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.
A professional wastewater capacity analysis is needed
I serve as the liaison between the New Paltz Village Environmental Policy Board and the Planning Board, and got an early look at the proposed New Paltz Apartments project, which would feature 248 units and 734 beds.
A 2018 report by the village’s volunteer Environmental Policy Board advised Mayor Rogers and the board at that time that our wastewater treatment plant would be at 93% capacity after projects in progress and before the Planning Board at that time were completed.
Using widely accepted standards, the New Paltz Apartments project is projected to require almost half of the remaining room and bring us to 96% capacity. Projects are expected at the current Stewarts Shop and former Agway on Route 32. Zoning for those sites calls for two floors of apartments and one floor of retail. Implications? Our community may be facing a decision soon to suspend development or build a new wastewater plant.
When first elected to the Village Board, I sought out former mayors Tom Nyquist and Jason West, asking each man what issue kept them up at night. For those of us who knew Tom and Jason, it is safe to say that they did not agree on much. So, it was surprising to hear the same answer from both former mayors: that our wastewater plant capacity had been expanded once, from 10 million gallons per day (GPD) to 15 million GPD, and that there was no room for further expansion at the current site.
The proposed New Paltz Apartments project seeks action by the Village Board to annex the “Park Point” parcel of land south of SUNY and transfer the land from the town to the village. Why? So that the project might benefit from municipal sewer and water.
In an e-mail, the Village Planning Board chair has punted to the mayor on long-term planning related to wastewater capacity.
With taxpayers potentially facing a $15-30 million building project, it seems critical for the mayor & trustees to commission a professional wastewater capacity analysis before final decisions about annexation of town land to village for this large project.
Donald Kerr
New Paltz
That’s what scientists do
In the March 17 edition of this paper, John Habersberger states, “Ever since the masks were mandated last spring, the rate of infection didn’t change…If the masks were working, shouldn’t there have been a sustained decline?” There are lots of factors coming into play besides wearing or not wearing masks. The only way to know for sure would have been to conduct an experiment with one group of people not wearing masks and another group of people wearing masks.
We don’t do such experiments on humans, especially when experiments have shown that droplets carrying the virus can travel in the air and that masks filter those particles out, how efficiently depending on the kind and fit of the mask. Wearing masks is a no-brainer for limiting the spread of the disease.
With regard to Mr. Habersberger’s statement, “As for Dr. Fauci, I can’t believe anyone listens to him…First masks weren’t necessary and then they were. And now we need to wear two.” Yes, Dr. Fauci has made conflicting and changing recommendations over the course of the pandemic. Each statement has reflected what was known at the time based on experimental and epidemiological data.
That’s what scientists do. They come to conclusions based on objective observation and experimentation. If further observations and experimentation deem otherwise, recommendations are changed to reflect that new knowledge. Nothing wrong with that.
Lee Reich
New Paltz
New Paltz railroads police plan on April Fool’s Day
The New Paltz Town Board railroaded on April Fool’s day a 48-page police reform report without any public discussion on any issue of substance during a ten-month process. If there was a discussion, then it had to have been in an executive session which is illegal because government decisions must be made in public with engagement of the community in two-way dialogues. There was not a single Town Board public discussion on the 24-recommendation report prepared by a four-member Steering Committee that for the most part also operated in secret using listening sessions.
The Governor’s Executive Order 203, NYS Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative, required public transparent bottom-up community participation and instead got a top-down mostly secretive report. There was no significant collaboration with the community, just some one-way proforma private meetings. This despite the clamoring of the community who put out over a dozen professionally written reports that were not responded to nor even acknowledged during the ten-month period.
The Steering Committee report is a shock because not only did it leave the community out of any meaningful decision-making process, but will dramatically INCREASE police cost in a town that has low crime and is overpoliced by the Town Police, State Police, Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, SUNY police, etc. The plan calls for massive expensive training that has been proven not to significantly work and hiring of more police and providing higher pay when crime has dramatically declined in New Paltz. The Steering Committed stated on page 25, “We must have staffing levels and pay that makes such staffing possible.” The calling for higher paid police is in the heels of the Town Board recently approving $10,000 in more bullets, two new police cruiser cars and a new police station that will certainly break our local town budget.
We continue to be fooled by the New Paltz Town Board that better not dare run for an elected position again. In fact, the best thing they can do is to resign because of their shameful, undemocratic and disrespectful behavior.
