Vote for Faso? No!
As a NYS Assembly member John Faso, voted against equal pay for equal work for women; against a woman’s right to make choices her own body; against safe access to abortion clinics; even against protections against stalking; and he supports Trump despite his history of negative remarks and actions against women. So why should I, and any woman, vote for Faso?
Add to this Mr. Faso’s history as a lobbyist whose firm was fined a whopping $500,000 for a pay-to-play pension fund scandal. That’s right, he’s been an Albany lobbyist for the past 14 years minus time out for his failed run for governor.
So, Mr. Faso certainly can’t run on his record, he has nothing positive to offer voters. Instead he uses his unlimited campaign funds for sneaky ads spouting lies against his opponent, Zephyr Teachout.
Why I’m voting for Zephyr Teachout? It’s a long list starting with: she’s smart, she’s pro-women, she’ll fight to end pay-to-play politics, she has a history of fighting on the side of issues that make a positive difference for the people of NYS and for our district and she is the candidate to follow in the footsteps of our great Congressman Maurice Hinchey. She has my vote, Maurice’s vote and I hope she has yours.
Judith Simon
Saugerties
Zephyr Wrote The Book
That a person “wrote the book” on something has become fairly cliche, but it is not cliché when it comes to Zephyr Teachout, candidate for the 19th Congressional District seat. Her book “Corruption In America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box To Citizens United” is a treatise against the corporate influence and corruption that have overtaken American politics. Even the usually corporation-friendly Wall Street Journal described her book as “a masterly work of scholarship” that proposes how we might return to the Constitution framers’ efforts to “prevent corrupt acts before they are perpetrated, rather than relying on punishment after-the-fact.” Yes, she actually wrote the book on fighting and preventing political corruption, and for this and many other reasons, she has my vote.
Mark Rosen
New Paltz
Treat Clovelea with respect
I was quite upset after reading the cover article on the ‘Dragon Inn’ in last weeks Times.
First, to read the headline ‘Dragon Inn dream extinct’ infers that the building is to be demolished with no hope of preserving it. I think this does a disservice to readers since it isn’t true. There are many citizens in Saugerties, including myself, who still have hope that the building can be preserved in some way…adoptive reuse, etc.
Second, I wish you would refer to the building as ‘Clovelea’, which is its proper historic name, not ‘Dragon Inn.’
I think calling it ‘Dragon Inn’ brings the site down to a lower level. According to historic records it was also previously called the ‘Stonewall Hotel’ as well as ‘Anton’s Restaurant’ in the 60’ and 70’s.
So please, going forward, I think if you do an article on this historically designated building, you could treat it with the respect and significance it deserves.
Mark Smith
Friends of Clovelea
Send me a lollipop — please
This morning I went to the Saugerties post office to pick up my mail. As I pulled all the political post cards out of my box, I could hear the sweet looking older woman next to me quietly whisper to herself “get this crap out of my box.”
The joys of the election season.
Political advertising post cards used to be 4×6 in size. Each year they’ve gotten bigger and bigger, and now several in my box were 8×14. Youuu-whoooo, Politicians — nobody reads this stuff. Everybody I see in the post office takes this stuff directly from their box and throws it into the post office waste basket.
If you really want to convey an honest message to me, the voter, that I will pay attention to, then send me a lollipop with your name and photo on the wrapper.
I promise to take it home, suck happily on the lollipop, and think of you fondly for as long as the lollipop lasts.
Alan Beebe
Saugerties
Free the oppressed, protect the land and water
This fall, as I plant garlic in the fertile soil of Cody Creek Farm in Saugerties, I think of friends in Italy busy at the ‘raccolta’ in their olive orchards, the olive trees surrounded by ‘paracaduti’ (parachutes) to catch the hard green olives that will then be brought to the “frantoio” for pressing. I’m thinking also of families in Palestine harvesting olives with joyous shouts of “Yala! Yala!” — “Let’s go! Let’s go!” and many internationals who are helping with the harvest, protecting trees and harvesters from settler violence. I think also of the recently celebrated Jewish holiday of Sukkot, the dual Feast of Tabernacles and the Ingathering, where 40 years of Jewish wandering in the desert are commemorated and “booths” are built in memory of dwellings where farmers would live during the harvest. These are just a few examples from my own experience of the Fall harvest that carry mixed feelings of joy and sadness.
