SUFFOLK CLOSEUP : "A Celebration Of Trees"

 SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

It’s enchanting and important: “A Celebration of Trees,” an exhibit at the Southampton Arts Center.

The inspiration for it came from the experience of artist Laurie Dolphin at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic at her home, amid trees, off Fresh Pond on Shelter Island. “During COVID I was on Shelter Island surrounded by trees and I was isolated,” she relates. The “trees were talking to me. I would feel their interconnectivity.”

She had a “dream” of organizing an exhibit honoring and recognizing the significance of trees. 

Knowing “I cannot do this alone,” she enlisted Daniela Kronemeyer and Coco Myers to work with her in being co-curators of a possible exhibit.

It is outstanding—and includes the work of 77 artists from 20 countries. 

Dolphin explains that the aim was not only to present the “diversity” of trees from around the world but also to do it with a diversity of art: paintings, photography, sculpture, film, etchings and poetry. 

Upon entering the exhibit, one encounters a narrative on a wall declaring: “A Celebration of Trees is an ecological multi-media exhibition created to expand thought and consciousness about the world’s vast network of trees, a critical resource to humanity’s survival…. This exhibit showcases the beauty and mystery of trees while inspiring viewers to thoughtfully contemplate how to protect them.”

The eloquent narratives on the walls of the many rooms that the exhibit encompasses are the words of poets Megan and Scott Chaskey of Sag Harbor. Scott is also the author of books, a farmer and pioneer of the community farming movement. At the entrance, too, is a striking sculpture, in wood, done by Megan’s father, the late Bill King.

“Trees have been called the most successful form of life within the great wheel of nature,” says one of the narratives.

The exhibit includes photos by famed Brazilian photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado of trees and Indigenous people in the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest—which is under extreme threat.

There are photos by Beth Moon who has traveled the world photographing trees notably the Baobab tree in Africa which can live for more than 2,000 years.

Information and art relating to the redwoods of California which “can live as long as 3,000 years” it is noted, are featured.

Focusing on Long Island, there are presentations involving Indigenous people here and trees—notably the white pine with its medicinal values for them.

There is a series of nine etchings by master printmaker Dan Welden, who came from Babylon to Sag Harbor, of evergreen trees, their limbs bedecked by snow.

Photos of palm trees taken by artist Andy Warhol, long a resident of Montauk, are presented. It is explained: “Little known and rarely exhibited are Andy Warhol’s black and white silver gelatin photographs” and how Warhol “viewed trees and the natural landscape with just as much importance as the celebrity-filled arts and culture scenes for which he is most famous.”

There are “60,000 species of trees,” the exhibit points out. 

“For over 300 million years, trees have helped stabilize and improve environmental conditions for life on our planet,” it is noted. 

A partner, too, in the exhibit is the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. As a flier available at the exhibit says about this Michigan-based organization, its “mission is to propagate the world’s most important old growth trees before they are gone… and reforest the Earth with the offspring of these trees to provide the myriad of beneficial ecosystem services essential for all life forms to thrive.” There is a warning: “Even though the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive has made great strides, there is still much work to do. With over eight thousand tree species on the endangered species list and our world in ecological peril, AATA needs your help in attaining their goal.”

There is also a series of events—including workshops—connected to the exhibit. 

Two weeks ago, my wife and I went to Vermont to witness the glorious burst of color of trees in Vermont starting in early October. Now, in late October, trees on Long Island are also abounding in color—just one of the gifts they provide.

“A Celebration of Trees” will be running Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through December 18. The Southampton Art Museum is at 25 Jobs Lane, Southampton. Admission is free. What you will get out of it is enormous.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Elections, Political Advertising And Likability

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

As the 2022 election season comes to a close, highways in Suffolk County are full of political campaign signs making those sequential Burma-Shave signs of decades ago look minimal. For those who were not around when those placards bedecked the landscape, one of their sequences ran: “Within this vale/of toil/and sin/your head grows bald/but not your chin/use Burma-Shave.”

Put up until the 1960s, what became 7,000 signs are credited with leading Burma-Shave to becoming the second best-selling shaving cream in the U.S. I’d say there are well more than 7,000 political campaign signs just in Suffolk these days. Their main purpose: familiarizing voters with the names of candidates.

Then there are fliers and newspaper ads—material in print which highlight the positions on issues of candidates and their backgrounds.

And then have come political TV commercials, and today these commercials are increasingly running on the internet, too. They aim at striking a different chord: appealing to feelings and emotions. This is done mainly by having candidates seem likeable. The commercials also often feature negative attacks on opponents of the nominees illustrated with unflattering photos and videos of them. 

