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.
BLM vs. insurrection
Trumpists compare Black Lives Matter demonstrations/protests to the January 6 insurrection in the Capitol and declare they are equivalent. But if you truly compare them, you see a mirror image. BLM protests the truth/facts that policers are still shooting black men, including in the back (and expecting to get away with it). The insurrectionists were inspired by obvious lies, both from Trump and Congress-members (and expected to get away with it). The BLM protests were mostly peaceful, with a few people breaking windows and setting fires (did the police take time from abusing BLM demonstrators to arrest those lawbreakers?). The insurrectionists were mostly violent. It’s suspicious that the Capitol police and DC police ignored the possibility for violence).
As a white woman, it is obvious to me that the police officers in DC considered people of color and their allies as dangerous, while white insurrectionists, white supremacists, Trumpists and conspiracy fantasists as non-dangerous. I hope that the insurrection will overcome the racism of the FBI, Homeland Security and state police so that they will focus on the white domestic terrorists.
Andi Weiss Bartczak
Gardiner
Signing the Beyond Plastic petition
If you read my letter in the February 3 edition of Hudson Valley One (Clean up our act), my appreciation. But we need to do a little more besides changing personal consumer habits around single-use plastic.
Beyond Plastic has developed, along with over 250 other environmental organizations, a presidential plastics action plan that would make a huge difference in plastic production going forward, in part by targeting stimulus and any other government spending as investments in ending plastic pollution. Two of its eight provisions: Use the purchasing power of the federal government to eliminate single-use plastic items and replace them with reusable products; suspend and deny permits for new or expanded plastic-production facilities, associated infrastructure projects and exports. If you’re still not sure why: Plastic is made from fossil fuels; increasing its production as planned by the fossil-fuel industry will result in emissions that will top 56 gigatons, or 10 to 13 percent of the entire remaining carbon budget. And the industry’s Plan B is to increase plastic production by 40 percent by 2040. Urge the Biden-Harris administration to make preventing this a priority by signing the Beyond Plastic petition on their website (beyondplastic.org). And contact Senators Gillibrand and Schumer as well as Representative Delgado to request that they support the plan in Congress.
Janet Asiain
Saugerties
Disinformation web of deceit
Now that one month has passed since the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol, there is much talk of the QAnon conspiracy theory and how Trumpsters could believe such wild claims. To be fair, the history of America is replete with conspiracies that were proven to be more than theory and based upon substantive facts. From the 1934 Wall Street conspiracy of the attempted overthrow of the FDR Government by an army of 100,000 veterans, supposed to be led by general Smedley Butler, who spilled the beans; to the JFK assassination, declared by the 1978 House Administration Assassinations Committee to be the “result of a conspiracy”; to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., declared to be a conspiracy by a 1999 Tennessee Circuit Court that included government agencies as co-conspirators; to the obvious controlled demolition of the World Trade Center complex, where active and inactive residues of high-tech military-grade classified nano-thermite was found in all the dust samples taken at Ground Zero and unchallenged analysis published in a peer-reviewed journal and evidence in a current federal Grand Jury in the Southern District of New York. Let’s not forget to mention the conspiracy by US generals to fabricate the Gulf of Tonkin incident that led to US involvement in the Vietnam War, resulting in the deaths of three million Vietnamese and 64,000 US soldiers; or the conspiracy to make out Iraq as a threat to the US with weapons of mass destruction that were nonexistent that led to the deaths of one million Iraqis. Or how about the 1960s plot to create a “campaign of terror” orchestrated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in order to create a “pretext for war” with Cuba, as revealed in the declassified military intelligence document “Operation Northwood”?
