The views and opinions expressed in our letters section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hudson Valley One. You can submit a letter to the editor here.
Shades of emotions
I don’t get the blues, but I get the teals.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Power of positive energy
The power of personal positive energy is the greatest force in the world. Individuals have the power to infuse this energy and overcome negative energy throughout the world in the most wonderful variety of ways.
We are conditioned to think that it takes great public express of kindness and good to instill positive energy. Yet the greatest energy output comes from each person’s simplest acts. A smile to a stranger, a silent prayer, an affirmation to an encounter with another person in a store, verbally reminding them that the child with them is “the greatest gift they have ever received (especially when asleep)” with the consequence being a smile and laughter spread to the immediate environment and the world. It is the easiest of acts which sets free positive energy into the atmosphere, beyond our knowledge of who or how it has been received and its effect little or large.
Paul Jankiewicz
Ulster Park
Vote yes for the capital project in Saugerties
The Saugerties Central School District will be holding a public vote on its Capital Project next Tuesday December 15, from 12 to 9 p.m. This project will enable sorely needed repairs and replacements to aging and end-of-life infrastructure throughout the district’s respective elementary schools and junior/senior high school. A second proposition also on the ballot will be to approve an energy performance contract. This will allow for the installation of new lighting and other energy saving equipment. It should be noted these propositions are tax neutral and thus will not result in a tax levy increase. We should support both of them. Our students and community at large can only stand to benefit!
Tim Scott Jr.
Saugerties
Elephant in the room
Voters, not lawyers, choose the president.
What a disgrace #45’s legal team has the worst luck. They’re accusing judges of being activists by not overturning the will of the people when they provided zero evidence of fraud. Amazing. And they still have yet to produce any evidence for their claims…or to make the claims in court that they make in the press and on social media. “Even judges who were appointed by Donald Trump are clearly deep state operatives out to get him!” Extremely dangerous “accusatorial batshit crazy” beyond imagination, mainly because elected Republicans are silent and letting Trump push these insane theories that are firing up his base.
Trump’s approval rating when inaugurated in 2017 was 46 percent. It went down and was never that high again. He was never a popular president.
Presidential elections with high turnout tend to go Democratic. There are more registered Democrats than registered Republicans. This election had the highest turnout in history, so it isn’t surprising Biden won. Trump spent his term as president antagonizing Democrats and alienating many Republicans. Many areas elected Republican congressmen and Biden for president.
Trump lost the election all on his own.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
The great division
With the election of Joe Biden comes the realization of how divided we are and suspicious of government narratives. Yes, I do blame Donald J. Trump for exploiting existing divisions for his gain, splitting us all apart much farther, using the office of the president. That being said, that division has been festering ever since the Civil War by those states still harboring hidden racist policies, practices and attitudes that exploded onto the scene in police executions of black people committing minor offenses, if any.
To make matters worse we have major distrust caused by the Vietnam War that cost 50,000 American lives and 3,000,000 Vietnamese lives based on a government lie called the “Gulf Of Tonkin Incident,” a military fabrication to get us into war and nobody held accountable.
Then we had the war on Iraq that was based on a government lie of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction. 1,000,000 Iraqis lost their lives in that war and nobody held accountable.
Meanwhile, we are currently engaged in a war on terror that is based on the government lie that 19 young Arabs in their twenties (except for one) with box-cutters, orchestrated and destroyed the World Trade Center Complex, including the Pentagon, miraculously without any opposition from our billion dollar NORAD air defense system. Forensic science documents obvious controlled demolition by world experts using classified military grade high-tech explosives, brought those buildings down in matter of seconds. High-rise steel framed buildings don’t pulverize in midair and collapse symmetrically in 12 seconds or less due to fire.
Now we are faced with the pandemic, skeptics call a “plandemic.” Why should anyone be expected to believe the government narrative now with its documented history of lying? This pandemic stands to make billions of dollars for the medical industrial complex called “Big Pharma,” the same way the past wars made billions for the military industrial complex. Understandably, the division widens as those who refuse to accept a mandatory vaccine, distrust our corporate-controlled-government’s narrative of purported biological safety. A recent study found two thirds of Americans oppose mandatory vaccines as the division widens.