I tend to see things cross-culturally and similarities and comparisons bring sorrow as well as joy. Recent violence in North Dakota towards Native Americans of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and members of 100 more tribes throughout the U.S. and Canada by Dakota Access pipeline company security guards call up to me the past years of genocide of our native peoples and continuing indifference and inaction by us, the ‘powerful elite’ — and also, those, like myself, who comprise the 99%! The Native Americans call themselves not ‘protestors’ but water ‘protectors’ and U.S. police have deployed tear gas, mace, pepper spray, grenades, bean bag rounds at them and shot rubber bullets at their horses. I regret that I have not been there to stand with our native peoples who are trying to save the water.
It happens that I was, however, a few years ago, in Bil’in, in the West Bank, walking peacefully with the Palestinian people on their land where their centuries-old olive trees were being uprooted to fence them off from the building of settlements on their land; and tear gas, grenades, and ‘rubber’ bullets were used against these people who were trying to protect trees, land, and water. Devastation of the earth and people who tend the earth in both cases!
There is a film, Two Blue Lines, to be shown this Friday, November 4 at 7 p.m. at the Woodstock Town Hall, filmed over 25 years, that shows conflicting views: an entitlement to land versus a spiritual commitment to freeing the oppressed, asking whether people are safer segregated or connected to each other. Being both Jewish and American, I ask myself what am I doing to free the oppressed, what am I doing to protect our ancient landscapes, our water, our trees, our spring plantings, our fall harvests?
Jane Toby
Catskill
Thank you Jill Stein
It was stated in the April 24, 2016 issue of The New York Times Magazine that “Hillary Clinton is the last true hawk left in the race.”
We see this truism when Clinton was Secretary of State. She defends today, her advocating intervention in Libya and taking down Gaddafi. Supposedly, he had slaughtered protesters. In fact, foreign mercenaries were responsible.
Hillary Clinton advocated for taking down Gaddafi because he pushed for the nationalization of regional oil resources and he planned to introduce the gold dinar, a single African currency made from gold. This would shift the economic balance of the world, where a country’s wealth would depend on how much gold they had. This decision to kill Gaddafi for deceptive and selfish reasons with no plan for the aftermath, has helped Isis to flourish.
Hillary Clinton supported the coup in Honduras with resultant chaos, violence, refugee migrations, and the killing of environmentalists, women, and children. Of course, Hillary Clinton says that environmentalists need to get a life. Her silence on the Dakota Access Pipeline is deafening. After supporting the coup, Clinton now wants to deport the Honduran refugees seeking asylum in the United States.
Although many detest Donald Trump for speaking of mass deportations, in fact it is the democratic party that is responsible for night raids and mass deportations under the current administration.
Hillary Clinton campaigns on a promise to initiate a no fly zone over Syria. Since Russian aircraft are presently flying over Syria, this essentially puts us at war with Russia, a nuclear power. Of course, we hear constant propaganda about Russia interfering in our elections. In fact, no one has given proof of that and the Russia propaganda began just before the democratic convention when four DNC staffers were forced to resign given early Wikileaks revelations. Rather than explain the content of the emails in question, the campaign cried “Russia” and continues to do so today. I believe this rhetoric is extremely dangerous.
I am supporting Dr. Jill Stein for president of the United States. Jill Stein advocates for a peace initiative and an arms embargo in the Middle East. She urges us to end support for governments committing war crimes and massive human rights violations, including Saudi Arabia and its brutal war in Yemen. She promotes human rights and diplomacy. Thank you, Green Party and Dr. Jill Stein for bringing ethics into our politics and for putting people, planet, and peace over profits.
Lisa Jobson
Woodstock
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