Open the Mohonk Preserve
Thanks for your letter, Mr. [Kevin] Case, [Mohonk Preserve President and Chief Executive Officer]. Glad you are on the team and look forward to your tenure. I am a long-time member and live in New Paltz and wanted to share my thoughts with you on the Mohonk Preserve closure.
I am disappointed and think that is was a mistake, and one that leaves our community without a major outdoor resource. I do understand the concerns — social distancing, large crowds, parking issues, staff issues and so on. However, all the local rail-trails are open — the River-to-Ridge Trail is open, state parks are open, including Minnewaska. In short all county, state, and not-for-profit sites are open except the Mohonk Preserve.
Highly used sites that cannot be managed, like Kaaterskill Falls, are closed, which makes perfect sense. However, Mohonk has limited parking (hence limited access), over 100 miles of carriage roads and trails, and 8000 acres. The move to close was done quickly and early, and I understand the staff felt overwhelmed. Now some time has gone by, perhaps a plan can emerge on how to re-open.
Some ideas include, limiting access to highly used spots like Split Rock, opening for free and no checking cards by staff like at Minnewaska. Or opposite, limit use to members only, have police enforce parking regulations so no parking outside Mohonk’s designated areas. In this way, the number of users could not be more than the parking spots.
I am sure the preserve could develop such a reopening plan.
In closing, the preserve used governor [Andrew] Cuomo’s stay-inside guidelines as justification to close. However, what the governor actually said was stay inside, and when going out limit your activities to walking and hiking, not playing basketball.
You can start your tenure as a hero and bring our outdoor resource back. It has never been needed more.
Alan Kraus
New Paltz
We take the high road
Hippie slogan: “When they go low, we get high!”
Sparrow
Phoenicia
In it for themselves
While it’s beautifully maintained by the Woodstock Land Conservancy, I won’t be going back to Snake Rocks any time soon. Exiting the preserve’s narrow footpath Sunday afternoon, I encountered three large incoming groups who were either tourists or out-of-town visitors in under five minutes.
It’s hard to duck a swarm of people coming at you. While my partner and I donned our face covering, not one other person was wearing any face covering, nor seemed prepared to. I do not take lightly persons who have fled their first homes elsewhere for Woodstock and do not consider the health and lives of local people during this pandemic. It is not summer vacation. This is a serious, deadly health crisis.
I was no less disgusted by the trash I had collected along the walk and seeing day-old graffiti scratched into the rocks beside one of the most beautiful pools of water there. I can’t recall seeing such disappointing examples of ignorance and open disregard for the environment at this locally cherished spot.
Instead of the common battle cry against Covid 19, “We’re all in this together,” what I experienced at Snake Rocks Preserve was the opposite: people who seem to be without a clue that there are other people in the world. They’re in it for themselves.
If social distance cannot be maintained, governor [Andrew] Cuomo has decreed that faces be covered in public. Sadly, for people’s safety and the well-being of this local treasure, I must recommend that the WLC close this area to the public.
Duff Allen
Woodstock
Support the Foreign Service
As a retired member of the United States Foreign Service with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), I was proud to represent American interests and values in the Middle East, West Africa and Central Asia during my 18 years of service. I write this as Foreign Service Day approaches on May 1, intended to honor our active-duty Foreign Service members.
Members of the U.S. Foreign Service are dedicated, hardworking public servants whose mission is to promote American interests, values and national security. For many of them, the majority of their career and working life is spent away from their homes and extended families. Because of this, they miss many momentous family events such as births, deaths, and weddings.
They also miss the commonplace ones, the ones that form bonds with their family, neighbors, and community – backyard barbecues celebrating nieces’ and nephews’ graduations, birthday parties with neighbors and extended family, and involvement in local community gatherings. Now retired, I can reflect on the many occasions that my active-duty colleagues give up while working for our country overseas.
My colleagues are not only proud to serve their country, but they strongly believe in the work that they do, the work that connects the United States of America, and its values, beliefs, and policies to the rest of the world. Despite the lack of support from the current administration, the State Department, USAID, and all foreign affairs agencies continue to play a critical role in shaping the world-view of the United States, and ensuring we maintain a global partnership with the nations of the world.
I hope that the American people will continue to support the Foreign Service to best serve America’s interests abroad.
