TWF 319 - Freeport Schools Going Remote, Jan 3rd-Jan 7th (CoViD update #13)

 Hello, friends,

Fresh off of yesterday's CoVID update comes news that the Freeport Public Schools are shifting to a week of online instruction/remote learning for Monday, Jan 3rd - Friday, Jan 7th.  While there's a whole missive that was sent out, and is available on their webpage (I can't link to it for some archaic reason), I strongly urge you to check out this clip of the big bit of information:

I'm wishing everyone in the community well through these trying times.

Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York, born and raised in Freeport.

TWF 318: Rising Cases, Free At-Home CoViD Tests At Mitchell Field. (CoViD Update #12)

 Hello, friends, and a big hat-tip to old TWF friend Jason Bass for a tip-off,

I hope you're all doing well this holiday season.  I know many of us simply aren't, thanks largely to the Omicron strain of CoVID-19 (CoVID-21?), and I know we're all looking for some idea of what's next, so let's start by taking a quick assessment of contemporary reporting: 

Current CoVID Situation: 

According to Long Island Press, Nassau County had about 4,457 positive cases on Tuesday, December 28th.  That's, yanno, yesterday.  News 12's reporting claims that Heckscher State Park in Islip's testing center shut down very early today due to testing demand, suggesting we should expect an increase in positivity rates.  I checked Nassau County's CoVID Website but it's honestly underwhelming and seemingly only displays cumulative data, not daily?  

I dunno.  I do know you should probably cancel any indoor social events you've got planned, and should be following NYS Mandates and CDC Guidance on wearing masks while indoors.  If you aren't already, get vaccinated.  Save yourselves as much sickness and heartache as you can - I know too many people with Long CoVID to suggest taking this lightly.

Free Tests At Mitchell Field:

As per County Executive Laura Curran:

Don't ask me how long 20,000 test kits are going to last.  Don't even ask me if it's a good idea to go out to a place where you know someone is CoVID positive, since you might just take CoVID back home with you.  This is why we need the government (Could be state, could be Federal, I'll accept them from either or both) to mail each individual, I dunno, like six tests to keep in case they're needed.  But, that's a topic for another day.

The point is:  There are free at-home test kits available at this place at this time.  If you can in any way get there, get there.

Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York, who was born and raised in Freeport.  He's a Sci-Fi/Fantasy author, so you can check his website for his works.  The Weekly Freeporter is a free, amateur blogging and reporting service.  If you'd like to ask him a question about The Weekly Freeporter, he's doing a 2021 Q&A at this link.

TWF 317 - Praise For The Freeport Memorial Library

Hello, friends.

Libraries around Nassau County are amazing places.  Not only do they have books, but they have digital books.  They provide access to computers for those who might not have working internet connections.  They host classes.  They also provide services for children's enrichment.

Growing up, I remember spending hours upon hours at the Freeport Memorial Library's computer desk.  I remember having to sign in and wait my turn to work on some tremendous CRT monitor and - well, let's be honest, I went there to play games.  My parents encouraged me, since it gave them some time off and it trained me to operate those machines-of-the-future.  You know, like the one I'm writing this on?

I can still see flashes of images in my head from that time.  They're very welcome.

Image courtesy of the Memorial Library webpage.

Yet all is not well as we approach January of 2022.  CoVID-19 has continued to be mainline threat to all of, yanno, Humanity (maybe worthy of a hyper-local update article?).  As a result, in-person community events are largely suspended.  Yet, thanks to the proliferation of technologies such as Zoom (far from the first, but arguably the most widespread), the Library has continued to provide events.  Here's the list for tomorrow, 12/22/2021, and Thursday 12/23/2021:

Click the link near the top of the article to check out the full library schedule!
 - Also, I believe the Chorale Holiday Caroling was cancelled.  Bummer.

There's really no greater purpose to this post than to praise the Library.  Libraries are one of the last great free services provided by our society to our society, and while we really do need more of those, we also need to praise the ones we've still got.  Times are tough.  I know first-hand that librarians at all levels, from the NYC system down to your local elementary school, work extremely hard.  I know CoVID has taken a toll on them.