With a history like this, can we blame the QAnon conspiracy folks for believing the worst of politicians currently in office? The matter is made much worse with the disinformation/propaganda campaign carried out by the CIA’s Operation Mockingbird, which was one-third of the CIA budget at its inception and revealed in the Frank Church Senate hearing committee in the 1970s. In 1981, then-CIA director William Casey stated: “We will know our disinformation program is complete when the American public believes everything that is false.” Looks like the QAnon folks got caught in the CIA disinformation net.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Save the sturgeon
Save the sturgeon! The red-brown silt going through the Esopus Creek is going to suffocate their eggs. The horrific sight of 600,000 gallons of brown turbid sediment-laden water being discharged down the Lower Esopus Creek into the Hudson River at Saugerties is just one more example of how government environmental “protection” agencies like DEP and DEC are mismanaging the water, wildlife, soils and the public lands of the Catskills and Hudson Valley. The Department of Environmental Protection has engineered this latest fiasco because of a “state-approved filtration avoidance determination.” This has allowed DEP to sidestep any costly construction of a water filtration system in order to keep NYC drinking water clean.
The calamitous ecological consequence of this hydrologic boondoggle will be woefully evident on the breeding potential and dwindling population of the critically endangered Atlantic sturgeon, which spawn on gravel streambeds of the Hudson River estuary. The sturgeon are known to spawn between Hyde Park and Catskill. The Atlantic sturgeon, under a fishing moratorium since 1998, needs well-oxygenated waters on their nurseries to spawn and reproduce. Sturgeon eggs and the larvae inside require high amounts of oxygen in the water circulating over their gills in order for them to survive and develop properly. Thick sediment choking the sturgeon spawning and egg-laying sites will either quickly smother the newly hatched eggs or stunt the newly emerged sturgeon hatchlings. DEP and DEC are shooting themselves in the foot by allowing this sediment-loaded discharge to sabotage the very survival of a species that was fished to the point of extinction.
The numerous biological and ecological negatives from this discharge will be persistent and chronic, involving the entire aquatic food chain, including phytoplankton, crustaceans (crayfish and crabs), macro-invertebrates like aquatic insect larvae (caddisflies, mayflies, stoneflies, dragonflies) on up to larger vertebrates like fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals which depend on them.
Invasive aquatic plant species like water chestnut, water hyacinth, hydrilla and Eurasian water milfoil will dramatically increase as a result of the turbid water release because of the lowering of dissolved oxygen levels. Decreasing sunlight and high nutrient turnover in the turbid water will actually promote the infestation of invasive species. The sediment deposition covering the stream banks will also further spread the colonization of riparian invasive plant species like Japanese knotweed, mugwort and Japanese stiltgrass that are presently overcoming the native flora. Rising populations of biting midges, mosquitoes and black flies will be another direct consequence from the discharge sediments, as they increase the growing spread of floating mats of water chestnut, yellow lily pads and water hyacinth, which are their breeding grounds.
Aldo Leopold wrote, “One of the requisites for an ecological comprehension of land is an understanding of ecology and this is by no means co-extensive with ‘education;’ in fact, much higher education seems deliberately to avoid ecological concepts.”
DEP and DEC are, by their neglect of the land, guilty of environmental irresponsibility, and with this latest outrage, have become incompetent stewards of an increasingly distressed natural world. It has to end, or else we will increasingly pay the ongoing price of “Silent Spring” and biological deserts inflicted on our Hudson River Valley natural heritage.
Victor C. Capelli
Town of Ulster
A forgotten city on the Hudson
I first discovered Newburgh in March of 2020, on a drive from Manhattan to my cabin in upstate New York. My husband, Moshe, is also a photographer, and occasionally we exit the Thruway to explore smaller cities and country roads that we have never been to. When we drove through Newburgh, it immediately caught my eye and my heart. I saw beauty and despair; I saw past and present; I saw beautiful houses and buildings with a very rich history that now appears forgotten and neglected. At the same time there was a sense of a renaissance happening there: artists moving in, lots of murals and people out and about. I felt that this city had a story to tell, and so we kept going back on our drives, to explore, spend time with the people there and take photographs.
I walk the streets taking photos and occasionally speaking with the folks who are sitting outside on the stoops. Most of them say hello, some don’t want to be photographed, but I always feel very safe. Occasionally my subjects will ask for prints, so on my next visit I always bring them printed 8-by-10s, which they love to receive.
The more time I spend in Newburgh, the more emotionally connected I feel to it, and I still go there today. I feel that there is so much to discover and photograph with every visit.
