It’s been a heck of a week in community journalism land. Holiday issues are always a great challenge for us, because they’re big papers. And then, in the “adding insult to injury” department, when the following Monday is a day off, that means we’re a day short in terms of the production cycle. On top of that, you can pretty much forget about being able to reach anybody on the Friday of a three-day weekend.
But now it’s Saturday morning, the sun’s coming up over the back of the house and I’m sitting on the patio out front, surrounded by lovely, fragrant flowers, watching a pair of black-capped chickadees dance in and out of the butterfly bush to peck at the feeder a few feet away.
Relaxation never came easily to me. And this is the kind of job that’s hard to leave at the office. Everything we do is about our community. Like the majority of people who work for Times/Review, I do what I do, and love what I do, because I care deeply about my community. I’ve lived here almost 20 years now. My husband and my children have never lived anywhere else. Riverhead still manages to retain an identity in the face of the onslaught of big box development and all the new subdivisions and condos. It’s still got a sense of place, the way small towns with a history do. Since I first came to work here in 1985, answering an ad in the N.Y. Law Journal that read, simply, “Country lawyer requires associate,” I’ve passionately believed that this place is worth fighting for.
Even with all its changes, even though our main commercial drag looks more like East Setauket than Riverhead, even though we’ve got a raft of difficult problems to deal with as a community — from poverty, to racial and ethnic tensions, to lack of meaningful jobs and a crisis in affordable housing, to spiraling property taxes (a list that hasn’t changed much in the two decades I’ve been here) — out town is a great place to live your life.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Friday, September 02, 2005
Hurricane Relief Organizations
I've collected some Internet links to the websites of organizations participating in the relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina. You can donate to any of these organizations online.
American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/
Habitat for Humanity
http://www.habitat.org/
Salvation Army
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/USNSAHome.htm
Lutheran Disaster Relief
http://www.ldr.org/index.html
Episcopal Relief Fund
http://www.er-d.org/
Catholic Charities
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/katrina.cfm
Samaritan's Purse
http://www.samaritanspurse.com/
Southern Baptist Relief Fund
http://www.namb.net/site/c.9qKILUOzEpH/b.224451/k.7BDB/
Disaster_Relief_Homepage.htm
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
http://www.pcusa.org/pda/
B'nai B'rith International
http://bnaibrith.org/pubs/pr/050829_hurricanekatrina.cfm
World Vision
http://www.worldvision.org/
Americares
http://www.americares.org/
The Humane Society of Northwest Louisiana
http://www.hsnwla.org/
American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/
Habitat for Humanity
http://www.habitat.org/
Salvation Army
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/USNSAHome.htm
Lutheran Disaster Relief
http://www.ldr.org/index.html
Episcopal Relief Fund
http://www.er-d.org/
Catholic Charities
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/katrina.cfm
Samaritan's Purse
http://www.samaritanspurse.com/
Southern Baptist Relief Fund
http://www.namb.net/site/c.9qKILUOzEpH/b.224451/k.7BDB/
Disaster_Relief_Homepage.htm
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
http://www.pcusa.org/pda/
B'nai B'rith International
http://bnaibrith.org/pubs/pr/050829_hurricanekatrina.cfm
World Vision
http://www.worldvision.org/
Americares
http://www.americares.org/
The Humane Society of Northwest Louisiana
http://www.hsnwla.org/
Thursday, September 01, 2005
The truth about blogs?
Blogs. I've been scanning as many of them as I can, and it's amazing how many of them there are.
In the wake of the hurricane, I read an article on the NY Times website the other day about the role blogs are playing in reporting news as it's happening, virtually on the scene, in the trenches, often by "ordinary people"--i.e. not journalists. There are many gripping accounts posted by bloggers of what is going on in New Orleans right now.
Blogs are an exciting development, but they're also kind of scary. Especially when you consider that the traditional checks and balances for truth in reporting don't exist.
Yeah, I know, I can hear people objecting with comments about the recent scandals in some big media outlets where reporters and editors were caught playing fast and loose with the truth. But the vast majority of journalists are very serious about their profession and Truth-- with a capital "T"-- is the number one value.
Blogs scare me a little because there are no rules, no checks and balances. It's too easy for them to masquerade as truth, or as serious journalism and news reporting, when they really are not, in most circumstances. And I'm afraid the news-consuming public, having grown accustomed to the disturbing blend of news and commentary prevalent on the cable "news" channels, is losing the ability to discern the difference.