Robert Davidson
Shady
A new Earth Day
April 22, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a day when millions of Americans, including myself as a young urban naturalist, helped to initiate a nationwide awakening of an environmental consciousness that coincided with the passing of environmental legislation and the alarm at our own heedless and destructive behaviors towards the natural world.
Polluted American skies were raining acid on our lakes, rivers and streams. Entire ecosystems that included birds, wildlife, soils, forests and aquatic ecologies were all succumbing to the selfish and ignorant ravages of Homo sapiens unraveling the web of life all across the country and the world. Public outcry over the 13th burning of the Cuyahoga River oil slicks in 1969 and the foul toxic air pollution over American cities helped enact the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and later in ‘72 and ‘73, the passage of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act (both signed into law by president Nixon). It began to reverse the trend of environmental destruction we were heedlessly following. The majestic bald eagle and other raptors were saved by the banning of the pesticide DDT in 1972, which was destroying entire ecosystems.
Fifty years later, Americans are experiencing environmental collapse from the effects of climate change and increased industrialization under the watch of an anti-environment, nihilistic charlatan called president [Donald] Trump. The environmental movement and organizations like the Audubon Society and the Wilderness Society find themselves fighting rear-guard actions against Trump and a revisionist EPA trying to reverse all the environmental gains made in the past 50 years.
This is not what Earth Day represents. Earth Day is supposed to be about protecting our natural world and the eco-services it provides. We must, as environmental stewards, all work together, to inaugurate a new Earth Day on April 22 that embraces all life and not the human generated death and ecocide that is consuming everything it touches.
Victor C. Capelli
Town of Ulster
A welcome recreational option
During this public health crisis, the need for parks as places of refuge has become increasingly evident, and the River-to-Ridge Trail is proving to be a welcome, local outdoor recreational option. As the weather becomes warmer and the trail continues to be a popular community destination, OSI encourages all visitors to be respectful and considerate of all trail users by adhering to the posted trail rules and the established recommendations from public health officials.
As a reminder of these public safety guidelines, OSI has posted additional signage at the trail and on social media. For the health and safety of all visitors to River-to-Ridge, we urge everyone to adhere to these guidelines. If the trail is busy or the parking area on Springtown Road is full, please come at a different day or time. And as always, please do not park in non-designated areas. And as a reminder, when on the trail, observe the recommended six-foot social distance from others, avoid contact with any high-touch surfaces and don’t gather at trail kiosks, gates or parking areas.
Additionally, in keeping with permanent posted signage, all dogs must be leashed and owners should arrive prepared to pick up after their pets.
The River-to-Ridge Trail provides access to a shared, public space that is open to diverse user groups. Please help us keep it open, well maintained and welcoming for all.
Wil Nieves
Senior Land Steward
Open Space Institute
New Paltz
Zombie pipeline is back
It’s ba-ack. The Keystone XL Pipeline, which we’ve buried several times before, is rising from the grave. In the oil industry it has earned the nickname “the zombie pipeline.”
Because this connector piece crosses the U.S.-Canadian border, it requires federal approval. Bowing to public opinion, president Obama refused approval. Trump, of course, overturned this Obama ruling. So Native Americans sued the Trump administration in 2018. The federal judge in Montana issued an injunction blocking construction until the feds took a “hard look” at the environmental impacts and possible treaty violations. But in June 2019, Trump dissolved the injunction with a special “presidential permit.”
The Supreme Court had ruled previously that presidential actions may only be reviewed for Constitutionality. Fortunately, this does include treaty claims. On April 16, a federal court hearing was scheduled. Outrageously, TC Energy began building worker dormitories and bringing in more than a hundred workers at the beginning of April when the outcome of the hearing was still up in the air, and worse, in spite of the Covid 19 epidemic.
They are counting on the epidemic to keep protesters from traveling and converging on the route of the pipeline, as so many local folks did the last time. It is so frustrating to see this starting all over again. James Hansen said in 2012 that if the world burned the vast amount of oil that could be produced from these Alberta tar sands that this pipeline is designed to carry, it would be, “game over for the climate.”
It’ so frustrating that we cannot be in the streets over this! But there is something that our socially distancing selves can do. Most of the money for this atrocity is from loans (guaranteed by the Province of Alberta) by a cabal of banks, etc. led by J.P. Morgan Chase. We can take all our personal money and all of our business banking out of Chase.
Boycott Chase!
