Dan's Papers - August 1, 2008

Dear Dan,
"End Paper The Weekly, Suffolk Life Closes its Doors After 46 Years" (Debbie Tuma - June 27) was a class act honoring Suffolk Life, its publisher David J. Willmott and past history. Our loss of Suffolk Life reminds me of how fortunate we are to be living in one of the few remaining free societies, with a wealth of information sources available for any citizen to access.

Sadly, most American cities are down to one local daily newspaper. They may face competitors in the surrounding suburbs along with national editions of USA Today, Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Here on Long Island, more people turn to all news radio, national network news such as ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS along with their local and independent news broadcasts or FOX 5, MY 9 and CW 11, cable new stations such as CNBC, CNN, FOX, BBC and the Internet for late breaking news which can become stale by the time it reaches print the next day. Growing populations of new immigrants support their own newspapers, radio and television stations.

I remember the Suffolk Sun, which unfortunately was ahead of its time. Long Island residents can select from Newsday, Daily News, Post, and Times and if traveling into NYC - AM New York, New York Metro or Sun. There are also weekly options such as our very own Long Island Press or your local town newspaper. You can also listen to News 12 or 55 along with a number of Long Island based radio stations.

In the marketplace of ideas, let us hope there continues to be room for everyone.

Dan,
I'm assuming, by your response to Sue (re: Tick Zoo), that you have never suffered through a bout with Lyme and a 30-day course (or more) of Doxycycline or your response would have been less flippant.

I, too, have been wondering about the lack of interest on the part of our county health agencies and was poised to write a letter to someone, but I was too ill with Lyme to get up the energy to do so. On a given noon hour last month I picked up my prescription for Doxy at Whites Pharmacy (I think you know where that is) and the pharmacist informed me that on that very morning, he had dispensed TEN prescriptions for Doxycycline for treatment of Lyme. When I spoke to my "up island doctor, his flippant response was: "Hey! If you choose to live on the East End of Long Island, you're choosing to have Lyme!"