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 carnival is coming to Saugerties
Brandon, Brandon, you just don’t seem to get it. Sure these men are locals who have done some good things for others. It IS NOT the men, it is the PROJECT they propose. It matters not that they are local, their goal is to make Winston Farm into something that is absolutely inappropriate for this area.
Inappropriate for many reasons, not the least of which is our aquifer — like the water that likely flows through your pipes….and so many other’s. Waters that once polluted cannot be remediated. If pollution should occur, what do you think will happen to everyone’s property value? Saugerties is not going to benefit and taxpayers will be held hostage to paying for the roads required to accommodate the influx of thousands of vehicles on a daily basis. Want your taxes to go up? Guaranteed. Who do you believe will be paying?
Saugerties Village will not see our businesses flourish — in fact, with all the added traffic, with a self-enclosed project as this project is, how much traffic do you think people will be willing to tolerate so they can walk through our business district? Enjoy our wonderful shops and eateries?
This is a project suited for an area away from homes and communities that will not be polluted by air fouling traffic, destruction of pristine acres of fields and woods, of the quality of life for everyone.
And, Winston Farm is actually an historic site, originally owned by the man who built the Ashokan Reservoir. People should be interested in learning more about the Farm before allowing the destruction that will happen. Are you aware that Saugerties considers itself going green? Pretty hypocritical should this project go forth. The trees that will be taken down are trees that help purify the air, support the wildlife living there and the culture of our area.
As I said in an earlier letter to the editor, who might want to purchase a home on the property where the noise, fumes, atmosphere of having total strangers (thousands of them) marching in their front or back yards?
Perhaps before supporting this project, or any project, take time to understand much more of the many facts about it. Become fully knowledgeable before jumping in to support any project that will impact negatively the way we live. A carnival in Saugerties is about as appropriate as drilling for oil here.
Marjory Greenberg-Vaughn
Saugerties
“Big Lie” a misnomer
The term “The Big Lie” is a misnomer, and the correct label to refer to this assault on our democracy which began on January 20, 2017, should be known as “the Biggest Lie.” After having to endure the former president’s single term where ongoing big and medium lies were as natural as exhaling, there cannot exist any bigger lie to have occurred in our nation’s history.
Jay Edelman
Town of Esopus
The fact of the matter is
It appears that Supervisor McKenna is attempting to get people to believe that the reason I point out his wrongdoings, along with my frequent quips, is because of my “disappointment in not being named [police] chief.” However, his reasoning would not pass muster with those people who are aware of the $35,000 he cost Woodstock’s taxpayers needlessly. Nor would it to those who remember how his behavior over the years resulted in the resignation of an entire Zoning Board of Appeals, members of the Ethics Board and recently Paul Shultis, the 16-year volunteer who was the Planning Board chair. Nor would it to those who remember my role relating to the construction of our cell tower and the highway garage and who know of the many constructive changes to the zoning law that I oversaw.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Save the filibuster
I want to strongly second P. W. Higgin’s letter in last week’s HV1 where he points out the dangers inherent in many of the steps proposed by many Democrats (as in the party) and progressives these days out of their “frustration” with the various stalled bills in Congress, with special emphasis on the desire to end the filibuster to take advantage of the 51 votes in the present Senate on the Democratic “side.” And, coincidentally I presume, in the same edition Doris Chorny writes in favor of just that step. However, she makes the mistake of assuming the filibuster was created after the Civil War by Southerners. It actually was created long before that in 1806 (www.filibusterreform.com/what-is-the-filibuster), but rarely used until the end of the Reconstruction era.
And may I point out to my progressive colleagues (and I consider myself one of y’all) that the reason the filibuster “worked” to maintain segregation and Jim Crow for so long was because many “non-Southerns” went along with it, while pointing the finger, hypocritically, at the Southerners. Do the math. There were only 13 Confederate states with 26 senators, but it took considerably more than that to maintain a filibuster even before Alaska and Hawaii became states. Remember what happened in Boston and Detroit when the Civil Rights bill was passed and school integration was being pushed. The presence of the filibuster was not what kept these vile practices in place for so long; it was so called “Northerner” racial prejudices that were crucial to keeping them in place.
