Riverhead politics has always involved disagreement. We have fought over development, taxes, preservation and the direction of our town. But there was generally an understanding that we could challenge someone’s position without trying to diminish the person behind it.
Lately, that line is being crossed.
Councilwoman Joann Waski’s recent Facebook post about Kevin Shea is a disturbing example not because she disagreed with him, but because of how she used his verbal mistake to elevate her own political message.
At the July 21 Town Board meeting, Shea was discussing public safety when he mistakenly used the word “accident” while referencing September 11. Councilman Ken Rothwell corrected him. Shea immediately corrected himself and unequivocally stated that September 11 was a terrorist attack on our country.
That should have been the end of it.
Instead, Waski resurrected the moment around the 25th anniversary of September 11. She told readers that Shea had called the terrorist attacks an “accident” and went considerably further, declaring: “The truth, he does not believe that it was a terrorist attack.”
That assertion is directly contradicted by Shea’s own words at the meeting.
Waski then turned the episode into partisan politics. She identified Shea as a former Democratic candidate, tied him to Supervisor Jerry Halpin and a supposed “buddy system,” invoked “socialism,” praised her Republican colleague and positioned herself as defending the true meaning of September 11 against people supposedly “trying to change the narrative.”
That framing may enhance Waski’s political message, but it does so at another person’s expense and in this case, at the expense of a man whose history makes the attack particularly troubling.
Kevin Shea was an FDNY firefighter who responded to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He survived the collapse and suffered devastating injuries. Twelve firefighters from his firehouse who responded that day never came home.
Kevin Shea does not need Joann Waski to teach him what happened on September 11. He survived the terrorist attack.
This is bigger than one Facebook post.
When an elected official takes a person’s verbal mistake, omits his immediate correction, attributes a belief to him that his own words contradict, and then uses the episode to promote a partisan narrative, we have moved beyond legitimate political disagreement.
We have entered a politics where diminishing someone else becomes a way of elevating ourselves.
That is dangerous in a community like Riverhead. Republicans and Democrats are neighbors. We serve together, volunteer together and advocate for the same community. Today’s political opponent is still tomorrow’s neighbor.
Every elected official and every resident is entitled to criticize Kevin Shea, Joann Waski, Ken Rothwell, Jerry Halpin or me. But criticism carries an obligation to represent the facts fairly.
Our politics should be about proving our ideas are better, not making another person’s character look worse so that we look better.
Riverhead deserves that distinction.
Laura Jens-Smith is the chairperson of the Riverhead Town Democratic Committee. She lives in Laurel.
Editor’s note: Kevin Shea was a Democratic candidate for town council in 2025.
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