So, for no particular reason, thank you for everything.

Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York, who spent his formative years and many more in Freeport.  He's presently thinking of his parents and good memories because it's his first Solstice without his father, and that's rough.

TWF 316: A Cleveland Avenue Field Memory

 Hello, friends,

Conflict-Of-Interest Disclaimer:  I've worked for both the Village of Freeport as well as the Freeport School District in the past.

As you are no doubt aware by now, there is an ongoing dispute between the Village of Freeport the Freeport School District regarding who has authority over Cleveland Avenue Field.  The Village, who claims to own the property, wants to provide it to Amazon.  The School District, who claims to have had an agreement to use it for over 70 years, is astonished that the Village is taking these steps, and the school board has voted to file a lawsuit against the Village.  Children and families who use the field are caught in the middle.

This post is not about trying to decide who is legally right and wrong, here.

In fact, this post isn't about trying to hash out every little detail.  I'm sure someone who still lives in Freeport can do a better job of that than I can.  I'm sure someone who does journalism for a living, like from Long Island Press, can afford to spend the time making phone calls to PR departments and tracking down answers.

No - instead, I just want to share a memory that might demonstrate what that field means to the students who play there, and the generations of adults who grew up there. 

Cleveland Avenue Field as seen from Buffalo Ave, courtesy of Google Street View

A Tale.

Between 5th and 10th grade, I played lacrosse.  I wasn't completely terrible at the game for the game's sake, but I was definitely bad at it.  I was a tiny kid playing a contact-intense sport.  I would get hit and bounce across the field.  I wasn't the best at catching the ball, either; my eyes just weren't all that great at spotting small things moving fast without, y'know, glasses on.  I was a decent shooter!  So I changed from being a midfielder (Middie) to being an attacker.

In 9th and 10th grade I played Junior Varsity.  I had a coach who cared about the game and its players pretty immensely.  It was far from perfect, of course.  For starters, I kind of enjoyed the hitting when I was a kid; it probably wasn't good for me, long-term.  However, by the time I'd hit 10th grade I was beginning to feel like I was more than a little outpaced by the physical strength that players I was up against had.  I might have had some bare modicum of "Game IQ," but I lacked the sheer power to stand up to the impact I was faced with, bouncing around at maybe 120 pounds.

One day, near the end of my 10th grade season, I found this out in stark relief.

I mostly rode the non-existent bench, standing on the sidelines.  When I finally got called to play in a game where the score wasn't even close, I was happy to get a chance to get in and do something.  It was still kind of fun, right?

Well, here's the rub:  I had already experienced difficulty with my right knee, to the point that I had to wear a knee brace to play sports or run.  Predictably, this brace squeaked with every step, so I was given the nickname "Squeaky" to go with the myriad other nicknames I got from my time in athletics.  This kind of hurt my feelings, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from getting in the game and playing.  And I did!  And when the ball hit the grass near me, I sized up the 200+ pound defenseman going for it and thought, "Well, I oughta go low."

I threw my shoulder into his mid-waist.

A team-mate of mine hit him from the other side, high.

The dude fell on me with intense force.  I screamed in pain as my knee did things which I can't describe the feeling of, but can tell you resulted in a 40% kneecap displacement and surgery.  This is where reason got squelched by adrenaline.  Never smart enough to know when to quit, I got to my feet.  I leaned on my stick and walked it off.  My coach screamed at me to get out of the game.

Did I listen?  Hell no!

Instead, I stayed in.  I probably disturbed the more adroit players, who probably recognized I should have gotten off the field, but didn't.  Maybe that uncertainty created opportunity; I don't know.  All I knew is that I didn't get in the game often, and I wanted to play, and the pain...Well, the pain kind of just faded into the background.  I was limping!  But I wasn't about to give up.

Somehow, the ball found its way to me.  I took my shot.  I scored.

