Letters to the editor (4/20/22)

Let’s all settle down

I’m writing to challenge the vitriolic letter written by Marjory Greenberg-Vaughn about the Winston Farm proposed development.

Her insults of the developers say more about her character than theirs. I don’t think she knows or socializes with any of them, so her comments are basically rendered irrelevant.

Mr. Mullen is a local large-scale employer and he is known for being fair, offering living wages and benefits. His construction firm feeds hundreds of local families and has raised many boats. The success of his company also has a ripple effect benefiting our local economy. Wealth in and of itself is not evil. It’s how that wealth is spread which makes a difference. Mr. Mullen is also a local philanthropist who prefers to remain out of the limelight, although his generosity remains well-known.

That aside, Greenberg-Vaughn should be aware that the Winston Farm Alliance worked diligently to exhaust every conceivable means of conserving this land. Sadly, they were unsuccessful. At that time, I believe the sale price was between $8 and $10 million. We did manage to keep it from becoming a dump, the worst thing possible.

Now, perhaps most egregious, are the letter-writer’s assertions that some secret deal was cut for the land’s sale. Nothing is further from the truth. There were numerous public stories – and it was widely known – that the previous landowners have had this property for sale for decades. There have been For Sale signs along 212.

The Snyder Farm also had large For Sale signs along Route 212, and the fact that it was placed on the market was not a secret. In fact, I published an article about the property going on the market.

The community shares legitimate concerns about the development of the Winston Farm and the developers have already conceded that an in-depth environmental review will be undertaken. That review includes numerous opportunities for public input.

Finally, Greenberg-Vaughn asks why many of “us” couldn’t come up with the $3 million that the property was sold for. I don’t see her name on any deeds.

Let’s all settle down, listen cautiously and work with the owners who are our neighbors toward an end result of what is best for Winston Farm and the Town of Saugerties.

Personally, I’m relieved to know that the owners are people I can approach most anywhere in the community and engage in civil discussions about the projections.

Jo Galante Cicale
Saugerties

Apathy=absent democracy=autocracy

This was the wording on a professionally executed banner by Timely Signs in Kingston, and was legally hung on the fence of the Garden Cafe in Woodstock on Maundy Thursday. It lasted one day, before someone stole it.   It was not a directive, but rather a statement to make people stop and think of what is at stake. This is an appeal to whoever took the banner (which I paid for) to return it. What is happening in this community of peace and love?

Ann Jung
Woodstock

Central Hudson strike
We were all concerned when the large corporation Fortis purchased Central Hudson in 2012, but there was no way we could have possibly predicted this shit show. The heinous rate hikes and lack of accountability are beyond belief.

I understand that the price of oil is up and other utilities have raised rates too, but:
1: NOT to this shocking level
2: With the incompetence of missing months of billing (then having the gall to, at times, impose late charges?)
3: Without explanation or rationale

I understand that our elected representatives have called for an investigation and good on them, however, I call For a Central Hudson bill strike. We should ALL boycott paying our electric bills until they stop the madness! Ratepayers united will not be defeated

Tim Hunter
Gardiner

We-ed the People

For the Friendly Village Bongtokers of Woodstock: were the Sixties an exciting, revolutionary, turbulent time of great social and technological change? Was it the best of times or the worst of times? Did America evolve as a nation and we as individuals? Are we better for the experience? We who were there have our own answers, but it is the historians who will write the collective answers for posterity. In any case, for better or worse, this dynamic, controversial, exciting time was our youth, our creation and our legacy. As for me, “I tried raging against society in the ‘60s, but I got a cramp.”

“If the words ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ don’t include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn’t worth the hemp it was written on.” – Terence McKenna.

Anyway, today we celebrate 4:20 on 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty). Are you lighting one up? Extraordinary quantities of “Be here now” are being puffed everywhere. Inhale once and then utter with unabashed playfulness and with attached poifectness, “Holy Cow!”