Here's a "for instance." I roamed onto one site, called punditeria.com. The blogger, under a headline that screams "THE quote of the disaster! SUPPRESSED BY ALL NEWS OUTLETS" claims that the major media "even Fox News" have not reported a quote by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin complaining about the federal government's response to the disaster. Then he says that he's been told that a couple of people in New Orleans reported that they heard the mayor say these things on a local radio station. The blogger puts the purported comments in quotation marks, even as he admits "this is a close paraphrase, I am told" and then attributes a quote to the mayor of New Orleans in which the mayor supposedly used the "F word" five times in talking about the President of the United States and the U.S. government.
So, somebody told him that somebody else heard the mayor say these things in a radio interview. And he not only reports it as fact, he puts the comments in QUOTES, and then decries the mainstream media for participating in a "cover up'! (EVEN Fox News!)
That's the thing about blogs.
On this blog, I've been sort of disheartened by some of the comments, which have been on the level of name-calling. I was hoping that the people of Riverhead could engage in a discussion of current events and issues that consisted of more than zinging one-liners calling government officials nit-wits and weasels. I think we're capable of more thoughtful discussion than that. There are plenty of message boards out there where that's the standard fare, and if that's what you're interested in, I'd invite you to check them out. In my first post, I said I would delete comments that stoop to that level and I intend to do that if it keeps up.
In the wake of the hurricane, I read an article on the NY Times website the other day about the role blogs are playing in reporting news as it's happening, virtually on the scene, in the trenches, often by "ordinary people"--i.e. not journalists. There are many gripping accounts posted by bloggers of what is going on in New Orleans right now.
Blogs are an exciting development, but they're also kind of scary. Especially when you consider that the traditional checks and balances for truth in reporting don't exist.
Yeah, I know, I can hear people objecting with comments about the recent scandals in some big media outlets where reporters and editors were caught playing fast and loose with the truth. But the vast majority of journalists are very serious about their profession and Truth-- with a capital "T"-- is the number one value.
Blogs scare me a little because there are no rules, no checks and balances. It's too easy for them to masquerade as truth, or as serious journalism and news reporting, when they really are not, in most circumstances. And I'm afraid the news-consuming public, having grown accustomed to the disturbing blend of news and commentary prevalent on the cable "news" channels, is losing the ability to discern the difference.
Here's a "for instance." I roamed onto one site, called punditeria.com. The blogger, under a headline that screams "THE quote of the disaster! SUPPRESSED BY ALL NEWS OUTLETS" claims that the major media "even Fox News" have not reported a quote by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin complaining about the federal government's response to the disaster. Then he says that he's been told that a couple of people in New Orleans reported that they heard the mayor say these things on a local radio station. The blogger puts the purported comments in quotation marks, even as he admits "this is a close paraphrase, I am told" and then attributes a quote to the mayor of New Orleans in which the mayor supposedly used the "F word" five times in talking about the President of the United States and the U.S. government.
So, somebody told him that somebody else heard the mayor say these things in a radio interview. And he not only reports it as fact, he puts the comments in QUOTES, and then decries the mainstream media for participating in a "cover up'! (EVEN Fox News!)
That's the thing about blogs.
On this blog, I've been sort of disheartened by some of the comments, which have been on the level of name-calling. I was hoping that the people of Riverhead could engage in a discussion of current events and issues that consisted of more than zinging one-liners calling government officials nit-wits and weasels. I think we're capable of more thoughtful discussion than that. There are plenty of message boards out there where that's the standard fare, and if that's what you're interested in, I'd invite you to check them out. In my first post, I said I would delete comments that stoop to that level and I intend to do that if it keeps up.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
The rising price of gas
Wow! Look at those numbers!
Gas prices at the pump rose by about 50 cents a gallon overnight in our area. One local station was selling regular unleaded for $2.779 yesterday (Tuesday) morning. This morning at 8 a.m. their price was $3.219 per gallon. Tonight at 7 p.m. the same station was asking $3.379 per gallon. I shudder to think what tomorrow will bring. They changed the price twice yesterday and twice today. Did they get new deliveries — at the higher prices — twice yesterday and twice today? They wouldn't answer that question when asked by a reporter. But I doubt it.
