Angel Wings, Freaks and Walt Whitman

My thoughts at 17: “I’m shakin’ the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I’m gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum.”  George Bailey may have said it but they were my sentiments exactly.

Like good old George, I thought that I needed to get out of this town and really LIVE.  Unlike George, I did get to travel extensively and guess what? I brought my big butt back here and decided that there is, “no place like home”.  Seriously though, Huntington has it all; beauty, entertainment, culture, education, and the Valencia! …And it’s where I‘ve chosen to raise my kids.  I grew up in Lloyd Harbor and currently reside in Huntington.

Is it possible to be guided simultaneously by Frank Capra and Hunter S. Thompson?  Thompson’s sentiments when running for Sheriff of Aspen back in the early 1970′s fall right in line if you substitute Woody Creek Tavern for the Valencia.  At the time, this is what he had to say about the place and the culture:  ”(In) 1970 Amerika a lot of people are beginning to understand that to be a freak is an honorable way to go. This is the real point: that we are not really freaks at all – not in the literal sense — but the twisted realities of the world we are trying to live in have somehow combined to make us feel like freaks. We argue, we protest, we petition — but nothing changes. So now, with the rest of the nation erupting in a firestorm of bombings and political killings, a handful of “freaks” are running a final, perhaps atavistic experiment with the idea of forcing change by voting…”

Maybe we’re not seeing bombings and political killings in the literal sense, but we sure aren’t spared any abuse of our intellect when it comes to the political debates swirling in our capital and even our own town.  Much of the noise comes from the political machinery and indeed the machinery is responsible for the inertia.  We’re all so busy with our own lives and involved with our own families that it is easy to ignore the noise, put on the blinders, strap on the tie and plunge into another week of commuting and cooking.  When we collectively disengage, we enable the inertia and status quo, even though we’d all benefit from fresh thinking and new action. This beautiful town is where Walt Whitman spent his formative years.  If we are to be true to his spirit (and I believe doing so is a very good thing) we must embrace our natural resources, our community and we should be able to enjoy ourselves while we are at it – Whitman managed to do these things and during the U.S. Civil War to boot!

The thing is, engaging is hard, it takes time just to know what’s going on let alone understand the issues sufficiently to develop an informed point of view.  My vision is for the Village Tattler to help inform and to provide a fulcrum for community debate.  If this site can make some of the discovery and consideration of Huntington’s situation even a little bit easier and faster, a few of us will have a little extra time to do something about those issues we hold closest to our hearts.  En masse, those extra minutes and hours spent reinvesting in Huntington will do more to improve the community for all of us than any big federal initiative or individual effort ever could.

Not sure what would happen if you put Frank Capra, Hunter Thompson and Walt Whitman together in a room, but I’d wager it would be a great conversation.  Our community holds points of view at least as diverse as these three and is capable of not just conducting a great conversation but doing something about it.  The Tattler will reach it’s potential with the community contributing thoughts, news and ideas.   Send in your photos and scoop everyday. Big or small isn’t as important as close to your heart.  Send it in.  When something new happens we will get the word out immediately and then it’s up to all of us to engage.  It is A Wonderful Life.

Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he? ~ Clarence Oddbody

Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people. ~ Walt Whitman

Freak Power! ~ HST

–Rosey Mulderrig, Founder Village Tattler

Justin Thompson

Justin Thompson has lived in Huntington since 1975. He holds a BA in Economics from St. John’s University and an MBA from Long Island University. A former Nassau County Probation Officer and an Army veteran, Justin served on active duty with the 35th Military Police Detachment from 1965 to 1967. He is active in community affairs and spent 25 years in the volunteer fire service, rising to the rank of Captain in Rockville Centre. He was twice elected Commissioner of Halesite Fire District serving consecutive 5-year terms. In 1991, he won the NFPA International Fire Command Fellowship and in 2005 was selected as one of 160 distinguished Americans to attend the 51st Annual National Security Seminar at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA.

Justin has spent considerable time in charitable fund raising for Mercy Hospital, the Junior Welfare League, St. Paul’s School, Friends’ Academy and the United Fund. He has been married to the former Bonnie Heather Outten since 1968. The couple has four adult children and seven grandchildren.

Claudia D. Wheeler, Publisher/Editor, Village Tattler, is a former editor–in-chief at Equal Opportunity Publications. After earning a master’s of arts degree in English, Claudia has worked for 18 years as a magazine editor and writer for numerous publications at PTN Publishing, SCP, and Fairchild Publications, Inc., now part of Condé Nast. She is currently Publisher/Editor of Village Tattler and a full-time mom.  Claudia has been a resident of Huntington–from Cold Spring Harbor to Huntington Station to  Halesite–since 1983 and loves every piece of Huntington. She firmly believes in keeping all town residents informed. E-mail her: claudia@villagetattler.com