In New York State, we are flooded this year with many political TV commercials for incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul and Suffolk Congressman Lee Zeldin in their contest for governor. In Suffolk, candidates for Congress are using TV commercials.

Political TV commercials are expensive. Indeed, paying for them is a big part of the finances of any campaign utilizing them.

The model for the political TV commercial was launched 70 years ago.

It was 1952, and a Madison Avenue advertising man, Rosser Reeves, convinced Dwight Eisenhower to use TV commercials in his run for the presidency. Four years earlier, Reeves tried to interest the prior Republican presidential candidate, Thomas Dewey, in the approach. But Dewey “did not buy the idea of lowering himself to the commercial environment of a toothpaste ad,” relates Robert Spero in his book “The Duping of the American Voter, Dishonesty & Deception in Presidential Television Advertising.”

The Eisenhower commercials were coordinated with what became the campaign slogan: “I Like Ike.” Reeves had an early understanding that television best communicates feeling and emotion, not information. 

Thus, the Eisenhower commercials presented the former five-star general grinning and appearing likeable—getting to voters’ feelings and emotions and making the strongest use of the TV medium.

The Democratic candidate, former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, tried to counter the blitz of 15-second Eisenhower spots. He embarked on a series of half-hour lectures on TV. Stevenson tried to, as he reflected, “talk sense to the American people.” As National Public Radio has noted, Stevenson “was an old-fashioned intellectual who believed in long speeches and the power of words…So he bought 30-minute blocks on TV, but nobody tuned in to watch.” 

I wrote a thesis as a graduate student in the Media Studies Program at the New School for Social Research titled: “The Political TV Commercial as a Pivotal Component in American Presidential Politics.” I analyzed every presidential campaign from the Eisenhower-Stevenson races through each presidential contest up until 1980 (as I received my degree in 1981).

The final race I wrote about was the 1980 presidential run of Ronald Reagan. Many voters might have disliked his policies, but a substantial number liked Reagan—based on the image he projected through television. With the ability to perform on TV having become a necessary attribute of a presidential candidate, the Republican Party had chosen an actor to run for president. He had been governor of California but previously, for eight years, Reagan performed on TV as host of “General Electric Theatre.”

So, it has gone—highlighted in recent years by Barack Obama, a master at speaking, smiling and being likeable through television, and, for some, Donald Trump, who earlier, for 14 years, performed on TV as host of “The Apprentice.”

I’ve long wondered how George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln would have fared in presidential races which rely on a candidate’s likeability as transmitted in political TV commercials. 

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. 

LTE: Why not Announce Your Salary Increase Before Election

To Tom McCarthy,

I want to voice my concern to the 22% Salary increase you are giving. Remember the people of Smithtown are the ones paying your salary, and if you really think it is necessary you should have let us know prior to electing you. You obviously wouldn’t propose this prior to your election, so you are trying to sneak it thru. Please be transparent, it is not your money its ours.

 Sincerely,

 Alan Robbins, Smithtown

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - Hurricane Ian Underscores LI's Vulnerability

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“Ian shows the risks and costs of living on barrier islands,” was the headline of an Associated Press story this month in the wake of Hurricane Ian. The article was datelined Sanibel Island, Florida—decimated by Ian. But it applies to all construction built in the teeth of the sea, with buildings on barrier islands and beaches—such as we have here, too—especially vulnerable. 

“Hurricane Ian underscores the vulnerability of the nation’s barrier islands and the increasing costs of people living on the thin strips of land that parallel the coast. As hurricanes become more destructive, experts question whether such exposed communities can keep rebuilding in the face of climate change,” said the AP article. 

The lesson of Hurricane Ian to this area? “I really hope it’s a strong wake-up call,” says Kevin McAllister, founder and president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20. “I would urge for a pause to rethink areas occupied that are low-lying”—considering climate change causing great intensity of future storms and also sea level rise. “The prospect” for these stretches, he says, is “untenable.”

The AP piece continued: “Barrier islands were never an ideal place for development, experts say. They typically form as waves deposit sediment off the mainland. And they move based on weather patterns and other ocean forces. Some even disappear. Building on the islands and holding them in place with beach replenishment programs just makes them more vulnerable to destruction because they can no longer move, according to experts.” Indeed, having barrier beaches flexible enough to move when hit by storms is critical for them in protecting the mainland. 

This is where I came in as a journalist in Suffolk County back 60 years ago. Robert Moses had just announced a plan to build a four-lane highway on the length of Fire Island. He claimed it would “anchor” the beach.

