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Benefits under attack #2
Previously, I mentioned the various ways the GOP plan on addressing our benefit state, but postponed it until I addressed a concern of a reader. I will address the ways in this letter.
1. Payroll Executive Tax. This is the FICA tax (Federal Insurance Contribution Act). If this is placed into effect, all Social Security funding would come to a halt. Without this funding, there is no money for Social Security. This means the 7.65% matched by the employer, as well as by the employee, 7.65%, for a total of 15.3 %, is no more. There would be no money going into the Social Security fund. This would be your 7.65% to spend, invest, put under your mattress, whatever. Medicare, on the other hand, would not come to a halt. This 1.45% would just be paid by the employee, not employer. Right now, if FICA went under, the Social Security Reserve Fund would kick in for those who have paid.
AARP and the NCPSSM (National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare), both state money would be available to pay out Social Security until the year 2034, at which time all benefits would be reduced by 20%. So, someone, say at age 67, retired, drawing a monthly $1500 for an annual of $18,000, would be reduced to the amount of $300 per month, with an annual of $14,000 at age 76. This would be a large cut at age 76, particularly if they had no pension or other source of income or medical bills. Medicare though would still be there, although not contributed by the employer; we would still pay our 1.45%. (I made the mistake previously stating it would not be there.) However, if the fund did run out, there would be no money coming in to the fund for future generations, meaning our grandchildren.
(A major complaint of the AARP and the NCPSSM regards the cap on salary. Right now, it is $176,100 that everyone pays Social Security and Medicare on. Those making more than this amount, pay no tax. Both of those organizations would like to see the cap raised to a much higher amount, say to $600 or higher to address the deficit.)
Donald Trump attempted to eliminate this payroll tax, but I understand this is the ‘third rail’ of politics and therefore, it was defeated. (The third rail is the rail alongside of the train tracks which powers the train. It is very dangerous and can electrocute anyone coming into contact with it; this term applied to politicians touching our Social Security is the metaphor they can be and will be ‘electrocuted politically’, a death sentence.
This program contributes millions of dollars back into the states, communities, across America. People pay into it during their working years and upon receipt of these benefits, spent this money back into the community.
2. Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA). This is an attempt to muster a constitutional amendment, the GOP has tried to pass in order to address fiscal spending aligned with revenues coming in. But in terms of economic turndowns, this amendment, if ever passed, can lead to cuts in our benefits, namely our Social Security. This amendment requires a 2/3 vote of both chambers of Congress, as well as a certain number of states to approve it before it becomes an amendment. I’m doubtful if it would ever pass, either Congress or the states not meeting the required votes. In my next letter I will bring to light the Trust Act.
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
Vote for Lindsey Grossman in District 19
I thank our Ulster County 19 (UCLD19) Legislator Manna Jo Greene for all her accomplishments as a five-term legislator, but the times they are a-changing. We need expanded vision and skills to address the uncertain future of our district, and thus I am voting for Lindsey Grossman in the June 24th Democratic primary.
Though I was initially unsure about this political newcomer, I met with her and quickly realized that she is the perfect person to represent Rosendale and Marbletown. Lindsey has an immense amount of experience and talent that can help Ulster County move forward without leaving the average person behind. Now is the time to welcome the next generation of leaders. The first thing one notices about Lindsey is her contagious positive energy. I predict she will be a legislator who sponsors a greater-than-average number of pieces of legislation to support our needs as the federal level changes trickle down.
While meeting with Lindsey, I found it striking that she didn’t just listen to my concerns, but also processed, in real time, those concerns into ideas for improvement. Lindsey has volunteered for a variety of local causes. She has experience helping small businesses grow and advocating for women’s issues and HIV prevention. These characteristics have inspired many people to volunteer their time and services. Additionally, Lindsey is endorsed by national, state and local organizations in recognition of her vision. Everyone in UCLD 19 should make the time to meet with Lindsey. I am certain that you will see that she is the candidate who will have the greatest positive impact on our district.
The Marbletown and Rosendale Democratic Committees are hosting a moderated candidate forum on Thursday, June 5th, 7 p.m. in the Rosendale Rec Center. Everyone is welcome to submit questions for the candidates at http://rosendaledemocrats.com.
