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Support art and the people who believe in it
The amazing Gardiner Open Studio Tour will take place the weekend of May 3rd and 4th. It wouldn’t be possible to have such a diverse and stimulating tour without the support of local sponsors. They know that this is a stellar event for Gardiner and all the visitors it draws from our region. We cannot thank the following local businesses properly, but we try! And we will try in time for you to try them!
We encourage you to support the following: Mountain Brauhaus, Disgruntled Chef, Mohonk Preserve, Cafe Mio, Full Circle, Gardiner Bakehouse, The Grazery, Wright’s Farm and Market, Pitch Pine Outfitters, Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery, One With Land, Stone Wave Yoga, Whitecliff Vineyard, The Oyster & Clam Bar at the Bruynswick Inn, Rycor Heating and Cooling, Roost Arts Hudson Valley, Uptown Attic, The Lemon Squeeze, Beck’s Hardware, Ulster Savings and Ulster Energy and then a shout out to all the locals who let us put up the Doors in Gardiner for weeks before the tour. The artist-painted doors — roadside attractions — makes Gardiner an upbeat place to drive through?
Support art and support the people who believe in art and how it enhances towns! (See GardinerOpenStudioTour.com for a map and details).
Annie O’Neill
Gardiner
We can do it!
As Earth Day 2025 is upon us, remember to participate in the activities of various communities which honor and nourish our planet Earth. At a minimum, maintain an awareness of the manner in which we live our daily lives. Don’t be wasteful, do not use single-use plastics, recycle, avoid polyester fabric, contact representatives regarding reliance on fossil fuels, call/write federal officials regarding the need for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and demand an end to wars, and so much more can be done. Seek out resources/actions and live in accordance with what you can do — even if sometimes outside of your comfort zone.
On a local level, express your concerns about any issues related to your water and soil. If impurities exist in your town’s water supply, demand that your local officials ACT to confront the issue and that they not delay action nor sidestep their responsibilities. If soil is contaminated, demand that it be cleaned up. When any of us suspects that proper measures (such as source tracing for the source of water impurities) are not being taken to protect every resident, then it is the responsibility of all to speak up.
Many young people (locally and globally) are involved in steps to change the direction of actions and attitudes related to the environment. Whether taking part in the Woodstock town cleanup on April 26 (coordinated by the youth center, with assistance from the Woodstock Historical Society and others) or other targeted activities, young and not-so-young can merge their energies to take steps to preserve, improve and move together toward a future where respect for humanity and the Earth are the foundation for decisions and actions. Together, with genuine commitments, we can do it!
Terence Lover
Woodstock
Termination of police commissioners in New Paltz
I know with everything that is going on in D.C. and the rest of the world it is difficult to think about local politics. In spite of that, I am going to ask you to do just that. I will try to make it short but it won’t be sweet. I believe that the New Paltz Town Board has behaved in a very Trumpian way. They terminated three police commissioners, A bit of history. After the killing of George Floyd and a series of racist killings by police, the governor directed all police departments to be overseen by a commission. I was one of five people appointed to this new commission. We lost one member because she moved out of the township. We oversaw the police without incident for many months.
In January, our chair Cindy Sanchez applied to be reappointed because her three-year term had expired. I was reappointed at this time. Not only did they not reappoint this very qualified and dedicated person, they did not even give her an interview. This March, they appointed two members of the town board and a member of the community to the commission. We now had six members of the commission. We had one meeting in executive session to interview and make recommendations to the board. Shortly after this, the board terminated me, Karrie Rahaman-Bunce and Tara Fitzpatrick.
We now have a commission of Edgar Rodriquez, Esi Lewis and Anthony Winn. To me this is a grab for power. There is no more independent police commission. It is controlled by the town board. There must be a reason for this complete change in the commission. I believe it will come to light soon and I don’t believe it will be in the best interest of the citizens of our town.
Steve Ford
New Paltz
Hurtful
These tariffs also hurt not-so-hard-working Americans.
Wolf Bohm
New Paltz
Caring for our precious resources
As New Paltz welcomes the 22nd Earth Day Fair, held on Saturday, April 26th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Reformed Church on Huguenot Street, I want to thank New Paltz Climate Action Coalition, New Paltz Interfaith Earth Action and the Caring for Creation Committees for reminding us about what we can, and must, do to protect our planet from the climate change crisis.