Margaret Human
New Paltz
Social distancing statement
For the past few weeks, downtown New Paltz and its adjacent trails and open spaces have been mostly empty, but with beautiful weather after a snowy Friday into Saturday, on Sunday, April 19, we saw an uptick in the number of people out and about in our community. Being able to get outside during the PAUSE is very important, especially in a village where the great majority of our residents are renters and often do not have access to private yards. We continue to strongly encourage that people get outside in public spaces, as long as it is done safely and aligned with the state’s social distancing directives. We write today to make sure people are aware of and have the right facts related to New York State’s social distancing rules and process.
On April 15 , governor Cuomo released an executive order requiring “any individual who is over age two and able to medically tolerate a face covering shall be required to cover their nose and mouth with a mask or cloth face-covering when in a public place and unable to maintain, or when not maintaining, social distance.”
To be clear, a simple cloth covering like a bandana or piece of cloth suffices in terms of this directive, and masks only need to be on when you cannot be far enough away from others who you are not regularly exposed to already because they are not part of your shelter-in-place isolation unit. And be aware, there are many different types of household configurations, please don’t assume people are isolating in groups that look like what is considered a traditional family unit.
There is also a process for reporting when residents see that these rules might be being broken. The New York State PAUSE Enforcement Assistance Task Force assists local authorities with the enforcement of Executive Orders 202.6, 202.7, 202.8, 202.10, and 202.11 that directed all non-essential businesses to close their in-person operations and banned all non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason. Suspected violations can be reported through their online form at https://mylicense.custhelp.com/app/ask or by calling 1-833-789-0470. Note: specific complaints from employees against their employers should be directed to the Department of Labor through their online form/
It is important to note that the state has instructed authorities to use the least invasive enforcement approach necessary to achieve compliance. In other words, unless the circumstances are particularly egregious, authorities are using the first violation as an opportunity to inform New Yorkers of the orders and their responsibility to protect the health and safety of themselves and others. Subsequent non-compliance may be subject to enforcement.
This past weekend, we received six reports of possible violations (four through the state and two from direct calls to the police). These reports were investigated when received and in instances of verified violations, warnings were issued. To date, for the most part, our police have consistently experienced that a little bit of education is resulting in compliance.
Looking forward, in expectation that New Paltz will continue to be a magnet for outdoor activities, we are: planning to increase our police foot and bike patrols on days with increased outdoor activities; planning to increase signage at our entryways and along the Main Street corridor, as well as with flyers for businesses and organizations to post; and next weekend, several village and town elected officials will be setting up info tables at strategic locations as well as walking our crowded spaces to inform people about the rules and offer face-coverings to people who need them.
And, of course, we are continuing to post about proper social distancing on our websites and social media, and to regularly update our online Covid document with the latest news and resources. Please find and bookmark that here: bit.ly/NewPaltz-Covid 19
Thank you for your cooperation.
Town Supervisor Neil Bettez
Police Chief Robert Lucchesi
(effective April 25)
Village Mayor Tim Rogers
Deputy Mayor KT Tobin
New Paltz
Many won’t survive
If you are getting your stimulus check from the federal government and you haven’t been harmed, if you have your job and job security, if you’ve suffered no adverse economic damage, if you are spending less money than you ever imagined possible — take this money and donate it to a food bank, animal shelter, equine therapy stable or any one of thousands of non-profits devastated by the financial consequences of these stay-at-home orders. Their margins have always been paper-thin, and now the estimate is that donations across the board are down 50% or more. Many won’t survive.
From a biblical, charitable, patriotic and many other lenses, this seems like a neat idea. And if you can’t do that, at least wait until your local businesses open back up and spend there — splurging on Amazon could almost seem to be gross and the opposite of shared-sacrifice.
Chuck Petersheim
Catskill Farms
Eldred
Gateway to the Catskills
The sun broke through the clouds Sunday afternoon, March 22 of this year. My husband Bill and I decided to take a foray out to see this heavy industrial site, created by Tom Auringer, that’s being hacked out of the Bluestone Forest. On this land proclaimed to be the Gateway to the Catskills!
Onteora Lake was brimming with life, from the turtles lined up on a log to the black-and-white Merganser that we saw diving deep and long under the waters. On the trail, we passed stands of oak, hemlock and pine with birds flying about in great profusion. The trees had no leaves so we could appreciate the rugged bluestone rock structures with pieces fitting into one another like puzzles.