Maureen Morrow
Tillson
Friends of Canoe Hill to village board meeting
My statement to the Saugerties Village Board at its meeting on May 19 regarding the salt shed and land transfer:
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak this evening. Following the village planning board public hearing on May 14, I understand that there was continued conversation regarding the relocation of the salt shed and a proposed land transfer between the village and the owner of the 83 North Street property. It is my understanding that we can continue to use the town salt shed facility. It is in close proximity to the village, and the travel time to the salt shed is shorter than the distance from one end of the village to the other. In other words, this distance to the town salt shed appears negligible. There does not seem to have been much public discussion about the need to replace the salt shed or how we would fund the construction of a new shed.
We would like information as to how a new shed would be funded. As is the fiduciary responsibility of the village officials (both elected and appointed), the village taxpayers fully expect that a cost benefit analysis be done to compare the costs involved in relocating and building a new salt shed vs. the cost involved in sharing existing resources with the Town of Saugerties in regards to a salt shed. Considering the significant fiscal stress of the village, I hope that this will be a critical analysis. Additionally, as an Elm Street resident, I am very concerned about the potential off-site impacts of the proposed development outlined in the application for the lot-line change. This cannot go unconsidered.
Steve Gross
Saugerties
Vote for Lindsey Grossman, Ulster County 19
I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Lindsey Grossman as part of the Marbletown Democratic Committee, and what I’ve seen of her hard work, leadership and dedication make me confident she would be the kind of legislator we need. Since winning the endorsement of the Ulster County Democrats, Lindsey has been putting in work getting to know voters in our district, and has garnered strong support from a diverse group of residents including seniors who have lived here for decades, new families who recently arrived, artists, farmers, small businesses, union workers and more. Lindsey listens, invites challenges to her thinking and collaborates through dissent. That’s the kind of leader we need to build coalitions and solve complex problems.
With federal budget cuts looming that will impact our county, we need legislators who are going to pay attention to the details, get into the weeds to find new solutions and protect our neighbors who need the most support. I know Lindsey will fight to expand housing, support small businesses and protect our environment. With two decades of experience in coalition building, policy, innovation and management, Lindsey will be the kind of champion that Ulster County needs. She’s got the experience, energy and empathy that will be needed in the years ahead. I hope you’ll join me voting for Lindsey Grossman in the June 24th Democratic primary for Ulster County Legislature District 19.
Adam Liebowitz
Stone Ridge
Please vote for Tim Rogers
I have known Tim Rogers to be a committed, hard working mayor and a dedicated public official. He researches the arcane details and does the heavy lifting that most of us take for granted. He will make an excellent New Paltz town supervisor. Please vote for Tim.
Larry Feldman
New Paltz
Biannual thrills
Once every six months, I am a drug abuser.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
De-Mockery
Sometimes, I sit silently and try to remember what meaning felt like before it was repackaged into a meme. Some days, I reflect. Others, I reach for forgetting like it’s a blanket I can pull over my head. But more often now, I stare at this culture and wonder: Does it hate meaning? Do we not just ignore it but resent it?
We were sold distraction, dressed up as connection. Scroll through sedatives laced with sex, money and power. Turn on a screen and tell me you don’t feel it — that sleek glitter of nothingness. Neon signs screaming: Don’t think. Don’t feel. Keep moving.
We don’t even drink at bars anymore. Now we belly up to the pixel-counter: one part fantasy, two parts fear, with a twist of envy. It’s a cocktail that numbs the nerve endings of empathy.
And no, I’m not above it. Our access to knowledge, history and each other is staggering. But that’s not what we hunger for. We want validation. Certainty. Dopamine. The goose now lays digital eggs: glittering, golden, hollow. No yolk. No nourishment. Just shell.
That thought first struck when Death came — not for me, but for too many around me. COVID wasn’t just a virus; it was a mirror. It showed us how quickly compassion collapses beneath convenience. Nurses screamed. We changed the channel. Death walked in bare feet. We ordered takeout.
Sometimes I still hear that rattle in their lungs — was it a final gasp, or the sound of something larger dying with them?
Once, I believed revolution might reset the compass. But then I started listening to quieter truths: the bees that stopped showing up, the forests that are falling silent, and the hollow in our own bones.
Why don’t we act?