While I do think the filibuster should be updated (it should perhaps be cut to have a bill pass with only 55 percent, rather than 60 percent, and it should require a senator actually standing at the podium 24 hours a day), I believe that this tactic is vital for a functioning democracy in the Senate. This is a crucial way to protect the rights of a minority at times just like this, when minority rights are so much on the line. Imagine, my progressive colleagues, if 51 Ted Cruzes were elected, which is very much likely these days. Do you think “minority” rights would have a chance without the filibuster?
Yes, it is trying times for us progressives, but changing the rules is the wrong focus. We have the majority of citizens with us! Let’s put our efforts on getting them to the polls rather than weakening minority protections, and then the sky is the limit.
Jac Conaway
Olivebridge
Winston (a/k/a Saugerties) Farms
Last week’s letter in support of the Winston Farms megaproject, also misleadingly named “Saugerties Farms, LLC” (there will be no farms at Saugerties Farms), authored by Brandon Schiller, is a blatant, unthinking advertisement for an oversized project that I believe will negatively affect our town, clog our roadways and change the character of Saugerties forever.
Does anyone really believe we will benefit from a waterpark, an amusement park, a huge amphitheater hosting concerts for thousands, not to mention the addition of thousands of new residents, all on one gorgeous parcel of land?
Mr. Schiller writes that concerns are coming from “some small fringe groups.” I am not a member of any small fringe group (unless, like the Trumpers, you consider the Democratic Party a fringe group), nor are my friends; and most of them also oppose this oversized for-profit venture at the expense of our community.
Mr. Schiller asks how anyone could think “these pillars of the community would do anything detrimental.” I don’t know any of the investors, these “pillars of the community.” They may be lovely people, very successful and obviously wealthy. He continues: “Men like these are hard to find anywhere, true visionaries.” No, men like these are everywhere – men with money and power and often not concerned with our welfare. In case anyone forgot, we just had one of those in the White House for four years.
He concludes, “We must rally around them, encourage them and support them.” I submit that, until we get some real information, official impact statements and hear from the citizens who will be most impacted by this oversized project, perhaps we should not!
Eric Glass
Saugerties
No war in Ukraine with Russia
Western media has been fueling the tension over the Ukrainian conflict and Russian buildup of troops within western Russia, yet ignoring NATO plans for at least 22 US/NATO military exercises during 2022, including Defender-Europe 22 in May and June, involving 33,000 troops from 26 countries. These NATO military exercises will take place along the borders with Russia from the Arctic Ocean through the Baltic States down to Bulgaria and including the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
These 22 exercises are clearly designed to intimidate and encircle Russia. Three of these exercises, Joint Arctic Training 22, Neptune Strike 22 and Saber Strike 22, have already begun during January. Several aircraft have been transporting armed US troops involved in these exercises through Shannon Airport, with the approval of the Irish government (but not 80 percent of its people). This is in contravention of Department of Foreign Affairs regulations. The solution to the Ukrainian conflict is for Ukraine to become a neutral state, but the US and NATO are strongly opposed to the concept of neutrality and are working to include the existing neutrals into NATO.
In 2019, former USMC major Ken Mayers and I were arrested at Shannon Airport in Ireland for exposing US and Irish government blatant hypocrisy, if not criminality, by allowing armed US troops and also rendition flights in and through Shannon Airport. We spent two weeks in Limerick Prison and eight-and-a-half months more in Ireland waiting for our passports to be returned. We also experienced tremendous support from the Irish people during that time. The Irish government should be using its role as a neutral state as most of its people desire, to promote peace in eastern Europe.
Now the US war machine, with the help of a complicit media, is attempting to provoke Russia into a war which could have catastrophic consequences for all of us. Join Veterans for Peace and others at 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 5 at the Town Green in Woodstock to say, “No War with Russia over Ukraine.”
Tarak Kauff
Woodstock
Promises unkept
Although Donald Trump was a controversial figure, he was loved or hated not only for his personality, but because he kept his campaign promises, to the joy of some and chagrin of others. And he did so in the face of unprecedented opposition from the opposing party and unfair coverage and unabashed ridicule from most of the mainstream media. However, POTUS Biden’s great popularity has plummeted among independents and even within his own party because of unkept promises and a nasty streak that belies his reputation as a gaffe-prone but endearingly avuncular politician.
The following song, “Oh How We Hate the Things You Do” is based upon the Temptations’ great hit “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” It tells the story of POTUS Biden’s failure to keep his promises and how this partisanship has hurt and further divided the nation and undermined his popularity.