The sobering fact is only when the whole truth is revealed and justice served, regarding our sordid past, will the healing of this nation happen. The problem is though that post 1968, no president will oppose the CIA and risk being another JFK.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Quakers support BLM
We as Quakers representing the Peace and Social Justice Committee of the New Paltz Friends Meeting wish to express our support for the Black Lives Matter movement as well as voicing our concern for the inequality that exists in our nation. Black people face inequality in employment, housing, education and the justice system. We believe that all people are children of God and deserve the same treatment and opportunities. Everyone deserves to be held in the light.
In America, it is clear that black people are treated differently than white people. This division is especially evident in confrontations between black people and the police — black people are stopped more often for traffic checks. Some encounters result in the murder or injury of an innocent black person. Often the police are not charged or are exonerated by a grand jury.
The prison population is made up of 34 percent black people, while black men and women make up only 13 percent of the population. Often justice is denied because proper legal representation cannot be afforded. Their sentences are often longer than the ones given to white people for the same offense. Also, parole boards tend to err on the side of caution, offering no reprieve for sentences which sometimes are 20 years or longer.
We as Quakers support spiritual meetings for worship with men and women incarcerated and teach using AVP (the Alternatives to Violence Project) in prison. We also help those released from prison find work and reintegrate them into society.
There is a huge gap between the rich and poor in this country and it is widening. Black people make up a disproportionate amount of those living in poverty. Millions are out of work and cannot find food or shelter for their families. The millionaires, billionaires and large corporations must level the playing field by paying a fair share of their taxes which can be used for public programs.
Our society is inherently unfair, and there are fewer prospects for black people than for white people. Black people are affected more by the Covid 19 virus as they tend to have less access to quality healthcare. Every American must be given the same opportunities and treatment. We have a lot to do to make our society fair and just for all. Our country is affected by systemic racism and we are committed to bring about an anti-racist society.
We have faith that we can change things by making our voices heard and do whatever we can to make America a more just society. Democracy is at stake as a privileged few are running the country. Now there is hope that we will take a new direction and correct the failures of the present leadership.
John A Rosett
Highland
Keeping an eye on things
The White House snakes are hell-bent on using their last hissing gasp, before they finally slither away, to poison Joe Biden’s presidency and Americans’ lives.
Continuing to keep a wary eye on the snakes, and to try to vaccinate my loved ones, myself, my country and my planet against their venom, has made me sometimes wonder if I’m not a concerned citizen, but a masochist. (The jury is still out.)
For instance, Saturday night I (okay, yeah: voluntarily) watched Trump’s Georgia rally-goers — sardine-packed; almost to a man, woman, and child unmasked — thrill to their huckster’s every lie and enthusiastically endorse his spending millions of our hard-earned dollars (and raking in millions of their hard-earned dollars, for his “Election Defense Fund”) in an attempt to upend the election and, if that fails (duh), to fatten his criminal defense fund.
Sunday I watched Jon Ossoff speak to an empty chair rather than to an empty suit because Sen. David Perdue had refused to debate him for the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia on January 5. One would think that no one could fail to be repulsed by this evasiveness, or by Perdue’s avarice (see: shady stock dealings); that no one could have failed to recognize Ossoff on Sunday as thoughtful, decent and informed. But these traits are seemingly either in short supply among, or not valued by, today’s Trump-poisoned Republicans.
An hour later, I watched Rev. Raphael Warnock out-debate Kelly Loeffler, an empty pantsuit who, smirk and hair firmly in place, must have called her opponent a “radical liberal” a dozen times, just as she parroted and re-parroted all the other lie-lines of her “socialism”-obsessed, boilerplate, substance-less script. But substance and honesty (see: shady stock dealings) seem to be of little consequence to Loeffler’s fans. If I’m wrong, and if they watched Sunday’s debate, they may very well have embraced Warnock’s candidacy afterward — or rather, elbow-bumped it.