The owner of OK Petroleum on East Main Street didn't jack his prices up today, unlike just about every other station. He told our reporter he still had "gas in the ground" and wouldn't rip off his customers. A man of integrity— we ought to all buy our gas from him from now on.
People on the road today were ripping mad. I , too, was kicking myself for not gassing up yesterday, when my needle was hovering at a little less than a quarter-tank. No, I waited till this morning, when I had to pay almost 50 cents a gallon more for the privilege. A whopping $59 later, I was not a happy customer, either.
It amazes me how willing so many people were to take it out on the gas station attendants, though. Some customers had really nasty things to say to the attendants — things that had to do with their Middle Eastern heritage — and hearing their comments repeated by our reporter made me feel ashamed.
This could be the beginning of a gas crisis, reminiscent of the 70s. With world demand up and supplies not increasing, having Gulf refineries knocked off line by the hurricane, perhaps indefinitely, could trigger a shortage in the U.S. Are you old enough to remember those days in 1973, when gas was rationed due to the Arab oil embargo? We may see them again.
But we have to keep our troubles in perspective, after all. Looking at the photos and watching the videos of the devastation in New Orleans and coastal Mississippi snaps it all into focus for us. What a horror.
Your heart has to go out to the mayor of New Orleans. Imagine being the person responsible for figuring out how to clean up and put that city back together after a catastrophe like this. My God.
Gas prices at the pump rose by about 50 cents a gallon overnight in our area. One local station was selling regular unleaded for $2.779 yesterday (Tuesday) morning. This morning at 8 a.m. their price was $3.219 per gallon. Tonight at 7 p.m. the same station was asking $3.379 per gallon. I shudder to think what tomorrow will bring. They changed the price twice yesterday and twice today. Did they get new deliveries — at the higher prices — twice yesterday and twice today? They wouldn't answer that question when asked by a reporter. But I doubt it.
The owner of OK Petroleum on East Main Street didn't jack his prices up today, unlike just about every other station. He told our reporter he still had "gas in the ground" and wouldn't rip off his customers. A man of integrity— we ought to all buy our gas from him from now on.
People on the road today were ripping mad. I , too, was kicking myself for not gassing up yesterday, when my needle was hovering at a little less than a quarter-tank. No, I waited till this morning, when I had to pay almost 50 cents a gallon more for the privilege. A whopping $59 later, I was not a happy customer, either.
It amazes me how willing so many people were to take it out on the gas station attendants, though. Some customers had really nasty things to say to the attendants — things that had to do with their Middle Eastern heritage — and hearing their comments repeated by our reporter made me feel ashamed.
This could be the beginning of a gas crisis, reminiscent of the 70s. With world demand up and supplies not increasing, having Gulf refineries knocked off line by the hurricane, perhaps indefinitely, could trigger a shortage in the U.S. Are you old enough to remember those days in 1973, when gas was rationed due to the Arab oil embargo? We may see them again.
But we have to keep our troubles in perspective, after all. Looking at the photos and watching the videos of the devastation in New Orleans and coastal Mississippi snaps it all into focus for us. What a horror.
Your heart has to go out to the mayor of New Orleans. Imagine being the person responsible for figuring out how to clean up and put that city back together after a catastrophe like this. My God.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
So many opinions
Well, much to the chagrin of my daughter, I haven’t posted here in a few days. This is something I’m supposed to do EVERY day, she tells me. Like a diary. Not sure if I can pull that off. Maybe if I adjust to writing something shorter than a 700-word essay each time. Blogging is different than writing a column, right?
But rest assured, my lack of writing is not for lack of opinions.
I’ve gotta admit I’m a little bummed by the lack of comments on my blog. I was hoping that some of the thoughts I posted here on Thursday would have elicited more responses. The blog’s getting some traffic, but only two comments as of this writing? Come on. Nobody’s got nuthin’ to say about any of the issues I brought up? Jill Lewis and Mike Cholowsky? Housing at EPCAL? School administrators’ raises that weren’t discussed prior to the budget vote? Surely I can’t be the only Riverhead resident with opinions about these things.
Somebody told me today that people are “afraid” to post on this blog. Not that they’re afraid of me. More like they’re afraid of retribution around town, by town government officials or maybe others...