When you announced your run
You said you’d be a great uniter
But your partisan ways
Made you our country’s great divider
The way you picked your veep
You know it should have caused a scandal
She’d be a black female
Racist Joe should be your handle
(Chorus)
You didn’t do all the things that you said you’d do
Now it’s tru-u-u-u-ue
We really hate the things you do
Oh, how we hate the things you do
The way you tell big lies
You know your pants should be on fire
The way you change your views
We know you’re just a pol for hire
The way you pulled the troops
Was oh, so dangerous and foolish
Excuses that you gave
Really were quite ghoulish
(Chorus)
You didn’t do all the things that you said you’d do
So, now we hate the things you do
The way you blamed old Trump
For all the COVID deaths that he had
You’ve had much more than him
You know it’s just made you look so bad
The way you whisper low
It makes you look so dumb and creepy
Dozing at the UN
Showed us you earned the nickname “Sleepy”
(Chorus)
You didn’t do all the things that you said you’d do
So, now we hate the things you do
The stories that you tell
Prove once again that you’re a liar
And all your spending bills
Will only make inflation higher
Your Better Build Back plan
You couldn’t get it through the Senate
Joe and Kyrsten warned you
It seems you didn’t think they meant it
(Chorus)
You didn’t do all the things that you said you’d do
So, now we hate the things you do
Our border’s overrun
And yet you never give it mention
You try to hide your flaws
By giving Trump all your attention
We’re looking at Ukraine
Russian troops are at its borders
You said we’ll help them out
But NATO doesn’t like your orders
(Chorus)
You didn’t do all the things that you said you’d do
So, now we hate the things you do
The way that Hunter paints
You know he should have been a plumber
You said that he’s so smart
It only made you look much dumber
You’re talking to the press
You’re giving them your latest sales pitch
Doocy asked a question
You called the guy a son of a bitch
(Chorus: Repeat last two lines to fade)
You didn’t do all the things that you said you’d do
Now it’s tru-u-u-u-ue
We really hate the things you do
Oh, how we hate the things you do
George Civile
Gardiner
No longer a dog whistle here
Behold “Grievance Groundhog Day, again, and again, and again and…” Trump’s recent canard about racism and COVID-19 treatment to his receptive audience shows the flipside of the American Dream, and that’s the “nightmare of Donald Trump.”
Recently, at his “Save America” rally in Arizona, Trump decided to seed “race animus” with some outlandish COVID-falsehood. This mean-spirited ex-POTUS let vitriol flow from his mouth and just maybe for the umpteenth time, everything he’s saying needs to be heard and understood.
His brand of “identity politics’’ glaringly spewed (more of) his poisonous racism, saying what only a hardcore racist could say: “If you’re white you don’t get the vaccine, or if you’re white, you don’t get therapeutics.” How does one engage in this kind of argument and/or debate with people who believe these sorts of things, right?
When you have folks who believe these lies, it becomes very difficult to have the kind of exchanges and arguments about how we might proceed as a democracy. It instead rings loud in an echo-sphere created by this narcissistic grifter. Trump’s purposeful (mis)information cons the listener who’s attached to every breath their leader takes.
Trump’s goal is to keep a bone-deep sense of pessimism and a lot of despair seeping in, and with that he unites his base and his Republicans. He drives their collected hatred of Democrats and liberals. That hatred has consumed every policy goal, every ideological principle and even every ounce of commitment to the country. Hatred is fueled by fear.
The rhetoric of the last Republican campaign, starting with Trump but going all the way down the ballot, was that if Democrats were elected, then it would not be suboptimal or bad or even terrible, but “the end of everything you care about.” Towns and cities would burn, religion would be outlawed, America as we know it would cease to exist. “Fear!”
Now the ultimate fear has arrived as a rally “talking point,” and it is no longer a dog whistle. Since racism still occupies the throne of America, Trump now uses a “racial foghorn” as an appeal to “white grievance.” It’s a trigger to revive his political ambition and political life. Trump didn’t invent the idea of white privilege, yet he wants to create division and hostility among races and ethnicities. His objective is to upset people by challenging them through “identity politics.”
The racist genie was out of the bottle when he declared, “If you’re white, you have to go to the back of the line to get medical health.” This is his version of hitting “pandemic rock bottom” to his minions, and to clearly rile up his reactionary, cultlike base.