Immediately after this debate I heard that Rudolph Giuliani had tested positive for Covid, after going maskless and hugging every female within grabbing distance (see: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) during his whirlwind Make Trump Great Again tour. (double duh.)
Call me a “bleeding-heart liberal” or an “effete snob.” Call me “politically correct.” Call me an “alarmist,” a “sheep.” The right has all sorts of dismissive names to call all sorts of people, to go along with its myriad glib and hard-hearted “solutions” to a myriad of complex and heartbreaking situations.
We’ve got two highly qualified Democrats running for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. If you’re sick of having lived in a nest of vipers for the last four years, and can think of any way to help Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and the country, DO IT!
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
Dear President Biden
There has been discussion in the news that Joe Biden said that he wanted to look forward in your presidency and not dwell so much in the recent past. God knows there is plenty to do up ahead. Hisr statement is placed in the context of whether Trump should face federal prosecution for crimes committed before and during his time in office. This note is to express my feelings about this and a request that Bidenallow such legal actions to proceed.
My reasoning is thus:
First and foremost, in a democracy no one should be above the law. There are far too many examples of the rich and powerful avoiding punishment for crimes they apparently have been involved in. Just today there was someone discussing the OxyContin/Purdue conviction and the fact from the trial that the Sackler family members were responsible for decisions that the company was convicted for, but no family member was held accountable for. This is obscene and only strengthens people’s sense of outrage.
Second, the argument is made that should Trump be prosecuted that the 73 million Trump voters would be further alienated and enraged, causing even greater divisiveness in the nation. This is certainly the reasoning that Ford used to justify in pardoning Nixon, and so we find Nixon spending the next 15 years saying with some success that he was faultless.
Third, some say that prosecuting a former political opponent would make Biden look like a banana republic dictator.
Fourth, some argue that Biden should tell his new attorney general that Trump should not be investigated nor prosecuted.
I think that the overriding consideration is that no person is above the law — a concept at the very base of democracy. If this is not adhered to, then any swindler, particularly one more competent than Trump, could utterly destroy our form of government and turn it into a kleptocracy. Trump has shown the damage that is possible even by someone who is markedly chaotic. This points to the need for quick action by subjecting the president to the possibility of criminal prosecution while in office. Article 25 of the Constitution allows the vice-president to take charge while the president’s attention is diverted.
Regarding the argument that the president in the dock would be too divisive of the nation, I believe that the opposite is true. Such a trial would be open and the facts widely known; thus becoming an educational tool for the 73 million Trump voters, showing clearly how Trump profited from his office, and how he endangered the security of the nation and the health of the people.
Finally, Trump on trial shouldn’t divert Biden from looking forward. All he needs to do is appoint a first-class attorney general and tell him in all regards to enforce the law. From that point on, he should remain completely out of the question of whom to investigate or prosecute and focus on serving the nation.
My sense of the reason 73 million folks voted for Trump was a combination of their feelings of losing power to people of color and that they had been abandoned by mainstream Republicans and Democrats. Biden’s policies announced during the campaign address both of these issues. By including people of color in his administration he demonstrates that the public doesn’t have anything to fear in this regard, and his infrastructure and other economic policies as well as social policies can focus on employment and social improvement of the forgotten.
Charles Lantz
New Paltz
Wake-up call for Covidites
There have been migrations here in the past, the most famous being the summer of 1969, when so many came that they closed the New York State Thruway. That was the summer of peace and love, when a great festival of hopeful young people swept across the rolling farmlands of upstate New York. In contrast, 2020 was the summer of sickness and fear, when a great plague that had killed tens of thousands in New York City caused a migration to the north — the migration of the Covidites.
After the first wave of the virus, when under the enlightened but firm leadership of a warrior governor, hospitalization rates abated, deaths subsided, and the Covid positivity rate stabilized at low levels, citizens of New York City began to emerge from their apartments. Shielding their eyes from the direct sunlight, breathing in fresh air — yes, actually fresh, without the belching exhaust of standstill traffic — they stepped outside and stood there on the sidewalks. It was then that they decided this was no longer the place for them.
