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.
KT Tobin, thank you for your service
My friend, New Paltz deputy mayor Dr. KT Tobin, is uniquely generous. Her willingness to dive in, confront difficult problems and try to do more to support neighbors is awe-inspiring. I rely on her smarts and perspective.
We tried to twist her arm to run again for a second four-year term, but with a heavy heart she has chosen to turn over the responsibility. She has an important and demanding day job as director of the Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives at SUNY New Paltz.
I will miss her on the Village Board terribly, but respect her decision to “work smarter” and more carefully allocate her time. She has assured me I will still have access to her counsel. I do not doubt she’ll continue to make herself available to help. Additionally, I’m sure she’ll continue to pay close attention to many other community needs and remain very involved. This is just how she is wired, and for that New Paltz is lucky.
KT Tobin, thank you for your service as an elected School Board member and deputy mayor. Even as you’re leaving the deputy mayor post, we will always remain colleagues, collaborators and most importantly friends. I’m excited to see where you take us next.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
Be your own label
My poverty is a fashion statement.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Support of farm community
Our region is privileged to have senator Michelle Hinchey as a freshman in the New York State Senate, appointed as chair of the Agriculture Committee. Our new state senator has jumped right into her position to advance support for the farms that are so vital to our rural communities. Senator Hinchey voiced her strong concern for our farms during her campaign, noting their economic, environmental and social importance to our region.
One of the five bills approved last week by the committee is one (S4707) that would create a tax credit for farmers who adopt techniques that improve soil health and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. But Michelle’s view of support is broad, and another bill (S4136) would allow movie theaters to apply for licenses to serve beer and wine to adults. None of the five bills is more important than S4892 that would make the Nourish New York program permanent, supporting the supply of New York farm products to food banks throughout the state.
There is so much that can be done for our farming community, and Senator Hinchey seems to be working all the angles.
Kathy Gordon
Saugerties
Ulster County seniors getting a “raw” COVID vaccine deal
As a 79-year-old Ulster County citizen, I am dismayed to discover that I must document “qualifying underlying health conditions” in order to be eligible for a timely local COVID-19 vaccine shot. Otherwise, I may have to wait until July 2021 in order to receive my first dose.
This color-coded eligibility system recently set up by Ulster County has thus placed me in the “yellow zone,” behind the “red” and “orange zones” in the order of preference. Incredibly, this is largely inconsistent with the current New York State senior eligibility requirements, which place individuals age 65 and older who reside in New York in Phase 1a and 1b (first in line) – without requiring any “qualifying underlying health conditions” whatsoever.
Meanwhile, I have senior friends in New York City who have already completed their “two-shot” COVID-19 vaccine regimen – based entirely on their plus-75 age. To make matters even worse – aside from a few local pharmacies, which apparently follow the state guidelines – there are currently no state-run vaccination sites or federal mass vaccination sites anywhere in or near the mid-Hudson Valley.
Finally, anyone who has recently attempted to set up a vaccination appointment has been subjected to a frustrating and time-consuming experience! The inability to secure a “place in line” when all current appointments have been filled is equivalent to playing a losing “crap game.” Why not establish the use of “waiting lists” to streamline this absurd system, thereby reducing the unnecessary personal stress and frequent crashing of COVID vaccine websites?
Senior Hudson Valley One readers need to loudly raise their voices in Ulster County to correct this wholly unacceptable state of affairs.
Peter V. Fiorentino
Rosendale
Planting yoga seeds
Last week I led a one-hour introduction to yoga for a group of visually impaired folks in Montreal, Canada. It was fun, but a little weird. I was on Zoom and teaching to a number of people who were on Zoom in their own homes. I was happy to teach yoga and I did my best to turn them on to the benefits of yoga, as well as to my love of yoga. But I was laughing internally as I noticed that, as a totally blind man, I was talking to a computer screen for most of an hour and I couldn’t tell if the participants were responding. The whole thing was weird, but I’ll do it again if it gives me the chance to inspire blind and visually impaired people to get involved with yoga.