Here are some actions the town recently undertook:
• We enacted our first forest management plan. People may not think of our town as a forested area, but there are important second growth forests within New Paltz that sustain wildlife, plant diversity, clean air and water and which would benefit from thoughtful care.
• We cooperated with the Climate Smart Task Force’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory update. New Paltz has made progress in reducing emissions with LED streetlights, an all-electric police car, publically available EV charging stations and more. One glaring lack are the modular buildings at town hall that are terribly energy inefficient which I am actively pursuing an opportunity to address — more to come on that.
•Our Recycling and Re-Use Center is open five days a week and is packed with office supplies, housewares, books, bikes, medical equipment and much more. Don’t buy anything new when you might very well find what you’re looking for at our Re-Use Center.
• Once again we passed a resolution for No Mow May, our way of giving our pollinators a head start as they get to work getting our crops and gardens to grow.
• No discussion of reducing vehicular emissions would be complete without an update on the Henry W. DuBois leg of the Empire State Trail. NYS DOT, Central Hudson and Verizon all need to complete their respective work and sign offs. There are a lot of chefs in the EST kitchen who need to cooperate and I am in contact with them regularly to keep this project moving to final completion.
• Solar panels are in the works for the justice court/police station and the transfer station’s compost facility.
I recently met with the Wallkill Valley Land Trust and the bike/ped committee to collaborate on some much-needed immediate repairs to the Springtown bridge over the Wallkill River. The next big step we are working on is finding funding for more substantial work to keep this iconic and much-used landmark safe and useable for many more years.
So much of the credit for caring for our precious resources goes to the volunteers on these committees and to each of you who do everything you can in your daily lives.
Let’s learn even more about what we can do on Saturday at the New Paltz Earth Day Fair.
See you there!
Amanda Gotto, Supervisor
Town of new Paltz
Letter of endorsement for Stana Weisburd
I am casting my vote for Stana Weisburd in the upcoming June Democratic primary for Ulster County Legislature, and I encourage others to do the same. In recent discussions about the importance of “community,” Stana stands out not only because of her dedication to this ideal but because she actively embodies it, both professionally and personally. She is a caretaker, a helper, a doer and a builder, with a long history of working to improve her community. Through her work in the healthcare field and her extensive experience serving on various local boards and committees, Stana has developed a unique understanding of how systems operate and the profound impact these systems have on consumers.
When faced with challenges, Stana doesn’t shy away from asking the tough questions — she seeks the answers, collaborates with others and works tirelessly to implement meaningful solutions.
The key issues facing our community — affordable housing, a robust and accessible local economy and a healthcare system that works for everyone — are also Stana’s top priorities. I trust Stana to advocate for all of us and to make decisions that will ensure Ulster County is a place where every neighbor is supported and able to fully participate in the life of our community. I am confident that Stana Weisburd is the right choice for the Ulster County Legislature and I wholeheartedly endorse her candidacy. Thank you for your consideration.
Aimee Gertler Hemminger
New Paltz
Failure to face reality
Mauriac Cunningham laments that the current administration’s complaint about our schools not teaching, after which the Department of Education (DOE) is completely eliminated. I’m quite sure that Mauriac has noticed that our students’ basic English, reading comprehension and math skills have consistently and noticeably declined over the past couple of decades. Obviously, the DOE’s only mission being “to help schools teach” has been a total failure. With the ever feckless Randi Weingarten at the helm since 2008 receiving an obnoxious annual salary of $560,000, she thought it was more important to shift the focus from real-life skill courses to a “much more important” curriculum focusing on gender studies, transgender support behind parent’s backs and pushing CRT, which divided young impressionable and naive black and white kids while opening up the wounds that existed before pre-civil rights laws, and showing how nasty and elitist white people have been. And let’s not forget how real-life skills were also drowned out by the educational “benefit” of exposing innocent little second, third and fourth graders to drag queens.
So, it should surprise no one that the incompetent, meaningless and irrelevant DOE had to be done away with. Besides, there is very good potential that personalizing the needs of the education system while returning it to the states may finally refocus education onto the subjects and courses that will prepare our kids for success in the REAL WORLD.
Tom Cherwin wants us to google five illegals who have been “unjustly” subjected to deportation proceedings. Three of them have behaved in the gray area where free speech rights stop, giving way to speech that supports violence which ends in demonstrations that cause property damage, injuries to innocent bystanders and physical and emotional abuse to Jews. If your words promote and support any of these out-of-control behaviors, you’ve given up your claim of exercising your right to freedom of speech. Free speech does not include the promotion, encouragement and support of violence of any kind.
Mahmoud Khalil is a perfect example of someone who abandoned his free speech rights and chose, instead, to instigate violence and anti-Semitism on several college campuses for the past year or so. His anti-American and anti-Semitic behavior easily warrants a free ticket out of our country.
Last but not least, we have Tom’s Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He’s an obvious gang member as confirmed by two different judges. Intel reports show his clear involvement in human trafficking. Even though Garcia and his attorney claim he is not a gang member, Garcia posts on social media that he’s a member of Tren De Aragua. Also, Garcia is a wife beater to the point where his wife had to get an order of protection. Yet, after a photo op visit to El Salvador, Maryland Senator, Chris Van Hollen will have us believe that Garcia should be nominated for “family man of the year.” Oregon representative, Maxine Dexter, says she’ll parrot Van Hollen with her own trip to El Salvador. All these charades to stand up for criminal illegals, yet none of these political clowns took ANY time to stand behind the gold-star families who have lost loved ones to these rightfully deported criminal animals.
John N. Butz
Modena
Endorsement for Tim Rogers
More than anyone, I can attest to Tim’s dedication, long hours, constant contemplation and deep admiration and love for the village and town of New Paltz. When we met in 2017, Tim’s kids explained to me that their joke was that his other child was the village.
There was never a doubt in my mind how thoroughly Tim cares for the welfare of his constituents and the harmony of his community. Tim contemplates and researches all decisions arduously and cautiously, taking in all the information he possibly can about the most basic aspects of his job and also about the most complex. He is constantly seeking out input and insight from others and is able to make thoughtful and informed decisions based on a collection of perspectives.
I’ve never really had the opportunity to experience local government so closely before and have had a truly eye-opening experience in it throughout my years with Tim. As all couples, we don’t always see eye to eye, but our ethics and our morals have always been in sync and as a social worker in this community for many decades, I am always proud of the consideration and the approach Tim uses while he is serving as a local government official.
He asks me important questions and is never shy about gathering all information about a topic or a situation he is unfamiliar with. It is always a priority to Tim to have all the information before making any decisions, and even then Tim is unusually good about being flexible and open to suggestions and feedback.
Tim’s analytical and researched approaches are important and valuable, but so is his incredible awareness and understanding of all members of this robust, diverse and dynamic community. It is important to recognize that prior to Tim’s role as village mayor, he was not a career politician, and he sought the role of village mayor because of a deep love for the village he grew up in. That love has allowed him to grow in his role and expand his knowledge base exponentially.
I am happy to say I’ve seen firsthand how significantly Tim has grown over the past years. Tim Rogers doesn’t do anything a little bit. Tim is extreme in all his endeavors; he puts his heart and his soul into everything that is important to him, and his role as town supervisor is very important to him and is the obvious next step for his vision and his dedication. The Town of New Paltz will benefit immensely from Tim’s new role as town supervisor. I have no doubt.
Kimmer Gifford
Kingston
Courage is contagious
Lately, I can’t stop hearing the refrain from Tracy Chapman’s 1988 hit single, “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution.” In Chapman’s song, however, talk of a revolution, “sounds like a whisper.” But in Ulster County on Saturday, it sounded like a roar. In Kingston and Saugerties and Shokan and New Paltz and Woodstock and Gardiner, hundreds gathered with our signs and our voices and our musical instruments and we called out the injustices and the cruelty and the greed and the corruption we’ve witnessed since the inauguration of president-for-now Trump. When we stand together, we’re not alone. Courage is contagious.
Charlotte Adamis
Kingston
Let freedom ring
Our country ’tis of thee,
Once land of liberty,
To thee we cling:
Land where no one is free
From Trump’s cruel tyranny,
His heart closed off to every plea—
Let freedom ring.
Our country ’tis of thee,
Once home of liberty,
For thee we’ll mourn:
Till his tight chains we break,
Till a new world we make,
Till through this curse we drive a stake,
And our home’s reborn.
Our country ’tis of thee,
Let’s rise in unity,
And let us sing:
Of better days ahead,
Without this sense of dread,
From tatters we shall weave a thread—
O, LET FREEDOM RING!
Tom Cherwin
Saugerties
Tim Rogers … a man for unification
I have known Tim since the time Marianne and I moved to Plutarch and then Lent in New Paltz over 20 years ago. We are bikers and always appreciated both seeing Tim biking around as well as witnessing his supportive work to make cycling safer in The Gunks. We have moved to NJ/FL but our youngest son and his wife live in New Paltz so we are up visiting several times a year. I have always valued Tim’s efforts to keep the public informed, whether it be upcoming community projects and events or seeking grant funding for village/town-wide improvements. He brings a keen intellect and commitment to helping to solve the many issues that face New Paltz. Bottom line: TIM ROGERS is a man we would endorse without any reservation whatsoever.
Dan & Marianne Winfield
Ormond Beach, FL
Economic downturn
It’s a good thing Trump is crashing the economy, because otherwise Americans would’ve loved fascism.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
“Tattooed and forgotten dreams
We’ve inked individualism onto every newborn soul, a tattoo as permanent as any sailor’s mark. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” they said, their voices echoing like an anthem. “Dream big, never surrender; the world is yours.” We wore this ink proudly, a promise stitched beneath our skin, fading into memory over time.
Now, I glance down at my skin, crisscrossed by wrinkles and blotched with age. My fingertips trace the faded outlines of words that were once powerful but are now illegible. The American dream feels more like the hazy remnants of a once-vibrant tattoo, blurred and indistinct, a vague pattern lost to the years. Where exactly did we misplace it? Or maybe it quietly left us, like a friend slipping out the back door without saying goodbye.
The promise seemed clear back then, didn’t it? Endless roads stretched wide before us, shimmering with opportunity. The community was tangible — a bustling neighborhood, with the warmth of handshakes and eyes meeting across kitchen tables, not digital screens. Today, our community flickers behind a glass display, pixilated shadows replacing the comfort of familiar faces.
Walking these streets, I feel the ghost town quality of human connections. Faces bent downward, lit by blue screen glow, eyes glazed in private worlds. Even Darwin might pause here, watching our evolution adapt, hands reshaped around smartphones, thumbs faster and more expressive than voices ever were.
Relationships now spark digitally, quick matches ignited and extinguished with swift taps. Fingers type faster than hearts can beat. We try to squeeze love out of keyboards and affection out of screens, desperately hoping the emotion travels clearly through fiber optics. Yet something essential gets lost in translation, the warmth diluted by the distance between screens and fingertips.
Talking face-to-face has become a foreign language, an awkward dance we’ve forgotten. The simple gesture of reaching out, palm open, now feels like a vulnerability, exposing too much of ourselves. Fear blooms in spaces that excitement once claimed. I stand amidst others, and still, I feel alone. We are islands drifting further apart, separated by the tides of individualism we once celebrated so fervently.
Perhaps the fulfilled dream left us without direction. What happens when a culture achieves its aspiration and wakes up to an empty sunrise the following day? The tattoo, now unreadable, was a map pointing somewhere — but we arrived and found ourselves staring into uncertainty. The promised land is here but feels emptier than expected and the horizon is unclear.
Where do we go from here? What new ink do we carve into the next generation’s heart when the old promises fade and blur? It’s unsettling, yet this doubt and uncertainty may be our new guide. A chance to rewrite, not alone, but collectively this time, fingers untangling from phones, grasping instead onto each other.
The American dream isn’t lost; it is only waiting to be reborn, not in isolation but in a reborn community’s messy, vibrant chaos. Perhaps the illegible tattoo can still speak if we lean closer and choose again to reach outward, searching fingertips stretching into the dark, hoping to feel another’s warmth, pulse and uncertain promise.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Self righteousness can close one’s mind!
Over a year ago (sadly), I went to the start of the protests at the New Paltz library — originally, as a strong supporter of Israel after the inexcusable, sick, vicious, murderous October 7th attack by Hamas fundamentalists.
After a while, I was looking for dialogue and spoke to both sides. The Palestinian side had few willing to talk and when I went across the street, even worse!
This past Sunday, I went to do my own mini protest relative to Trump’s normalization of relations with Putin/Russia and abandonment of Ukraine, with my own sign reminding people to “Remember Navalny.”
As I tried to weave through the Palestinian protesters, interestingly, most had no idea who Navalny was and worse was their hostility that I was near them!
The pro-Israelis had a sign saying f-ck Hamas (totally inappropriate!), but at least they understood after I explained who Navalny was! The leader of the Palestinian group said he remembered me as a “pain in the ass” last year, and I called him a “pompous prig.” I went and stood near P & G’s and a police officer (who I had spoken at length to prior to the protests) later walked over and said the Palestinian protesters felt that I was “making them feel unsafe,” We both laughed! Actually not funny, but pathetically sad and stupid!
When one side can’t see that leveling Arab cemeteries and slaughtering and destroying lives in Gaza is wrong on many levels and the other side can’t see the absolute evil in Hamas, it makes for a big big divide.
I mean Hamas didn’t use thri-billions and their concrete to build bomb shelters to protect Gazans, nor did they allow, at least women and children, to enter their miles of safe tunnels! Israel just levels Gaza, steals Palestinian lands and lets Jewish settlers act violently with impunity. But neither side of our protesters can stomach talking about the wrongs! Sad!
Anyway, my view is that the two biggest issues for the world and peace are Oligarchical Dictatorships and Islamic Fundamentalism! Trump sending an American oligarch to Russia to walk in to see Putin and pound his heart with his hand and then shake Putin’s hand would be like FDR sending someone to toady up to Hitler in 1940!
FDR would never have called Hitler in 1940 in seeking peace. Putin is and was a murderer and poisoner!
He murdered Alexie Navalny amongst many others and thus I feel compelled to remind people.
The narrow scoped protestors of both sides should expand their visions and be more open to discuss and even argue. Self righteousness can close one’s mind!
Ron Stonitsch
New Paltz
Getting active is the antidote to anger and despair
My friend and I have been knocking on doors these past few weeks as volunteers with Kingston Democrats Neighbor to Neighbor Voter Outreach. We’ve been checking in on our neighbors to ask how they’re feeling about the current political reign of terror. Some of the people we spoke with are either so angry or so despondent they’ve lost hope.
But I have not lost hope. Not yet. That being said, this is the moment for everyone who hasn’t yet, to step forward. If protesting in the streets doesn’t feel safe for you, there are other ways to push back that are not as visible, like working at the local level where your action really matters.
Just three of the ways you can make a difference are: volunteering with groups like Neighbor to Neighbor; serving on your town or city boards and committees; and, supporting local agencies that care for our most vulnerable neighbors. Getting active is the antidote to anger and despair. It’s also the only way we’re going to save democracy. But we don’t have much time. Hitler dismantled a democracy in 53 days. And it’s not like people didn’t see the handwriting on the wall. But my grandfather did. On March 31st , 1939, he left Belgium with his wife and three boys for the United States. At the time of their departure, people called my grandfather an “alarmist.” Only five months later, German troops invaded Poland and triggered WWII.
Charlotte Adamis
Kingston
Donny dumsta’fire
The most business-friendly president ever — yeah right sure — Donald Trump is putting the country first. What do people smoke when they say this? I’d like to have some of that so that I can ignore what’s going on in the world too. Hmmm let’s see — six failed casinos, Trump steaks, Trump water, Trump board game, Trump Airlines, Trump University — all epic failures. Yeah, Doo Doo Don is a great businessman, “a real Bruce Wayne.”
IRL: recently $6 trillion lost in shareholder value to even out a $980 billion trade deficit. Yeah, “Donny, The quicker fncker-upper.”
Sorry, he is a horrible president and probably THE worst ever and history will prove that. No other president ever was as much as a fascist as him. No one has tried to go against the Constitution as he does and not a single other president took part in an insurrection as he did when he lost the 2020 election. He’s a felon, he’s an adulterer and the biggest liar on the planet.
The first president with enough business savvy to do what needed to be done. The “best president ever” made the biggest screw up ever. The closest, most trustworthy ally the USA ever had, GONE!
Trump was warned this would happen. Just like all his proposals. They are fraught with risk and damage to the USA and the global situation. His agenda seems no more than a board game. He plays with his hand, ‘No one will die, it’s just a game’. I’m going to win this — may lose some pieces along the way. But let’s give it a go’. He hasn’t considered the implications. How people will suffer. If HE comes out unscathed, he’ll be a hero! If this is only three months into his term of office, God help America.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Our president is playing games with tariffs
Tariffs against small businesses are un-American and should stop now! Trump’s tariffs are destroying value and jobs of small businesses. We are increasingly frustrated that this message of value destruction is not reaching the “average” American, who falsely believe China, Canada and Mexico are paying. American jobs are being lost from tariffs. We pay the “China” tax — not China!
Our president’s lies and misinformation about tariffs still confuse and continue to fool the American public. Americans will continue to pay more for products like ours going forward, as we will have to raise prices just to stay in business.
Paper House Productions, is a small business in the Hudson Valley, designing stickers and craft products. We have employed hundreds of people over the last 40+ years, and have paid millions of dollars in federal taxes. Our business supports our community and provides above-average wages. Millions of consumers have joyfully purchased our unique products time and again. Trump said that “if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.”
No factory in America can produce the quality of the products that we’ve made in China, if at all. Our Chinese factory is part of our family and we’ve visited them eight times over the last 15 years. They are our friends, partners and part of our family. “Tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs,” he said. “They are about protecting the soul of our country” (from Trump speech, 3/4/2025). Really? For over four decades our company has shown resilience, determination and integrity. The people in companies like Paper House are the “soul” of America! Right now, we feel like we’re standing alone, like with millions of other small businesses, who also stand alone. We are faced with an uncertain future as President Trump plays games with tariffs.
Don Guidi
Saugerties
Ego narcissism?
In 2023, prior to the election for town supervisor, McKenna wrote: “I opted to suspend my campaign because of the negative personal attacks [translation: people were disagreeing with me, and I am not used to that]. That said, my name is still on the ballot and if the people feel I work hard for Woodstock and wish me to continue, I will gladly do so. I am hosting a little gathering. This is NOT a fundraiser, just an opportunity for folks to hear my thoughts on Woodstock’s future” [translation: this way, if I lose the election, my ego would not be hurt because I didn’t really campaign].
In 2025 McKenna’s name appeared on the Republican Party petition that would allow him to be put on the ballot as Woodstock’s representative in Ulster County’s legislature, along with Taylor Bruck who was running for Ulster County clerk. However, the petition never received the required number of signatures, and McKenna lost the opportunity to be put on the ballot. Would you believe, as McKenna stated, while the petitions were being circulated, he never authorized his name to be put on the petition. Was that his way of once again protecting his ego?
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Fix it or break it
If something is not working or performing to the standard it is slated for, one addresses the deficiencies and corrects them. But applied to the concept of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, health programs, it is not as simple as correcting machine problems, construction problems, medical problems, airline problems, union problems, agricultural problems, or a host of other problems, that one can ‘fix it’. I don’t believe the government is a company. It is a political entity of over 300 million people; it’s not a company where you can cut departments, workers that were created by GOP and Democratic Congresses and presidents, by an outsider with no political experience in the American system! Social Security’s 72 million persons collecting benefits and the same number receiving Medicare, is not a simple ‘fix it’ under any circumstances. (I believe SSI is in addition to this as well.) Therefore , the alternative is to ‘break it’. To this writer this means bringing it to a halt and introduce something else, which I believe will happen, not right away, if at all. There is an agenda. After all, it took Hitler nine years before he had total control over the Reich.
Donald Trump and his minions will not overturn the government’s social programs, which the GOP previously supported with their 81% in electing FDR in 1935. As mentioned, they are not a company(s). It will take time. The system is deeply entrenched. But that will not stop him from attacking it piece by piece. It will be a strangling effect, SS offices being closed, employees laid off, fired; postal offices being closed or re-located, mail not being delivered on time (from what I understand there are approximately a million persons receiving paper checks in the mail rather than automatic deductions) and so on. Medicaid is not FICA funded like SS and Medicare. Medicaid is state funded, although drawing federal funds. It is no stretch of the imagination to realize that federal funds will be reduced to the states, strangulated or outright eliminated, with the state picking up the fall out, that is, if they will be able.
Just be aware of the ‘smoke screen’ mentioned previously, which diverts one’s attention away from what should be your main concern, if you are drawing Social Security, Medicare, or have a loved one on Medicaid; also, any of the health care plans placed into effect, as the Affordable Health Care Act. But if you’re drawing any of the benefits that you paid into down through the years, that is your main concern’, not the Gulf of America, Greenland, Canada, the 51st state, Putin, tariffs, immigration and a host of other disruptions. Next letter I will list the eight ways the GOP plan on instituting to reduce reliance and eventual elimination, dependence on your paid benefits.
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
New Paltz High School’s production of Big Fish full of heart
I remember sitting in the New Paltz High School (NPHS) auditorium ten years ago, watching a musical I knew nothing about, Big Fish. I was mesmerized back then and hoped I would get to see that show again. I recently moved back to the area and was so ecstatic to hear that NPHS was doing Big Fish again! They did not disappoint!
Under the superb direction of Nancy Owen and Dan Young, these talented students rose to the occasion with powerful performances! Nafi Diedhou broke our hearts into a million pieces with her performance of “I Don’t Need a Roof;” Abbie Adams was playful and frustrated with her father, Edward, their performance of “Fight the Dragons” was full of heart; Sam DePaolo brought humor and heart to his performance every single step of the way; Lily Nocito and Finn Lochard had a beautiful chemistry onstage during “Daffodils;” and JP Fabella portrayed older Will with such wisdom. These leads were marvelously rounded out by Michael Giraldi, Emily Bishop, Ameilia Crisafi, Savannah Trinkle, Charlie DePaolo and Marco Todaro. The ensemble was full of energy and talent with great choreography and singing!
Luisa Steele
Clintondale
Balance of power
I am Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia, and so are you.
The administration admits that an “administrative error” resulted in Abrego Garcia being detained and shipped off to a notorious prison in El Salvador in blatant disregard of his constitutionally guaranteed right to due process. (He is one of many.)
Even after the Supreme Court ruled they must effectuate his return, they have not done so. They claim the judiciary cannot tell the administrative what to do.
What?!
Isn’t that EXACTLY why we have three branches of government balancing the powers? Will they next claim the legislative branch cannot tell them what to do?
If they get away with this, we have achieved full dictatorship. And there is nothing stopping them from denying ANY of your rights, regardless of your status, even if your ancestors came on the Mayflower.
Does anybody really believe this is the America our founders had in mind?
“…when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security.”
Note the word “duty” in that excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. That’s where the “…from all enemies, foreign and domestic,” comes from in the oath that all civil servants, new citizens, military and elected officials take. That oath doesn’t expire with your time in service.
Mauriac Cunningham
Saugerties
What about the Catskill Mountain Railroad’s ballyhooed grant awards?
The Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR)last year announced to great fanfare three grants totaling $4.5 million, including one to construct a railroad maintenance facility at Kingston Plaza in an area zoned for residential use and in a floodplain. Now however, an article published in the Albany Times Union details the questionable nature of the CMRR application process. The CMRR is not the land owner of the corridor in which they operate, they are a periodic permit holder. In order to legitimately file such an application, a letter would be needed from the landowner, Ulster County, supporting the application. The CMRR received no such letter.
From the Times Union article “Deputy County Executive Amanda … mentioned that Ulster County would have had to sign on to the grant application.” Catskill Mountain Railroad president Ernie Hunt shrugged off the omission in the application process. “Those grants come up, and if you miss them, you miss them,” he is quoted as saying in the Times Union article. NY Penal Law 175.35, Offering a False Statement for Filing, Felony E states that a person is guilty of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree when, knowing that a written instrument contains a false statement or false information, and with intent to defraud the state … he offers or presents it to a public office … with the knowledge or belief that it … become a part of the records of such office … What about the CMRR submitting the application and omitting the crucial sign-off? What of applying for and receiving approval for funds for a proposed maintenance facility in an area not remotely permitted for industrial use? What weight to these questionable actions should be given by the current U&D Corridor Committee in considering its current recommendations?
William Sheldon
Kingston
The last Earth Day
On this April 22nd of 2028 on an Earth Day falling in the last year of the Trump presidency, America’s landscape has become a dystopian abyss and ecological nightmare that the country has never experienced in all of the 250 years of its existence.
From sea to shining sea as the National Anthem goes but the air in the skies over all the cities and suburb is now a pall of dark smoke and haze covering every skyline and hillside nobody can breathe. The Trump dominated Congress repealed the Clean Air Act in 2026. All of America’s cities are now choked in unrelenting fumes of automobile exhaust by non-existent CAFÉ standards. Power plant smokestack greenhouse gas and petrochemical emissions waft freely through the barely sunlit smoggy atmosphere. Everybody has to wear gas masks to avoid the eye and nose burn irritation of smog
Trump’s call 2025 to “drill, baby drill” has opened up all of the eastern seaboard waters to unrestricted oil drilling in formerly protected Atlantic ocean waters. Ruined with globs of oil washing ashore millions of seabirds and marine wildlife died, destroying any vestige of beach tourism or viable commercial fisheries. Oil drilling derricks line the eastern horizon sending burning methane into the air worsening the skyrocketing rates of greenhouse gas emissions.
On this Earth Day of 2028, many environmental organizations have succumbed to Trump’s pulling of federal funds to those who work to protect the environment.
The bald eagle, osprey, peregrine falcon and hundreds of songbird species are now closer to extinction, especially our national symbol because of Trump’s re-introduction of bio-magnifying toxic DDT (originally banned in ’72) into the ecosystem to boost the failing US agricultural system compromised by climate change extreme weather conditions and farm export tariffs.
It’s unusual to see robins walking across a lawn now or to hear migrating warblers in the spring because of the combined effects of massive forest habitat destruction, (Trump’s executive order in 2025), opening up all the national parks and all old growth forests to logging companies and DDT’s impact on bird fertility.
Resurgent use of agricultural pesticides like nicotinoids and Roundup made the monarch butterfly go extinct. A butterfly or dragonfly or any insect flying across any American meadow is rare.
The Clean Water Act’s repeal by the Trump controlled Congress in 2026, along with absence of the EPA, made finding a pure clean running mountain stream or any river or stream extremely difficult if not impossible. The polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio, which caught fire in 1969 caught fire again in 2027. PCB half remediated waters of the Hudson River in New York were also a victim of the Clean Water Act repeal in 2026. DEC soon declared the river unfit for fishing or bathing.
The Endangered Species Act of ’73 designed to protect declining animal and plant species was repealed by a Trump Congress in 2026. The California condor became extinct in 2027 along with the northern spotted owl in old growth forests, then the whooping crane, Florida panther, grizzlies and wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Cattle ranchers, without conservation law enforcing park rangers(fired by DOGE in 2025) killed off the last of these keystone predators in 2028.
The end of NOAA, National Weather Service and FEMA left millions of Americans at the mercy of the extreme weather events. Category 5 hurricanes hit unprepared Florida and the gulf coast in 2026, 2027 and 2028. Rising sea levels and storm surge from these storms repeatedly flooded Miami, New York and New Orleans with 20-foot storm surge waves, catastrophic infrastructure damage and lives lost.
Heat waves swept across the country with triple digit temperatures, draining water tables, wells and bankrupting agriculture. Forest fires swept the country.
CO2 levels in the world’s atmosphere reached 435 PPM by 2028 and broke temperature records past the stipulated 1.5 C threshold set by the IPCC at the Paris Treaty Accords in 2015.
This was the last Earth Day on April 22, 2028 celebrated by the few hundred celebrants gathered on the Washington Mall under polluted gray skies in the Trump environmentally engineered America made “great again” by the folly of his re-election.
Victor C. Capelli
Ulster Park
Join the family! 