It was the only goal I'd scored that season.  Our team was pumped about it, excited that a scrub like me succeeded in some mild manner.  It was a bizarrely good feeling.  I guess, in a sense, I'd proven my toughness to the many who doubted what the hell I was doing on the field.  It was, if my recollection serves, the last lacrosse game I ever played.

As mentioned earlier, I needed surgery.  It wasn't too bad, and by the time I recovered I was good to play sports - probably better, in fact, because the smaller issues with my knee had also been fixed.  But...Lacrosse?  No.  No more.  It's not specifically a case of, "Oh, you got hurt so you quit."  That was me and football in 8th and 9th grade.  It's more a case of, "I'm just not good at this thing, and maybe there's something else I'd be good at."

So, I tried Tennis.  I was okay in my 11th grade year, but in my 12th grade year I played doubles and managed to win a spot on the Wall Of Fame as an All-Division player.  I realized that, if I had been playing Tennis all along, I may have been good at the sport.  Later in life, I discovered I was actually quite good at Fencing.  (Thank you, Tanya and Marty)  These are things I could have - should have - been doing, but was instead mentally locked into playing a game that, while it had its fun points, absolutely wouldn't have been the best thing for me.

Now, what is the point of all of this?

The Point Of That Long Tale

This memory is just one of many I have from Cleveland Avenue Field.  Not all of them are good.  Some of them are downright horrible.  But this one, in its own weird way, is a good memory.  It didn't just prove to others I was tough enough to handle myself; it proved that to myself at a time when I really needed some emotional reinforcement.

And it would never have happened if it wasn't for that field; that field where more than one NFL player grew and developed their skills; that field where kids play baseball, football, lacrosse and soccer.  That old ratty field-house is a legend of Freeport's.  That field is notorious for flooding and for geese doing their business, but it's got a charm to it that maybe is indecipherable to people who never played there.

Unlike most The Weekly Freeporter things, I'm not here to propose a solution.  Tensions are inflamed on both sides, and I'm...Not there.  I moved out of Freeport in 2015.  I will say the conflict has gotten ridiculous, with alleged pictures of people's home interiors finding its way to Facebook.  That sounds like doxxing to me, and that's a horrible practice.

I realize there's talk of revitalizing Cow Meadow Park to suit the needs of Freeport's kids.  I actually kind of like it's run-downedness, since there's always somewhere interesting to walk to, but I can't mention that without mentioning the tragic loss of life that's occurred there.  I also recognize there are many obstacles in the way - like, for one, Nassau County owns it, and thus it cannot really be promised to the kids until the Village owns it, which...Yeah.  That conflict is, as I said at the outset, beyond my pay grade.

All I'm here to say is, well, that field means something life-long to these kids because it meant something life-long to me.  I cannot picture entering Freeport on Sunrise Highway without it.

And maybe that's worth more than all the money Amazon could spend in Freeport.

I hope you enjoyed this tale.  I hope, if nothing else, it makes you think of something you've done that was life-affirming in some way.  Feel free to leave a comment or your thoughts.  Thank you so much for reading.

Jesse Pohlman is a former Freeport resident for 30 years, and works as an educator who also publishes Science Fiction and Fantasy novels.  They are available at his main website.

TWF 315: Hurricane Henri Approaches Long Island!

 Hello, friends,

I hope you're all doing well.

Well, Freeporters and Long Islanders in general, it's that time of year, again!  We've got a hurricane coming our way.  It's name is Henri.  Say, "Hello, Henri!"  Anyway:  According to Accuweather, this is Hurricane Henri's most likely approach - and it's gonna broadside Long Island this weekend, predominantly on Sunday.

I feel like I used to have a handy-dandy list of hurricane tips, but to be honest you're all probably pretty well-acquainted with them - and, if not, you're certainly familiar with basic tenants of storm preparations.  If not, may I direct you to the CDC's website for hurricane and tropical storm planning?

I remember seeing the weather on TV and hearing that Henri was likely to head east of where it's now predicted.  I also remember, much more recently, seeing the phrase, "The 'Sandy' Hook" pop up on the internet as a reference to the devastation Hurricane Sandy caused and how it seemed to go out to see and then came back towards the island from the east.

