists who didn’t get the memo (mostly Europeans) and came here only to be struck by the smell and sight of the red tide. They come to my café looking so sad, so I do my best to give them options other than the beach.

The winds are shifting, literally, out of the east now, and as of today, the air seems clearer. Some of us are hoping for a hurricane or tropical storm to break up the mucus strand of toxic algae that doesn’t want to leave our shores, and praying it all disappears in time to save our all-important winter season. At some point, this will be gone and we will have our gorgeous beaches back, with tourists and snowbirds alike, streaming into our cafes and shops. We will be back to normal, we hope, but what about the next red tide occurrence? How can we mitigate it now so it doesn’t come back?

Stacey Altherr is a former Newsday reporter now living in Sarsasota, Florida. Her beats included Smithtown, where she covered governmental affairs.  She now runs a café in Longboat Key near her home and writes freelance. Altherr has won many awards, including a 2010 Society of Silurian Award for community service journalism for a multi-part series, “Heroin Hits Main Street,” and a third-place National Headliner Award for public service for a multi-part year-long investigation on spending at fire districts on Long Island.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - "People--Given All The Facts Are Fair"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Fifty years ago what had been an outrageous annual Suffolk County tradition—the police raid on gay communities of Fire Island—came to an end. 

It took gay men taking their chances with juries of Suffolk residents—as proposed by a prominent, feisty, rough-and-tumble Suffolk attorney, Benedict P. Vuturo.

The juries, one after another in the fall of 1968, found the gay men rounded up in the raid on Fire Island in the summer of 1968, innocent. 

And that did it—the Suffolk Police Department finally stopped the raid.

There have been enormous societal changes in the last several decades in regard to gay men—as well lesbian women and others as others with a non-traditional sex identity. Indeed, there is a big movement acronymed LGBTQ—for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. And but three years ago, in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage as a constitutional right in all 50 states.

What happened for many years to gays on Fire Island seems like a nightmare of another time—and it was.

            These raids on Fire Island every summer were a tradition began by the Brookhaven Town Police Department, as half of Fire Island is in Brookhaven. With the absorption of that department and nearly all others in western Suffolk into the Suffolk County Police Department in 1960, the perverse tradition was continued by the new county police force.
         I first became aware of the raids when hired in 1964 by the daily Long Island Press as a police-and-courts reporter covering Suffolk.  It was like pulling teeth sometimes to get information from the Suffolk cops. But after their annual raid on Fire Island, the cops wanted the media to know all about it—pitching to us not only the names and addresses of those arrested but their occupations and where they worked. The police effort was clearly meant to damage those arrested, to perhaps get them fired for being gay and being arrested in a raid on Fire Island.

            The two communities hit on Fire Island were Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines, both in Brookhaven Town. The raids were made by boatloads of cops storming the beach. Prisoners were dragged off in handcuffs and brought to the mainland. 

Year after year, the 25 to 40 or so defendants, most of them from New York City and frightened about casting their lot with Suffolk locals, would plead guilty to various “morals” charges. Then one judge began sentencing some arrestees to jail, getting himself plenty of publicity. The Fire Island gay community had had it. 

The colorful Mr. Vuturo, former president of the Suffolk Criminal Bar Association, was retained by the Mattachine Society of New York to represent the arrestees in the next raid. That raid happened on August 24, 1968. 

The Mattachine Society prepared the Fire Island gay communities for the legal fights ahead by distributing a pamphlet in 1967 advising against “shortsighted” pleas of guilty and declaring: “Intolerable police state tactics continue because of our cooperation.” The pamphlet further said if one was arrested not to provide any more than name and address. “Never carry identification that contains the name of your employer,” it counseled. bb

Mr. Vuturo demanded jury trials for each of the 27 arrested in the 1968 raid. He told me he believed a jury of adults would never convict. He was correct. He won every trial. 

I covered the situation. When the defendants of that summer were arraigned in Suffolk County District Court, then located in Commack, Mr. Vuturo declared: “Outrageous…These men will be cleared of these notorious allegations.’” He said the men didn’t represent a public nuisance, weren’t annoying anyone. “The police actually sought these men out.” 

The trials were some scenes. Mr. Vuturo toughly cross-examined arresting officers demanding they tell in detail what they saw and did. The cops were embarrassed. And in his summations at the trials, he spoke dramatically about murders and other major crimes occurring in Suffolk and how, he declared, the Suffolk Police Department was wasting its resources storming Fire Island to round up gays. 

“To be on Fire Island—in Cherry Grove or Fire Island Pines—when the cops are there for a raid is to put your life in your hands,” he intoned. “The cops go and beat the bush. They grab you and handcuff you to whoever…Was a breach of the peace committed? Who saw it but the cops who went looking?” Mr. Vuturo said the men didn’t represent a public nuisance, weren’t annoying anyone and police had to search through beach scrub to find them. ‘The police actually sought these men out.’” 