In 1962, there weren’t the experts in coastal dynamics who would subsequently emerge, such as Orrin Pilkey, founder of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University. He has authored, coauthored and edited 45 books including The Rising Sea with Robert Young, who succeeded him as the program’s director. Pilkey’s most recent book: Retreat from a Rising Sea.

Still, it was clear Moses’ claim was baloney. We found at the Babylon Town Leader—one of the very few newspapers in the New York Area that challenged Moses (a Babylon resident)—that along the highway he built on the Jones Beach stretch, bulldozers worked at night so people wouldn’t see them, removing sand from the sides of the highway to try to keep the road in place.

Further, in Suffolk, folks before the 20^th Century wouldn’t do major building on barrier beaches. They’d put up, said old-timers, what were called “beach shacks.” 

Meanwhile, when I began as a journalist here, the Army Corps of Engineers began pushing for piles of rocks—called groins—being dumped out into the ocean along Dune Road in Westhampton. “Hand-wrestling with God,” the Suffolk County Executive John V. N. Klein, called it. The rock piles caught sand moving in the westward littoral drift but robbed it from reaching the coast further down the beach causing severe erosion. 

Global warming has resulted in the situation becoming dire. Hurricanes are now rapidly escalating, feeding off hotter seas, to Category 3 and Category 4. Ian with 155 mph winds was near a Category 5, the worst, when it hit Florida. It can happen here. Consider the hurricane before Ian, Fiona, that that struck northeastern Canada with 100 mph winds at Category 2. “I’m seeing homes in the ocean,” said René J. Roy of Newfoundland, chief editor of the newspaper there, Wreckhouse Press. “I’m seeing rubble floating all over the place. It’s complete and utter destruction.” 

On his website “Informed Comment,” University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole took issue with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis saying Ian was a “once-in-a-500-year flood event.” It is “the new normal,” said Cole. And the “ocean water up north is no longer…cold….so hurricanes can remain strong all the way up to New York, Boston and even Newfoundland.”

An op-ed essay by Robert Young in The New York Times this month was titled: “To Save America’s Coasts, Don’t Always Rebuild Them.” Young wrote: “Hurricane Ian is the latest devastating hurricane to confirm that coastal areas are failing to keep rebuilt or new development out of highly vulnerable areas.” He cited “multiple incentives to rebuild rather than to relocate. The assumption is that taxpayers will always be there to back up private investment…”

The Bible speaks of “a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell.”

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. 

Smithtown Dems Hit The Ground Running With New Town Leader Patty Stoddard

At a packed organizational meeting on October 6, 2022, Smithtown Democratic Committeeperson, former candidate for Town Council, and active union leader Patty Stoddard was voted the Chairperson of the Smithtown Democratic Committee. Stoddard ran unopposed and the vote was unanimous. 

Smithtown Democrats new town leader Patty StoddardStoddard thanked her colleagues and outgoing, current, and incoming board members, including former Chairperson Ed Maher, who will continue as Treasurer for the committee, for their contributions, and she highlighted the work of the committee. 

“So many of you participate in our county-wide Roe v. Wade phone bank, helping to make thousands upon thousands of phone calls mobilizing voters in the fight to protect women’s rights, by making sure that good democrats get elected here in Suffolk. You know what they say - Smithtown Shows Up!” Stoddard told the committee. 

Sign carried at the October Women’s Reproductive Rights Rally in Pt. Jeff Sta.The Supreme Court, in its Dobbs decision first leaked in May, ended a woman’s right to an abortion federally. “In the aftermath of the right-wing Supreme Court overturning half a century of precedent, stripping women across the country of their right to make their own medical decisions, Smithtown Democrats have been spearheading efforts to make sure that our neighbors understand how important this election is for women across the country,” Stoddard said. “The next stop for these anti-choice Republicans is a federal ban on abortion. Our committee will work like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen.” 

Stoddard is a retired teacher of the Smithtown School District, has been a member of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) since 1974, and has served many active years as a Union Representative and Executive Committee Treasurer for her local, Smithtown Teachers Association. She spent nearly 20 years on the Smithtown Teacher Center Policy Board, as a Parent Rep., Teacher, and eventually Chairperson, providing professional development for teachers. Upon her retirement in 2015, Stoddard joined the Smithtown Schools Retirees’ Association (SSRA) where she currently serves as President. Stoddard is on the Executive Board of the New York State Alliance of Retired Americans (NYSARA) Long Island Chapter which provides a way for retired union members and others to make their voices heard on issues important to them. Stoddard is also a former candidate for Town Council in 2017. 

“I am thrilled to see our organization growing by the day, attracting new members from our community and creating a Smithtown Young Democrats group,” Stoddard said. “I’m proud to say that we are hitting the ground running, with no time to lose.”