Preparedness is particularly important for Long Island residents. We know that severe weather can bring flooding, dangerous winds and extended power outages. A house fire or medical emergency can happen without warning. And while we can’t always be ready for anything, having a plan, and the right supplies, can make a significant difference.
As the effects of PFAS, the so-called “forever chemicals,” become the focus of discussions across the United States — on Long Island because of their impacts on the underground water table, our sole source of potable water — New York state’s attorney general is suing corporations involved with PFAS for allegedly violating a number of state laws.
But being innocent doesn’t prevent the government from suspecting you of wrongdoing, or even arresting you. The government may target people not because they have committed a crime, but to make examples of them, intimidate others, or silence those they regard as troublesome or subversive.
Recently I’ve come to believe that the strongest influence on developing human beings is the times in which they live. Try as I might, summoning all the empathy I possess, I simply can’t know what it was like to endure the London Blitz during World War II. Or the Dust Bowl in America, or the Holocaust, all of which changed the way people lived and thought.