Golly G, jollity J, ta-ra-ra boom-de-ay! So, take a deep breath, but don’t exhale

Allow the cellular drip

To ripple cerebral waters

It’s now time to set sail

If ya ain’t into smoking a planetary fatty, à la a “bouncing hippie, hippie shake” to honor this moment in time and space, then jus’ weed thru the slang…and instead, gummy a THC-infused one to grateful death or just allow some CBD oil to melt into your pores.

Cannabis is now very much here as our cannabliss culture expands within and we are no longer without it, and yes, the times, they are a-changin’! The impact on weed legalization will be felt in the Hudson Valley with eventual smoking cafés and many dispensaries. They need to legalize it at the federal level/nationwide, too.

Legalize the damn God-given plant across the board – all states, all people (adults), all reasons. So sick of the Reefer Madness garbage. I really hope America catches up to Canada. It’s not just for a high. It is a wonderful natural product with many uses.

There are many benefits of legalizing weed and, in my estimation, they are beyond impressive: benefits from tax revenues, a great agricultural aid for farmers, high employment rates in terms of job opportunities (could boost economic growth by providing new jobs in the industry and generating taxes that will help the country’s ailing economic condition) and of course, tremendous health benefits. Legalizing recreational marijuana could provide better access to the drug (and more affordable prices) for patients who use it for medical purposes.

I don’t even smoke weed; however, if you don’t let weed control your life, I see no problem. Do you? When I’m dead and gone, it’ll probably be available at Dollar General.

Don’t turn back the clock. Don’t try to weaken public support for legalization by spreading misinformation about so-called “marijuana threats.” Its time has arrived. So, until national law welcomes it everywhere, “Turn on, tune in” and support this new industry however you want – which in fact could just be with “two big thumbs up,” and in the Zen tradition that is known as the “School of Crazy Wisdom,” and to our Mary Jane users, grin and wink a lot (wisdom beyond wisdom). And of course, t’all, peacefulness always!

Neil Jarmel
West Hurley

Worth the gamble?

If you are crazy enough to buy a toxic waste site, first you get the seller to remediate it and then you decide if your exposure to the possible future liabilities is worth the gamble. 

Not the present Woodstock Library Board because their plan is to buy the site of the past Model Optics, which was contaminated with arsenic, lead and other poisons and was never remediated! And to add to this insanity, they want to buy the property, as is, and assume the liability of cleaning it up. Well the liability isn’t really theirs — the cost falls on the shoulders of the Woodstock taxpayers! My guess as a licensed professional engineer, who is familiar with water quality, remediation and the time factor is in the $millions and the time to correct the problem is many years, maybe decades.

The Woodstock Library Board is playing a very dangerous game here by holding back, until the very last minute of what they know. I’ve owned property in Woodstock for 50 years and during that time, the Library Board has deceived the people in our community. They complain that the existing building is unsafe, the HVAC system is inadequate, there’s mold, water in the basement, structural problems and that the building needs to be demolished and rebuilt. That was last year before they came up with this hair-brained pipedream to buy the toxic waste site!

What they don’t tell you is that the budget last year was almost $700,000 and that the line item for building maintenance was — wait for it — $17,000, about 2% of the budget. No wonder the building is falling down. They’re spending all of our money on architects and building renderings and excessive salaries, instead of fixing up the building for our children.

The Library Board is incompetent and they should all resign.

One last word of warning: The report concerning the presence of toxic waste at this site is about ten years old and nothing has been done to remediate the present condition. What has Bill McKenna, the supervisor of Woodstock done to protect the aquifer of the Woodstock Water District? The wells that supply this system are downstream of this toxic plume! The clock is ticking!

Vote no on May 10. 

Joseph Doan
Woodstock

Vote no on the Woodstock Library bond vote

As a child growing up in Woodstock, I loved the Library. It was a warm cozy place full of interesting things and I could walk to it or ride my bike. The Library Fair was my favorite event of the year. Looking at it now, I see the Library as an integral part of what makes Woodstock special.