Rivka Katvan
Catskill
More public access television is needed
Internet access is a must-have to follow along with government. #KingstonNY meetings are no longer broadcast on television. The city has not reappointed any members to the Cable Commission. Resolution 137 of 1995, a/k/a Section 14 Public, Educational, Government Access (PEG) and Section 15, rates for the Time Warner Cable (Spectrum) City of Kingston ten-year contract expired in 2016. The City of Kingston and towns are collecting revenue from the cable franchise fees, over a half a million dollars from the cable subscribers, and don’t direct any funds to the public access station.
Clark Richters, Sr.,
former commissioner/producer
at Channel 23, Kingston
Keep the dream alive
Stacey Abrams is the Martin Luther King of now.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Streets and highways of New Paltz
Our streets are not video games, and cars are 2,000-pound projectiles.
The snow stopped five days ago. Millrock Road is lined with snow-covered cars that the plow truck had to skirt around. I can’t remember when the law got changed that vehicles had to be off the streets during a snowstorm, but I do know it should be reinstated. Having once plowed snow for the Town of New Paltz years ago, I am aware of how tough a job it is. Plow-drivers are on call 24 hours a day and have to navigate curbs, fire hydrants, mailboxes and road signs. Adding to that, streets lined with parked cars are unfair and dangerous.
The challenge I see for our firetrucks to fit down car-encrusted narrow streets is upsetting. I am aware of one New Paltz street with alternate-side parking: South Chestnut. Millrock Road is a parking lot for the Main Course and numerous student rental houses that have limited off-street parking.
A year ago, I asked the village to put up a no-parking sign by the fire hydrant in my yard. It’s the only hydrant for all the houses between Main Street and John Street. Nothing came of it. I purchased a sign and put it up myself.
The Huguenot Street, Route 299 and Water Street intersection is impossible to enter from Water Street without risking your life. A one-way street off 299 would solve this.
When I worked for the Town of New Paltz some 40 years ago, I was in charge of the sign department. At the intersection of North Ohioville and Brookside Road, there was a two-car accident. A young woman died. There were no stop signs. I asked the Town Board if I could put stops signs up. It got put on a future agenda. After what I considered too long of a time, I took my crew to the Ohioville intersection and we put up stop signs. Those signs are still there, saving lives.
With the issues of Henry W. DuBois Drive, perhaps we need a commission to evaluate the existing laws of our village and town streets, highways and parking. If there is one, it needs help.
My wife and I walk Millrock daily. As we approach Henry W. DuBois Drive, I watch the vehicles coming to the stop signs. To date, the average number of cars that come to a full stop is one out of two. Over the past months, I’ve seen many vehicles not even slow down. On almost every walk, we encounter cars cruising our narrow street at speeds of 40 miles per hour. This prompted us to buy fluorescent belts, hoping we are better-seen.
If you have the same concerns as I do, please make it known to our Village and Town Boards. Henry W. DuBois Drive is a bypass for Main Street, no matter what is done to it. This affects every residential side street that leads into it.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
In memory of Dan Guenther
One day in 2004, early in my farming career, I received a call from a friend of my parents. Thinking for sure he was calling for reasons relating to my parents, I was surprised to find out he was calling for me. Me, not the daughter of his friends, but the me that he saw in the path that I was choosing to take. I was a few years into organic farming and deeply enraptured by it, and little did I know he was tracking my path. Would I like to meet up for lunch and talk farming? Sure!
So, the next time I was in my hometown (New Paltz), I met up with Dan Guenther at a tiny sushi place for lunch. I might mention that being around any of my parent’s friends always gives me the sensation of being about eight years old – well, just because my parents and all their friends are endlessly in their early 40s, and that’s just one of those miraculous time-stopping things that happens with impressionable people in a child’s life.
Any awkwardness quickly faded. Dan allowed me to be a fellow farmer, right there with him at the table – even though I was only a few years into my farming experience and only a couple years into my own farm. Dan was an innovator and a great conversationalist. It was an easy lunch to have.