Think of it: He recycles the same lies and lines, and now adds this new crap as he stirs a mixture of racism with twisted health opinions to his continued election-stealing lies. This is Trump’s comfort zone. He embraces white ethnonationalistic authoritarianism and demonstrates no interest in providing the survivability of democracy. He gives voice to the racists, the gullible, the icon-worshippers and the deplorables. Hillary was right about that part.
The issue is Trump. He has always been a con. I know when there’s a right and I know when there’s a wrong, and I see a lot of one and none of the other. What do you say after that? Only that “The facts are the facts”: He places his personal interests above the nation as he’s lit the fuse to a bad outcome.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
A dusting
I opened the window, and six snowflakes wandered into my room.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Why are Republicans fighting so hard to reduce voter fraud?
In his letter of February 2, John Butz argues that, by virtue of its high ratings, Fox News is a reliable source of information because, if it were truly fake news, “it would be at the bottom of the ratings barrel, instead of CNN et al.” Really? Are you really saying that popularity equals quality? By that reasoning, McDonald’s has the best hamburgers in the world because they sell the most! I would say that if your diet consists entirely of Fox News, you’re dangerously undernourished. But hey, bon appetit.
You should be aware, though, that in defending themselves against numerous lawsuits, Fox has argued that they are an entertainment entity, with a judge in a recent lawsuit saying the network “persuasively argues that given [Tucker] Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism about the statements he makes.” They are currently being sued by Dominion and Smartmatic for their lies about the integrity of the 2020 election, repeated ad nauseam without a shred of evidence. The former president’s own Department of Homeland Security called it the most secure election in history.
Which brings up another point: A few weeks ago, Mr. Butz attempted to defend the spate of new laws designed to suppress the votes of people of color. He spent an entire column defending voter ID laws, even though that is only the tip of the suppression iceberg.
A 2014 study found 31 credible instances of impersonation fraud from 2000 to 2014, out of more than one billion ballots cast. Even this tiny number is likely inflated, as the study’s author counted not just prosecutions or convictions, but all credible claims.
Two other studies found ten cases of voter fraud nationwide from 2000 to 2012. The follow-up study, which looked for fraud specifically in states where politicians have argued that it’s a problem, found zero successful prosecutions in five states from 2012 to 2016.
So, if voter fraud is negligible, why are Republicans fighting so hard to reduce it? For the same reason they have engaged in such spectacular partisan gerrymandering over the past 40 years or so: It helps them enjoy a political majority while being in the numerical minority. Since 2000, Democrats have won the popular vote in five of the six presidential elections. Only the Supreme Court (2000) and the archaic Electoral College (2016) have enabled Republicans to win the White House.
Some of the other 440-odd laws, either proposed or enacted, would: reduce the number of polling places in cities, requiring thousands to spend an hour or more on public transit; purge election committees of Democrats and allow committee members to reject ballots with no explanation, or to simply overturn the results of the election; purge voter rolls without notifying people that they have been removed so they can re-register (this is done by zip code so they can better target minority communities); make it a crime to offer water to people in lines made longer by the decreased number of polling places and reduced voting hours… and on it goes. This is a comprehensive list with citations, if you care: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-december-2021.
Steve Massardo
Saugerties
Misinformation about COVID
For the past two years and under the banner of free speech, there have been flurries of impressionistic and ill-informed notions about the COVID pandemic, as well as dubious remedies for the afflicted. This rhetoric has contributed to the worrisome fact that about 25 percent of Americans avoid vaccination and ignore masking and distancing guidelines. What can be done about it here in the mid-Hudson region?
Let us consider the immediate symptoms of this impressionistic thinking on a community level and its grave consequences for local families, friends, neighbors and ourselves; all too often, it is taken as gospel. There are well-intended people hereabouts who justify their views by invoking “common sense,” “the Internet,” casual intuitions or some combination thereof. A recent example may suffice to indicate the harm done by such thinking – even when the intentions of the advocate are above reproach.
According to Eli Kassirer’s letter to the editor in Hudson Valley One (1/12/22, pp. 22-23), “Sadly, it appears the jabs are not working; nearly everyone I know who is fully vaxxed is sick, and many of them have tested positive for COVID. This COVID horror has been going on for nearly two years.” The thrust of Mr. Kassirer’s letter is his unconditional endorsement of Putnam County’s legislature for opposing any mandated COVID vaccine.
