Post Office alternative?
Over 10 years ago Operation SOS based in Saugerties was formed for the purpose of providing morale support for our deployed servicemen and women, most often in the form of sending comfort packages. At the present time we send packages which are the size of 12-14 inch cubes but that is smaller than we originally sent in the early years of our operation. We are completely 100 percent volunteer and do our own fundraising without any government grants.
These packages must be sent by the US Post Office to a point where the military picks them up and delivers them overseas without a charge. I have been told that the transition point between the US Postal Service and the military is somewhere on the East Coast around New Jersey or Maryland but the precise location is very guarded and to date unobtainable.
At our last mailing which was last month we noted that the price of mailing these boxes has gone up from what was $8 for a larger box to $26 for the 14 inch cube. The weight of the packages has not undergone any major changes during the past 10 years. The USPS has now removed the option of sending these packages surface and now all must be sent as priority. The USPS boasts of having a special military rate but that consists of providing a very small box about 4» by 6» by 8» for the cost of $15.
So far I have spoken only about the direct cost however today I brought an SOS package to the USPS for shipping to a soldier in Afghanistan and noticed that some of the tape needed reinforcement. I was told that by the post master that I would need to use my own tape and to go back home and get my tape. I was shown a directive which was sent to her about the use of tape and not providing any to the customers. This directive included the tape that labels a package priority.
Over the past 10 years I have not complained about the drastic increase in prices but this is the icing on the cake. If anyone can help to find another way to get these packages to the point at which the military assumes the delivery please get me that information. I am tired of having the USPS absorb the bulk amount of our funds and then be unwilling to provide a piece of tape for a package going to a soldier in a combat region.
This is now a far cry from what Ben Franklin had in mind when he established the post office when our country was in its infancy.
God help America and God bless our troops.
Gaetana Ciarlante
Saugerties
Turbidity 2014
Alice said “things are getting curiosier and curiosier,” but that was Wonderland, and it was long ago and far away. Today in Ulster County things seem to be getting more “Turbidier and Turbidier” every day. Just when the people of Ulster County thought some progress was being made on the pollution of the Esopus Creek and the muddy water problem was being addressed by the New York City reservoir system we find that New York City is in complete denial of its responsibility for the mud.
To exacerbate the problem, New York State fails to cooperate with Ulster County in resolving New York City’s intentional pollution of our natural resources and ecotourism industry. Government dysfunction is fueled by egomania, political ambition and financial greed. The new study of the “source” of the pollution of the Esopus Creek is a blatant delaying action on the part of New York City to enable it to delay implementing needed infrastructure and policy improvements.
The millions of people in New York City who enjoy some of the purest water in world are completely oblivious of the concerns of the people of Ulster County. The leaking aqueducts waste more valuable water every day than all the energy saving devices could ever offset. Wealth and power trump integrity and altruism every time. The exploitation of Ulster County by New York City has been going on for a hundred years and it would seem will continue for another hundred years. The single-party system of government is failing New York.
Jack Hayes
Recording secretary
Ulster County Conservative Party
Common complaints about Core Curriculum
Sometimes (in life) things that are implemented with good intentions end up having unintended consequences. Such can be said about the recent implementation of nationalized Core Curriculum standards which 45 states and the District of Columbia have implemented within the instructional curriculum of their school systems since 2010. As was reported in the New York Times on Feb. 7, 2014, the initial implementation of these core curriculum standards was met with optimism amongst educators and politicians who felt that the creation of set standards for core subject areas would be better than the individualized standards that each state had in place prior to Core Curriculum. Such standardized curriculums across the United States’ educational system were viewed as being a means through which American students would be able to compete with students across the globe. Obviously, this is important in today’s globally-based economy, but with the recent backlash against Core Curriculum, one has to ask if the ends justify the means or whether the goals are actually being met through the implementation of Core.
Currently, common complaints are being voiced by teachers, parents, students and administrators that the implementation of Core’s standardized curriculum and testing methodologies are placing constraints within the classroom where teachers are left with little flexibility on how they can teach and test. Teachers have complained about receiving an insufficient amount of training in how to teach the components of Core within the classroom, and that they have not always received the textbooks and associative teaching materials in a timely manner. In addition, the parents of students with learning disabilities or other issues like autism or ADHD are faced with an additional burden of having to lobby on behalf of their children in order to opt out of the standardized tests associated with Core.
With the rigidity associated with Core, everyone within the New York State educational system has begun to question its continuance. In fact, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has begun to criticize Core, and both houses of the New York State Legislature have recommended that a two-year stay should be instituted on the evaluations of teachers statewide being correlated to the standardized testing results of Core. And even the New York State Board of Regents has announced a five-year delay in the implementation of Core’s standards being used as a baseline determinant in establishing the criterion for high school graduation across the state.
Perhaps the New York State Educational System should return to the ways in which students were taught prior to 1997. Before that date in time, a three-tier learning system was in place for grades 6-12 whereby students were placed into remedial, intermediate and advanced-track classrooms. Under this system, students in New York State could earn a Regents or Non-Regents Diploma, and students were given more flexibility to pursue a trade-based education through a countywide vocational teaching center. Perhaps we should also follow the model that is used in Germany where trades are encouraged at a young age.
Chris Allen
Ulster County legislator
The quiet ones
Often the people that affect our lives the most for the better live quietly and leave us quietly. So when I read that John Nickolitch had died, it brought to mind how much he had done to stave off plans by the NRC for a nuclear plant in Cementon (and other plants up and down the Hudson Valley) along with Mary Barnes and Pete Seeger.
John not only talked the talk, he walked the walk. His testimony at NRC power plant hearings was given with such a grasp of the legal language, as well as the issues, he was sometimes mistaken for a lawyer.
The roof of his home had a permanent “no nukes” written with shingles. Again, testimony to this commitment to safe energy.
He made St. Mary’s in Cementon accessible to the people who marched from Dutchess County, across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge to protest the nuclear power plant sitings. And — most importantly — he brought the research by Sister Rosalie Bertell to the local public. It explained in plain English the dangers of ionizing radiation. Her studies determined that radiation from one dental x-ray equals three months aging. With the massive radiation releases from TMI, Fukushima, etc., as well as daily “routine” or “unplanned” releases from nuclear installations, do you wonder why there are so many “aging” diseases even for young people? At least now we don’t have one of these “bombs-in-place” right in our backyard.
Thank you, John, for all the quiet work you did to keep this valley safer for future generations.
A.E. Wasserbach
Saugerties
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