I feel a little like Johnny Appleseed, except instead of planting apple seeds, I am planting the seeds of yoga all over the world. I understand that lots of people will enjoy the yoga introduction, but then never get involved in yoga. That’s got to be okay, but more important to me are the people who take to yoga and then get to reap the benefits for the rest of their lives. I smile every time I think of the hundreds and maybe thousands of people who have been turned on to yoga from the blind yoga program and now are enjoying the benefits of yoga each and every day.
Passing on what I have learned to others has given me a sense of meaning and purpose in my life. It’s one area where I am smiling most of the time. I hope all of you have places in your lives where you and your efforts bring you meaning and purpose. And if you currently don’t have that, well, it’s worth going after. It’s guaranteed to put big smiles on your faces.
Marty Klein
Woodstock
Courtesies on the hiking trail
Profound thanks to John Gotto for his letter on simple courtesies on the trail. We longtime Woodstock walkers and hikers are very aware of how lucky we are to be riding out the pandemic here, and it would be pure selfishness not to welcome others who have found their way here. However, as John has already said, please take some time to inform yourself about a few routine courtesies.
1. Please don’t walk or snowshoe in ski trails that have already been cut. You are making them too frustrating and sometimes even too dangerous to ski.
2. Many walking/hiking routes go through private as well as public land. Please act as though you are in someone else’s home. In particular, please don’t litter. Coffee cups, candy wrappers, tissues and orange peels are not biodegradable.
3. Please walk or run on the side of the road, facing traffic, instead of three to five abreast down the center of the road, especially when you’re wearing sound-canceling headphones. And please switch to single file when a car or another walker is approaching.
4. As volunteer trail stewards, we’re agnostic about dog poo on a trail that often boasts coyote, deer, bear, raccoon and other scat. But whoever thought it was a good idea to leave a bright-green plastic poop bag by the side of the trail has come up with the worst solution possible. Once again, with feeling, plastic doesn’t biodegrade. And frankly, in these COVID days, it’s a health hazard as well as an insult to expect us to clean up your messes.
5. As long as we’re on the subject of dogs, we’d suggest that on a trail that has copperheads, rattlesnakes, fishers, porcupines, raccoons and bears, it is in your interest to leash them. However, if you want to let your dogs off-leash, please restrain them when approaching another hiker, instead of simply calling out, “They’re gentle.” People can have allergies, snappish dogs of their own or maybe simply an objection to a wet nose being thrust in the lunch they’re trying to eat.
6. Finally, regardless of your opinions on the mask/no mask debate, please don’t accost another hiker with your opinions. We’ve witnessed equally bad behavior on both sides of the issue. The woods are big enough that you can pass one another safely without confrontation.
Once more, we love being here and we hope you do, too. Let’s all try to get along.
George Baird
Erica Obey
Woodstock
I have a dream
“…with imagining a state at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor…” – Henry David Thoreau, American citizen, philosopher, environmentalist and author of Civil Disobedience (1849), a treatise which rumbled around the world and held governments at complete shakedown. It inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
Mahatma Gandhi adopted Thoreau’s tenets of nonviolent, quiet declaration of war with a state for the public good. Thoreau was jailed for his convictions against participating in a government which enslaved people and entered into unjust war. He was against slavery and against the Mexican-American War. He called it organized oppression and robbery. While in jail, he knew, “mere flesh and blood and bones” were locked up, but his convictions were forever free. His soul rumbled for justice. Thus, Gandhi endured his hunger strikes and imprisonment with the same forever-free convictions. Mahatma Gandhi moved the British Raj and the British flag right out of India in 1947 through nonviolent governmental resistance.
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., adopted Gandhi’s example of “civil disobedience” to the civil rights movement in America. He made a pilgrimage to India in 1959. His soul rumbled for justice. In 1964, president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Reverend King, Jr., imagined a state of freedom where all men were created equal and judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
Zura Capelli
Kingston
Feedback to point of view
Kudos to Terence Ward’s “Point of view” of February 17. I have written about this topic several times over the years, so there is not much new to bring to the table, except – repetition can be at times effective.