Now they want to move the library, at great expense, to an ugly commercial building well out of Town down this pedestrian and bicyclist-unfriendly road! I really can’t quite believe it.

A vote no on the bond issue May 10 is a vote for Woodstock and its Library.

Peter Koch
Woodstock

Become climate heroes

Winston Farm — it’s about more than (highly theoretical) benefits to the local economy, it’s about more than a potential threat to the aquifer. Much more research can and will be done to distinguish fact from fiction in these areas.

The bigger picture tells us that we have a much bigger choice to make. Many think the climate emergency is happening somewhere else, that the destruction of land that operates as a carbon sink (pulling carbon from the air and storing it in vegetation and soil) isn’t connected to our little town. But we can choose right here, right now, to preserve these 800 acres as a carbon sink instead of turning it into a carbon emitter by developing it.

Winston Farm isn’t the Amazon rainforest, but hundreds of thousands of properties just like it around the world add up. We are calling on you, Mssrs. Monsanto, Richer and Mullen, to become climate heroes by withdrawing your proposals for development, instead preserving Winston Farm in perpetuity either as a wild area or as a (regenerative) farm, contributing to the slowing of global warming that is the most desperate requirement of our imperiled planet right now. If you can’t let go of your acknowledged “right” to a return on your investment (and there’s a lot to say about that cultural article of faith), then at the very most, build the most amazing ecological village that contemporary design can come up with.

I know that my proposal will be received with ridicule by those who will call it “impractical” and call for compromises that will leave “business as usual” in place. But the climate emergency is becoming extreme and my proposal is, in fact, the only way to move in a direction that will mitigate it. In fact, I don’t know what the reason that the current proposal for commercial/residential development leaves half of Winston Farm undeveloped is, but I can’t help but think that it’s a nod to the fact that we don’t live in the same world we lived in 40 years ago and we can’t carry on with business as usual with the same abandon.

So give some serious thought to taking the high road here. Your children and grandchildren (and ours) will bless you for doing what you can to bequeath to them a livable planet instead of a further degraded one, and a larger inheritance won’t buy back what will be destroyed by current proposals for development of Winston Farm. I call upon you to set an example to other men of substance who wish to benefit their communities in the long term by preserving what’s left of nature’s capacity to heal and allow our civilization and species to continue.

Janet Asiain
Saugerties

Supervising 101

The Woodstock Volunteer Handbook states: “Volunteerism is the heartbeat of a community. Its citizens could not maintain the character of our town without much selfless contribution of time and effort. We – and Woodstock – are grateful for your interest and involvement.”

When individuals step up to the plate to volunteer, no interim politician should think they have the right to publicly berate them. Civility dictates that if you have an issue with a volunteer, or anyone else for that matter, it should be done in private.

Howard Harris
Woodstock

Earth Day

This Earth Day, let’s take a moment to notice the impacts of climate change on our own local area. The recent heavy rainfall and flooding here in the Hudson Valley are part of a larger trend. The Northeast has seen a greater increase in extreme precipitation than any other US region. And we’ve experienced more than a 70 percent increase in the amount of precipitation falling in “very heavy events” between 1958 and 2010. The frequency of these heavy downpours is projected to continue to increase over the remainder of the century (NOAA, https://toolkit.climate.gov).

We have the knowledge and technology necessary to transition away from the fossil fuels that cause most climate change. All that’s missing is enough public pressure to cause our elected officials to take serious and quick action. Check out the site of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, or other such organizations, for tools to take part in applying that public pressure. Be part of the solution this Earth Day!

Rachelle Gura
Woodstock

One thing led to another

When COVID stopped killing people, Putin started.

Sparrow
Phoenicia

Kudos for Tara Arthurs

During National Volunteer Week, I would like to acknowledge Tara Arthurs of Kingston for her exceptional service to the Alzheimer’s Association Hudson Valley Chapter.

