Point O' Woods, A Private Fire Island Community

Walking to the West from Cherry Grove, the first hamlet you encounter is Point O'Woods, founded in 1894 as a religious enclave. POW is a "gated" community as these signs indicate. We often walk through the hamlet on our way to Ocean Bay Park or Ocean Beach for dining or other events. The hamlet is fenced only on its Western border, which directly abuts Ocean Bay Park, so we have to go out to the beach to get around the fence. POW is a quiet community of large, shingled houses that remind one of something you might see in Maine or in the mountains. While it is a private community, they do have an art show every other year that is open to the public. Attending the show gives many people a rare opportunity to see the community.

Jim

Bush's Revisionist History Of The Vietnam War

Bush is now trying to use the Vietnam War as a case in point of why we should "stay the course" in Iraq. However, I'm old enough to remember what Vietnam was - a hard lesson on the reasons for NOT intervening in someone else's civil war. We were supposed to have learned from our mistakes there, and not to have repeated them - but that's exactly what Bush & Co. are doing in Iraq: repeating the mistakes of Vietnam. By invoking the Vietnam War, Bush is counting on the short memory span (or the outright stupidity) of much of the American populace. Unfortunately, this tactic might just work with some who don't know the history of the Vietnam experience.

Here's a photo of the "Burma Road," the unpaved path through many parts of the center of Fire Island. This stretch leads from the "Sunken Forest" to the Point O' Woods hamlet which can be seen in the distance (click on the photo to enlarge it. )

Jim