Big point is: Why should property owners be responsible for clearing the snow off a sidewalk that they did not request to be installed, in the first place, nor did they install it themselves? Who/when/why decreed that the Village-created sidewalk belongs to the adjacent property?
Granted, on streets with considerable vehicular traffic (Main Street, Route 208, Route 32), safe sidewalks are essential. And most off-Main Street streets (e.g., Prospect, Oakwood, North Front) have sidewalks. But we have also streets with practically no traffic, but with sidewalks (Cooper Street); we have a heavily traveled road and no sidewalks – except in two blocks – (DuBois Drive). By the way, that one is an intriguing case in light of the existence of, and a plan to create more, bike lanes – but sidewalks don’t come into play at all. Would not bikes, in addition to cars, potentially be a source of injuries to pedestrians walking in the road?
Streets not in any way intersecting with Main Street have no sidewalks (e.g., Tricor Avenue, John Street). Then there is a total anomaly, Elting Avenue, which has sidewalks on one side but not on the other; in addition, only three houses there have sidewalks abutting the road. Those property owners are compelled to clear “their” sidewalks not only of the fallen snow, but also of the heavy compacted matter dumped there by the Village plows. Last week I asked the plow operator to “please, pretty please” push the snow and whatnot off the sidewalk right onto my lawn – it took him maybe three minutes and he did not have to exert any physical labor, operating from his truck cabin. What an efficient, fast and safe way to clear sidewalks! And without subjecting anyone to possible physical harm. I would not be able to do it, and before I would get someone to remove/replace this heavy matter, I could end up with being fined for ordinance noncompliance.
Like Terence, I would argue that adding a small amount to our taxes to pay for snow removal from all publicly accessible roads and sidewalks in the Village would benefit us all.
Misha Harnick
New Paltz
Privatization a problem
The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC), with whom I am in litigation, declared all of my 2,000-plus referenced peer-reviewed studies that document biological harm from electromagnetic radiation exposure (EMR/EMF), which is what is emitted from smart meters, “suffer from serious methodological flaws and the Commission therefore did not credit them.” Meanwhile, the PSC claims its determination against making an analog meter option available was based on “more than 100 peer-reviewed studies.” When asked to produce those studies, they replied: “There is no legal requirement that the Commission individually describe every piece of evidence it considered in reaching its determination,” so they supplied zero identifying information on the mythical peer-reviewed studies. They only submitted, in their original adverse determination, one peer-reviewed article that over ten years since its publication has only received 22 citations by other PhD researchers. Half of the studies I have presented have been cited 100 to 521 times, which is very high and indicates a good level of credibility and influence of the studies. The other half have been cited anywhere from 100 down to the 20 times. My legal argument was well-documented.
So, I used the Freedom of Information Law to request the identifying information on the 100+ mythical peer-reviewed studies and received a reply that stated the PSC actually did not review any studies, but had relied on determinations from PSC jurisdictions in out-of-state proceedings, who combined, allegedly reviewed more than 100 studies. They also asserted that, because that info is not in the PSC’s literal possession, they aren’t required by law to supply my requests for the names of the actual studies. How convenient. To make matters worse, the courts give “deference” to the PSC in court cases against them, even though they have no in-house expertise in biological health matters and no expertise involving EMR/EMF exposures.
Interestingly, where an analog meter opt-out choice is made available out of New York State, those utilities are municipally owned, and the people actually have a say in what goes on their homes. Aside from the stacked-deck New York State court system, the overarching problem here is one of privatization of the utilities. With privatization, only stockholders of the corporation have a say in company policies, not the public. This case I am involved in clearly sheds light on the serious pitfalls of privatization and the many benefits of municipally owned utilities. For more info, visit www.thetruthsayerswoodstock.com/smart-meter-lawsuit.html.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
New Paltz…time to come together and stop the animus
New Paltz duly elected a fine group of people to ensure the continuing growth of this outstanding school district and to work diligently to keep students and staff safe during this very unsettling and perilous time. These people are not paid. These people spend countless hours doing their work…and this is time away from family and friends (and away from skiing and biking et cetera). Some decisions are easy, but many are not. Their job is to keep everyone safe. The New Paltz community needs to step up and give them a heartfelt “thank you” and pat these folks on the back. Wash those hands, wear a mask, socially distance and we will all get through this.