And then, after our meal and hours of conversation, we stepped outside and he gave me a blessing. A blessing about farming, about being a farmer and about being a farmer with integrity. He said he was thrilled that the field had me in it. He validated this crazy interest of mine. He told me to use creativity as much as any other tool. He shared pride in welcoming me into this world of sustainable agriculture.
I hadn’t expected anything of the sort. It has certainly been something that has stuck with me through the years since.
I share this in memory of Dan Guenther, who died recently. Dan did great work for the environment, community and sustainable agriculture. May we all be brave enough to step into life the way he did so fully, and may we all consider blessing a young person choosing a path we respect.
Missy Bahret
Old Friends Farm
Amherst, MA
Happier enemies
Biden was inaugurated and immediately signed a record number of executive orders. State attorneys general are filing lawsuits to block many of these executive orders, but who wins? An aside: Did you hear that Kamala slipped Biden’s DNR form in the pile of executive orders for him to sign?
The Keystone pipeline cancellation is beneficial to China. Poof, thousands of jobs lost here. Any overflow of Canadian petroleum will probably go to China. If the US has a shortage, we’ll import more petroleum from the Middle East. More military will be focused on the Middle East, pulling resources from the growing threat of Chinese military. Good for China. Rejoining the WHO, which covered up the original story of the Wuhan virus, also improves China’s image. And puppet President Biden is also considering overturning Trump’s declaration that China is committing atrocities against their minority of Uyghurs. The Confucius Institute (center for propaganda and espionage) is infiltrating our US schools and universities. Trump ordered universities to disclose ties to the Confucius Institute to trace their activities. Biden will probably cancel this order. Beijing must be very happy and Hunter, too.
The Green New Deal and Biden’s energy policies will destroy our energy sector and raise the price of fuel. This benefits Putin, whose extraction economy is dependent on oil prices. They will be better-funded to rebuild their military. NATO exists to keep Russia in check. Since we’ll be importing more Middle East oil, diverting our military there, we’ll have to pull resources out of the EU. Geopolitical win for Russia. Probably good for Hunter somehow.
Iran will be a big winner when Biden reenters the nuclear agreement. Remember Obama sending millions in cash on pallets to Iran? When Iran finally builds a nuclear bomb, there will be a second Holocaust. Biden put a hold on military sales to Saudi Arabia; good for Iran. Biden is considering revoking the terrorist designation of the Iran proxies in Yemen. Good for Iran. This action may endanger the treaties Pompeo organized in the Middle East. Good for Iran.
The climate is changing and has been for billions of years. Probably human activity is contributing to this to some extent. Energy consumption correlates with longer, healthier lives worldwide over the last 100 years. Our free markets and innovation have led the US to reduce CO2 emissions steadily in recent years. Our per capita emissions have also been reduced in the last decade. Our technology leaders will continue to do so. France hasn’t met the requirements of their Paris Agreement. China and India are the fastest-growing producers of greenhouse gases. Biden’s policies will cripple our economy and, according to climate models, have minimal influence on global temperatures. Let free markets, economic freedom and innovation transform our world, not the misguided hand of Big Government and its increasingly socialist policies. I’ll probably be labeled a domestic terrorist for saying this.
Tom McGee
Gardiner
Be aware of simple courtesies on the trail
Not everybody likes winter weather, but many people do, and it has been great for winter sports enthusiasts to enjoy our recent abundance of snow and cold temperatures.
One of the things that make New Paltz special in this regard is the availability of such an extensive trail system to facilitate cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and hiking. However, I’m not sure everybody is aware of some basic aspects of trail etiquette. First of all, please stay on the trail. On the River-to-Ridge especially, it’s easy to see evidence of numerous people venturing far off the trail onto the adjoining properties, many of which are privately owned and not part of the trail system. It’s very disrespectful to these property-owners to do this. Second, the trails are wide enough to accommodate skiing, snowshoeing and hiking, but it’s important to keep these uses physically separate. Please don’t walk or snowshoe on the side of the trail that skiers are using. Leave enough room for a ski track, and especially don’t walk over places where ski tracks are already evident. Walking, especially without snowshoes, puts deep holes in the snow that make it less usable for skiing. If not on skis, keep off the ski track.