So they came north. Here to the Hudson Valley, previously thought of as a tad too far from the city. But now that they were working safely from home — eager faces awash in the glare of computer screens, traveling the world through circuitry — distance to the city became less relevant. They sensed a lasting trend, that the future was here, and here could be anywhere — the Hudson Valley would do.
They came with cash. They bought homes sight unseen, offering 20 percent above asking. Prices skyrocketed. Locals who had finally decided to make the move from rental to homeownership found themselves vanquished before even placing a bid. Landlords renting homes gave their tenants a month to vacate, looking to capitalize on the rising seller’s market.
And this was only the beginning.
As the months passed, the migration morphed, it became an invasion. Here is the definition of migration from Oxford Languages: “The movement of people to a new area or country in order to find work or better living conditions.”
And here is the definition of invasion: “An incursion by a large number of people or things into a place or sphere of activity.”
The hope of this opinion is to provide a wake-up call for the Covidites. Although there has been little to no resistance to the invasion to date, it is simmering. For those who have lived here many years, decades even, they see their home towns vanishing, they see what was once a community, where most people knew each other and cared about the collective, become a hot spot, not in the sense of a virus looking for a host, but rather Covidites looking for continuity. You know who they are: beards abound, as do Patagonia fleece hoodies and down vests, as if they’ve stepped directly out of an LL Bean catalogue.
Although some businesses benefit, steadfast local customers — once the foundation of a highly seasonal market — do not. No one escapes, especially Mother Nature, as once pristine hiking trails are now littered with plastic water bottles and disposable face masks and crowded with whining children dragged along by parents, or loud groups of friends seeking an alternative to brunch. You don’t need more motion detectors that an invasion is indeed occurring. You are doing a lot more swerving now, avoiding people walking on the roads,, sometimes multiple groups of leisurely strollers who show no sign they are actually using a vehicular roadway. You are evading oncoming drivers who have veered into the wrong lane, as if every country road is one-way, or who shine their high-beams proudly at the first sign of dusk. There is now graffiti — the Covidite markings — on our bridges, over crystal-clear (for now) creeks and streams. Penske trucks filled with the trappings of their city lives clogging the roads. Half-hour lines at the transfer station, as if there wasn’t enough rubbish before.
Half-hour lines at the supermarkets, drug stores, bakeries. And taking your life into your own hands in the parking lot, as they speed to get a spot and through their daily errands, obliiviious (willfully?) as you stop to say hello to a neighbor.
They have come, and we need to accept that. But many have come with their city culture and forgot the country was already here. As I said, this opinion is a wake-up call — call it a holiday gift. We are a generous and welcoming people, but our way of life will not be simply disappeared.
Brian H. Tress
Woodstock
Thankful for soup and bread
The Daily Bread Soup Kitchen of Christ’s Lutheran Church on Mill Hill Road in Woodstock has continued to serve soup and bread three times each week throughout this trying time of the pandemic. We wish to thank all of our volunteers, our donors and the following restaurants for their faithful support: Blue Mountain Bistro to Go, Bread Alone, Catskill Mountain Pizza, Cucina, Garden Cafe, Hickory Smokehouse BBQ, Joshua’s Cafe, Nana’s Cafe, Oriole 9, Shindig, The Reservoir Inn, Woodstock Meats, Yum Yum.
Thanks again!
Eleanor Anderson
on behalf of the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen
Woodstock
Speed on DuBois Drive
In last week’s letters to the editor, several New Paltz residents were concerned about an increased speed limit on Henry W. DuBois Drive (HWD) as part of the proposed bicycle pedestrian project. This is, we are happy to say, incorrect.
As elected officials, this is not something we would propose or willingly approve. If anything, we would prefer lower speed limits and would fight if there was even a remote possibility to lower them. The goal of this project is to increase safety for all users: bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists, and the lower the speed the greater the safety is for everyone involved.
It seems like the confusion comes from Exhibits 2-7 on page 27 of the design report (https://walkbikehwd.weebly.com/documents.html ) where it says the proposed design speed is 35 m.p.h. The legal speed limit for the road is still 30 miles per hour and will remain unchanged.