In one section of the trail, the hiker had to climb between two boulders. We watched while a couple lovingly helped their toddlers climb through the maze. Then we climbed down and around and up and down, taking in the fresh air and sun filtering through the trees. We kept going and going, enjoying the natural sculptures. Finally, we neared Pickerel Pond, a sharp drop from the wooded land above.
Bam, barum ba rum,bam, bam!
“What’s that noise?” I asked, as we rushed towards the edge of the cliff above the pond. We also saw a truck and a crane and what looked to be patches of barren earth. Bill said it was from an ATV and that he saw one. I heard those loud reverberations again and again and think it was some machine scraping away a huge boulder, for I saw a spray of powder clouding the air. We left, retracing our steps to the sign-out station to the west of Onteora Lake. The same sound roared over the lake to meet us where we were standing.
Do we need this as our place of welcome to the Catskills?
Elga Antonsen-Brown
Kingston
Is socialism evil?
I received a letter recently from vice president Mike Pence informing me that “socialism is evil.” Unless I sent in money to the Republican National Committee (RNC) immediately, there is a high risk that this country might start caring for and protecting its people from such trivial, so-called “problems” as job security, accessible and affordable health care and some fantasy about a “climate crisis.” Oh. my!
I find it interesting that at the same time Mr. Pence and the rest of his associated administration is promoting and congratulating themselves on the largest corporate socialism program in US history, currently being implemented.
In addition to tax breaks for wealthy real-estate investors, the recently passed $2.2 Trillion CARES act includes up to $50 billion in taxpayer (i.e. social) funded bailouts for the US airline industry over the next few months, including up to $25 billion in direct grant payments (not loans). This is the same industry whose top four corporations spent over $40 billion over the past five years on stock buybacks. Nice.
So, let’s see if I understand this correctly. Socialism that allows individuals to potentially lead better, more secure lives — bad. Socialism that supports and rewards corporations, regardless of risky and short-sighted behavior – good.
Thanks, Mike, for showing me the truth.
Phil Bishop
New Paltz
Credit where it’s due
In an article in the Daily Freeman 4/16/20 titled “Woodstock town officials looking for volunteers to grocery shop,” Bill McKenna claims Sunflower Natural Foods co-cowner Paku Misra as the one who developed the program.
That is false! Sharon Murray-Cohen from Jewish Family Services, Neil Millens from U.C. Jewish Federation, & Francesca Ortolano from Hand in Hand U.C. are the heart and brains behind Project Manna, a grocery shopping/delivery service. They had a phone conference with McKenna and Misra on April 3 asking them to implement Project Manna in Woodstock. They agreed, and Project Manna sent them an eight-page manual including volunteer intake form, instructions on safety precautions when groceries are delivered, volunteers safety checklist, client order forms, etc.
Project Manna can/should be implemented countywide. Please contact 389-0969 if you have a group or organization which would like more info on how to get started. If you want to volunteer we have people all over the county who need help with shopping and pick-up of groceries.
Certainly Bill and Paku should be given credit for implementing Project Manna in their town. However, you must give credit to those who quickly responded to serve the needs of our most vulnerable population by developing a service that helps keep people safe at home as well as making sure those who volunteer also stay safe. Sharon, Neil and Francesca not only developed Project Manna, but they implemented it in Kingston and volunteer shop. Call to volunteer or if you need help.
Donny Kass
Boiceville
Covid 19 testing in Vietnam
It has been discouraging to see the continued rise in the infection rate in New Paltz and Ulster County, as well as the growing death rate. What is worrisome is that with a population of nearly 180,000 in Ulster County only some 4,200 people have been tested. I’ve reached out to county executive [Pat] Ryan’s office and suggested that another site (or more) would be helpful in widening the access to include the asymptomatic residents who’ve been identified through infected cases. No one has responded to my letter as yet.
I also shared the same inquiry with the New Paltz supervisor Neil Bettez, deputy supervisor Dan Torres and deputy mayor KT Tobin. Sitting back and waiting it out is not an option and can drag these infections out for months.
In contrast, I have many friends now in Vietnam, and their experience has been remarkably different. With a population of some 95 million, their current infections stand at 268 with zero deaths and no new cases in the past 36 hours. They’ve gifted 250,000 face masks to the US, as well as many other countries and are capable of producing eight million antibacterial masks per day.
A great part of their success resulted from their immediate action to manage the spread and tremendous response to testing everyone who may have been exposed.