Please contact the New Paltz Coalition for Community Safety and Wellbeing if you want copies of the referenced community reports or to learn more. Feel free to call (845) 255-9652, email us at communitysafetyandwellbeing@gmail.com or write to P.O. Box 756, New Paltz, NY 12561. We look forward to hearing from you because we will engage with you.
Edgar Rodriguez
New Paltz
The Lasher Funeral Home property
I have lived in the center of Woodstock for over 20 years. The Town of Woodstock is my home. I want to help preserve what is so precious about it. I am deeply disturbed by the prospect of the Lasher Funeral Home property being sold to the Woodstock Way partners, who want to create another hotel complex. It will be their second in town, not to mention a number of houses they have bought up, renovated and turned into short-term housing on Neher Street. I ask that the sellers be especially thoughtful about to whom they sell this large and exquisite property. Because of its size and position, changing its nature from a community service and gathering place to a commercial venture for visitors would have a large impact on the character of Tinker Street, stamping our town all the more as a mere tourist destination.
As other areas one by one have fallen to the axe of developers, the Lasher property stands as a turning point. How much more can we lose as a town, as a world? I urge the Woodstock Town Board to craft and submit the building moratorium with great urgency before this contract is signed. I ask that the Town Board not issue variances to current zoning laws without a public airing. The townspeople are banding together. We care deeply about this property and about this town. Thank you.
Marta Szabo
Woodstock
Please join me
Americans sure do make a lot of noise about our sad history of slavery, which is older in human history than writing, arithmetic or #tageverything. It is evil and we all agree. It was common and gradually, quite recently, we gave it up in New Paltz. But not in China. A group of about a million people are captives of their communist government, forced to live in concentration camps like the Nazis used, tortured, raped, and what do we do about it? I advocate not buying anything made in China. Won’t you please be my neighbor and join me?
Paul Nathe
New Paltz
Gardiner Library is better than ever
One of the major themes for 2021 is “Build Back Better,” and that is surely the case with the great staff at Gardiner Library. Every Monday, they send out an e-mail detailing an incredibly diverse array of entertaining and useful programming for the weeks ahead. Of course, much of that programming is online at the moment, which seems to be working out very well. And the library has also been busy beefing up a growing roster of online resources, from magazines to e-books to movies. A hearty thanks to Nicole, Jack, Amy, Caroline, Chris and the rest of the team. You’ve helped us get through a challenging winter.
David Sterman
Gardiner
Lasher’s Meadow
I am a member of the newly formed Friends of the Field, a community group concerned about the potential development of the meadow located behind the Lasher Funeral Home. Our group consists of contiguous and extended neighbors of the field, Woodstock constituents and past community members who hold Woodstock in their hearts. I am adding my voice to the growing outcry over the loss of green space and concern of overdevelopment within the Town of Woodstock.
Woodstock is a special place in this country and the world: “the Most Famous Small Town in America.” The reasons for this are myriad, but not least of all is our natural splendor and our juxtaposition of both famous, yet quaint. Lasher’s Meadow stands as one of the truly last open spaces in the hamlet. Once it is gone, there is no turning back. It is our duty to our environment, our local wildlife and our future community to protect and preserve what we can in the present.
Going back nearly half a century to the 1984 Open Space Plan, through the 2003 proposed Comprehensive Plan to the 2018 adopted Comprehensive Plan, natural resource preservation and protection is an overwhelming priority for the town’s residents. In Woodstock’s adopted Comprehensive Plan, it was agreed that building off the Strategic Conservation Plan (Woodstock Land Conservancy, 2013), the town should identify sites with high conservation value and coordinate with landowners to advance mutual interests for long-term conservation of these resources.
If this stance was adopted by our town government not even three years ago, then where is the actionable response when faced with this today? How are citizens to trust that the community vision will be upheld? The response of the town to Lasher’s Meadow today creates a roadmap for the environmental conservation of tomorrow.
According to the Hudsonia Habitat Mapping Project (2012), Lasher’s back field is 2 to 3 acres made up of upland hardwood forest, upland meadow, wet meadow and hardwood shrub swamp. The biodiversity of this acreage cannot be overstated; from diverse plant life to insects and butterflies, to birds, small animals and larger animals like deer and bear – this field in our hamlet is home to them all.
Upland meadows account for only three percent of the total land area in town. The Hudsonia biologists consider all types of meadow habitat to be ecologically significant. The dramatic decline of grassland-breeding birds in the Northeast has been attributed to the loss of large areas of suitable meadow habitat; small swamps embedded in upland forest are often overlooked in wetland protection, but can have extremely high biodiversity value, similar to intermittent woodland pools. Conservation of habitats is one of the best ways to protect biological resources (Hudsonia Habitat Mapping Project 2012).