Dan Winfield
Waretown, NJ
Citizens against bike lanes on Broadway
Let’s call (845) 334-3902 or write to Mayor Noble at mayor@kingston-ny.gov to tell him that we do not want the planned Broadway bike lanes, which are planned and are going to happen unless there is a citizen uproar against them. Noble has definite plans to duplicate the dangerous Greenkill Avenue-type bike lane on Broadway between Domino’s Pizza and the YMCA. Let’s create an uproar.
Ralph Mitchell
Kingston
Comeau Building addition
The following is, in part, from a letter previously sent to Supervisor McKenna from the Commission of Civic Design (CCD): “The CCD was and still remains very uncomfortable with the proposed design in terms of plan and form. The CCD is advisory and it’s our responsibility to hence ‘advise.’ This project is too important and costly to not do right. The $2.3 million estimate may also be in question.”
Some of the issues of concern by the CCD were: Why is the plan for the new addition a ‘wraparound’ L-shape shed-roof form vs. a simpler building shape built to the south, with compatible gable roofs linked to the existing structure? The proposed L-shaped addition seems to be too close to the existing building. What limitations do the Comeau easement and existing trees pose?
Why aren’t all town office functions, including the supervisor’s office and bookkeeper, included in the new addition, thus keeping all town office functions ‘together’ more efficiently under one roof and possibly reducing cost?
If construction of a new addition over the existing septic system is a problem, could not town offices connect downhill to the municipal water and sewer, taking in consideration the existing water supply?
My question is: How will the Town Board members respond to the CCD’s letter?
Howard Harris
Woodstock
State overlooks Ulster County in distribution of COVID vaccine
We are age-eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. With the development of the Field House at Kingston High School and the possibility of receiving a vaccination at a local pharmacy, we grew optimistic that 2021 would be the year we would begin a more routine way of life. Our optimism faded when we learned the following:
The vaccine has been made available in New York City and will soon be available in Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers and Albany. “With these new sites, New York is working to ensure that no community is left behind in the vaccination process.” The picture was not optimistic for those of us who do not live in the designated sites. According to Governor Cuomo’s message of February 19, the vaccine will be “restricted to eligible residents in qualifying zip codes,” then it would be available to residents of each site’s “county, borough or target area.”
Using a jump link reported in an e-mail from Ulster County Health, we registered with pharmacies. We learned that our local apothecary has not been regularly receiving the vaccine and that CVS does not have vaccine appointments available in our zip code or a nearby area. We were not successful in finding the vaccine available at Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Tops and ShopRite.
We checked Assemblyman Cahill and Senator Hinchey’s websites to learn what efforts they have made on our behalf. We learned that neither: (i) has any substantive reference to COVID-19 vaccinations nor (ii) refers to any advocacy efforts they are making to ensure that their constituents receive vaccinations; and (iii) that one might not know that they represent an area of New York whose residents are at “very high risk” for COVID (“COVID-19 Risk in Your County and a Guide for Daily Life Near You,” New York Times, February 20, 2021).
County executive Pat Ryan is to be congratulated for his advocacy for us in a letter to Cuomo dated February 19, 2021, asking that the governor consider using “the Kate Walton Field House at Kingston High School – it is operational and has the capability to vaccinate up to 50,000 residents per month.” There is no indication that either Cahill or Hinchey joined Ryan’s plea for help. To date we have not seen a response from the governor.
On February 18, 2021, we received an e-mail from Ulster County telling us that we will likely be eligible for vaccine sometime between July 1 and mid-September of this year. We are not optimistic.
Given the state’s record to date of ignoring the risk that residents of Ulster County face, it is reasonable to think that many of us can look forward to 2021 as a time when infections and deaths may increase, including our own.
We are outraged at the state’s position, which likely assumes that by vaccinating the most populous areas of the state, so-called “herd immunity” will protect us all. We are equally outraged that that is no evidence that, save for Ryan, our elected representatives are advocating on our behalf.
Ted Stein and Gary Comstock
Woodstock
Tipi prohibition in Woodstock?