For six years, Tara has been a part of the Dutchess/Ulster Walk to End Alzheimer’s. In 2017, Tara joined the Walk Planning Committee as advocacy chair, started her family Walk Team, Henry’s Walk to Remember, and started a team from her workplace, United Healthcare. She has served as a committee member ever since.

Tara became the event chair in 2019 and still holds that position. Without volunteers like Tara, we would not be able to accomplish our mission of raising funds and awareness to end Alzheimer’s and all dementia. We are so grateful for all that our volunteers like Tara do to advance our case.

Tina Eckert
Manager, Dutchess/Ulster Walk to End Alzheimer’s

Background to Social Security

Previously, I discussed the Social Security that all seniors are drawing in monthly benefits, paid for by donations over a period of years. It was also mentioned in the last line of the pervious letter: Pay attention to what the Republicans are attempting to do. “What does this mean?”

This letter addresses the background to the rise of Social Security. One of the Reconstruction Acts was the 14^th Amendment of 1866. This granted equal rights for all persons, but was pushed through Congress as a tax dodge for the states, and the word “person” was to include “artificial entities” – i.e., corporations. In the year 1886, the Supreme Court in the decision Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad laid the foundation of corporate personhood and established the precedence of corporate prerogatives over citizen rights. From this time on, America is being manipulated and run by these corporations. Let’s take a look the presidents since that time.

From this decision up until Franklin Delano Roosevelt, there have been ten presidents, seven of them Republican. These seven Republicans were all of the same mind that the federal government should stay out of the affairs of the states. The federal government was business-oriented only, although some of these men were more progressive in their outlook: Theodore Roosevelt, William McKinley and Calvin Coolidge. These seven Republican presidents were all business and did little to address any social concerns of the states, with some exceptions.

The “Roaring Twenties” were a loosening of the pent-up frustration once World War I was over. It was a time to live and enjoy after these hard years. This led to a surging economy, mass consumerism, Prohibition, organized crime. But there were also weaknesses in the market, particularly the banking industry, leading to the Great Depression.

Enter Herbert Clark Hoover, the 31^st POTUS. He followed the Republican line. The federal government had no business in the social affairs of the country. Business was the driving force and only business. By the time of Hoover’s first term, the Depression had worsened, with millions out of work. The feeling was to support Roosevelt or else the midterm elections would witness Republicans being booted out of office. Thus, FDR was elected for his first term in 1933. With his election, he introduced numerous social projects, one of which was the Social Security Act, August of 1935 (87 years old, August of 2022).

The Republicans hated these liberal social programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (57 years old, July 2022). Donald Trump was the first Republican POTUS since Herbert Hoover who actively will do something about these social programs, if given a chance. That is why the 2022 midterm elections this November is a crucial election for the seniors in this country. Because if the Congress goes Republican again, Trump will run once again for reelection. And if he wins, there are big changes coming toward our benefits.

This is not just my opinion. It is my opinion based upon fact, which I just briefly stated some background here. For any “oldie” reading this, I could care less what party affiliation you belong to or whether you belong to one or not. It’s none of my business. But what is my business is me protecting my interests. By my sharing my concerns, perhaps, just perhaps, you might realize that if Trump is reelected with a full chamber of Congress, you will also see a way of life for the last 86 and 57 years go by the wayside.

More will be said about the importance of this midterm election in another Letter to the Editor.

Robert LaPolt
News Paltz

Mother knows best

In literature, light and darkness are often used as metaphors for good and evil, as well as to designate the way reality is perceived, with darkness suggesting ignorance, evil and unhappiness and light signifying knowledge, purity and happiness. With this in mind, the following is inspired by the influence that propaganda has in forming perceptions of “light and darkness” and offers a warning from the Gospel of Luke in this regard: “Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness.” It works best to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma…I’m Only Bleeding.” (Note: Last week I referred to Myron Rothberg in my letter. It was a mistake I didn’t notice. It should have been Meyer Rothberg. My apologies to Meyer.)