His reasoning fails to take into account major aspects of this pandemic, however. For example: Suppose one’s friends, neighbors and family members live in close proximity and are especially susceptible to the virus (due to advanced age, obesity, smoking or other factors contributing to immunosuppression). And suppose that, like Mr. Kassirer, they attach little or no weight to scientific guidelines. In this case, there is a great likelihood that they will be afflicted with COVID. The fact that these individuals are fully vaccinated – Mr. Kassirer does not say whether they received two doses, as well as the third or booster shot – is no guarantee that they will remain healthy. Being fully vaccinated (including the booster) only means that they are highly unlikely to require hospitalization, and that they have only the most remote possibility of succumbing to this disease.
The vaccine does not create a magical wall of immunity around those who are vaccinated. It is a crucial public health measure that ensures the greatest safety to the population as a whole. And no one – not Pfizer, not Moderna, not Johnson & Johnson, not Dr. Anthony Fauci and not any competent epidemiologist –ever claimed it could guarantee protection for everyone who gets vaccinated.
Still another aspect of Mr. Kassirer’s misguided thinking is his declaration that the vaccine has been the cause of “this COVID horror going on for nearly two years.” In reality, the virus, not the vaccine, is causing the horror. And the refusal of about 25 percent of the American people to get vaccinated has contributed mightily to the ongoing presence of this disease among us. Antivaxxers continue to make wild claims to scare people already distrustful of science and insecure in the present culture of hatred, hysteria and divisiveness.
Uncritical acceptance of these claims gives the virus more time to mutate from the original COVID-19 to the Delta variant that has given way to the Omicron variant. Unless the misinformation and hysteria subside, we will soon be hosts to still other mutations – perhaps an “Epsilon” variant. If schoolchildren start learning the Greek alphabet in this cryptic manner, that would be a true horror.
If this letter persuades a few readers or even a single one to get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible, its purpose will have been accomplished.
Irwin Sperber
Gardiner
Evils of unfettered capitalism lead countries to fascism
What happens when both the liberals and conservatives give up on our current form of government? There are all sorts of reasons why this may happen. The corrupt two-party system is so riddled with corporate bribery that dealing with the most important issues of our day seems impossible.
Take global warming. The Republicans are marinated in crude oil cash. But Biden and the Democrats are addicted to the similar pay-to-play philosophy. The same is true for America’s endless conflicts abroad. Biden and Blinken have moved NATO troops right to the very edge of Russia, while feigning an interest in negotiating peace. Two nuclear powers with troops facing each other is what our two corrupt parties have led us to. The future of our species is not as important as the mountains of cash our politicians get from the all-important weapons industry.
And it is only going to get worse. The billionaires have expanded their wealth beyond anyone’s comprehension, while an ever-growing underclass has little or nothing. The anger at this fraudulent system is easily diverted to the hatred of immigrants, blacks, gays and women.
We have seen it all before in the 1930s. When governments become paralyzed by the very rich and their huge corporations, there is always some crazy demagogue waiting in the wings. Then societies reap what they have sown, with book-burnings, racial attacks and armed uprisings. Maybe the evils of unfettered capitalism always lead countries to fascism, where every day is January 6.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
Tired of shoveling
So, here we are again: winter, snow and ice. Lately, I feel like I live in Alaska. I’ve complained about this issue before, and so have others who experience the problem of having to shovel not once, but often two or three times, once the plows come through cleaning the streets and shoving all the street snow, ice and salt back onto the sidewalk. I live on North Manheim; this problem is not limited to this street. Further, cars park on the street despite the two-inch snow enforcement. Why are these cars not ticketed or towed? And often, these cars belong to clients of the auto shop at the corner. These cars sometimes remain for weeks.
As a taxpayer, I am frustrated by the people who don’t follow the rules. There must be a better way with snow removal; it has been suggested before that the Village take responsibility for clearing the sidewalks. I’d be willing to pay extra instead of shoveling twice or three times. Then there are those who seem to think they don’t have to shovel to where their sidewalk meets the street.
Having recuperated six months from a knee fracture and being over 65, I’m terrified of falling on ice. It is more than likely I will move, but it’s a shame that homeowners have to shovel numerous times and observe the violators who park on the street during a storm.