The Town of Woodstock has attempted to outlaw the sharing of a Sioux tipi. We have been Woodstock homeowners since 1966 and have used and shared our Sioux tipis in Woodstock with hundreds of guests since 1968 with never a problem. They are beautiful creations, hand-painted by artists in Oregon. One is set up each year next to the Sawkill Creek, adding to the beauty for many who walk the trail through the Comeau Park. It benefits the businesses in Woodstock, drawing visitors to our town. It is clearly a social and public benefit [since we share it] that has no downside. More than 250 recent guests have taken the time to write what can best be described as rhapsodic reviews. Several make an annual pilgrimage to stay there.
A perceived ambiguity in the overlap of the zoning law and the new short-term rental law caused a new town employee to take his time to create a problem where one did not exist. A year ago, Mr. Francis Hoffman, a new building inspector, ordered us to stop sharing the tipi. Prior to that, we had shared one at its current location for six years. For the past 53 years, we have shared a Sioux tipi at other of our properties in Woodstock and nearby towns. The reason to prohibit tipis? The Zoning Board of Appeals wrote: “A single tent or tipi is not a described use in the Town Zoning Law.” They cited the law: “Section 260-3: Any development or use not specifically mentioned by this chapter is prohibited.”
Tipis are now banned. Not because they are unsafe. Not because they are unsightly. Not because they cause any problem at all. Only because they aren’t “specifically mentioned” in the zoning law. The board triumphantly proclaimed their coup de grâce: “There is no ambiguity in the law.” They are dead wrong; there are, in fact, permitted rental tents in Woodstock. The details are too complex to deal with in this space, but it’s a shame they force us to litigate simply to be able to share a tipi. A waste of taxpayer dollars to no good end.
In the 1990s we spent years in court against the town appealing dozens of unjust tax assessments. When it became clear they would lose at trial, they reduced every one of the assessments to a fair or nearly fair amount. By their own admission to a Woodstock Times reporter at the time, they had wasted tens of thousands of tax dollars in their fruitless and costly attempt to pervert the property tax system. That struggle had a happy outcome: Woodstock now has a skilled and fair assessor making those legal battles no longer necessary.
Andrew Peck
Woodstock
Fair pay for home care workers
Home care work is essential for older adults and New Yorkers with disabilities to live and age safely with dignity in their homes and communities. When I managed two large Section Eight properties in Kingston for people over 62, those who had in-home care were able to stay independent and age in place. As a result, they lived a better quality of life than if they were shuffled into a nursing home. As New York’s aging population grows and nursing homes prove dangerous for seniors during coronavirus, home care workers are in high demand. Over 500,000 families use home care in the state, and that number will only grow as our state continues to age (as per the Home Care Association of New York State). The home care sector cannot meet the rising demand due to low pay. Too many seniors and people with disabilities are struggling to find home care workers because the job pays under $13 an hour in most of New York State. When I had to hire a home care aide for my 90-year-old mother, who lived independently, we paid her $15 per hour. That was back five years ago.
As a result of low wages, 45 percent of the state’s direct-care workers live in or near poverty. Due to low wages, home care workers are leaving the workforce in droves right when we need them most, forcing many seniors to live in dangerous nursing homes instead of receiving care at home. As we speak, 24 percent of New York’s home care patient consumers are unable to access services at all. Far too many times I saw firsthand what happens to someone who needs home care but does not receive it: Many trips to the ER that could have been prevented. Poor nutrition because the person was unable to shop for themselves. Under- or overmedicated due to the person having confusion about when and how to take their meds. All this could have been prevented if there were enough home care workers that matched the demand.
A new report by the CUNY School for Labor and Urban Studies found that over the next decade, a projected 981,900 openings will need to be filled statewide for home health aides and personal care aides. This will be a disaster if there aren’t enough home care workers to serve our aging population. We need fair pay for home care workers, and we need it now! No more lip service to our essential workers. It’s time the government steps in to raise home care workers out of poverty and provide them with the benefits they deserve. If we leave it to the private sector, it will never happen. We all will need some help as we age. My mother lived at home until her passing at 92. She was independent and happy to be able to live at home, and I supported that for her and for anyone who wants that, too. Please contact your senator and congressman and tell them you want to see fair pay for home care workers.