Bright light piercing the light of noon

Rulers say reach for the moon

While leading us into a swoon

The song they sing’s a broken tune

Our political systems seem near ruin

And people now are looking for a savior

Politicians think power is theirs to take

But power gained can expose the fake

Politicians’ false promises are hard to shake

But to rulers wanting new plans to make

It would be good for all humanity’s sake

If they were wise enough to be humble

(Bridge)

And you might fear if you hear

Propaganda in your ear

But it’s alright Ma

You know it’s phony

Freedom’s choices begin to die

When truth is buried beneath the lie

That opposing voices are just the cry

Of racist minds who seek to defy

Narratives of those who justify

Their false view that all they do or try

Always serves equality and fairness

All who have a passion hold heads up high

Though passion can be a soul’s vain cry

To change the world many want to try

Beware of change based on the lie

That human greed can be forced to die

Through wealth being “fairly” allotted

Some seek ends to justify their means

Their goal is never what it seems

So many speak through political memes

‘Cos now there are so many teams

Who want us to believe political dreams

But sometimes a dream can be a nightmare

(Bridge)

And if your dream is filled with lies

About God and man don’t criticize those

Who think your dream is worthless

While some imagine no heaven above the skies

Others pave hell’s path with impressive alibis

While false teachers fill our heads with lies

God’s existence is mocked, religion criticized

A virus reminds us everyone dies

But after death we hope there is no judgment

Bright light shining at midday

Caused a man to lose his sight and pray

He realized his dreams had gone astray

For the truths he held had missed the way

And this midday light caused this man to say

Sometimes truth is only revealed in darkness

(Bridge)

To unite the whole world

There is a cost and if the price is truth

That’s lost; you always taught me Ma

Unity’s not worth it

George Civile
Gardiner

We are back!

It is with delight that St. Gregory’s Church announces the return of the Young Artists’ Series after a two-year absence due to COVID. The series presents students from the Juilliard School of Music who are delighted to perform here in Woodstock. The first concert is April 24 at 3 p.m. at St Gregory’s Church and features a classical guitarist, a violinist and a cellist.

Please let us give the students a welcome return to a venue they appreciate performing in. Free concert, but donations accepted. An afternoon not to be missed.

Marie Duane
Woodstock

Joyce empathizes with the wrong group

Joyce Benedict’s heart goes out to all women, today. But apparently she has no room in her heart for the tens of millions of murdered innocent human beings in the womb, ever since Roe vs. Wade legalized these murders 49 years ago. She asks: “when will the abuse of women end,” yet isn’t concerned, at all, with when the abuse of murdered unborn children will end. And we all know that murder is simply defined as the taking of an innocent life.

As a former counselor, she recalls “endless” horror stories from what women have had to put up with in the bedroom, but forgot to mention how many women, who chose to murder their unborn children, needed Joyce’s counseling to help overcome their tremendous guilt and psychological damage after realizing they had made a huge immoral mistake.

As I pointed out in my letter of 2-7-22 to Martha Pearson, the number of murders attributed to rape (only 1.5%), the possible loss of life of the mother, incest and known mental/physical defects in the unborn baby account for only 3.5% of all murders. A conservative estimate of annual murders is 1,000,000. The other 96.5% are attributed to “social and economic reasons.” No doubt, the vast majority of the 96.5% of murders are due to the “social” aspect of immoral behavior magnified by the laziness and carelessness of not bothering to use protection when the women and men involved know that their automatic default safeguard, for their unwanted pregnancies, is legalized murder. Joyce’s examples of pregnancies involved in the “horror” stories from former clients would likely represent even a far more insignificant number than the already low numbers of pregnancies resulting from the four situations previously mentioned above.