Maybe because the manipulation isn’t out there anymore. It’s in us. Internalized. Algorithmic. We scroll past suffering like it’s an ad. The soul of democracy — if any thread remains — is smothered beneath the warm glow of false freedom.
I used to believe we lived in a democracy. It feels like De-mockery — a punchline disguised as policy, a people lulled into forgetting by the hum of prime delivery and curated belief.
And yet — I still sit. I still reflect. And in the quiet, a question still claws its way to the surface. Why?
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Tim Rogers for New Paltz Town Supervisor
I’ve known Tim since I moved here in 2016. He was the first person to show me the Preserve via bike — a great loop, highlighting the DEP, town and village water resources that are sprinkled throughout Mohonk. It was a great ride — the sun was perfect and I, a passionate cyclist, was expecting to hear old war stories from Tim’s racing career as we cruised Oakwood Drive. Instead, he enthusiastically provided the back story and context for the infrastructure that makes our community work. The subject matter, dear voter, was dull — but his passion was infectious!
I still get nostalgic about that ride when Tim posts updates about water treatment or sewer improvements. We need people like Tim — equally as excited about the big things that make this place special as he is about the unseen details. I challenge you to find a mayor who has navigated the challenging grant landscape better than Tim has in regards to utilities, infrastructure and municipal well being. He is tireless, transparent and, unfortunately ending this alliteration, effective in his actions and how he represents his constituents’ interests.
I think the village is better for having him in the driver’s seat. I’m thrilled to vote for Tim for town supervisor at the Democratic primary on June 24. I think he’ll continue to help the combined town and village be proud of who we are, while still finding creative ways to make things flow more smoothly.
Tom Eickelberg
New Paltz
All that’s left is a hollowed-out song
Never assume that loud is strong and quiet is weak. It’s often the other way around.
Again, Trump is just, well, Trump! It’s the dim witted MAGA supporters for whom the obvious treason and criminality doesn’t dim their enthusiasm and, apparently, reflects their own asshole-ism!
Shadows cast by a blindfolded sun,
Where whispers of freedom and fear intertwine,
It dresses in colors of a once-hopeful hue,
Yet twists the fabric to stitch tales untrue.
A flag pin on the lapel, a smile too wide,
Promising justice, yet cloaking the tide.
It builds up the fences, a fortress of lies,
While singing of peace, yet the discord resides.
It leans on tradition, a puppet of pride,
With laws to protect while corruption’s its guide.
Amidst the banal, the sinister grows,
In the everyday hum, the stillness overthrows.
So remember, dear hearts, the face that deceives,
The danger in comfort, the web which conceives.
Awake from the slumber, reclaim what’s at stake—
For a dream shared in truth cannot whisper, but wake.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
$1.5 million in six out of eight years
Thank you again Senator Michelle Hinchey, Assemblymember Shrestha and Governor Kathy Hochul for your invaluable support.
SUNY Impact Aid supports New Paltz’s townwide A-Fund for police expenses, our 100% volunteer New Paltz Fire Department reserve fund for future expenses and the New Paltz Rescue Squad.
Each year that the village board has successfully lobbied our representatives in Albany to provide SUNY Impact Aid, we have generously chosen to share all of this revenue to benefit taxpayers townwide.
Since 2018, New Paltz will have received a total of $1.5 million in SUNY Impact Aid. There was only a two-year hiatus when our requests were not included in the Senate’s one-house budgets of 2022 and 2023.
By including SUNY Impact Aid in the State’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget, our representatives are helping reduce some of the burden off our local taxpayers who are the primary payers of emergency services in our SUNY-host community.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
Stana Weisburd for Village of New Paltz legislator
Stana Weisburd is currently running to fill the Ulster County legislature seat for the village and town of New Paltz in District 20 to replace Limina Grace Harmon. Stana has shown through her extensive work in local government that she is well-prepared to represent the interests of the village. She has served as an elected village trustee since 2021 and as a town planning board member. During her terms she has helped to guide New Paltz through careful fiscal management and planning for critical needs, present and future.
Truly affordable housing has been a central concern for Stana. New housing in the village must be supported by adequate infrastructure, and village trustees have done a good job of securing funding to repair and expand sewer and water in key areas. New provisions that permit ADUs can provide new housing for families. The requirement that larger new developments must offer 15% of units at officially defined affordable rental rates was especially important to Stana’s vision of the village as a place where people who work in New Paltz could afford to live. She sees the NY State Assembly Bill 0625, Social Housing Development Authority, as another valuable tool that would establish funding for sustainable, truly affordable housing for residents at a maximum of 25% of income.