The incompetence and outright negligence of the president and his staff is beyond the horror already perpetrated by this administration. It’s heartbreaking to think that thousands who died may have survived with proper leadership. Thousands more may die unnecessarily as the poor response continues with talk of getting back to business drowning out the fate of families.
As a community, we should at least make a better effort to get a larger part of our residents tested, isolated and treated. Call, write and yell. This is not good enough.
Stay safe and think of others when you go out.
Harry C. Tabak
New Paltz
Food pantry deliveries
Greetings to you all. I hope you and your families are safe and well.
Many in the local immigrant community have recently lost the marginal jobs that before this crisis barely sustained their families. They are now threatened, not only with Covid 19, but with hunger. The Rondout Valley Food Pantry in Stone Ridge is donating food for some 120 immigrant families who have contacted the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network for help. Volunteers are needed every Wednesday afternoon to pick up bags of food and deliver them to the families’ doorsteps.
This does not require any person-to-person contact. Social distancing will be strictly maintained throughout. You will only have to pick up food for approximately ten families from a central location, probably in Kingston. When you pick up the food bags, you will be given a list of addresses and corresponding phone numbers. When you deliver the bag (to the doorstep outside the home), you will phone/text the family to say that their food has arrived. Every effort will be made to cluster your deliveries to a single Kingston neighborhood.
Please, if you can, help us with this effort. Most of these families are undocumented and their circumstances are especially dire. They are at far greater immediate risk — and on multiple fronts — than the rest of us. We can help by ensuring that at least some of our neighbors won’t go hungry.
Please let me know if you can help.
Penny Coleman
Ulster People for Justice & Democracy
Kingston
A foolish leader
In one of the most popular sci-fi films ever, the 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still, the outer space alien Klaatu, after landing in Washington D.C., demonstrates his overwhelming power by causing all cars, trains, clocks — seemingly everything mechanical that moves — to shut down, temporarily, across the planet. His warning: if nations didn’t stop their destructive march to nuclear conflagration and interplanetary pollution, the earth would be destroyed. The film ends with assembled world leaders seemingly ready to negotiate a peace.
Transpose this cinematic scenario to the current moment. Imagine that the leader of the U.S. calculates a political advantage: far from humbled, he seeks to divide. He rouses his most rabid followers, who see in this threat to humanity a sinister internal plot to undermine the economic supremacy of America. “Liberate us from the fake invaders! Attack!” the president cries, ignoring the pleas of leaders, in the U.S. and abroad.
The soldiers surrounding the spaceship, have already been rendered powerless by the menacing robot Gort. The rebels, carrying their assault weapons and wearing the emblems of fealty to their leader, converge and fire on Klaatu as he attempts to depart.
Klaatu and his people from a distant galaxy have no special feelings for the human race. They are simply an irritant — more, a menace to peaceful beings. However, the actions of this inexplicably foolish leader demand a forceful response. Perhaps one that doesn’t incinerate all life on earth but would allow other benign species to flourish … one that completes the task not with a fiery blast but a silent, slow efficiency.
Tom Denton
Highland
Help your neighbors
The Covid 19 virus has presented us with an unprecedented healthcare and economic crisis, one on a scale such as our society has not had to deal with for over 100 years. Not surprisingly, the people in our local area are rising to meet this challenge to help their neighbors get through these desperate times.
Through donations, New Paltz Community Foundation, Inc. (“NPCF”) has instituted a program to provide meal vouchers ($20 for an individual and $50 for a family) to those in need to add to, augment and operate in parallel with various programs now in place such as the extensive Project Resilience being conducted by Ulster County under the leadership of county executive Pat Ryan.
NPCF’s Project Help Your Neighbors 2020, now up and running, details how the program works. It can be found on the NPCF’s website: newpaltzfoundation.org, on the NPFC Facebook page. or by calling NPCF president, Eileen Gulbrandsen Glenn at 256-1945, or by emailing her at sande2930@aol.com.
Referring community partners include Family of New Paltz, William Murray’s Neighbor to Neighbor program, the Town of Gardiner, and the churches in New Paltz and Gardiner. The NPCF website lists those community partners who are able to advise potential recipients as to where they can pick up the vouchers and receive a list of the more than 30 local restaurants/delis from which recipients can chose to place their order.
Project Help Your Neighbors 2020 is under way, and vouchers are being issued. If you are aware of individuals or families in need, please make them aware of this opportunity.