I acknowledge that there are a number of issues facing the town presently that impact the wider community – issues of housing, business and economy. However, as a planet, we are facing a climate crisis and it is imperative that we act when we can. Woodstock, at risk for flash floods and major storm events due to development in a low-lying watershed area, cannot simply look the other way because a land is privately held. I ask the Town Board to step in and hold true to its adopted environmental commitment found in the 2018 Comprehensive Plan. I ask you to save Lasher’s Meadow as open space in perpetuity.
Chris Pasin
Woodstock
Support the Global Health Security Act
Let’s not be unprepared again! Support the Global Health Security Act (GHSA). The national response to COVID-19 was uncoordinated and caused more deaths than were necessary. Despite being given previous warnings, state and federal governments were not prepared for this pandemic. The effects of this disaster were felt not only locally, but globally. In fact, children in low-income countries are 100 times more likely to die from infectious diseases.
The US has a responsibility to protect its own interests as well as global interests. As the death toll rises and the economy continues to suffer, the US must take the lead to prevent another pandemic of this magnitude. We must invest in global responses to prevent future health emergencies. The GHSA would be an excellent transnational response to the pandemic.
The Global Health Security Act is crucial to the prevention of future crises, as it will increase the US government’s efforts to prevent potential infectious disease outbreaks. This nonpartisan bill will establish a Global Health Agenda, a council for Global Health with representatives from 15 countries and a coordinated plan to respond to future health emergencies.
We were warned about COVID-19 and we cannot make the same mistakes again. I encourage all New Yorkers to contact Claudia Tenney and Senators Gillibrand and Schumer in support of the Global Health Security Act.
Elise Lanier
Phoenicia
Congestion and signs and Pine Road
I submit the following concerns to our Highway Department and Town Board in New Paltz:
Congestion: Traffic is really getting Long Islandy bad and locating a CVS/5 Guys at 299/North Putt will make it worse. It will also make that intersection more dangerous for pedestrians and those using the Empire State Trail. More and most importantly, our first responders are all on North Putt. Do we really want more congestion than is already there when there is a fire or an accident at the high school or the Thruway?
Signs: Gatehouse Road has seven to eight signs, some repetitive, all within 25 meters of 299 and Gatehouse Road. A genuine eyesore!
Doubling or tripling up signs, as they do in New York City, using one pole instead of new signs, is an idea. Also, having one sign, maybe a bigger one that says: “Absolutely no parking along road and on side streets without owner’s permission” could serve the purpose. (I live in the area and some of us have gatherings or visitors or block parties, and our visitors sometimes have to park on the road.) Our beautiful vistas on Butterville, Pine and Gatehouse, as well as the residential areas of High Pasture, White Oaks and Woodlot Roads, should not be the victim of wild, willy-nilly signage without local input and serious consideration of signage impact.
Pine Road: Pine Road is very popular with visitors and locals. The road was given to the town decades ago, and “we” maintain it! When I first moved here, it was a shale road and usable for locals and for the sometimes-occupied houses that rented from Mohonk. For reasons unknown, years ago it was paved. Since then, our Highway Department has spent more time, staff hours and money on repaving and maintaining that blacktop road than anywhere else in town.
Suggestion: Enough already! It’s a town road, let it go back to hard shale, there ain’t no law against it!
FYI, the rare schoolbus always made it up that road – the once or twice in history when there were school-age children – and the plows were able to plow it when it was shale (now they can’t, unless they fill in all the potholes every year!). It is a waste of our taxpayers’ money to constantly upgrade and pave that road for one or two rental apartments (maybe not occupied all year!). Tourists and visitors and locals can just have a bumpier, dustier ride, but for crying out loud, let it go back to nature. Pine does not need to be paved! Thanks, I feel better now!
Ron Stonitsch
New Paltz
Comeau addition design meeting
The Commission for Civic Design (CCD) was given by law the responsibility for considering the historical and architectural value and significance of Woodstock’s buildings and structures. In 2019, the CCD was asked to conduct a review of Walker Architects’ design for an addition to the existing two-story, historic Comeau building. The CCD’s last review was on 9/23/19, when the plans showed some changes in the design, but the overall plan and form remained close to the original. At that time, the CCD requested “future design reviews, because there remain serious design issues.”