The challenges that village residents face are not an abstraction for Stana. Her commitment to progressive values has been lifelong, ranging from street-level activism to elected office. She wants Village of New Paltz residents to thrive in a community where everyone is welcome, supported and supporting each other. We can trust that in the county legislature she will be very hard-working and a passionate advocate within the Democratic caucus. She has earned the vote of village residents on June 24th.
Tom Denton
New Paltz
Please cast your vote for Amanda Gotto
I was surprised and delighted to read the mayor’s letter to the editor announcing his decision to abandon the dissolution process and return to a process that includes all town residents.
Now that we’re back to consolidation, I hope we will:
•Allow the press and the public to view and participate in steering committee meetings.
•Identify the problems consolidation will solve and how.
•Release the videos of our previous steering committee meetings.
•Research why voters recently rejected mergers in Pawling and Tannersville.
•Research the impacts of the dissolution of the Village of South Nyack.
I admit to a certain frustration with the process so far. It’s been confusing, formulaic and, frankly, secretive. That may be why so few people attended the April 29th dissolution meeting conducted by Laberge Consultants. I welcome the opportunity to open our future meetings to meaningful public engagement.
What is clear is this: Voters will have the best of both worlds by re-electing Amanda Gotto as town supervisor. Tim will stay on as village mayor, and we will build a community-wide collaboration.
Voting for town supervisor starts on June 14th. Please cast your vote for Amanda Gotto!
Kitty Brown, Deputy Supervisor
Town of New Paltz
Senior moment
Regarding the noise issue, McKenna recently said, “So, do we want stricter enforcement with that? Do we want to deal with that in a different way?” Doesn’t he remember that he is the one that wrote the noise ordinance that removed the enforcement of noise complaints from the building department to the police department.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Cover up followed by hypocrisy
As we see the non-stop highlighting of all Trump’s “failures” while ignoring ANY accomplishments, the same anti-Trump writer’s total silence on Biden’s mental decline, then and now, is nothing short of astounding. The lefties witnessed the exact same Biden flaws and gaffes that the righties saw. Even grade schoolers, I’m sure, could have picked up on Biden’s inability to be clear with complete sentences while losing his train of thought, preventing him from finishing many sentences.
Despite Biden’s obvious signs of mental decline, Biden’s press secretaries, Jen Psaki and Karine Jean Pierre, sold their souls by pretending it wasn’t happening. And worse yet, they lied about it and went to great lengths to hide it. Who can forget some of Jean Pierre’s incredibly lame descriptions of Biden when asked about his cognitive competence. She said he was very alert and completely engaged. She added that Biden’s physical and mental stamina, sometimes, exhausted us younger people to the point that we couldn’t keep up with him!
Then, we have the actors who are better than any Hollywood Oscar winners … the lame stream media, some of the worse being Joe Scarborough, Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, Brian Stelter and Joy Reid, some of whom which were either forced to leave or outright fired. They all parroted the denial of Biden’s mental decline and intentionally participated in the cover up, in compliance with the urging of their bosses, the Democratic party.
Since Biden’s feeble debate performance and, especially after Trump’s easy election victory, even many Democratic voters couldn’t continue sticking their heads in the sand any longer.
And now, and quite suddenly, the lame streamers are coming out with books that weakly try to cover their butts as they continue to lie about how they were “blindsided” by Biden’s dementia-like revelations and how Biden’s administration “hid” his mental failures from these fake journalists — e.g. Jake Tapper’s “Original Sin,” NPR’s Chris Wheeler’s “Uncharted” and Jen Psaki’s “Say More.” Who will be the next “news” anchor or Biden administration member with another CYA laugher? They must think that we were all born yesterday
What a hapless bunch of hypocrites! And, none of our lefty writers will touch this topic with a ten-foot pole! No surprise because they can’t take their eyes off Trump.
