Recently I received a report about hazards mitigation which I had requested some time ago. It included a long discourse that recognized the likely flooding of Turtle Town but no plan for mitigation.

 The report also made reference to people accepting the authority of "Big Brother." For you younger people, Big Brother was a main character in a novel written in 1949 by a British author, George Orwell. Mr. Orwell predicted that by 1984 people would be accepting and loving a dictator.

 In this fictional analogy, Britain was called Airstrip One and was continually at odds with the nations Ocean and Eastasia. The physical identity of Big Brother was not known or whether he was more than a single individual but Big Brother was in complete control of the nation.

 Mr. Orwell's setting was Britain but a similar situation has existed on our country for some years. We have an oligarchy of the wealthy who buy our votes with promises of money and other direct benefits. As regards Turtle Town, our immediate dictator is the state D.E.C. (Department of Environmental Conservation). Like the people that Mr. Orwell describes, we don't even know who these people are. We were told to write to a Mr. Merriman in Syracuse, but he seems to be one of many.

 Our local representatives seem willing to accept the dictates of the D.E.C. County legislators tell me that "It is out of our hands." Our state representatives act as if their sole function is to dole out public funds.

 Yes, we are living in the days of Big Brother.