And the reference to murdered animals in comparison to murdered unborn children is an apples-to-oranges comparison and has nothing to do with her assertion of “hypocrisy.” She says women are punished for wanting to be “rid of ‘some tissue’ in the early stages.” This terminology was probably very similar to the mentality “pondered” by the five Supreme Court Justices who obviously didn’t know when life begins.

A solution even greater and more attention grabbing than Joyce’s “compromise” … a wakeup call for men who irresponsibly father unwanted babies, especially in hit-and-run scenarios, would be to assess child support payments and even garnish part of their wages if they refused to pay ordered child support. A wakeup call for women who, likewise, exercise careless, immoral and thoughtless self control in bringing about an unwanted pregnancy be required to bring the baby to term and immediately put it up for adoption. These measures could be serious deterrents to the ongoing cavalier and nonchalant attitude of “Roe vs. Wade will take care of our mistake.” Experts say that there are about 1,000,000 couples, per year, who would love to adopt.

Joyce is absolutely correct with her statement that “abortion shouldn’t be allowed as a birth control device.” Yet, this is EXACTLY how it’s been used in at least 965,000 annual murders (the 96.5% statistic), thanks to five extremely shortsighted if not immoral and conscienceless Supreme Court Justices.

John N. Butz
Modena

Voters beware!

The bond vote proposed to Woodstock voters on May 10 at the Community Center is being brought before the townspeople without adequate preparation. 

This vote is being pushed by the Library Trustees and the Town Board too quickly. These boards do not have all the facts and answers to the public’s questions. I asked about environmental issues regarding the proposed new library building (10 Dixon Avenue) site and while the current report on the toxins is not ready, the 2012 report said there were serious issues of toxins in the ground — over the regulated allowed amounts. This area is where the aquifer is located for the town’s water supply. Will these toxins pollute our water? Who will foot the bill if remediation of the site is needed? How come the community didn’t see the report months ago?

Lack of preparation?

The bond is for millions of dollars — taxpayer dollars. What will be the increased dollar amount to the taxpayer? No one knows. The Library Trustees don’t even know what the percentage rate of the bond will be.

Lack of preparation?

The new building site is located in an Industrial zone where zoning laws do not allow libraries. The boards believe the zoning illegality will be addressed AFTER the bond vote! The public’s zoning concerns should have been addressed months prior to the bond vote, but there has been no such meeting.

Lack of preparation?

The Board of Elections doesn’t have the wording for the bond vote ballot yet and it would still need to be approved for typos, printed and then absentee ballots mailed. Shouldn’t the voters know what the bond vote wording will be on the ballot? By the time this letter is printed, the vote will be two weeks away.

Lack of preparation?

The proposed site is over a mile away (1.4 miles) from the current location (center of town) and there are no sidewalks to easily walk to the new site. The patrons have not received an answer yet as to how the library will address their concerns.

Lack of preparation?

What will happen to the current historic library? Will it be torn down? If sold, shouldn’t the money be applied to lower the bond amount? The public wants to know.

Lack of preparation?

Many, many more issues need to be addressed and should have been months ago. Be informed.

The Town Board and the Library Trustees need to slow down and hold off on the vote. Neither board is prepared, nor is the public. 

Let’s force the Town Board and the Library Trustees to postpone the bond vote. It is imperative to Vote NO! until all of our questions and concerns are addressed to our satisfaction.

Natalie Cyr
Woodstock

Recycling in an apartment

My wife and I recently downsized from a house in the town to an apartment in the village. We love the new lifestyle, but we do have concerns about the ability — or lack of ability — to recycle effectively. Forget about composting, which is prohibited or severely restricted in most apartment complexes. The so-called recycling dumpsters are available for cardboard, paper, metal, glass and plastic. But I have serious doubts about how effective single-stream recycling can be and I suspect much of this is ending up in a landfill somewhere in Western New York.