The time for that future review has come. The CCD is scheduled to meet with one of the Walker architects at 4 p.m. on 4/12/21. Those of you who care and are concerned can take part in that meeting by requesting the link to access Zoom. Contact the supervisor’s office manager, Ashley Slovensky, at aslovensky@woodstockny.org.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Falling in place
Did Biden fall as he scaled the stairs to Air Force One? Yep, and he was not the first president to take such a spill. In December 1975, President Ford, like Biden, truly slipped and fell on the stairs of Air Force One. President Ronald Reagan in ‘84 also slipped and fell on the steps of Air Force One when ascending them, going down to the deck of the stairway ramp.
And of course, TRE45ON Trump in 2020 gingerly/very slowly walked down a ramp (one flight of stairs at a time) that he descended after a West Point commencement speech to prevent a fall. Trump’s apparent struggles with the ramp echoed scenes from January 2017, when he seemed unsteady while walking on a gentle slope at the White House and took the then-British prime minister, Theresa May, awkwardly by the hand.
Where Biden has not fallen down is the great job he is doing as president: He is working hard for all the people (Republicans and Democrats alike), and his national approval rating has shown this. Biden treats American workers and working families as essential at all times, his economic team and his legislative proposals prioritize the working class; a clear majority of Americans support it.
On the other hand, one-term POTUS DumptyTrumpty fell hard – he lost reelection, as he failed to be the leader we needed. It is hard to comprehend a president of the USA standing in front of the country “mocking our democracy” by suggesting one of the major things which makes America a democracy is the right to vote, and he calls it “a fraud.” It is hard to forget he suggested an insurrection against our government. We also witnessed in Trump’s last year in the Oval Office a very poor job and response during a major pandemic (remember that his botched response led to record COVID deaths), as well as his poor understanding and handling of a national economic crisis. All these things highlight his ineptitude and his obvious unwillingness to do the right thing for our country.
Is Biden perfect? Absolutely not! But compared to Trump and his administration, Biden looks extraordinary and noteworthy as he continues to “fly high” in the eyes of the citizenry.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Masks and vaccinations
“Won’t wear a mask. Won’t get the vaccination.”
The general belief of the majority of educated and informed adults is that science has saved more lives than wars have taken. As a veteran, I would add that science has also made war very efficient at taking lives.
Almost every friend I speak with, at some point, we get to the topic, “Why won’t folks wear masks? And why won’t people get vaccinated?” What follows is words of philosophy, psychology, religion and politics, shuffled like a deck of cards. If I can step back far enough, I see our conversation like the Crazy 8 Ball toy of old, where a variety of answers float up to the screen: As I see it. Ask again later. Better not tell you now. Cannot predict now. Concentrate and ask again. Don’t count on it. It is certain. It is decidedly so. Eventually we reach the place where one of us says, “I don’t think it has anything to do with politics.”
I have had people coming to me for years as a therapist to talk about why their lives were so difficult, and I found it never really had anything to do with what they first told me. What we don’t want to look at is what drives most of our negative and self-destructive behaviors. Fear of exposing these self-truths makes health care a lot of money. This is also why we have people in leadership who have lost their sense of morality, kindness, compassion and empathy. They provide none of these qualities to themselves or those around them.
So, when you see someone walking around without a mask, when it is clear that they should be concerned for others’ safety, know that without being able to care for themselves, they have no resources to truly care for others. This is reflected now in mass numbers of the United States population. Fear, hate, greed and racism cover the deeper needs of learning to care for our own selves, which, if learned, would manifest in caring for others. Our institutions have lost the ability to morally educate students, parishioners, workers and the military. Role models are hard to find in our government, even in religious institutions. The Internet manifests more opportunities for the emotionally, psychologically and morally immature, to voice their points of view more than ever before.
Why don’t folks wear a mask or go to get vaccinated? Look carefully and ask, are they able to care for their own lives? That doesn’t mean how well they are dressed, or the car they drive, or how many surround them. All of us still have the innate ability to read the tone of voice, the way they respond, the look in their eyes to inform us of truth. It’s happening throughout America right now. In the trial of George Floyd, those who witness his death are communicating what they sensed and felt. These emotions that contain morality may not fit into the box made by our laws, but will be carried in their hearts and souls for the rest of their lives.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
The sad truth
The fact that a church is charging money for a charity to use space is ridiculous. I thought that Jesus chased all the moneychangers out of the temple. Time for a Second Coming!
Lanny Steitz
Bearsville
Alphabet soup
Every time I think about the alphabet, I get stuck on the letter J.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
New Paltz pedestrian and bicycle safety
As an avid walker and cyclist and member of the Town/Village Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee, I’m calling on concerned fellow New Paltz residents to provide feedback on various current projects and issues related to non-motorized transportation in our area, including those outlined below.