John N. Butz
Modena
Compromise on the U&D is a win-win
I am encouraged by the decision of the Ulster County Legislature’s U&D Corridor Advisory Committee to advance a recommended rail and trail compromise for the full legislature’s consideration. Their vote is a win for all stakeholders. Train enthusiasts win — the CMRR gets to cross Route 28a and access to a western terminus they have long sought. And trail advocates win — the Ashokan Rail Trail will be extended 1.6 miles closer to Kingston and a new trailhead will be built on county property with parking and public bathrooms. The residents of Ulster County also win, since building a trail next to the tracks would have cost millions of extra dollars with no assurances this could have ever been permitted. It would have been years of applications, petitions and lawsuits. Lastly, the environment won. There was never a scenario where the greenest county in the state was going to apply, fight and litigate to fill in protected wetlands for the sole reason of extending a tourist railroad by 1.6 miles. As a lawyer told me years ago, a perfect compromise is perfectly unsatisfying to all sides. In this case, I believe every stakeholder won. The railroad gets what they have long sought, the terminus and trailhead will give everyone a point of entry to the ART. The remaining section can now be actively explored to achieve the dream of rail with trail. All stakeholders can look forward to the world class tourist experience we all fiercely desire.
Lee S Kalish
Stone Ridge
Tim Rogers is uniquely qualified to run both the village and the town
My wife Marlene and I heartily endorse Tim Rogers for combined town and village supervisor. Whenever we have contacted Tim, we have received an immediate response and equally immediate action on his part. When my wife detected a methane gas odor in the air, he actually stopped by in person to check it out. Upon much air sniffing outside and then inside the building, turns out it was my neighbor’s cabbage, proving Tim is very thorough. When we had questions concerning rumors of a huge rent hike, Tim contacted the property manager to determine the facts to put our minds at ease.
For these and myriad other reasons we feel that Tim is uniquely qualified to run both the village and the town.
Marlene and Joel Alfieri
New Paltz
Invitation: New Paltz Pride March and Festival on Sunday, June 1
You are invited to the annual New Paltz Pride March & Festival on Sunday, June 1! The march will kick-off at noon from the New Paltz Middle School, followed by a festival in Hasbrouck Park until 5 p.m. It is up to all of us to make our local pride march & festival as awesome as can be. We are seeking more vendors, volunteers, groups planning to march together and sponsors to ensure the festival’s permits get covered.
More information: https://linktr.ee/newpaltzpridecoalition. Speaking of the march: let’s make it bigger than ever! We’re talking floats, flash mobs, marching bands, DJs on the move, organizations with banners and anything you can dream up that says “we’re here, we’re queer and we are not going back!” With LGBTQIA+ rights under attack, and trans+ life in particular in imminent danger, it’s more imperative than ever we come together this Pride Month — what better place to do so than where same-sex marriage was first catapulted into the spotlight and history was made 21 years ago? Mark your calendars and join us in any capacity you can, on Sunday, June 1 in New Paltz. Yours in service, solidarity and unabashed queer fabulousness
Alexandria Wojcik
New Paltz
Step out and speak up
During the past few months, I’ve had a number of conversations with people in Ulster County who tell me they feel fortunate to live here because we, at least, are “safe.” I don’t agree that we are safe. But I understand what they mean. They trust our city/town/county/state elected officials to protect us — and so do I. And yet, when people start thinking that they are somehow “safe” when others are not, this is a dangerous sign. It’s a sign that people have separated themselves from others in our community who’ve already been subjected to the cruelty of the Trump administration, like our immigrant neighbors.
The erosion of due process, as well as the attacks on our right to speak without fear, are just two of the many indicators that we are slipping fast into authoritarianism. So, no. I’m afraid none of us are safe. But if we want to be, and if we want our children and grandchildren to be, it will require every one of us to step out and speak up. Now. Before it’s too late. Attend rallies (they’re happening weekly, all over this county). Make phone calls to our elected officials about the issues that concern you. Contribute to organizations like the ACLU that are fighting for us in the courts. Speak to friends, family members, and neighbors and encourage them to get active. Join one of the many organizations, like Indivisible, that are working hard to make sure we don’t lose the country we love, as imperfect as it is.