Marybeth Bannon
New Paltz
Shameful
What a twisted, crooked logic and reasoning the Republicans would not employ to justify the January 6, 2021 “event”! By extension, we should from now on consider the assassination of JFK, the killing of MLK, the Watergate break-in, the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, the burning of black churches, the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, the killing of anyone not to one’s liking — you name it — a “legitimate political discourse” (no matter how nonsensical a phrase it is!). And the perpetrators of all these heinous deeds should be glorified!
How shameful and very scary of what the USA is becoming!
Misha Harnick
New Paltz
People have the power
Incredible events are taking place in Canada. A truck convoy estimated to have grown to 60,000 trucks spanning 43 miles on the highway traveled from the west coast of Canada to the east coast arrived in Ottawa Saturday, January 1. It was the largest truck convoy in world history. The reason for the convoy was to stand up for medical freedom and the right to choose what medical interventions a person will receive. Some have called this an anti-vaxx gathering, but the facts are 80% of the truckers are vaxxed, but support a person’s right to choose and not be forced to take a medical intervention without informed consent. BTW, this is what the Nuremberg Code mandate internationally. The Canadian public has shown incredible support by lining up by the thousands on every overpass greeting and waving to the truckers with signs thanking them for doing what they are doing as they pass underneath. Of course there is a corporate-controlled media blackout, misinformation and agent provocateurs happening so you will have to go to alternative media platforms to see the videos of this convoy and all the people supporting them along the highway. This is truly inspiring in a time when it was looking like the corporations and their puppet-elected-officials had the last word. The Canadian truckers are showing the world the people are not powerless and can have a powerful impact if they stand together, united defending a universal right, in this case medical freedom. Ottawa at this moment is besieged by maybe 100,000 people setting up a temporary community providing all kinds of help for the truckers and supporters, from onsite pizza bakeries to makeshift general stores. Everything is free, shades of the Woodstock Festival spirit.
Even more incredible is in one week the public donated $10 million to a Go Fund Me website for the truckers.
The Go Fund Me administrators, influenced by the Canadian government, put a lock on the $10 million, releasing only $1 million to the convoy planners who the money was donated to, and have announced they will release the remaining $9 million to charities Go Fund Me recognizes. This is absolutely theft and a violation of the public’s right to determine who they decide should receive their hard-earned money. Meanwhile the truckers and their supporters are not leaving Ottawa until the vaccine mandates are lifted. So who here is breaking the law, the truckers using the inalienable rights to assemble and protest; Go Fund Me administrators unlawfully seizing $9 million; or the Canadian government forcing unsafe and unproven vaccines on the general public that don’t work to stop infection or transmission, violating the Nuremberg Code law requirement of informed consent? I say thank God for the truckers of Canada for demonstrating the truths conveyed in the great song by Patti Smith: “People Have The Power.”
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Abortion misnomers
I would like to ad to Martha Pearson’s letter of 2-22-22 regarding her concerns about our traditional respect for life and how we got to a place where the life of an unborn human being has no meaning.
The unquestionable catalyst for explaining our moral deterioration when it comes to the lack of respect for life is the Roe vs.Wade decision in 1973. Unfortunately, five Supreme Court Justices did not have the medical knowledge or moral character to see that they were, in essence, sanctioning murder. Murder, you ask? Yes, because as far as we still know, the taking of an innocent life is defined as murder. And, it’s obvious that none of these five Justices, even for a second, entertained a mental thought of appreciation for their mother not murdering them while they were still in their mother’s womb.
Another reason for this total lack of respect for life is that people rationalize this act of murder when they inappropriately hide behind the convenient phrases of “womens’ health care” and “womens’ reproductive rights.” Both women AND men have health care and reproductive rights. Health care for women AND men involves seeking medical treatment and/or surgery for sicknesses, illnesses, conditions and diseases that threaten their health and well being such as heart disease, cancer, kidney or liver disease, any type of virus, or injuries from accidents, etc. I think we can all agree that an unborn child is not a health condition such as a tumor, disease or malady that requires removal and extinguishment. If women and men do not want an unexpected pregnancy, their reproductive rights afford them the choice of vasectomies and tubal ligations. Again, “reproductive health care” hardly involves the murder of an innocent unborn child.