Francesca Ortolano
Boiceville
An open letter to mayor Tim Rogers
As business-owners on Main Street, we are committed to maintaining our lovely town and strive to follow local ordinances. One such ordinance relates to snow removal from the sidewalks in front of our stores. Clear sidewalks allow residents and tourists to freely and safely visit our establishments during our chilly New York winters.
There is a constant battle between shoveling the sidewalks and then having the plows throw the snow back up onto the sidewalk. Each storm means we shovel three or four times. Sometimes the plow will come hours later and even the next day; by that time, the snow is frozen solid and very difficult to remove from the sidewalk. Pedestrians are often forced to walk along the edge of the road to get to their destination because the sidewalks are heaped over, with no way to reenter the sidewalks to get to the businesses.
As advocates for the Village, we ask that you consider treating sidewalk snow removal in the Main Street business district as part of the municipality for the purposes of consistency of removal as well as pedestrian safety.
Should you need any more information about this situation, please do not hesitate to contact us. Either way, we would appreciate a meeting in person or to be put on the agenda of a Village Board meeting to publicly discuss this. Your attention is most appreciated, and we look forward to hearing from you in the very near future.
MaryAnn Tozzi
New Paltz
Republicans against action
Have you heard? The Republican National Committee is sponsoring a nationwide contest, offering prizes for the most creative suggestions to stop potential Democratic voters from casting a ballot. Some proposed legislation from GOP state legislators shows promise, e.g., eliminating no-excuse absentee ballots and requiring a witness signature and photocopied ID with those that are accepted (Georgia), removing drop boxes for completed ballots, curtailing early voting, ramping up efforts to purge eligible voters from rolls (Arizona), eliminating same-day voter registration (Montana) and so on. However, RNC is searching for new ideas.
Some early entries:
• Require people attempting to register as Democrats to recite the Declaration of Independence backwards, no notes.
• Promote GOP-organized voter registration drives on college campuses, distributing and collecting forms printed in slowly disappearing ink.
• Work with foreign cyberpunks to organize disruptions of the electric grid in neighborhoods that typically vote Democratic.
• At Election Day polling sites in said neighborhoods, enlist GOP volunteers to selectively give people waiting in line some warming comfort drinks and cookies…laced with Ipecac to induce rapid projectile vomiting.
The RNC is committed to stop any Democratic action to make voting easy, safe and fair; to reduce the influence of dark money in campaigning; to establish independent bodies to conduct redistricting, reducing politicians’ abilities to carve up districts to their own advantage; to reinstitute oversight of states’ practices that undermine every citizen’s right to vote. (See HR 1 and HR 4, which the Dems will be pushing next week.) Outrageous!
The First Prize winner – you guessed it – will win a two-night stay at Mar-a-Lago, 50 percent reduced rate!
Tom Denton
Highland
Lack of a veteran’s voice
When I used to speak to groups about vets, I would first ask, “How many here are vets? Please stand.” Then, “How many folks know a vet? Raise your hand.” Followed by, “How many are related to a vet?” Ending with, “Who in this room does not know a vet?” Seldom did we get anyone who did not at least know a vet. Most folks had a veteran in their family who carried stories of war, but most often not sharing them. This brings to mind Doug Sandberg’s Let’s Talk Vets on WJFF 90.5 FM Radio. Doug recently interviewed me on the topic, “Moral Injury.” Doug is a Vietnam-era veteran.
He recently told me that WJFF Public Radio was planning to move their office to a new location in Liberty, New York and that they were evaluating their programming. He asked if I had any input.
I suggested to Doug that Let’s Talk Vets had a more important reach into cars and living rooms than any other radio show produced by WJFF. War is part of the DNA of every American, and like our biological DNA, we don’t often study it. Instead, we let experts come up with layman definitions.