This time, there doesn't seem to be a Nor'Easter colliding with the hurricane, though, so hopefully we'll be alright.

Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York.  His website is at this link, where he hocks his sci-fi/fantasy novels that, hey, you can read during the storm!

TWF 314: Nassau County Vaccination Rates Hit 74%! (CoVID update #11)

 Hello, friends,

I hope you're all doing well!  This is just a short blog post to memorialize a few key CoVID numbers which will surely help us all feel, well, better.  These numbers are sourced from Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.

Here we can see that Nassau is well past 50% vaccination, and that it's approaching 74% as of the 25th of May.

And here we can see that we've hit 74%, that we are the most-vaccinated amongst 'major' NY counties, and that there were ZERO recorded deaths due to CoVID-19 over the past week.

Amateur Analysis

Opening fact:  I'm not a doctor.

These numbers are fantastic.   Having zero CoVID deaths is just plain tremendous; it means our hospitals are in good shape, and that our medical resources aren't stretched thin.  It means that people who fall ill or get hurt and end up in the hospital are much less likely to contract it from the treatment 

It means we're coming through on the other side of this CoVID nightmare that began just over a year ago.

It also means we've still got a lot of work to do.

For example, we can't count on just the 70% vaccination rate to prevent another major outbreak.  Everyone for whom it is medically sound (which is almost everyone, almost certainly including you!) needs to get vaccinated in order for herd immunity to take effect.  This is critically important because people who are immunocompromised are still at huge risk; take transplant patients, who are much less protected by current Coronavirus vaccines than most people.  So you're still protecting the vulnerable by getting the vaccine, even if you're really just one of millions of drops in the bucket of preventing future CoVID outbreaks.  It's also worth noting that there is still the possibility of people from outside of the county to bring it in, and that vaccinations today may diminish in protective value as time goes on.

But, on the whole, this is great news!

Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York.  He writes Science-Fiction and Fantasy novels, which you can find at his website, here.

TWF 313: LI Communities To Opt-Out Of Cannabis Sales, But Strangely Refuse To Close Bars

 Greetings, friends; and, no, this is not an April Fools article, despite the headline.

You see, New York finally voted on a substantial bill to end Cannabis prohibitions, albeit with some stupidly long delays in actually allowing sales, which was signed by Governor Cuomo.  This isn't exactly a new issue, and to be absolutely clear, prohibition of a drug known to be less harmful than alcohol is outright stupid.  That's not me saying, "It's a great idea to smoke an ounce of weed right now!" by the way, it's just a harm-for-harm comparison that's been made a bajillion times.

However, this new law does allow local municipalities to "Opt-Out" of recreational sale in their jurisdiction.  This fact, combined with numerous bad-faith arguments against legalization, has me positively disgusted.

Today, rather than just look at a Freeport-specific thing, I'm expanding my gaze to all of Nassau County, and putting the attention on politicians of every level of our government.  In particular, I'm going to address one argument that I keep seeing politicians make that really rubs me the wrong way.

The Bad-Faith Argument Of "Impaired Driving."

First, foremost, and before you say anything else - Drinking alcohol and using cannabis are both intoxicating experiences, and you should never drive under the influence.  That said, everyone from my "Democratic" State Senator Anna Kaplan to numerous Long Island mayors (Including Freeport's, I must note) have cited road safety issues as a determining factor for their decision-making.  This opt-out movement is also prevalent in "Democratic" Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and many leaders at the Legislator and Town level, as well.

And, in fairness, let's not kid ourselves, cannabis poses one unique safety risk that other intoxicants do not:  There is no reliable short-term test for cannabis intoxication, versus breathalyzers for alcohol.

With all of that said, however, I believe this to be a bad-faith argument.  I believe it is saying, "Well, there is no clear-cut technology to test for this yet, so we can't legalize it yet!" in such a way that it creates a permanent excuse justifying why you can't legalize it.  "Oh, if only there were a reliable test!"  "Oh, if only we could know for certain it wouldn't lead to any increase whatsoever of intoxicated driving!  Alas!"