Another fallacy involves the use of the pro-choice phrase “my body, my choice.” Of course, a woman has the choice to do whatever she wants to HER body, just as a man does. But, we’re not talking about HER body, here. We’re talking about the body of another human being that the woman is carrying that has its own independent genetic code (DNA), finger prints, and other distinctive features that make the unborn baby an entirely different person and body than that of its mother. This unborn child has as much a right to life as its mother was given by her mother.
The pro-choice group routinely cites rape, incest, the health of the mother and known mental and physical defects in the unborn baby as justification for the choice of a legally sanctioned murder. The above situations are referred to as “hard cases.” The eye-opening statistic shows that a mere 3.5% of all murders in the womb are due to the above four categories of “hard cases.” Astonishingly, the other 96.5% of these murders are due to “economic and social reasons.” Of the 96.5% of these economic and social reasons, it’s safe to assume a significant number are due to the social aspect of immoral behavior magnified by the laziness and carelessness of not bothering to use protection. And, why would a woman or man bother with thoughtful and responsible protection when they know their automatic default safeguard is legalized murder, compliments of Roe vs. Wade? No worries for them, they’ll murder their mistake and not lose a beat as they quickly rejoin their partying, bar hopping, and friends with benefits lifestyle.
So, if Roe vs. Wade is significantly altered, state by state, to involve serious restrictions on the ability to murder the unborn, then we can already hear the moaning and complaining as people lament … “oh no, you mean, for the first time, we’re going to have to take total responsibility for our own immoral and careless behavior?”
John N. Butz
Modena
Meteorological apocalypse
The meteorological apocalypse visited upon us this past Friday in Ulster County with its catastrophic collateral ice and snow damage and misery should be a wake-up call to those who deny climate change science and the attendant environmental disasters and crises that we are inflicting on the planet.
The toll of more than 47,000 people losing power (out of more than 90,000 Central Hudson customers) and heat from this ice storm, especially in Ground Zero Ulster County where the City of Kingston declared a State of Emergency, is no surprise to us environmental scientists who have described such storms as examples of “extreme event attribution.” The atmospheric and physical sciences describing the global climate change (anthropogenic global warming) that started back in the Industrial Revolution that initiated greenhouse gas emissions and resultant global temperature rise (1.9 Fahrenheit since 1880) has been documented and attested to by more than 98% of the world’s climate scientists. The cause and effect of increasing atmospheric C02 levels (412 PPM currently) on increasing worldwide air temperatures is not in dispute. The facts of climate change are not in dispute.
The confluence of a slowing jet stream, an unstable polar vortex, warming Atlantic Ocean waters, “stuck weather”, a shifting Gulf Stream (the AM0C Atlantic Meridional Overturn Circulation), melting glaciers worldwide (50% have disappeared since 1900), melting and retreating Antarctic ice shelves and a disappearing frozen Arctic ocean, ocean dead zones, devastating droughts and wildfires, thawing permafrost and ocean acidification are all tied to the direct influence of rising air temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions in the fossil fuel industry, automobiles, fracked gas power plants, emitted methane from cattle ranching and deforestation (tropical rainforests are being cleared at a rate of 150,000 acres a day ) and the degradation and destruction of entire eco-systems with profound biodiversity loss, both terrestrial and marine. It is no idle statement to quote the comic strip character Pogo who said “we have met the enemy and HE is us.”
More powerful hurricanes and tropical cyclones, mega droughts and the negative feedback loops from rising air temperatures are producing a globally and steadily increasing chronic climate destabilization that is only aided and abetted by a mostly supine populace seduced by the fossil fuel companies sly propaganda and largely indifferent, ineffective and inane politicians uttering platitudes and offering no really effective or natural climate change solutions.
Aside from earnest and positive efforts to establish alternative “green energy “ technologies such as wind farms, solar panels, carbon offsets, carbon credits, hydro-or tidal power plants or electrification of the automobile industry to replace our carbon spewing industrial culture — the fact remains that the climate change juggernaut is still gaining on us and threatening to engulf the world in flooded coastlines, ecologically bankrupt eco-systems, agricultural crises, encourage more climate emigration and a tottering worldwide economic system that will be almost incidental to the calamity of the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
We will never arrest the out-of-control climate change locomotive if we don’t first address our own materialistic consumptive habits that have unleashed this climate emergency upon us. To do anything less would be to doom succeeding generations to more of the same kind of environmental suffering that we are enduring now, along with all the living creatures that share this world with us.
Victor C. Capelli
Ulster Park
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