Design speed is related to operational speed and is not the speed limit. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) defines design speed as “a selected speed used to determine the various geometric features of the roadway. The assumed design speed should be a logical one with respect to the topography, anticipated operating speed, the adjacent land use and the functional classification of the highway” or intended function such as arterial, collector, or local street.
In other words, the roadway needs to be designed for the most likely rate of travel, regardless of posted speed limit.
The operating speed for roads is determined by the Department of Transportation (DOT), using what is called the 85th percentile speed, which involves measuring the speed that 85 percent of the vehicles travel at or below. Although the operating speeds for HWD (exhibits 2-3 on page 23) are currently 38.6 m.p.h. eastbound and 36.6 m.p.h. westbound, once these travel lanes are narrower post-construction drivers will need to slow down. In this scenario, the use of a design speed of 35 m.p.h. is consistent with the anticipated off-peak 85th percentile speed, and within the range of functional class speeds for the terrain and volume.
Neil Bettez, Supervisor
Town of New Paltz
Tim Rogers, Mayor
Village of New Paltz
Biden’s Covid prediction
Since the CDC started counting Covid deaths in February, they say 272,000 Americans have died from Covid. Joe Biden predicted on December 2 that an additional 250,000 Americans will die from Covid from then until January. So he’s saying in 29 days almost as many people will die from Covid as died in the previous ten months. Either this is another of his “little mistakes,” like saying on June 25 that 120 million Americans had died from Covid.
There were times during the campaign when he didn’t know what state he was in, so maybe now he’s confused on the day and month. Strange how so much of the mainstream press doesn’t report these mistakes by the man who will soon be president. It’s no wonder the Democrats kept him in his basement during the campaign, and wouldn’t let the press question him during his few campaign appearances. And when he did take questions, they had to be submitted beforehand.
I wonder how long he’ll be in office before he resigns or is pushed out due to health reasons — physical or mental.
John Habersberger
New Paltz
Forgive them?
Years ago I watched an upsetting movie called The Crucible. It took place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1692 witch trials. I remember being fascinated by the unbridled fear, paranoia and deep confusion that drove the irrational and terrifying behavior of all the characters in the film. The intensity was over the top. I couldn’t imagine living like that.
Today, over 300 years from that time period, we are dealing with a similar kind of confusion and paranoia. First of all, we have a world-wide pandemic that is out of control in our country. Deaths continue to mount at a very scary rate, and you never know who might be carrying the dreaded virus. We also are dealing with an outgoing president who continues to lie about everything, including the presidential election he lost. In addition we have the very popular, and mostly unrestricted social-media platforms, which are creating a major surge of confusion, fear and mistrust in many people. Who knows what is true any more?
But it’s 2020 now, and we are so much smarter. Right? Well, I’m not so sure about that. One thing I am sure of is that there is a sophisticated attempt to manipulate the minds of our citizens.
I do not want to blame the Russians, or the CEOs of all the social-media platforms. I don’t want to blame Trump, or the religious right, or the weak Republican-led Senate. They are all focused on their personal agendas. This is obviously true. But it’s too easy to blame and to condemn without taking a deeper look into what is actually happening.
The disinformation campaign clearly is designed to get people so confused that they can’t tell up from down, night from day, or right from wrong. But that manipulative campaign cannot work unless it finds a population that is vulnerable, and ready and willing to be seduced, or tricked into believing anything. What happens to the mind of a person who is willing to be convinced, even when they may sense on some level that something is off? Why are they willing to let go of their more grounded perception of reality?
I don’t know. But when they are just a small group, they appear pathetic. But when they are in large numbers, it gets scary.
Over 70 million people voted for Trump, and many still believe that the election was rigged. Really? It’s hard to believe, but those loyal Trump supporters keep donating to fundraiser texts and emails, and Trump has accumulated over $170 million with his efforts.
It’s Trump’s money now, and his followers may soon realize that they’ve been fleeced. Some Trump supporters have lost their money. But some have even lost their lives.