Why do I think this is a bad-faith argument, you ask, perhaps concerned about it, yourself?  Because the trade-off to a potential but un-proven danger happens to be the continued incarceration of people, mostly People Of Color.  It's saying that the very real, very proven harms of the drug war are better than the potential that a problem that might exist could be a little worse, but also might very well not be any worse.

If concerns about impaired driving is your only justification for entire "no" vote, then you've chosen to support a prison-industrial complex over supporting increased funding for - I dunno - anti-drug and anti-DUI programs.

And, to me, that's an unacceptable choice.

The Real World Knocks.

Blunt honesty, pun intended:  If you're so concerned about intoxicated driving (and, let's be real, car accidents seem to be a weekly occurrence at best, these days...):  SHUT DOWN THE NATUICAL MILE YESTERDAY!!  THERE ARE INTOXICATED DRIVERS LEAVING EVERY BAR IN TOWN!  PANIC!  PANIC IN THE STREETS!!  WAIT - THAT LEADS TO MORE ACCIDENTS!  PANIC AT HOME!!  AGAGHAHHAH!!!

...Okay, it's April Fools Day, but, seriously, now:  We've been through this song and dance, before.  It was called the Prohibition Era, and it's when the U.S. Constitution was amended to prohibit the sale of alcohol.  Chaos erupted.  People who were skilled enough built stills in their houses (just like cannabis partakers are legally going to be allowed to grow their own plants), only, people who weren't skilled enough did, too, leading to numerous deaths by accidental poisoning.  Instead of the government regulating sales, crime families did - look up Al Capone and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, sometime.  People who need an escape turn to more dangerous products, like illicit moonshine, when they'd much rather just have something safer - something like cannabis.  Freeport in particular ought to know about this:  We have a history with Rum-Runners.  We sided with the Rum-Runners.  "Free" is in our town's name.  Ultimately, the Constitution was re-amended to repeal Prohibition.

And the reality is that nobody is talking about closing the Nautical Mile down, or making Nassau into a Dry County, or anything like that.  Alcohol sales aren't going anywhere, nor should they.  But since we, A, don't prohibit alcohol sales and, B, already have no way of knowing how many people are driving intoxicated on cannabis while it's illegal versus any other intoxicant, I'm going to call out people's bad-faith arguments where I see them.  Sorry, but at best you simply have not thought through this issue in any way, shape, or form.

Obviously, I urge you all to make your feelings clear in a polite and professional manner to your local electeds.  Tell them that you want them to vote a certain way; make clear that you will not vote for them if they do not.  That's just how democracy works, and in the worst case scenario for a situation like this, well, there's a regularly-scheduled election coming right up at a predictable date, and you can vote for someone you like in a primary as well as in a general election.  You can even run for office, yourself.

I, for one, know I've told Senator Kaplan how I feel, and I plan to make my plea to others who will listen, as well.

I hope you will do the same for your elected officials, on all levels.

Jesse Pohlman is an author who grew up in Freeport and is now hailing from Mineola, Long Island, New York.  He mostly writes Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, which you can check out at his website!

TWF 312 - Farewell to Mr. Kight.

 Greetings, friends,

As I am sure many of you heard, Mr. Ernest J. Kight Jr., former Principal of Freeport High School and President of the Freeport School Board.  Mr. Kight was an assistant Principal at FHS when I was a student there at the turn of the millennium, and was the Principal for a chunk of the time when I worked at the high school, myself.

I'd like to tell a quick story that will hopefully encapsulate a bit of what it was like to work with him.

I once had to report graffiti in one of the bathrooms.  It turned out to be pretty innocuous, but one can never tell when first stumbling upon something.  As I was concerned about the content of the graffiti and wanted to make sure it was seen, I went - well - directly to Mr. Kight's office.  He made himself available immediately, then came with me to read what was on the walls, take pictures, and thanked me for bringing it directly to his attention so that it could be documented and cleaned up.

