OntheWilderSide

Update beach closings in Suffolk for July 21/22 2009: HERE.

Post from 2008! Old Post!

KW:

For August 15, Newsday reports that 30 beaches in Nassau and Suffolk were closed due to elevated bacteria levels.

These closures happen a lot in Long Island.  Our beaches get closed because with the rain, run-off from our polluted roads and land create a bacteria hazard for swimmers. Shouldn’t someone notice that these problems should cause us to adjust our behavior?

Maybe someone should fix the drainage problems?* Maybe someone should realize that we need less chemicals in our world, less chemicals on the road, less cars leaking toxic defrost and spewing fumes?

I believe that problems like these are another reason to vote for the Green Party. The Green Party understands the importance of the environment on our every day lives, and on the fragile network of our ecology. The Green Party does not take money from the corporations who support the status quo in regard to pollution, chemicals, dumping, etc.

Latest from Newsday. Corporate Media Newsday only reports the beach closings as something we should accept, and adjust our beach days by. No hint of analysis that the problem should or could be addressed. Newsday actually refers to it as a “weather related woe”, instead of a “government and society not managing the weather and its effects woe.”

from
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-libeac0816,0,766890.story

<<<Long Island also had weather-related woes: more than 30 beaches in Suffolk and Nassau counties were closed because of concerns of elevated bacteria.

Nine Suffolk beaches were closed after water samples showed bacterial levels above acceptable standards. In Nassau County, stormwater runoff concerns forced the closure Friday of 17 North Shore beaches and a handful of South Shore beaches, officials said.>>>>

*An electoral solution to flooding and drainage problems: In many states and local governments, “Drainage Commissioner” or “Sewage Commissioner” is an elected position. People in those places are underscoring the importance of these tasks to the well-being of the community.

In Michigan, a Green candidate, JoAnne Beemon won for Drain Commissioner, and she used her position to not allow Wal-Mart to hook up drains in her town. She effectively kept Wal-Mart out. It was a great service to the community. Though, she was not able to keep her position for the next term. Of course the corporations targeted her.

Background on JoAnne Beemon and the power of a “Drain Commissioner” platform, in minutes from a Green Party meeting, here and below:

JoAnne Beemon—Green drain commissioner of Charlevoix County. She explained how every paradise is endangered by a force. How people like to see Engler as villain—but he’s just a handmaiden to big money. Read “Mandate for Leadership” by the Heritage Foundation. The Market and Profits are gods to these people. It is appropriate for the GP to talk about ethics. There is a higher power than global capitalism and market forces. The higher power is democracy. We have to un-corrupt government. Downsizing government is popular these days, but the most efficient form of downsized government is a dictatorship. We need an ethic larger than corporate care. Any time you hear abatement, it is a corporate subsidy. Their agenda is Privatize–what happened to the common good? We need a new “eco-nomics.” The time to organize is now. Everything is endangered. We can do this.

Filed under: Ecology, Environment, green, Green Party Websites, Long Island Politics, nature, progressive politics, rants, third party