If you’re hosting friends from out of town, please make them aware of these simple courtesies. I’d love to see some signs at trailheads that gently explain this to visitors. New Paltz has a great reputation as a place to enjoy being outdoors in winter. Let’s keep it that way.
John Gotto
New Paltz
Please sign on to our New Paltz Police Reform and Reinvention statement
New Paltz Women in Black join many citizens in the effort to use this time of racial reckoning to make transformative changes to policing in our town. The history of policing as an arm of Jim Crow, the reality of structural racism and its role in the unequal treatment of people of color for centuries, are part of the background to any discussion of law enforcement.
In response to Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, our statement on New Paltz Police Reform and Reinvention is available to readers at clearstreammedia.blogspot.com. We are asking readers to add your name, or that of your organization, if you agree with our proposals. You can add your name in the comments section or send it to ingridhug@aol.com.
Like many other communities, we feel it is vital to reallocate a portion of the $2.8 million police budget to local health and human services as a way to alleviate causes of crime and make our community safer, stronger and more connected. The City of Eugene, Oregon has successfully implemented this idea for 30 years. Dozens of other municipalities are in the process of doing something similar. We see reallocated funds supporting emergency responses to mental health crises and drug overdoses, and freeing resources for childcare, food security, affordable housing and other services. We also believe that civilian peacekeepers can be trained by the town and given authority to handle incidents that are rarely violent, like noise complaints and writing accident reports.
We outlined several initiatives that would help build transparency and trust in our police department. We acknowledge the department for the following: publishing its policies online; not using military weapons, equipment or tactics; not using police dogs; not assisting immigration law enforcement; and for requiring an officer to intervene when another officer is using excessive force. For the latter, our police department might benefit from the free program Project ABLE that helps a department create and sustain a culture of peer intervention. When researching this subject, we also found instances when New Paltz police have shown appropriate levels of patience, gentleness and de-escalation skills in their interactions with the public that we appreciate.
We urge that any recommendations from the Town of New Paltz to Albany include the need for the state to end qualified immunity. Colorado just passed landmark legislation against qualified immunity that could serve as a starting point. Two-thirds of the public agrees, and more police support it as well, because egregious violations of a person’s Constitutional rights with no accountability damages public trust. Inspired by Colorado, a dozen state legislatures are considering how to make police more accountable for using excessive force.
Over 60 individuals have signed onto our statement, as well as five major organizations. Additionally, some local groups used our statement as a template for their own statements, which shows a broad consensus for these proposals. Please sign on to support meaningful reform.
Ingrid Hughes
Barbara Upton
New Paltz Women in Black
Dan Guenther: June 8, 1943 – February 1, 2021
New Paltz lost one of its finest. Dan Guenther worked passionately and tirelessly for what he believed in, and what he believed in was a peaceful world on a planet that is livable and sustainable for the generations.
Dan was instrumental in big community firsts, such as developing the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, setting up four Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs), founding and leading the Climate Action Coalition and lending his expertise and support to so many people and projects.
Whatever the job called for – farmer, teacher, articulate spokesperson, activist leader, mentor and true friend to so many – Dan was all that. Every week he and Ann would write letters to the newspaper about the climate. Last summer he repainted a barn at Phillies Bridge Farm – high ladder and all. Dan was a can-do guy.
Ann and Dan (what a team!) were fixtures at every annual Earth Day Fair. They would set up their tables by the Jamison House with creative hands-on props that demonstrated climate issues and solutions. Their displays did not soft-pedal the alarming reality of the climate crisis, yet they often used humor, whimsy and stagecraft skills to make their points. Tall Dan, with his impressive presence, signature mustache and distinctive style, would stand in front of the tables engaging in persuasive conversation with visitors. With a serious tone yet twinkle and smile, he provided thoughtful words, handouts and encouragement to old and young.
Ann and Dan were also responsible for the flags of all the world’s nations being displayed along Huguenot Street during the fair. Setting that up and taking it down again were no small tasks, but Dan was easily persuaded to leave the flags up for an extra day or so, just because we asked and they looked so great.