Charlotte Adamis
Kingston
An open letter to the WAMC Roundtable panel
To WAMC’s Roundtable panel:
I listen to your roundtable panel on a regular basis. For the uninitiated, WAMC’s Morning Roundtable is a weekday discuss-and-debate gabfest about topics of the day by regular expert panelists, a rotating group of occasional panelists, and occasional, one-off invitees. This is a high-quality discussion by serious commentators that, for sure, tilts left-liberal. In the beautiful spirit of DEI, some of the occasionals and one-offs are from the other end of the political spectrum.
Our former congressman, Republican John Faso has been on several times this year, surely the harbinger of his next run for office, whether for the governorship or US Senate. Appearing on the panel is great, no-cost exposure, and a perfect platform for him, since he’s an intelligent, skillful debater, although a hollow one, since he’s a Republican hardballer. One regular is an Albany-area, Republican lawyer who deflects questions by sounding like a hail-fellow-well-met, friendly, faux- goofball but who, in a true let-them-eat-cake moment, recently showed his true colors by bragging that he put his investments into cash when Trump took office. Good thinking! Another recent guest was an official from a capitol-region town whose gravelly, brook-no-disagreement attitude hewed heavily to the MAGA party line. He was met with disarmingly tepid pushback.
I suggest that the steady stable of panelists, and guests who are so inclined, start challenging these people, civilly but relentlessly. These are not normal times. The price Republican guests must pay for appearing on the Roundtable is to be confronted with the truth. When you nettle them, stay calm and keep on. My departure point for this is J.B Pritzker’s inspiring call to action: “It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once … Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”
Here are some talking-points to get you started:
• Agree or disagree: Guernica was to Nazi WWII air tactics as January 6 was to the current dismantling of the American government, a trial run. Or do you think the people who scaled the walls were simply tourists re-enacting the fall of Troy?
• Did Trump blink over tariffs with China and the rest of the world, or was it market manipulation? Which Trump family members or insiders has profited from the tariff scare?
• Is Trump’s acceptance of the luxury 747 airliner from Qatar an impeachable offense? Can you think of any other U.S. president who accepted a similar gift? Will he be impeached over this?
• Trump has put the full faith and credit of the United States behind cryptocurrency and is making billions of dollars as crypto leaders fawn over him. Do you think he should be impeached over this obvious corruption?
• Do you agree with co-VP Stephen Miller that we should suspend habeas corpus?
• What qualifies Laura Loomer to gain entry to the Oval Office?
• Do you agree that accusations of election fraud are themselves fraudulent or are they simply yet another Republican strategy to limit the people’s right to vote?
• When the Republican Party destroys Medicaid, what will you do to help people who no longer have access to medical care? How will you house the elderly who are thrown out of nursing homes?
• Agree or disagree: mRNA vaccines are not only one of the greatest modern medical technologies but were key to limiting US pandemic death to a mere 1,193,165 direct fatalities?
• Have you or your family received the MMR vaccine? If you accept its effectiveness, why should our highest government health officials be permitted to undermine it? Why did RFK Jr. have his children vaccinated while railing against it in every public forum?
• Do you think Ivermectin will be resurrected as a measles therapy?
• Is the world better off now that NIH-sponsored medical research has been disrupted or even destroyed?
• Do you think the United State of America should be white and Christian? Do you think recruiting white South-African immigrants will make “American blood” purer because it’s “whiter”?
• Clearly Trump and his advisers think black and brown people are inferior. What about you?
• Did you agree with the firing of 17 inspectors general? Why would Trump have done this if not to make it easier to dismantle the government?
• Why did Trump decapitate the military if not to make it easier to shoot American citizens who demonstrate in opposition to his policies?
• Do you think DOGE has the right to Americans’ private information?
• Many Maga supporters apparently think a woman’s place is in the home and only there? Do you agree?
And this is just the beginning.
WAMC panelists: You bring up identical issues, even the very issues I list above, when you’re chatting amongst yourselves. Ask your Republican guests to defend them. Insist that the Republicans who come in to “discuss and debate” are made to debate for real. Let them publicly try to defend the indefensible. And when they tell the public to eat cake, fill their mouths with crumbs and let them swallow them.
If any HV1 reader decides to send this letter to WAMC, add a WAMC subscription to it. And subscribe to HV1 as well. We need them both. So many local media outlets have become no more than info-nozzles providing prefab news under centralized corporate direction. Let’s keep local media strong and sound. That’s the intention behind this letter.
William Weinstein
New Paltz
Animal conservancy doctor pronouncement
Someone shot a Bald Eagle
On its Right wing.
The suspect claims to be protected from any punishment
Due to his official position.
An animal conservancy doctor declared,
“The Eagle will have to walk for the rest of its life”
He added, “The Left wing is useless as well.
It has no power to lift itself.”
Ze’ev Willy Neumann
Saugerties
Some sort of perspective
How can we put America’s starvation of Gaza in some sort of perspective? Do we write songs about it? Do we hold up signs? How do we get beyond what our country is capable of doing? Has it always been that way and we didn’t notice?
The pictures are already upon us. The skeletal bodies and shrunken eyes. There are 90,000 children under imminent threat of starvation. The trucks are only a few miles away, but Israel, backed by its partner in crime, the United States, has decided not to let them through.
Do you think we live in a humane society? That we follow some sort of moral code? Do we believe in a God that doesn’t slaughter children? How did we end up in a country that always puts money and power before its basic humanity?
We the people forced an end to our invasion and occupation of Vietnam. Not in time to save the lives of 58,000 US troops and over two million Vietnamese people. We worked at it, defying the police and the college administrators that kept telling us to shut up and be patriotic. It turned out that the war resisters were the patriots. Those in power were the liars and the murderers.
Today, we must overcome the apartheid state of Israel, a toxic mixture of religious fanaticism and wanton cruelty. We must end our support of this genocide against the Palestinian people. The battle is for the soul of our democracy, just as it was in Vietnam.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
Silver Pens
who will finish
the unfinished page
if we step away
fall into the abyss
who will rouse our
muses, guardian angels
to help finish
our story in words
will our lines ever dance
again in spheres of light
if we step away
and do not fall
our message just may
be heard by those to come
whatever it is that bleeds
from war-tarnished silver pens
Patrick Hammer, Jr.
Saugerties
Give Senator Peter Oberacker a call
New York State Senator Peter Oberacker bemoans the fact that the state budget guts three more correctional facilities ignoring “real public safety problems.” He goes on to blame Democrats for a $10 million “slush fund” to cover the legal defense for attorney general Letitia James.
He doesn’t mention that it’s the Republican president who is whipping up false claims of emergency safety problems and that same Republican president is suing Letitia James, requiring her to have money to defend herself.
Senator Oberacker needs to see the big picture. If you’re in his district, call 607-432-5524 to tell him.
Doris Chorny
Wallkill
Supporting Bill NY A 7641
I am writing to you to discuss the importance of sharing and urging your readers to stay informed and take action on the newly introduced New York bill NY A 7641. This bill would allow voters the ability and choice to vote by mail if they are unable to reach a polling location due to religious observances. As a student in New York, many of my peers struggled to make time and access polling locations on election day. Alongside this, being in New York also means I am friends with many people of different religious backgrounds who have very important obligations regarding their faiths. Religious freedom is crucial to American values and society, one should not have to pick between practicing their religion and casting their vote.
Allowing those to vote by mail when they are unable to reach locations on Election Day because of a religious observance ensures that their voices and votes are heard and accounted for. By writing about this bill, many will not only become aware of its existence, but are more likely to urge their assemblymembers to vote in favor of this bill. Even those who are not religious can benefit from the passing of his bill.
By normalizing and supporting mail-in ballots and voting, the access to voting on Election Day will increase and those who may not be able to make time or access polling locations can still have their votes counted through the mail. I strongly urge your support and presentation of this bill so more of your readers can help ensure the passing of this bill. Thank you so much for your time!
Stella Abuauad
student at SUNY New Paltz
Kathy keeps her promise
Kathy Nolan is a member of the Ulster County Legislature who has kept her campaign promise to support trails. When she first campaigned for the legislature, she said she would support trails so that people like us, who no longer feel safe riding our bicycles on the road, would have places to ride.
She has been a clear and steady voice in the legislature advocating for our interest in off-road exercise. Like other golden agers, we depend on having a safe place to ride our bicycles.
It cannot be a “conflict of interest” for a politician to fulfill her campaign promise and advocate for trails who has no financial interest in their construction. Kathy Nolan is a trustworthy politician who is doing what she said she would do if she was elected. This is not always the case!
Kathy Nolan is doing a good job.
Stuart and Susan Auchincloss
Woodstock
Join the family! 