But there is an alternative available for New Paltz apartment dwellers as well as homeowners who use a waste service. The New Paltz ReUse and Recycling Center (aka Transfer Station) is located on Clearwater Road and offers an annual permit for town residents for $35. They provide separate recycling for paper, cardboard, glass and plastic/metal. You can also drop off your kitchen compost so you can keep that out of the trash cycle. There are no additional fees for recycling and compost. I realize this might be considered a luxury expense for some, but for those who can afford it, it is a great way to reduce your trash footprint. 

Phil Bishop
New Paltz

Confluence of emotions

Where I live, two rivers join, the Rondout and the Wallkill. As a kid, I swam near their confluence. So I’ve been reading about the human history of these rivers joining the Hudson River. Native Americans had settled on their shores. The Dutch journeyed up the Hudson, liked the river and surrounding lands and started a war with the native tribes.

I use the metaphor of confluence because I am feeling rivers of emotion joining in me. Feelings from the river of deaths from COVID joining with the casualties from the war in Ukraine have stirred my memories of being a Marine helicopter gunner in Vietnam expecting never to return home. 

After the Vietnam war, I met Susann, an astrologer. She read my horoscope and told me about Saturn’s return. She said that Saturn would orbit through the entire astrological chart every 30 years, returning me to the same issues I was dealing with: how to digest what the war did to me so that I could make a life.

I am in my seventies now and unsure if any of what Susann told me then was accurate. But I have no other framework to explain why the emotional rivers of Vietnam and COVID and the War in Ukraine are in confluence inside me. Since then, I have learned my emotions and feelings don’t fit into the scientific boxes that the VA attempted to put them in. Science requires solid facts as its underpinnings. So, I’ll use Susann’s model of Saturn’s returning for understanding my emotional, spiritual and psychological selves as they float like boats upon these rivers with only small anchors at the ends of ropes.

I was recently sitting in my truck in the Vassar Hospital parking lot overlooking the Hudson River waiting for my wife to return from an appointment. I had the windows open and a chopper flew directly over me, landing atop the hospital. The sound of chopper blades emotionally jettisoned me back to Nam medivacing Marines out of the jungle. I heard myself pray for the patient being flown in for help. My mind then freewheeled to last night’s TV news of the war in Ukraine. I left my body and felt myself looking down at the world for a moment. I saw each country as an organ of the living Earth. The world’s heart, liver, brain and lungs, all its organs, were struggling with the illness of war.

When I returned, I thought we “can’t see the forest through the trees.” But instead, we refuse to see those we kill are replicas of us. So Susann’s Saturn may return and find no living humans to work through the issues they avoided. 

Two years ago, when I brought my dear friend Jake to this hospital, I was helping him across the parking lot when he saw a parked car’s front tire was low. Jake said, “Let me get the plate number. I’ll tell them at the desk to find the owner.” Jake soon passed. Remembering Jake’s small act of kindness stilled the troubled waters in me.

Where do your rivers of emotion confluence? Let us all hope to find the “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.”

Larry Winters
New Paltz

Doctors

Phone your doctor/ask your doctor/tell your doctor: “How long are you, doc willing to wait on “hold?”
A must salute to my comedy heroes lost this week: R.I.P. George Costanza’s mom Estelle Harris, Jerry Seinfeld’s mom Liz Sheridan and George Carlin’s bro Patrick and Gilbert Gottfried.

Gladys Q. Flitchnick
Ulster Park

Mini Earth Day fair and concert 

Come join us to celebrate the free, Earth Day fair and concert which will be held on the grounds of the Reformed Church of New Paltz, Huguenot Street on Saturday, April 23, rain or shine, from noon until 3 p.m.
Church bells will ring at noon. At 1 p.m. the combined Rosendale Improvement Association Band and Social Club and Tin Horn Uprising will get you up and moving. At 2 p.m. Betty and the Baby Boomers will keep you singing and grooving.

International flags will fly high in bright colors along Huguenot Street, emphasizing that the climate crisis is of global importance and what each of us contributes will impact all of us in the world for future generations to come.