For Mr. Vuturo it was a matter of “civil liberties are civil liberties.”

He hoped to lose one case so he could get to the New York State Court of Appeals or U.S. Supreme Court to try to have the laws under which the arrests were made ruled unconstitutional. But he never lost one of the “Fire Island trials” as they were referred to in court corridors during fall 1968.  

He said the victories proved “People—given all the facts are fair. People aren’t stupid. That’s what the jury system is all about.” 

Dick Leitsch, president of the Mattachine Society of New York, told me that the gay rights group had first considered hiring New York City lawyers, specialists in civil liberties work, to defend the arrestees in the next police raid on Fire Island. “But we figured the courts out there might view them as outside agitators,” he explained. So the society, he said, spoke to some members of the Suffolk County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the flamboyant Central Islip-based attorney Vuturo was recommended. 

Mr. Vuturo, a father of five, who went on to himself become a Suffolk District Court judge and died in 1991, was key to ending a travesty. And so were the Suffolk jurors who showed that the jury system works. And deserving huge credit are those gay men of Fire Island who stood up to prejudice and hate in a dark time. 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.  

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - "Living on the Edge in the Face of Climate Change"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Two Long Islanders deeply committed to the environment, actor Alec Baldwin and marine scientist Kevin McAllister, founding president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20, presented a program last week entitled “Living on the Edge in the Face of Climate Change.”

Held at the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum, it attracted 200 people and provided a basic message of, as Mr. McAllister said, “we need to acknowledge the reality of sea level rise” and take a variety of actions. “We have to educate ourselves” and “impart” our understanding to “elected officials and give them the strength to be visionary.”

A key problem, said Mr. McAllister, is that “elected officials think in two to four-year cycles”—their terms in office—but when it comes to climate change, planning and actions must be viewed over a 25-year span.

“The glaciers are melting and what does that mean locally?” asked Mr. McAllister. There needs to be a “sense of urgency. If we don’t take actions on the state to local levels, we’ll be losing our bays and beaches and a life-style that has defined Long Island.”

In a question-and-answer period at the end of the conversation between Messrs. Baldwin and McAllister, an audience member rose to say that environmentally “when I came out to Montauk to live, I wasn’t aware of what was going on” and “a great majority of people are not aware.” If “they knew” things could be different. “It is important to raise awareness…We need a bigger swell of people” and for them to influence their representatives in government. 

Declared Mr. Baldwin: “We need to keep doing this kind of thing and invite elected officials to come.” One elected official at this event was East Hampton Village Mayor Paul Rickenbach, Jr. 

The program began on an extremely hot and humid evening Thursday—coming amidst  weeks of blazing tropics-like weather, a reflection of the reality here now of climate change—with the two men linking their interest in the environment to growing up and living on Long Island.

Mr. Baldwin spoke of a boyhood in Massapequa where he gained a comprehension about that hamlet, indeed all of Long Island, depending for potable water on the sole source aquifer below, and that underground water table being “compromised.” Then, as an adult settling in Amagansett, he was involved in challenging the dangers “posed” to the aquifer in Amagansett by the “triple threat of herbicides, fungicides and pesticides.”

Mr. McAllister told of being “being blessed growing up” in Center Moriches, spending days on the bay, then moving to Florida where for 15 years he worked doing reviews of projects impacting on its coast, then returning to Long Island and dealing with the environmental challenges here to water and the coastlines. 

“Homesite development” has caused a “pinching off of wetlands” and their “inability to migrate,” to shift in natural processes. The response has been a demand for the “hardening” of the coast with sea walls and similar structures, making problems even more severe. “We have to arrest this trend…Let’s keep the walls off the coast.”

With sea level rise resulting from climate change, the situation is worsening. In the next 40 years, Mr. McAllister said, it is projected that there will be a rise of 16 to 30 inches in the waters surrounding Long Island. As to the dumping of sand on Long Island beaches to purportedly “nourish” them, Mr. McAllister said the “average” life span for sand-dumping on a mid-Atlantic beach is but three to five years, and the cost is gargantuan. 

Meanwhile, there are places on Long Island such as Mastic Beach which is at sea level now, and “the lawns people mow consist of wetland grasses…We’re talking about houses sitting in groundwater.”

“Where we have the ability to move back, we have to move back,” said Mr. McAlllister.

“We have to allow the shorelines to breathe.”

He said a “real breakdown” involves the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the federally-supported flood insurance program paying in many instances for structures wiped out by storms to be rebuilt where they had been. There needs to be a “one and done” policy. Paying for structures to be rebuilt in highly vulnerable areas “doesn’t make sense.”

Mr. Baldwin commented that if changes in the approach towards the coast aren’t made, “we can’t imagine” the consequences resulting from climate change. He said “everybody out here cares, they care deeply” and need to join with their representatives in action.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.