As a weekend destination and vibrant college town with a centrally located middle school, New Paltz was already overdue for improved bicycle and pedestrian amenities. With the recent completion of the River-to-Ridge Trail and designation of a section of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail as part of the 750-mile Empire State Trail, along with increased visitor traffic from people seeking outdoor recreation during the pandemic, our town has becoming even more of a draw to on- and off-road cyclists residing in or visiting the mid-Hudson Valley region. Careful planning is needed to address increased trail and road usage and related safety concerns.
As many will remember, in 2016 there was a near-fatal bicycle/car incident on Route 299 near Butterville Road. In response to public pressure, the Ulster County executive found funding to widen shoulders on Route 299 from the Wallkill River bridge to Butterville, and added a four-way stop at that intersection. Protracted negotiations with landholders to secure rights of way further along 299 from Butterville to Route 44/55 have stalled the continuation of the shoulder-widening project, though the Bike/Ped Committee continues to advocate for its completion.
Pedestrian and cycling infrastructure improvements are also slated for the full length of Henry W. DuBois Drive, from North Putt Corners Road to Route 32/North Chestnut Street, providing a vital alternative to Main Street for cyclists and pedestrians. Negotiations with the property-owners along this section of the Empire State Trail are ongoing. Together with the shoulder improvements along South Putt Corners Road, this will provide an excellent route to/from the high school, as well as an easy link to the newly extended Hudson Valley Rail Trail and the Walkway over the Hudson.
The planned installation of a traffic light at Henry W. Dubois Drive and Route 32/North Chestnut Street will provide a safe and controlled crossing of a busy intersection while accommodating the anticipated increase in bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The Bike/Ped committee has advocated that this be a “no right on red” intersection, and is researching other possible locations in town where this designation may be appropriate.
If you have input about any or all of these projects, or have other ideas about improving the non-motorized travel experience in New Paltz and throughout the region, the Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee would love to hear from you. Our meetings, usually held on the fourth Monday of each month, currently take place virtually. Please visit www.townofnewpaltz.org/bicyclepedestrian-committee for more information.
Finally, April 24 is Celebrate Trails Day. For more info on this nationwide event, go to www.railstotrails.org/experience-trails/celebrate-trails/#2021.
Happy trails!
Mark Eis
New Paltz
Rebels with a cause
Several weeks ago, in my letter to the editor, I was unreservedly upset and unapologetically critical on a daily and nightly basis of the use and misuse of the word “riot” in the barely failed attempt to overthrow our government, and the brutally successful attack on the Congress and the Capitol Police.
The word “riot” just does not adequately describe and impart the actual physical and political importance of what really happened that day – January 6. It was a frightening and very nearly successful overthrow of our government.
Understandably, most people are unwilling and afraid to admit and confront this scary stage setting. The word “riot” diminishes the political importance of what actually happened, what nearly happened and what was intended to happen. The attack was temporarily successful in disrupting and interrupting the work of Congress that day, which was to certify the results of the election of Joe Biden as the president and Kamala Harris as vice-president.
Even when used and repeated by respected reporters, commentators and even editors in the print media, radio and TV, the term “riot” just does not resonate deeply and for long in the minds of the millions of TV viewers, radio listeners and readers of newspapers and magazines – and even of the participants themselves – missing and dismissing the grave political and physical dangers of this.
My continued focus and musing on what occurred that day – and what has led me to describe the January 6 attack on Congress as a “rebellion”! And the participants as rebels, rebels with a cause. Most of them – if not all of them – really believed and still do that the election was stolen from them. They wanted, as some of their chants and signs stated, to “Stop the Steal.” This is worrisome and troubling me greatly. It is really dangerous that so many millions of average Americans believe this big, bold lie, this flagrant falsehood. And in order to remove the hood from the false spouting of Fox News cable – mainly Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham and others’ constantly promoting nonstop, day and night, of the lies about the stolen election. I arrive at Rupert Murdoch’s empire. He owns Fox, as well as the Wall Street Journal.
So, he – Rupert Murdoch – is financing this Big Lie to destabilize the USA, to turn the United States of America into the Disunited States of America. Let this be the beginning of getting rid of the curtain protecting this puppeteer and his evil, destructive influence.
It is time for protests at the New York City Park Avenue building that houses his duplex – or is it triplex? – apartment.