The main thrust of this project is obvious: to help those in need in our community during these trying times. A secondary purpose of this project is to keep local restaurants/delis from having to close and/or lay off employees who need their jobs to sustain themselves and their families.
The plan is for the project to operate as long as the crisis creates the need and there are sufficient donations to sustain the project. It has been no surprise to NPCF that, to date, donations (large and small) have been very generous. If one wishes to make a donation, such can be done through Pay Pal on the NPCF’s website, newpaltzfoundation.org, through the NPCF Facebook page or by sending a check to NPFC at P.O. Box 1112, New Paltz, NY 12561 with Help Your Neighbors 2020 in the memo line of the check.
If funds donated to this project remain once the crisis is over, they will be retained by NPCF in an Emergency Preparedness Fund to be immediately available as a resource to deal with any future community emergency need.
Stewart P. Glenn
NPCF Corporate Secretary
New Paltz
Shamming
One of the first things [Bill] McKenna and I were taught when we were appointed to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) many years ago, aside from the fact that the ZBA was a relief valve for the public, was [that] you never go on to an applicant’s property without getting permission from the propertyowner.
Well, it seems that lesson was lost on McKenna. At a previous town board meeting, when discussing the source of piles of fill, McKenna said he got an “anonymous tip” that contaminated fill was deposited on a privately owned property. He stated he visited the property and checked out the fill, which he believed contained pieces of concrete and spoke to the propertyowner, giving the impression he got the owner’s permission to go on to their property.
The truth be told, based upon a reported loud and boisterous exchange between McKenna and the property owner in the building department office; it appears that McKenna never got permission to go on to the property.
When is he going to understand that he is not a king and we do not live in a fiefdom?
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Fact versus fiction
Fact: The New Deal and Fair Deal were both passed by Democratic congresses. The New Deal was by FDR in 1933 with a massive public works program to get the economy up and operating from the fallout of the Great Depression. The Fair Deal in 1949 was an extension of the New Deal by Harry Truman. Both programs addressed public concerns and social issues. The Truman administration did not get their agenda through primarily because of the conservatives but did obtain some of their program, although not to the extent that Roosevelt did with his administration.
Opinion: Today is no different than the years of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. One could say it is the progressives and liberals pitted against the conservatives, Republicans. This schism goes back to after the Civil War when the Democrats (liberals) and conservatives (Republicans) squared off with each other over their separate agendas. It is all about power and who holds the leverage.
Right now, the Republicans hold the reins of power, sort of, but when they lost the mid-term elections of 2018, they lost their full chamber of congress clout. The Democrats took over the House of Representatives. This has enabled the Democrats to square off against the Republicans and to slow down Trump’s express train. If Trump assumes the presidency in 2020 (this fall), the country is in deep shit, particularly if the Republicans win both chambers of congress in the 2022 midterm elections. This is where this country will witness the most damage to our civic programs.
Keep in mind that the Republican Party is a party of big business and money. They hate rules and restrictions boxing them in from their free-wheeling accumulations of this commodity; they particularly hate and have hated since its inception, the social programs pushed through by FDR, particularly the New Deal. The Republicans would dearly love to butcher and get rid of this benefit state — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — that we have paid into for so many years. With the appointment of Andrew M. Saul, a retail clothing entrepreneur as commissioner of Social Security, the handwriting is on the wall. As mentioned previously, he is the alpha dog leading the pack.
This coronavirus sweeping the country, serious in its own right, allows the dismantling of programs passed by previous administrations, unknown to the public without their awareness. Either one, the public loses out. Pay attention, folks. The seniors have much to lose, not only now but for the future. The Republican Party has the right man in the Oval Office — a cavalier, flim-flam man whose existence on earth consists of money, power and status. His behavior and life reflects this behavior. There is no reason to believe otherwise.
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
No mask?
In yet another photo of Pat Ryan and the Greene County exec, Ryan is not wearing a mask. I thought everyone had to. This sets a very bad example.
Lucy Muller
Cragsmoor
Legislature needs to stay
I demand that the New York State Legislature stay in session during the Covid 19 crisis — and continues to introduce and pass laws, hold committee hearings and plan for recovery. The NYS budget is done, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers don’t have a job to do. With two months left of this year’s legislative session, politicians must commit to doing the people’s business remotely.
The legislature is a co-equal branch of government that cannot cede its role to the executive, which is correctly triaging the current state of emergency.