I told Doug that I knew veterans’ lives are not an easy topic to listen to. I knew this because I stood in many meeting halls, libraries and churches to talk about the aftereffects of war, only to find just a handful of folks showing up. I followed that discouraging statement with, “There is not another topic needing our attention and as alive as war in America today.” In fact, we are germinating the seeds of war as I write this.
NPR WAMC radio once had a token veteran as part of their programming; his name was Paul Elias, a World War II veteran. Paul often spoke about veterans’ issues. The veterans’ voice was dropped when Paul passed. As a public-supported venture, all PBS stations have a responsibility to broadcast issues concerning veterans’ lives, which also affect the entire public, unlike commercial radio and TV that sideline painful and difficult topics for more profitable commercials.
From my vantagepoint, having been a therapist who worked with vets and being one myself, I believe the high number of suicide deaths of our Iraqi and Afghani veterans receives inadequate attention from all mainstream media. Absence of such programing is removing one more of the few supporting legs of truth about how our country is being protected. As a vet, I think the aftereffects of war is a topic that should be in every schoolroom from kindergarten to PhD. There could be no more powerful deterrent to going to war than teaching our children what war does to our soldiers and our enemies.
There are few organized public voices in today’s melee of Internet and fake news. Doug Sandberg has taken the hill and needs fortifications.
How many reading this know or are related to a veteran?
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Take time to reflect and remember
We are now in a season Catholics call Lent. It is a special time to particularly meditate on the sufferings of Jesus and reflect and repent of our sins. Not a popular thing these days. I wonder if we have lost any sense of sin at all. In fact, many sins seemed to have been embraced by society as not only acceptable but desired.
With evangelicals, we have other issues with Lent. As living saints, the necessity to reflect for a season on our sins and Christ’s suffering seems unnecessary. We look forward to Heaven, not back on the price paid to get us there. Then there are its Catholic roots. We are almost paranoid of doing anything that may seem “Catholic.” This I think is unfortunate, for we have lost a sense of the solemn and the holy. While doctrinally I believe Catholicism has major faults, that doesn’t mean we have to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Stations of the Cross is a perfect example. My wife and I attended just last week, risking misunderstandings. For 20 minutes, we were able to silence the world and focus on the sufferings of Christ. Whether Jesus fell three times or ten is moot. Whether led by a priest, irrelevant. The ritual is a beautiful and powerful one.
The same can be said for Passover. As Evangelicals, we don’t celebrate Passover, yet we would greatly benefit from returning to our Jewish roots. Again, because it is Jewish, we avoid it, forgetting our Lord was Jewish and the ceremony of the Last Supper Jewish. How much we miss by not exploring this ceremony, what insights pass us by! The meaning of the four cups of wine, the unleavened bread broken and pierced, the joy of finding the afikoman. For years we hear the words read, but fail to fully grasp their context and meaning.
So, eat chocolate if you want, and don’t get ashes on your head, but maybe it’s time we take time to reflect and remember, even if some of that time has a whiff of non-Evangelical tradition to it.
Jeffrey Mahoney
Hyde Park
Heil be seeing you
Did you see the design of the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)? Himmler himself would be overjoyed, because it’s an “Odal Rune” shape – oops, a Freudian glyph? Norse and Elder Futhark iconography have their associations in the modern world and history. This is not a conspiracy theory. Yes, folks, CPAC adopted an infamous symbol used by the German SS (Schutzstaffel), a paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler, when building their stage for the annual conference. This same shape iconography has also been used by white supremacists in Europe and North America.
A conference this big should always check and double-check that their designs could even remotely be associated with something controversial. Especially when the “controversial” is Nazi iconography. CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp, with strong ties to the Trumpf administration, spoke up after it was revealed that the stage had an eerie resemblance to this symbol. He, of course, vehemently denied it… I’m done giving these people a pass on things being coincidental.
This has no room in a civilized society – every medium should disavow these people, ignore them into nothingness while simultaneously calling them out. We need (media) to take a stand and shame them (if even possible)… This sickens me.
The Trumpf political party does everything in plain sight and in your face. “Don’t be stupid, be a schmartie, c’mon join the Nazi party!” (It was) Springtime for Trumpublicans in Orlando, Florida.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley