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.
Letter guidelines:
Hudson Valley One welcomes letters from its readers. Letters should be fewer than 300 words and submitted by noon on Monday. Our policy is to print as many letters to the editor as possible. As with all print publications, available space is determined by ads sold. If there is insufficient space in a given issue, letters will be approved based on established content standards. Points of View will also run at our discretion.
Although Hudson Valley One does not specifically limit the number of letters a reader can submit per month, the publication of letters written by frequent correspondents may be delayed to make room for less-often-heard voices, but they will all appear on our website at hudsonvalleyone.com. All letters should be signed and include the author’s address and telephone number.
When it touches the unfathomable
There once was a world so vast,
Where humanity’s limits were surpassed.
The emptiness and cruelty,
Of the global community,
Left us all feeling aghast.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
A golden opportunity
Rather than reducing the occupancy tax that funds the Ulster County Affordable Housing Initiative, I hope the legislators who support this bad idea will recognize there’s another way to react: embrace it, promote it and take pride in it.
The initiative is a golden opportunity for good PR for the county and local resort owners. Place an explanation of the tax on the bill and proclaim: “Our establishment recognizes the severity of the housing crisis in Ulster County. This fee goes directly to our County Affordable Housing Initiative. We are grateful to our guests for helping provide housing security for the people who need it most.”
I think anyone who can afford to stay in one of our county’s high-end resorts would be happy to contribute if they understand where the money is going.
Kitty Brown
New Paltz
Fun live auction for Woodstock Library
On Sunday April 7 at 1 p.m., there will be a good old-fashioned live auction at Woodstock Town Hall at 76 Tinker Street. The auction will be conducted by renowned auctioneer James Cox to benefit the 10 Dixon Avenue renovation fund for the beautiful new Woodstock Library.
Woodstockers have generously donated over 150 items including art, antiques, jewelry, furniture and services. One hundred percent of the hammer price goes to the library’s capital fund. There is no buyer’s premium. The full catalog is available at www.10dixonave.org/benefit-auction.
You can preview the items in person at town hall at a free family-friendly reception on Friday April 5 from 5 to 8 p.m. or on Saturday April 6 from noon to 5 p.m.
There is no online or phone bidding, but you can leave a bid when you preview in person.
Look forward to seeing you on Sunday!
Dorothea Marcus
Woodstock
Stacking the deck
Why didn’t McKenna have an ad put in the local newspaper advertising for board vacancies before some of them were filled? Is he that much of a control freak?
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Any takers?
I mindlessly said I was sorry to a good friend of mine last week after I misheard something he had said. To my automatic response he retorted: Put your sorrows in a jar and give them to someone who needs them!
I thought for a long moment. Does this mean I should seek out someone who’s too happy and drop the jar off to them?
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
In response to your “How green is my fleet” article
Please stop referring to electric vehicles (EVs) as “zero emissions.” I realize that it is a common term, however, it is false and misleading. Vehicle tire and brake dust, which are emissions, are a leading source of microplastics, which have been linked to a myriad of negative outcomes including cancer, heart, lung, developmental, reproductive problems. Tire emissions also have killed off many salmon and other wildlife. And in fact, EVs produce even more tire emissions due to their increased weight and torque.
In addition, vehicles cause 43,000 deaths annually in this country, which EVs will do nothing to change. Their danger inhibits the adoption of far greener forms of transportation such as walking and cycling. And, they encourage sprawl which destroys farmland and habitats, and also inhibits greener forms of transport.
I am 100% for transitioning to electric vehicles, seeing as our planet is in immediate peril due to fossil fuels, but let’s not kid ourselves — EVs are still pretty bad for the environment.
Ella Kondrat
New Paltz
Trump Media: JATS
Trump Media opened on the Nasdaq on March 26. By the end of the day, it surged from smoke-and-mirrors status to an estimated market value of $8 billion (also S&M), and since the Former Guy owns 60 percent of the company, his paper net worth increased by more than $6 billion just by doing nothing. An overnight $6B means he’s made out even better than his son-in-law Jared Kushner who, six months after he left the White House, walked away with Saudi dollars to the tune of a mere two billion.
Constrained by journalistic convention, the Times soberly writes: “By most traditional measures, Trump Media’s valuation is inordinately high. The company took in just $3.3 million in revenue during the first nine months of last year, all from advertising on Truth Social, and recorded a loss of $49 million. That means Trump Media’s market value is more than 1,000 times its estimated annual revenue.” Translation: a definite Potemkin village investment vehicle.
The real question: Is Trump Media more like Trump Steaks, Trump University, or Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal? Let’s just call it JATS (Just Another Trump Scam): create headlines and lure the credulous to a lemming leap off the cliff.
When the latest Ponzi scheme crashes and the gold ingots melt into penny stocks, Trump will pocket the money he needs, leaving small investors in the cold. Cults of personality work that way. They’ll still love him.
In what the chess world would call a brilliancy, Trump and his handlers anticipated a cash-crunch due to court judgments and leveraged a cash grubstake out of thin air, if he’s able to cash out at the right time. The question is where this cash is coming from.
The real concern are the investments from overseas. Trump’s indebtedness makes him prey to adversaries like Russia, China and Iran. If he didn’t live on Olympus, Trump would be denied a security clearance. (Baby Jared couldn’t get a clearance until daddy-in-law intervened.) Yet many Americans seem poised to return such a vulnerable individual to the White House. In exchange for cloaked investments, foreign investors will demand quid pro quos. Just ask Vladimir Putin. Or look at pro-Trump Newsmax: the Washington Post reports a $50M Newsmax investment by members of the Qatari royal family. Newsmax, owned by Trump FWB Christopher Ruddy, is worth only $100-200M.
WaPo reports, “Before and after [the] investment, the outlet’s top editorial brass urged staff to soften on-air coverage of Qatar, including by avoiding discussion of the nation’s human rights record and treatment of migrant labor ahead of hosting the World Cup in 2022.” One staffer said, “We were not allowed to criticize Qatar.”
Americans will see through this. Loser Trump is going to lose the election. Biden will win.
Democrats, have you cast your primary vote for Joe Biden? Do it now!
William Weinstein
New Paltz
Better off now
Former President Trump recently asked us if we were better off four years ago than we are today. Does he really want to go there? Hard to believe.
Four years ago we feared for our lives as the pandemic killed thousands each day. Trump originally assured us that the danger would pass in a matter of weeks. At one point he asked if injecting bleach could cure Covid. He frequently contradicted his own public health experts.
The death toll soared as hospitals were overwhelmed. Families “visited” their relatives in nursing homes by standing outside their windows. Body bags were stored in refrigerated trucks.
Unemployment soared, the stock market plummeted, supplies disappeared from store shelves. (Remember the panic buying of toilet paper?) A major recession was predicted.
But on January 20, 2021, President Biden took the reins. Immediately, the effort to vaccinate the population ramped up and began to impact daily hospitalizations and deaths. The American Rescue Plan addressed the economic effects of the pandemic and we received direct payments to help us through. Families received increased child tax credits. Cities, towns and schools got monies to offset the costs of dealing with the health emergency.
Instead of the predicted recession, our economy is flourishing. Inflation is coming down, unemployment is low, wages are up, more people have health insurance, the stock market has record highs. We have begun to address repair of our neglected infrastructure. Instead of a recession, a soft landing.
So yes, my fellow citizens, ask yourself when we were better off.
Kathy Gordon
Saugerties
Setting the record straight
Regarding the letter to the editor by Mr. Harv Hilowitz representing the Jewish Federation of Ulster County.
Mr. Hilowitz asserts that no town resolution, be it “Saugerties, Gardiner, Beacon, Kingston and other local governments … has any standing whatsoever regarding American foreign policy”. Mr. Hilowitz apparently misunderstands local “memorializing resolutions” function to inform powers outside the local municipalities, such as the New York State and Federal governments, of the will of the local councils and urge them to act on any issue with the local governments in mind. Contrary to Mr. Hilowitz’s misguided assertion, all towns have “standing” to try to persuade outside governments on any issue, including foreign policy. Mr. Hilowitz’s letter accuses the aforementioned towns of being “narcissistic,” “publicity seeking” “Hamas apologists” and that they ”give succor to actual terrorists.” All this for wanting a permanent ceasefire and an end to what most of the world now acknowledges, Israel is committing genocide (https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/middleeast/israel-committing-genocidein-gaza-un-rights-expert-says-intl/index.html).
Compassionate people with a heart, not “narcissistic,” see it and want the horror to stop, thus town resolutions being enacted all over the US demanding a ceasefire now. Mr. Hilowitz apparently himself “intellectually lazy,” regarding international law, fails to understand that Israel being a member of the Genocide Convention since 1950, has no right to commit genocide for any reason, period, full stop, no exceptions, or that Israel purposely starving and dehydrating 1.5 million innocent civilians, is not in any shape or form, “self defense.” International law protects civilians by prohibiting such inhumane treatment (Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Convention; Article 51 of the conventions’ Protocol I; Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court).
Therefore, International Law most definitely applies to Israel, albeit what the Jewish Federation of Ulster County erroneously declares through its defiant proxy, Mr. Hilowitz.
Regarding my last letter about me totaling my car off of West Saugerties Road last week, having gotten over the shock of what happened, and for the sake of accuracy, I went back to the accident site and measured the ravine to be 20 feet below the grade of the road, the height of a two-story house. I also went to the towing place and was informed that it took two trucks to get my car out of that steep ravine. I inspected my car there and saw that every part of the car was dented in and the frame twisted.
Inside the car was a solid cinder block, a ten pound sledge hammer and a heavy metal box with sharp corners, that all seemed to miss me when everything was flying around as it rolled down the ravine. In spite of losing a car in a shocking event, nevertheless I am left with a solid attitude of gratitude.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Sarahana Shrestha is for folks like us
After watching an hour of Sarahana Shrestha present on the NYS budget, (https://vimeo.com/926351295?link_id=3&can_id=f338a837de04836878a6d8840989cb25&source=email-recording-mass-call-on-assembly-one-house-budget-proposal&email_referrer=email_2254693&email_subject=_-recording-mass-call-on-assembly-one-house-budget-proposal), I was much impressed by her grasp of this complicated subject and in total agreement with her suggestions and sponsored/co-sponsored legislation initiatives. She is a true Democrat and not too far left as some critics, largely real estate developers, have claimed because of her support for “Good Cause Eviction,” denying landlords the right to evict tenants in order to get higher rents. If the video or the link is too long for you, I suggest you look at her website https://sarahanaforassembly.com/ and you will see that she advocates on issues that you will agree with. She is clearly for folks like us and NOT for the super wealthy or greedy corporations who avoid paying their fair share of taxes.
Meyer Rothberg
Saugerties
Lying and criming
For eight years, billions of potentially productive hours have been wasted because we spent all that time being preoccupied by the filth, the lies, the third-grade insults spewed by MAGA DON on a daily basis. A lengthy jail sentence is the only just remedy. MAHA (Make America Hurl Again!)
Wolf Böhm
Gardiner
Hark, fair citizens!
Written by Chatbot GPT in the style of Shakespeare
Hark, fair citizens, lend thy ears to my humble plea, penned with quill and ink, amidst the tumult of our modern age. ‘Tis a grievance that plagues our lands, a scourge that fouls our pristine shores and tarnishes nature’s noble visage: the blight of plastic pollution.
O, how our once verdant fields and crystal streams now suffer beneath the weight of man’s folly! The seas, once teeming with life’s vibrant dance, now choke on the detritus of our heedless consumption. The air itself bears witness to our folly, as plastic particles drift like malevolent spirits, haunting the very breath we draw.
Yet fear not, for there exists a beacon of hope amidst this shadowed gloom! A call to action echoes through the hallowed halls of governance, where assembly speaker Carl Heastie and senate majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins hold sway. They are the stewards of our collective destiny, entrusted with the solemn duty to safeguard our realm from impending doom.
Thus, I beseech thee, noble scribes of the press, to raise thy voices in unison with mine own. Let us implore our esteemed leaders to heed the clarion call of history and bring forth the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act unto the floor for a vote in the month of April.
For in this legislation lies the promise of redemption, the chance to stem the tide of plastic’s inexorable advance. Let us seize this opportunity with fervent resolve, for the fate of generations yet unborn hangs in the balance.
With pen in hand and hope in heart, I remain, ever vigilant in our shared quest for a brighter tomorrow.
Yours in steadfast conviction,
Edith Bolt
Saugerties
Fund our schools
Public schools are hubs in their communities. They are filled with adults who support student growth and needs. Everyday. The future of public education rests on all of us providing not just adequate, but generous funding and support.
It requires sufficient staffing, support and quality instruction which means more funding based on the student needs and not merely the student enrollment numbers. Lower student enrollment does not equate to less student needs, be it academic, social or emotional. Often the state provides school districts with funds for “basic education.” However, we are not living in or experiencing “basic” times. Our students no longer have mere basic needs. From the foundation aid that is restored, a majority of those funds should directly be deposited into students, their programming and services.
Our public school system, our school districts need substantial support so that those who are within their campuses can prosper and learn! Anything less would be short changing our students and families of the very best resources, assets, options and opportunities that can be afforded to them!
Our presence at rallies across the state demonstrates that “Public Schools Unite Us.” We have to then make funding our schools a priority! The question is, “are you ready to equip our schools with the tools and resources it needs to thrive?” If so, it will prove to be an investment in our future that will reap unbelievable dividends!
Paulette Easterlin
New Paltz
Plant based
Grass is socialist; flowers are anarchist.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Israel is the wayward child of the American Empire
What can one do when our government provides the bombs and the bullets for the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people? The current slaughter in Gaza is much worse than the Nakba of 1948, when Israel killed a few thousand while pushing three quarters of a million Palestinians from their ancestral homeland. In Gaza, Israel is just murdering as many Palestinians as it can. It is just an extermination.
Perhaps this slaughter is occurring because the US has encouraged such bloodletting in the past. Our country has always been there to support the worst of Israeli excesses. So machine gunning a long line of starving Palestinians waiting for food trucks is just another step in the moral depravity that our country has learned to live with.
Israel is the wayward child of the American Empire. It is the serial killer that the US has always coddled and protected, no matter what the body count has been. The horror of exterminating 12,000 children makes us all despair. Our country’s parenting has created this killing machine, and all we can do is watch the children be bombed, shot and starved to death.
We can point to villains, of course. Like Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, who have grown rich from supporting Israel. We can embarrass Representative Pat Ryan for his huge, pro-Israel bribes. But that is not enough to save our souls. We are the enablers of another holocaust, and the mark of Cain will remain, even after our empire crumbles into dust.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
PonyUp Rescue Collective rescues me
There are many kinds of rescue. From war, poverty, trauma and loneliness. Rescue from death by neglect is a very heroic act: to bring a creature back to health and life. The palpable thanks and deep gratitude ripples over you and you truly understand being saved.
All this from an old pony. Well, I’m an old woman, to some, but the pony and I understand each other.
Sherman has one eye, an illness that makes him furry and in human years is 105. I’m a young 72 by comparison.
We’ve been “put out to pasture “ to fade away slowly and we’re both blessed to exist under such fortunate circumstances. Yet, we both still need to run wild, both of us still like to work because being trapped in an enclosed space without movement or stimulation brings on illness. Old as he is, a pony must keep moving or die.
I’ve discovered that’s true for me too.
Being part of the rehab, my part of the recuperation has brought me new companions and reason for hope which I seemed to be losing.
Hearing Billie Eillish whispered question, “What was I made for,” I went searching for an answer. What I found was a group giving time, talent, craft and resources to help rescue/rehab ponies and the groups who benefit from their salvation is more than a blessing, it’s a privilege.
I hope you will reach out and spend a little of your personal capital, time given to someone or something’s benefit. It can be like a tiny Sequioa seed that grows the giant tree.
Being part of PonyUp Rescue Collective has given my husband and me a wonderful new group of humans and ponies who collectively help each other to joy, what a blessing.
Thank you.
Melanie Demitri Chletcos
Hurley
Democrat’s winds of change
Right after the October 7 attack on Israel by the Hamas animals, Biden couldn’t say enough about how we will firmly stand behind our staunch ally, Israel, and support its right to defend itself and attack its long-standing enemy.
However, over time and before all of our incredulous eyes, we’ve seen Biden and his crew start to significantly water down its original comments and support of Israel. Why? Because of politics, of course. When Democrats started to see the number of pro-Hamas demonstrations by ill-informed people who clearly exhibit a total lack of knowledge regarding the history behind this conflict, they smelled the potential loss of a sizable number of voters in the upcoming election.
As the Democrat’s meltdown continued, we had stellar comments from the “leaders” in the Democrat party. We have the left’s spineless king of bias, Chuck Schumer, urging new leadership in Israel, calling Netanyahu an “obstacle to peace.” Wake up, Chuckie, because YOU are apparently the only person on earth who is not aware that HAMAS is and has always been the REAL obstacle to peace. Just as Israel will ignore your “suggestion,” I’m sure you would ignore a suggestion from ANY country that you remove Biden from office.
And, how about our brilliant VP Harris with her idle threats. She says Israel’s assault on Rajah “would be a huge mistake” and goes on to say SHE is “ruling out nothing” in terms of consequences if Netanyahu continues his offensive in Rajah. Thank you, four-star General Kamala, for your insight and wisdom. I guess she figures her feeble comments will win back the empty-headed protesters and the squad radicals who led those who recently passed on voting for Biden in one of the swing states.
There have been several pro-Israel writers who see through the pro-Hamas charade, the most recent being Harv Hilowitz. The cease fire crowd has yet to address the huge victory a cease fire would give Hamas and that it would guarantee a future of endless unprovoked attacks on Israel, permanently putting Israel’s future safety at risk. No matter how one looks at it, this is clearly anti-Semitic sentiment.
John N. Butz
Modena
Pedestrians, be aware
When out walking this weekend on a popular road that does not have a sidewalk, I was amazed by the number of people who did not walk facing on-coming traffic. As the weather gets better when you are out walking, please make sure you follow the rule of the road for pedestrians which is:
“If sidewalks are not available, pedestrians must walk on the left side of the road facing oncoming traffic and move as far left as possible when vehicles approach.”
You don’t have eyes at the back of your head, so please be safe, not sorry.
Puja A. J. Thomson
New Paltz
The bitter pill: A journey from coercion to compassion
In a world where sweetness cloaked bitter remedies, a young boy resisted the spoonfuls of coercion, the disguised doses of medicine. His world, a kaleidoscope of advancements, saw the triumphs of science over ailments like polio and measles. Yet, amid these victories’ shadows, an insidious belief took root — that biochemistry was the panacea for all ills.
The boy grew, his life a testament to the life-saving grace of medicine. He witnessed, however, a transformation — the noble pursuit of healing, once a sanctum of care and compassion, was now ensnared by the tendrils of capitalism. Once havens of hope, hospitals became markets where lives were appraised and traded. The essence of healing — compassion, empathy, kindness — became casualties in this new era, overshadowed by the cold calculus of insurance and profit.
As a psychotherapist in a psychiatric hospital, he saw firsthand the commodification of time and care. Driven by a primal urge to heal, clinicians often worked beyond their hours to fill the void that a system prioritizing efficiency over empathy left. Managed care, with its relentless focus on medication, often overlooked the human need for connection and understanding. The voices of those in pain, yearning to be heard, were often drowned out by bureaucracy and economics.
The advent of Covid-19 brought this conflict into stark relief. As the virus ravaged humanity, it also laid bare the machinations of power and profit. Pharmaceutical companies, buoyed by political patronage, wielded influence transcending national boundaries. Yet, in pursuit of profit, these titans of industry overlooked a fundamental truth — pills or injections cannot cure humanity’s most enduring ailments.
In a world where the teachings of morality and kindness struggle against the relentless tide of greed and self-interest, the need for a different kind of medicine becomes ever more apparent. A medicine not of compounds and formulas but of compassion, empathy and understanding. The human heart holds the key to true healing in this battle against the unseen viruses of greed and apathy.
In the words of Hermann Hesse, “Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.” Letting go of the dogmas of profit and efficiency, we may yet.
Find the strength to reclaim the essence of healing — a balm for the soul woven from the threads of human connection and compassion.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Ceasefires to save lives — Israelis and Palestinians
I am writing in response to Hav Hilowitz’s calling out local communities’ support for ceasefires. I concede to his point that we could have done more when it was discovered that Assad used sarin gas against his own people killing 1400 civilians including children especially when President Obama drew a red line and then backed off. But that is where the comparisons end — we were not funding the Syrian army and we were not supplying Syria with weapons to the tune of $3.8billion dollars a year.
The ongoing indiscriminate bombing and starvation of Palestinians is a grave humanitarian concern. The intentional murdering of civilians does not assure safety for the hostages or for Israelis in general. In fact, we see a rise in anti-Semitism worldwide — even at our local level as recently as this week when hate speech was used against a synagogue in Kingston.
As we watch the leveling of Gaza to a parking lot in contravention of international law and with support of the US government, many US citizens are seeking a way to have a voice — to ask that our local governments ensure that our humanity will be represented at the local level. We are seeking representation; we are seeking justice that does not come at the end of a weapon but by citizens taking a stand. As Ambassador Nina Hachigian, the first U.S. Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy, states, “U.S. cities remain a voice for the country’s values as federal leadership wavers.”
Ceasefires are about a stand for justice for all people. I, for one, want my community to be a catalyst to break the deadlock to save lives.
Cheryl Marie Qamar
Saugerties
A spotty discount scheme
There certainly is no shortage these days of things to complain about. I have a current and local issue to kvetch about here. As a 75-year-old senior who has been a loyal shopper at Sunflower Natural Food Market in Woodstock since 1984, I’d like to report that myself and many of my senior friends feel betrayed by the store eliminating the 10% storewide senior discount. They claim to want “inclusiveness” in their removal of the senior citizen discount by offering a discount to everyone for several hours Wednesday afternoons and on Sundays. The new spotty discount scheme applies to produce and some of the HABA section.
I know for a solid fact that many senior citizens are struggling to get by on fixed incomes, and are struggling to keep up with inflation everywhere. The store (who I’ve discussed this matter with) does some fast double-talking about wanting to help everyone afford their products. My wife and I, along with many of our friends who are seniors, are opting to purchase most of our health food products in Kingston at Mother Earth’s Storehouse which maintains a 10% senior discount. I have indicated to Sunflower that when they reinstate their traditional senior citizen discount; that we will all happily return to Sunflower Natural Food Market to shop. Until then, our longtime loyalty as customers will transfer to a health food store in Kingston that still offers us the courtesy and respect as senior shoppers.
Donny Kass
Woodstock
All people
Donald Trump concluded rallies during this just-passed period of Lent with 15-minute orations read from a teleprompter. With church-like music filling the air and his “congregants” praying, he’d sermonize:
“The great silent majority is rising like never before and under our leadership. We will pray to God for our strength and for our liberty. We will pray for God and we will pray with God. We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God.”
Rally-goers were quoted as saying things like “God, we believe that you have chosen Donald Trump as an instrument in your hands” and “They’ve crucified him worse than Jesus.”
But cross-examining is not crucifying, prosecution is not persecution, and the Church of Trump routinely excommunicates — indeed, persecutes — multitudes of the president-turned-savior’s “one people, one family.”
Easter, which culminates Lent, signifies Christ’s resurrection and our renewal. In place of Trump’s “one people” dog whistle, I offer this call to renewal, my New Year’s “ALL people” poem of two years ago:
If only this dawn of
A New Year
Might mean the dawn of
A New Beginning:
Might mean a melting
Of frozen hearts—
A New Compassion;
Might mean a broadening
Of narrow minds—
A New Enlightenment;
Might mean an embrace
Of different ways—
A New Tolerance;
Might mean a loosening
Of old strictures,
Old scriptures—
A New Faith.
Someone once pled
“Father, forgive them,”
And was crucified;
Someone once said
“I Have a Dream,”
And was crucified;
Someone once begged
“Imagine,”
And was crucified.
Haven’t we done enough harm?
We’ve no time left to crucify.
It is time, at long last, to sanctify:
To sing a psalm in unison,
In an all-encompassing embrace,
In this holy chapel of Earth,
In consecration not of The One,
But of each one—
The full congregation;
To gather close in welcome
Of our glorious differences,
Knowing that differences
Serve only to deepen
And diversify us,
To weave of us all
A coat of many colors,
Stitched together as one:
Myriad beautiful tones,
All harmonizing, all blending,
All dazzling, all sacred.
And all of the same lining.
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
Join the family! 