Since my daughter also chastised me about requiring people to register in order to comment here, I changed the settings and now you can post ANONYMOUSLY. Happy?
So, go ahead. Click that little comment button and let it rip.
Why do you think the administration isn’t doing anything to stop the ethics code from being openly flouted by the former deputy supe? Is Phil afraid of somebody? Should he be? Is he doing Dick Amper a favor by letting Amper’s former right-hand woman skate? It just doesn’t make sense to me. And why isn’t anybody calling him on it?
Ed’s quiet because he’s so chummy with Jill — and Mike — that people were saying Jill was actually working on Ed’s campaign. And he’s a proponent of getting Cholowsky his rail spur at EPCAL. I’m sure Ed’s campaign financials — and the Riverhead GOP’s — will reflect the benefit of that stance, too. So the most likely critic of the behavior of Phil’s former deputy is silent. Convenient for Jill — and Mike.
Here's a photo sent to me by a reader that graphically illustrates why the ethics code would slam shut the revolving door. The former deputy supervisor and her new employer sitting with the town planning director at a work session where the rail spur grant was on the agenda. Nice and friendly and cozy are these former colleagues, wouldn't you say? This particular threesome was seen frequently at local watering holes BEFORE the deputy supe left town employ and when she and the town planning director were both still on the public payroll.
This isn't any different than former supervisor Bob Kozakiewicz representing Suffolk Theater Enterprises right after he left office in the matter of the contract of sale for the theater — a contract Koz negotiated. That rankled Phil and, he said, inspired him to push for a long-overdue ethics code. Why doesn't this thing with Jill & Cholowsky and the rail spur bug Phil, too, especially since we now have an ethics code that pretty clearly prohibits her from representing Cholowsky at Town Hall on the rail spur stuff? Phil, you disappoint me. What happened to putting Riverhead first?
But rest assured, my lack of writing is not for lack of opinions.
I’ve gotta admit I’m a little bummed by the lack of comments on my blog. I was hoping that some of the thoughts I posted here on Thursday would have elicited more responses. The blog’s getting some traffic, but only two comments as of this writing? Come on. Nobody’s got nuthin’ to say about any of the issues I brought up? Jill Lewis and Mike Cholowsky? Housing at EPCAL? School administrators’ raises that weren’t discussed prior to the budget vote? Surely I can’t be the only Riverhead resident with opinions about these things.
Somebody told me today that people are “afraid” to post on this blog. Not that they’re afraid of me. More like they’re afraid of retribution around town, by town government officials or maybe others...
Since my daughter also chastised me about requiring people to register in order to comment here, I changed the settings and now you can post ANONYMOUSLY. Happy?
So, go ahead. Click that little comment button and let it rip.
Why do you think the administration isn’t doing anything to stop the ethics code from being openly flouted by the former deputy supe? Is Phil afraid of somebody? Should he be? Is he doing Dick Amper a favor by letting Amper’s former right-hand woman skate? It just doesn’t make sense to me. And why isn’t anybody calling him on it?
Ed’s quiet because he’s so chummy with Jill — and Mike — that people were saying Jill was actually working on Ed’s campaign. And he’s a proponent of getting Cholowsky his rail spur at EPCAL. I’m sure Ed’s campaign financials — and the Riverhead GOP’s — will reflect the benefit of that stance, too. So the most likely critic of the behavior of Phil’s former deputy is silent. Convenient for Jill — and Mike.
Here's a photo sent to me by a reader that graphically illustrates why the ethics code would slam shut the revolving door. The former deputy supervisor and her new employer sitting with the town planning director at a work session where the rail spur grant was on the agenda. Nice and friendly and cozy are these former colleagues, wouldn't you say? This particular threesome was seen frequently at local watering holes BEFORE the deputy supe left town employ and when she and the town planning director were both still on the public payroll.
This isn't any different than former supervisor Bob Kozakiewicz representing Suffolk Theater Enterprises right after he left office in the matter of the contract of sale for the theater — a contract Koz negotiated. That rankled Phil and, he said, inspired him to push for a long-overdue ethics code. Why doesn't this thing with Jill & Cholowsky and the rail spur bug Phil, too, especially since we now have an ethics code that pretty clearly prohibits her from representing Cholowsky at Town Hall on the rail spur stuff? Phil, you disappoint me. What happened to putting Riverhead first?
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