Community garden misrepresented
I recently read an article in the paper about the Saugerties Community Garden. The article upset me—as a garden plot holder and member of the garden, I felt greatly misunderstood. Has the writer ever had a garden? I wondered.
Gardens are dynamic systems, constantly changing and affected by outside forces such as weather. One day they might look weedy and weary, and a day later they’ve been weeded, watered, picked, and they look cared for and loved. This is how they are.
The community garden is no different in that regard. It has been a very hot, dry and busy summer. The first year of a garden is rarely its best, but we all feel proud of the accomplishments that have been achieved in this first season. We’ve built gardens, and we’ve had the joy of working together and helping each other (quite literally) to grow. I myself have walked over there many nights during the extremely hot weather to help nurture everyone’s gardens. We lost all our squash plants due to a squash beetle epidemic and learned a lot for next year. We made new friends. We shared seeds and plants. We shared tools. We built raised beds. We trucked soil. It’s been a wonderful and positive experience. Why would anyone want to write an article detracting from all this? You’ve got to wonder.
Rae Stang
Saugerties
Thumbs up
To Frances Marion Platt of Ulster Publishing’s Almanac:
I like the Almanac very much. I always pick up the free copies.
I don’t attend films anymore. I’m 85 years old and have an extensive knowledge of the films of the past. At one time I had a collection of over 800 books on film. As an artist I do many pencil drawings of the great stars of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.
I enjoy your movie reviews. You review them in depth. Your recent review of the new Batman movie “hit the nail on the head,” in which, though I haven’t seen it, I totally agree. The loudness of these movies turns me off to begin with and, as you say, some of the dialogue is inaudible.
A word about remakes: They are awful! What is the purpose in remaking a classic film? It beats me! Even with all the technology, the movies are certainly not better than ever. We have had our “Golden Age.”
Robert Milroy
Rhinebeck
Democracy is getting boring
In 1870 the 15th amendment gave the right to vote to black men, but some states found ways of restricting them. Martin Luther King finished that off in the late ‘60s, about the same time that the FDA approved birth control pills.
In 1920 women got the right to vote, and in l973 women got the Roe v. Wade right to abortion. One more thing: in 2009 Pres. Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which allowed women to ask for fair wages in comparison with men.
We all know that blacks do not get an equal chance at education, jobs, etc., but did we really think that the first black president would magically change that? Well, maybe you did, but I thought that electing a black president would only increase our chances of having another civil war, or something like it before we finally resolved racism in this ‘good ole boy’ country of ours.
So, it doesn’t surprise me to find that voter suppression laws are going around in many of the states around the country, particularly in the swing states like Ohio and Florida. Which voters do you think will not be able to vote whenever they want? Will it be laborers, who often work 15 hours a day, or millionaires, who can show up whenever they please? Ohio research has said that 50 percent of early voters in the past were blacks. I have to give the Republicans credit for figuring this one out. Just imagine what else they can do, if they win in 2012.
On second thought, why am I making such a big deal about black and women’s rights? The upcoming election won’t make much of a difference. Our government is broken, since the house won’t let anything pass anyhow. Let’s leave it to the “smart guys.” After all, they’re rich aren’t they? They’ve figured out how to avoid paying taxes, (and then use that saved money to brainwash the Fox and ABC viewers into believing their lies so that they can take fuller control of the government), whereas most of us haven’t. That must prove how smart they are, doesn’t it?
Personally, I find democracy getting pretty boring. Why not try something else? Like oligarchy – where really smart people like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, coupled with their buddies, like Karl Rove, Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers, figure out how to run the country. Why not? We are living in an age of Duhmockery and we still think that we can sit back and not be active. Now, we have a chance to give it up completely because as I’ve said before:
Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Jill Paperno
Glenford
Join the family! 