There will be a sampling of engaging informational tables, a tree walk, some surprises and many environmental messages along the Rail Trail, all focused on paying homage to our fragile earthly habitat and the urgent need to protect and nurture it NOW, on so many levels, before time runs out.
Each year, for 20 years, except for 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, the fair has been promoting this important message again and again. Each Spring, hundreds of individuals, groups and visitors have intermingled at the Reformed Church in serious yet fun and joyous festivities acknowledging Mother Earth. While this year’s event will not be the blow-out bash we had hoped because unfortunately, Covid persists, we are sure to have a lovely afternoon with lots to learn and to enjoy.

So, wear your masks, keep socially distant, bring your own picnic lunch, learn about tiffins and how to order your own and join us in a delightful afternoon of toe-tapping music as we pay tribute to our Earth.
Thanks to all the wonderful friends and volunteers of New Paltz Climate Action Coalition, New Paltz Interfaith Earth Action, New Paltz Climate Smart Task Force and the members of the Reformed Church of New Paltz for all their behind-the-scenes efforts for this event and over the past two decades.

Janet and Jim O’Dowd
New Paltz

No water!

If at first you don’t succeed, try again, but with some changes. I have written before about droughts. A wonderful city in New Mexico had 240 houses burn to the ground this week due to drought. It didn’t get much coverage — a lot is going on in the world. 

I sincerely believe that New Paltz, which draws much of its water from the NYC aqueduct is going to suffer from a serious drought, perhaps for years, and the city will cut us off to protect the supply for city residents.

Droughts are a long-known part of climate change. Droughts today are making life very hard in several parts of the world, and my fear is that a lot sooner than a rising ocean causes all of humanity any harm, folks around here are going to suffer from Mother Nature’s wicked habit of changing rain patterns and my town is very unprepared. Sadly, all of the coverage area of Hudson Valley One and beyond will be in the same distress.

Reservoirs are ways to bank some of the wretched floods we just endured, like savings can help during a financial rough patch. The time to build for a highly probable nasty drought is long before it happens. Please consider building large ponds throughout the area.

“Attention must be paid,” ranted Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.

If you think that droughts don’t happen in the Hudson Valley, I don’t think you understand the realities of climate change. Does it matter that Arthur Miller did not understand the life of a salesman? Actually, it does, at least to me.

Paul Nathe
New Paltz 

Good people helping good people

There are a few places in town that seem to really respect the single mother who gets little to no child support — mentally as well as physically. They might not say it, but it is my belief that everyone should have good support such as a good vacuum that really sucks because with small or large children, you need to have a real clean home. It’s just healthy and also mediation and unwinding time to be a better person and to let your body calm down.

I have several friends who are single mothers and some get a fair amount of child support and some don’t get enough. I have one friend who is a saint, raising six children. Two are in college, one is in high school and the rest are in middle and elementary school. She hasn’t received any child support in years and then all of a sudden her ex sends her $620 a month. For three kids? As a parent, we want our kids to have nice clothes, piano lessons, good shoes. Like I said before, even a good vacuum costs all your blood. It is just too much for one parent, and she never says one bad thing about her ex to the children. She is just too good. I feel for her. She really bites the bullet. She knows she just has to do her best with what she has or it would really eat at her. She needs a break!

Well I would love to tell her and anyone else in her shoes that there is a fine woman who gives free baby clothes away at her thrift shop Free to Thrift, located at 1050 Mortan Boulevard. Clothes for your family that you could spend that small child support check on and get everyone clothes. This is a sign that people can see you struggling momma! And on Greenkill Avenue, Zephyr Float has a service you pay forward a float…there is hope to get some rest and reenergize your body and soul.

Don’t give up momma, there is wonderfulness out there! Companies and people who see you.

Donations are gladly accepted at these Kingston locations. Good people helping good people.

Sasha SUN
Kingston