I’ve now heard two different stories about loyal Trump supporters who went maskless to rallies, but then refused to believe that they had Covid. They continued to express anger toward the doctors and nurses, refusing to believe the diagnosis. They never could accept the fact that they were sick with the virus. They tragically died, convinced that it was something else that was making them so sick. Were they brainwashed? Or just totally in denial? In either case it was very sad.
A long time ago, an old friend told me never to overestimate the intelligence of the American public. I did not agree with him, but maybe he was seeing something that he knew was of.. Maybe Jesus said it a little better when he said: “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”
Marty Klein
Woodstock
Questionable beliefs
John Habersberger (“Maybe I wasn’t clear,” letter, December 2, 2020) reports that 99.995 percent of Covid cases survive, I checked the numbers on the CDC website: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics. Across all age groups the death rate was 1.9 percent.
Were that the whole story, that’s still a lot more than the 0.005 percent that Habersberger believes to be true, although it’s still not mind-boggling. However, when age groups are taken into account it’s a very different story. For 85-plus-year-olds, it’s 23%! For 75-to-84-year—olds, it’s 12.4 percent. For 65 to 74, it’s 5.2 percent.
All these figures are higher for men. Mr. Habersberger’s arithmetic and thinking seems to me to be as developed as his political beliefs; his numbers are closer to accurate for people under the age of four.
He references Dumbo in his remarks about mask-wearing. I suspect this is an unconscious awareness of the wisdom of his opinions. I hope his letter doesn’t influence anyone. His ignorance is dangerous. Perhaps HV1 should do some fact-checking before printing such misleading information.
Meyer Rothberg
Saugerties
Vassar Brothers job cuts
Nuvance was “saddened” to announce a substantial cut in Vassar Hospital staff — 14 radiology assistant technologists. “Like many … businesses, we are not immune to financial losses. Notice: It did not announce cuts in executive salaries, nor dividend cuts to its stockholders.
It is no accident that its CEO, John W. Murphy, was named “Business Person of the Year.” Murphy makes the big bucks because he knows that his primary responsibility is not so much to his patients but to his stockholders, who want to see profits. In fact, in describing Nuvance, Bloomberg Busines says that “The company’s line of business includes providing management services on a contract and fee basis.”
If you are luckless enough to find yourself ending up in any Nuvance Hospital, aren’t you now reassured? Your care, however diminished, will be “managed” to maximize profits consistent with what you — what all of us — let them get away with. When are we going to wake up and realize: In the world of healthcare, the profit motive is poison?
Paul Cooper
Kingston
Burpless meat
We were both raised in middle-class families during the Forties and Fifties when meat was equated with good nutrition and good parenting. But when we left New York City “to live off the land,” we pledged to limit meat at our house to animals that we had raised and slaughtered — which made meat-eating a much more conscious experience.
When Dan started CSA farms,(Community Supported Agriculture), he always encouraged the members to participate in the “harvesting” of the animals. Culinary Institute classes were also regularly invited to hog and chicken slaughters. Dan wanted everyone to appreciate and bear witness to the awesome concept of killing an animal for our sustenance.
Recently, a new concern about meat eating has come to the fore. Ruminants (cows, sheep and goats), belch methane (CH 4) as part of their digestion process. In fact, one-third of all methane emitted comes from domestic farm animals!
The good news is, because of the need to cut emissions of greenhouse gases (methane is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide), many scientists are studying ways to mitigate methane burps. They have found that a red seaweed, called asparagopsis, does wonders even in small quantities to cut down methane emissions.
But even if you are a meat-eater, do so with conscious moderation.
Dan and Ann Guenther
New Paltz
And the winner is
Our own part-time supervisor Bill McKenna, maintaining his position as the highest-paid supervisor in Ulster County. Higher than the other 18 Ulster County town supervisors, many of whom govern towns with populations larger than Woodstock.
How did this come about? Probably because he accepted a raise, he did not need and because in some other Ulster County towns the supervisors’’ salaries remained unchanged. So once again, congratulations. The taxpayers of Woodstock should be overjoyed
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Join the family! 