While the governor is figuring out how to help frontline healthcare workers and literally keep New Yorkers alive, lawmakers need to look beyond the rapidly evolving crisis and help plan for recovery in addition to supporting their constituents. Other states like Pennsylvania are already doing so.
Nothing about this situation is ideal, but democracy does not pause — it adapts. Organizations around the state, like the largest school system in the country, have adapted to work remotely.
There are many important policy items that did not get done as part of the NYS budget.
We have the technology to make remote voting, hearings and committee meetings possible. It’s up to our elected representatives — Sean Maloney and senators Schumer and Gillibrand — to use it.
As an activist and teacher, I care about active representation. Living in a community like Newburgh where the majority of the population encompasses people of color — my neighbors about whom I care and who have been demonized and cheated by our systems — makes it all the more important to aid, health care and support. I am not a person of color, but living in Newburgh for 30 years, I know that they are, by and large, decent, hard-working and compassionate people.
Amy Winter
Newburgh
Earth Day memory
I remember the very first Earth Day (I was in New Paltz) 50 years ago. We all thought it was a zany idea. Too commercial. We celebrated as a group on Mohonk Mountain. We sneaked up the back way (to avoid the gate fee for day visitors) and walked and climbed.
Actually our weed-filled plan (high as hell, I don’t recommend climbing and altered consciousness) was to throw ourselves off the mountain in celebration of Earth Day. A mass suicide. Make a splash.
Of course, we weren’t serious. But we laughed and laughed about the coverage it might generate throughout the nation. Part of it came from our idea that Earth Day was the stupidest idea yet. We were mocking it as redundant. We of the Whole Earth catalog and organic food. We of the living from the land generation.
So we just sat on the mountaintop and ate our packed organic lunch and reminisced about the time we’d done the same trip years before. We climbed to the mountain top, stayed til late afternoon and then heard helicopters coming. Tons of them it seemed.
And suddenly guys in combat gear on long ropes descended from the whirlybirds and landed on the ground, some with Bowie knives in their teeth. Seriously. Just the week before a large convoy of battalion trucks had come barreling through Main Street in town at night. Of course our crew stood outside the bar and booed them and one guy got arrested for throwing firecrackers at the trucks. It was scary, our minimal protest (mostly against the war).
At the time on the mountaintop, seeing the guys descending on ropes, we freaked. From the standpoint of our altered consciousness we thought they were there to bust us. Alas, it was Army-type dudes on maneuvers (West Point cadets I think, and it explained the trucks on Main Street weeks before), but it turned out that they were as afraid of us as we were of them.
I think I’ll never forget that mountain climb or the Earth Day climb. Both were quite memorable. And here I am on the 50th Earth Day, both of us still kicking. Great memories.
Susie Sweitzer
Baltimore, MD
What have we learned?
Covid 19 has taken about 42,000 lives so far in the United States. There is no benefit that can be perceived from this sad statistic. Every death is a personal tragedy that has a major impact on all of us.
Numbers may provide much of the tangible benefits. The death rate or mortality rate is the number of people per thousand who have or is projected to die.
So far, Covid 19 has caused about 167,000 deaths worldwide, 42,000 in the United States and 14,000 in New York State. The 2017-2019 flu season killed about 61,000. The question will be if the deaths in the United States will be lower or higher from influenza in 2020 with that number currently being about 42,000 as compared to the 61,000 killed by flu last year.
We have all learned much from our temporary incarceration. We have learned about how fragile we all are when an event like Covid 19 can drastically change our behavior and lead to an economic crisis caused by a virus and not just financial-sector data. We have learned that we have everyday heroes like the military, police, fire, and health careworkers. Those heroes we never appreciate but make such a difference include truck drivers, and food providers in restaurants and other retail outlets like supermarkets who work and put themselves at risk so that we may have food on our table.
We also have learned that we are motivated to help our neighbors and to be charitable to all those good people who provide food to our neighbors who could not afford to have food on their table because of a loss of employment and income. There is little doubt that without the work plan and cooperation between the federal, state, and local governments success would not be probable.
A religious belief often offered is that all of this is part of God’s plan, and that as St. Augustine offered that a comprehended God is no God thusly, we will never be able to dissect and understand God’s plan. Others will perceive this event is for a reason and that perhaps we may eventually see an overriding good may come to us having survived.
Whatever you believe, I hope that the good things learned will remain with you and that any sadness you may have suffered will be eased over time.
Jim Dougherty
Bearsville
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