One Opinion But a Larger Truth?

Twenty years ago I was always amazed that many people who grew up near Long Island Sound (which I did not) seemed to hate the Sound because of how bad water quality had become -- as if it were the Sound's fault. I assumed that in the years since, attitudes had begun to change. But maybe not. This piece, by a student at SUNY New Paltz, isn't a reasoned argument about why anyone should feel revulsion at the Sound -- in fact it mentions the Sound only parenthetically. But in one throwaway line about how the author would not eat anything caught in the Sound, it perhaps reflects what the next generation of local environmentalists think, and in that one mention, you can feel the revulsion. It's not good news when young people give up on a place.