Of course, many of us remember the years of Halloween extravaganzas Ann and Dan displayed on their front lawn and porch: a classic New Paltz event that literally attracted and delighted hundreds of families.
Dan Guenther’s fingerprints are all over this community and the world he inhabited. He touched and inspired so many of us and so his influence lives on.
We love you, Dan.
Janet and Jim O’Dowd
New Paltz
Stealing from hydrants fine set at $2,000
After police caught a landscaping business stealing water from one of our hydrants by filling their tank, we contacted the district attorney’s office to file charges. We are less concerned with the value of the water and more troubled by the potential for damage to hydrants and water mains. It is well documented that shutting down a hydrant incorrectly may cause pressure spikes or “water hammers.” These can lead to water main breaks. Our DPW works especially hard maintaining our old water distribution system that is prone to breaks and leaks.
The county DA’s office explained to us that “the value of the water or services taken were all that can be pursued criminally unless further evidence comes to light that can establish damage done to the hydrant together with the requisite mens rea to be criminally liable for those damages.” We chose not to spend the time and resources pursuing charges.
Village local law § 207-14 prohibits the use of hydrants by anyone not authorized by the superintendent of public works or the chief of the fire department. The law also states that any person or persons using a fire hydrant for any unauthorized purpose shall pay a fine in an amount to be set annually by the board of trustees. Unfortunately, our fee schedule was missing this number so our village board just set it at $2,000 on February 10.
Stealing from hydrants is troubling for several reasons:
1) Water hammers: A water hammer is a hydraulic shock that occurs when water stops or changes directions suddenly causing damage to pipes and fittings. Hydrants that are targeted to be stolen from are often less visible so as not to attract attention. These out-of-the-way hydrants are more likely to be on dead ends and therefore have higher pressure to keep water flowing. Incorrectly or hastily closing one of these hydrants is more likely to create pressure spikes that may lead to water main breaks or stirring up brown water.
2) Non-revenue water: When hydrants are not correctly closed, they are prone to leaking and therefore cost the community money.
3) Hydrants could freeze: Our hydrants are “dry barrel” and not “wet barrel.” Hydrant barrels are dry and their shut-off valve is located underground. There is no water above ground so the hydrant is safe from freezing. Before each winter, our DPW winterizes hydrants with antifreeze. After each use they are re-winterized. When hydrants are filled with water after they have been used illegally, they are at risk of freezing and their internal mechanicals becoming damaged. Additionally, it would be calamitous if there was a fire emergency and our fire department tried to use a frozen hydrant.
On numerous occasions, our DPW has had to run around looking for water main breaks or brown water events. These can be created by illegal hydrant use.
Please don’t steal.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
Nursing homes and Covid deaths
Now we are to believe that Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic legislators just learned that Governor Cuomo was forcing nursing homes to accept Covid-positive patients which caused fatalities. He then tried to cover up the death toll by refusing to release any documentation. Then, he and his Democratic legislators exempted the nursing home from any lawsuits which might have exposed the truth. So why all of a sudden does Attorney General James release numbers revealing a 50% higher death toll than reported. Just a guess, but maybe she’s planning to run for governor in 2022 and even if Cuomo hangs on until then, it certainly hurts his chances of getting the nomination.
I believe this is the beginning of the left wing of the Democratic Party attempting to gain control. It looks like AOC or one of her allies will run against Senator Schumer in the primaries. Trump is gone and the Democrats control both houses of Congress, so now it’s time to take over the party. Since January 20, they have given the left wing just about all they wanted. Now they want the speaker and Majority leader’s jobs. The old leadership tried to appease them and as Winston Churchill said, “All you get by appeasing the crocodile is to get eaten last.”
The Democrats were so determined to beat Trump that they conspired to keep Bernie Sanders from getting the nomination. Suddenly everybody was dropping out and backing Biden. Then to keep the left on board, they allowed the Bernie Sanders, AOC, the rest of the squad and radical left to dictate policy in return for their support. Now, like Doctor Frankenstein, the monster they created is coming after them.
