my next Newsday submission
As some of you Long Islander's might know, I've been freelancing with Newsday for a few years now. Every once and again I publish an op/ed peice that gets me some notariety and recognition.
Here's a sample of some recent work that was published.
Under the cut, I'm posting a draft of what I'm working on now. I'm interested in your feedback. Please read the background article here and let me know what you think...
To what extent does the law have to make up for personal responsibility and common sense?
On June 26th, the Suffolk County Legislature is going to meet in Riverhead to discuss a proposal nicknamed “Anthony’s Law” that would require all homeowners who have pools in their backyards to install alarms to sound when something hits the water. This proposal is a reaction to the death of three-year old Anthony Muniz of Shirley, a toddler that evaded his mother’s supervision, left his home, wandered several houses away, scaled a fence, and drowned in a neighbor’s pool. A vote on the proposal could come as early as August and has the full support of Anthony’s family, who is publicly expressing their support for the bill, claiming that if at least one person is saved from a pool alarm, Anthony would not have died in vain.
Wait a minute... what exactly caused Anthony’s death? Was it the water in his neighbor’s pool, or was it something else? Because so many people feel sympathy for little Anthony’s family, it seems as if the real issue is being ignored. However, the truth is as obvious as the idiomatic elephant in the corner. How come we’re so quick to pass a law in sympathy rather than in common sense?
Passing this bill is akin to saying that the homeowner of the pool where Anthony met his tragic death is somehow at fault for the tragedy, and that assumption is dangerous and unfair. The real issue here is that Anthony’s family failed to keep him safe, not his neighbor. However, because her son died tragically, it seems as if nobody wants to call Mrs. Muniz out on the carpet for it. Perhaps I will be accused of being insensitive in light of this very awful tragedy, but the responsible thing to do would be to consider ways to bring responsibility and accountability back to our society. Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper should not be going to bat for proposal that has nothing to do with the source of the problem. One could look at this tragedy one of two ways, as an awful accident that no number of safety measures could have prevented, or a clear example of negligent parenting that is being blamed on something else.
At what point should law-abiding residents of Suffolk County have to pick up the slack for people who lack basic common sense? Passing “Anthony’s Law” could lead to a slippery slope of other legislation that puts unreasonable and absurd burdens on everyday people. What if little Anthony wandered into a fenced-in backyard of a homeowner with a vicious dog? Would Legislator Cooper suggest that homeowners should alarm their pets? Assuming this law passes, at what point would pool alarms become just as ineffective as car alarms or burglar alarms, which often go ignored because we hear them so often falsely that a real emergency could go overlooked?
Avoiding the fact that Anthony Muniz was simply a victim of unfortunate circumstance and covering it up with a measure to force law-abiding homeowners to spend hundreds of dollars or more to alarm their pools is a slap in the face to the citizens of Suffolk County, who elect public officials to make laws in the best interest of all of the constituents, not make knee-jerk reactions to try and micro-legislate common sense and personal responsibility. This law should not be passed to “comfort” the Muniz family, as suggested by his great-uncle Vincent Brand. Let’s find another way to comfort the Muniz family, and not at the personal expense of responsible homeowners who wish to enjoy their societal right of pool-ownership and reasonably expect that a fence installed around their pools should be enough to keep intruders away.
Here's a sample of some recent work that was published.
Under the cut, I'm posting a draft of what I'm working on now. I'm interested in your feedback. Please read the background article here and let me know what you think...
To what extent does the law have to make up for personal responsibility and common sense?
On June 26th, the Suffolk County Legislature is going to meet in Riverhead to discuss a proposal nicknamed “Anthony’s Law” that would require all homeowners who have pools in their backyards to install alarms to sound when something hits the water. This proposal is a reaction to the death of three-year old Anthony Muniz of Shirley, a toddler that evaded his mother’s supervision, left his home, wandered several houses away, scaled a fence, and drowned in a neighbor’s pool. A vote on the proposal could come as early as August and has the full support of Anthony’s family, who is publicly expressing their support for the bill, claiming that if at least one person is saved from a pool alarm, Anthony would not have died in vain.
Wait a minute... what exactly caused Anthony’s death? Was it the water in his neighbor’s pool, or was it something else? Because so many people feel sympathy for little Anthony’s family, it seems as if the real issue is being ignored. However, the truth is as obvious as the idiomatic elephant in the corner. How come we’re so quick to pass a law in sympathy rather than in common sense?
Passing this bill is akin to saying that the homeowner of the pool where Anthony met his tragic death is somehow at fault for the tragedy, and that assumption is dangerous and unfair. The real issue here is that Anthony’s family failed to keep him safe, not his neighbor. However, because her son died tragically, it seems as if nobody wants to call Mrs. Muniz out on the carpet for it. Perhaps I will be accused of being insensitive in light of this very awful tragedy, but the responsible thing to do would be to consider ways to bring responsibility and accountability back to our society. Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper should not be going to bat for proposal that has nothing to do with the source of the problem. One could look at this tragedy one of two ways, as an awful accident that no number of safety measures could have prevented, or a clear example of negligent parenting that is being blamed on something else.
At what point should law-abiding residents of Suffolk County have to pick up the slack for people who lack basic common sense? Passing “Anthony’s Law” could lead to a slippery slope of other legislation that puts unreasonable and absurd burdens on everyday people. What if little Anthony wandered into a fenced-in backyard of a homeowner with a vicious dog? Would Legislator Cooper suggest that homeowners should alarm their pets? Assuming this law passes, at what point would pool alarms become just as ineffective as car alarms or burglar alarms, which often go ignored because we hear them so often falsely that a real emergency could go overlooked?
Avoiding the fact that Anthony Muniz was simply a victim of unfortunate circumstance and covering it up with a measure to force law-abiding homeowners to spend hundreds of dollars or more to alarm their pools is a slap in the face to the citizens of Suffolk County, who elect public officials to make laws in the best interest of all of the constituents, not make knee-jerk reactions to try and micro-legislate common sense and personal responsibility. This law should not be passed to “comfort” the Muniz family, as suggested by his great-uncle Vincent Brand. Let’s find another way to comfort the Muniz family, and not at the personal expense of responsible homeowners who wish to enjoy their societal right of pool-ownership and reasonably expect that a fence installed around their pools should be enough to keep intruders away.