Aside from that, I know he was passionate about Freeport for a number of reasons.  For one, he himself was a student at Freeport High back in the day.  For two, he could always be seen at school sporting events, which brought an excitement to his eyes that's hard to tell someone about because words just kind of fail to spell it out.

Photo courtesy of Freeport Schools website.

I wish to extend my deepest condolences to his family, and my best wishes to all those who knew and loved him as we mourn at this time.

TWF 311 - CoVID Vaccine Shortages In Nassau County; lower infection rates (CoVID Update #10)

 Hello, friends,

Hopefully, by now, your back pain from digging out of this week's snowstorm has faded.  Mine...Is still present, but that's nothing new.

Today, I was flummoxed to see this tweet from Nassau County Executive Laura Curran:

I mean, what is there to say that isn't explicit with this tweet?  According to Curran, we are administering all of the vaccine we get, and we're only getting a mere pittance of what we need.  It'd be one thing if we were only inoculating 70% or so, but if you're ever gonna talk about "herd immunity" or "return to normalcy," that's only gonna come any time soon with a maximum-efficiency vaccination drive, and it is not efficient to leave a county which has plenty of spare potential-to-vaccinate without anything to do.

I have family members who are trying to get these shots and are navigating through the already labyrinthine madness that is the NYS vaccination system.  It's a sick joke to make senior citizens have to use computers to do this!  But when they can access the site, they are told there are no appointments available.  And this sounds like it could be the reason, why!  So, I don't know who to call out for this bullshit, but it's bullshit that needs to be called out.

CoVID Positivity Rates Falling!

With that said, I don't want to leave you thinking it's all bad news on the CoVID front.  We reported in late December that the CoVID positivity rate for Nassau County was pressing up against 10%, which was definitely a scary thing.

County Executive Curran reports that we've made significant progress:

Now, in fairness, we reported back in early November that rates were increasing at a potentially problematic rate.  At the time it was only 3.4% positivity, which wasn't too bad, at all, but wasn't good.  Then, of course, came holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the next thing you know we're at 10%.

It's almost like this was predicted at the time.

Stay safe, friends.

TWF 310 - Snow Storm Inbound 2/1/2021 - Freeport Schools Snow Day

 Hello, friends!

Just a quick update that pretty much everyone on the internet is already aware of!  So it seems we've got a big snowstorm coming our way, with at least 6-12 inches of snow expected, maybe more.  You probably already knew that, but you might not be aware of the fact that Freeport Schools have preemptively declared a Snow Day with no virtual instruction to take place.  I'm sure that is a relief to your children, if you have them!

Below is a quick list of various snow-related safety tips that we've accumulated over the years on this site.  Feel free to post on our Facebook page if you've got anything you'd like to see added!

- Try to stock up on anything you need before the snow gets heavy.  It goes without saying that if you can't drive safely, if you can't move well, then you are at risk of getting injured while walking around, or crashing your car if you risk driving.  I know it's kind of an old motif, but get your "bread and milk" now.

 - Keep your pets and beloved animals inside!!!  They won't be able to move through two feet of snow any better than you will, and if the temperature is cold out, they can get sick or even freeze to death.  Have some compassion.

 - Help your neighbors do the sidewalks if you can.  If possible, clear out a 3-feet circle around your nearby fire hydrants.  (via TJ Johnson.)
 - If the power goes out, be careful with candles!  Nobody needs a fire!
 - Keep a cell phone handy; a battery-powered radio is a good idea, too.  If you need to report a non-life-threatening emergency, call the Nassau County line at 1-888-684-4274.  For medical emergencies ONLY, use 911.
 - Get your car off the road!  Park your cars in your driveway, if you can. (Via FFD member Robert Volpe).

 - Try to have cash available!  In the event that there is no electricity to run credit cards or operate ATMs, you'll want to have money around if you need to pay for anything.

 - Once the storm is over, call your friends to say hello and make sure they're alright!