Governor Cuomo is just the first of the old line to face the attack from within. Watch how many “moderate” Democrats face challenges from the left wing. I wonder how long it will be before they show President Biden the door because of scandal or health reasons — take your pick. As it says in the Hebrew Bible, “they who have sown the wind shall inherit the whirlwind.
John Habersberger
New Paltz
Second impeachment
Jamie Raskin and his House co-managers did a valiant job last week against overwhelming odds. The impeachment trial’s conclusion was foregone, with 43 Republican senators — Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Lindsay Graham, Josh Hawley…stop me before I puke — characteristically putting their own fortunes before America’s and before whatever remains of their ethics or so-called GOP values.
How I wish there’d been a forum to ask these senators some (im)pertinent questions, like:
What thoughts and emotions do you experience as you lie in bed? If you feel like having sex (applied to you, “making love” seems an inappropriate phrase), and in spite of everything you’ve done or undone your mate is able to grin and bear it, how can you perform when you have no balls or when you’ve bartered away whatever selfless, loving qualities you might once have had for undeserved prestige and ill-used power? What are your dreams like, once you’ve managed to fall asleep despite what, even for emotionally anesthetized you, must be at least a few pangs of conscience? Are you plagued by nightmares? How often does Donald Trump appear in them? Does he terrify and control you as completely in them as he does in your waking life? And in that waking life, if you have children or grandchildren, or there are people who knew you when you were decent human beings, or whose lives your positions have damaged, and they ask you about your impeachment vote, or your voting record, do you evade their questions or answer them?
In short: How, exactly, do you live with yourself and do you call that living?
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
The passing of Dan Guenther
It is with great sadness that New Paltz Women in Black acknowledges the passing of Dan Guenther. Dan has been a tireless community organizer and a fellow climate activist. The Town of New Paltz and the world have lost a remarkable man. We plan as part of our work to continue the struggle against climate change, a struggle about which Dan was so passionate.
Linda Abbott
On behalf of New Paltz
Women in Black
A force for nature
Dan Guenther was a force of nature, and a force for nature. The heart of our community — and our hearts — will never be the same.
Bibi Sandstrom
New Paltz
There is no defense — only complicity
We absolutely know for a fact that after Trump sent HIS mob to violently attack a co-equal branch of government, he abandoned them all to a horrific fate. While jeering and shouting he spent hours doing nothing. Secluded in front of a television to watch the product of his treason unfold, Trump ignored the bleating pleas of his subservient elected officials under threat who called begging for their lives. To this day, he hasn’t denounced it as the threat to our democracy that it is. The only horror Trump witnessed was that they failed to “capture” his opponents, including his own vice president. He didn’t even address the attack until prodded to do so and when he did, he told the terrorists, “we love you.” We all know he wanted it to happen, he facilitated it to occur and he reveled in it once it did.
Yeah, totally not guilty — yes, before our not-lying eyes and not-lying ears when watching the documented video footage unfold at the senate trial, Trump did what he was accused of and that was to incite a violent attack on his own country through his words, his innuendo and his style of combativeness. It was his ultimate tantrum because he lost the election.
At the impeachment trial, we all witnessed in real time the Republican senators shrinking before the eyes of the whole country. It’s a shame to see so many weak men/women in the Republican Party. The clear majority of these GOP senators all are very embarrassing to the United States of America as they showed no guts to do what’s right. Instead, they used false whataboutism, false equivalencies, false righteous indignation and not one word defending Trump’s actions. They had an opportunity when voting on Trump’s treasonous behavior to decide whether they were insurrectionist Trumpsters or just the everyday loony conspiracy Trumpsters. They knew no citizen of this country was above the law, yet they acquitted him of inciting violent sedition by his mob of extremist thug supporters.
When Republicans say “freedom,” they mean “totalitarianism.” That’s been clear since the so-called “freedom” caucus attempted to throw out Democracy in the 2020 election. These same elected officials are now (after their impeachment decision) the “cop killer” caucus and the “seditionist” caucus too. They have betrayed our country, our people, our trust and their oath to be impartial and vote based on facts and evidence. The monsters of government which we were taught to fear all over our global community are in actuality within our very own house of government. Their legacy will reflect such in American history for hundreds of years.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Join the family! 