Bruce Grund
Kingston
Equal rights for all
In the late 1960s, many of our country’s oppressed peoples began to view their resistance to racism as an international struggle. Native Americans made connections with other indigenous peoples living in what European immigrants called the “New World.” The American Indian Movement and the Black Panther Party identified the common enemy: a long-term history of white nationalism in the Americas.
This decade has seen a similar expansion of our awareness. The Jim Crow treatment of Black Americans can be seen in Israel’s persecution of the Palestinian people, and in Northern Ireland’s mistreatment of its Catholic minority. As it turns out, there are links to colonialism and militarism in all these struggles. Jewish supremacy in the Holy Land mirrors white supremacy in the US.
Several progressive groups have organized a Zoom entitled “Equal Rights for All: Resisting Settler Colonialism and White Nationalism in the United States, Northern Ireland and Palestine.” The panel will include Fanon Frazier, a local community organizer with Citizen Action HV from Kingston; Jim Keys, a filmmaker, cultural activist and guerrilla muralist from Derry, Northern Ireland; and professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, an internationally known peace and justice activist, author and natural scientist with the Palestinian Museum of Natural History in Bethlehem, Palestine. To register in advance for this Zoom panel, go to https://mideastcrisis.org or https://jvphudsonvalley.blogspot.com. Sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace – Hudson Valley, Middle East Crisis Response, New York City Veterans for Peace, US Boats to Gaza and Women in Black – New Paltz.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
Size matters
This is in response to Neil (I still hate Trump) Jarmel’s “The Capitol siege,” in which he ridiculed my estimate of the crowd size that attended the January 6 protest as being in the hundreds of thousands. Neil wanted to know the source of my information and, without giving any evidence, stated it was wrong and merely propaganda, apparently, in an attempt to denigrate my letter “Propaganda all is phony.”
Neil, one source of my estimate was a friend of mine who was at the event. This friend and I also attended the October 4, 1997 Promise Keepers “Stand in the Gap” rally, in which – to quote Google – crowd attendance was “estimated to be between 600,000 and 800,000.” My friend assured me that the crowd on January 6 was larger than the Promise Keepers event. Having attended two antiwar protests in DC during the Vietnam War in which The New York Times generously estimated the crowd size to be 250,00 to 500,00, I can assure you that the size of the Promise Keepers’, and thus the January 6 protests, were much larger than the antiwar protests. Moreover, The Daily World featured an article by Ryan Sparks on January 13, 2021 that featured an interview of a local resident who attended the protest, who, in response to the question by Sparks, “What estimates can you provide regarding the size of the crowd at the rally?” gave the following answer:
“I was close to the action, and it was packed. You can see (in the photos provided) the crowd size. It was all the way down the avenue, and there were two full avenues leading into the Capitol that was packed. I’ve been to Ohio State (college football) games and there’d be 100,000 inside the stadium and 150,000 outside the stadium – and this dwarfed that. I’m not sure if it was a million. I have a friend that is with the Kentucky GOP and they were there, and their estimate was 1.5 million. I’m not sure if that is accurate, but it was massive. It was like being in a crowded elevator for blocks and blocks and blocks.”
With this in view, I would suggest that Neil may have resisted his “better angels” not only by making untrue assertions about my claims, but also by ignoring the central point of my letter, which was this: Despite frequent defenses by CNN and MSNBC “journalists” of the summer protests in which millions of dollars of damage to property occurred, people were murdered and injured and parts of cities occupied for weeks, as “95 percent mostly peaceful,” this same media (including George Stephanopoulos on his recent Sunday show) never qualified that the January 6 protests were mostly peaceful.
Neil also quibbled with my estimate of there being 600 people who “attacked” the Capitol building by claiming I have no basis for such a number. However, this was the estimate I read of the number of people who defied Trump’s admonition to “peacefully and patriotically” make their voices heard. In any event, even if the crowd was twice or ten times that number, the protest would still qualify, in proportion to the hundreds of thousands who attended, as 99 percent “mostly peaceful.” Neil also failed to mention that the FBI testified before Congress that no arms were found among the protestors of what had been characterized as an “armed” insurrection, or that I wrote that, even if the crowd was only 50,000, the protest would still qualify as 99 percent mostly peaceful.
There is much more I could write as a rejoinder to Mr. Jarmel’s questionable claims, should he continue the discussion. However, I would rather have Neil reply to my “Blowin’ in the wind” letter. I’d love to hear his thoughts and imagine they would engender further fruitful debate.
George Civile
Gardiner
Join the family! 
