Minew’s character
Angie Minew should have thought about her own not so honorable actions against her neighbors before she stated that Chris Allen’s actions are not supported by the Ulster County leadership, she knows what actions they are, however they are not printed on the front pages of the newspapers.
I am one of those neighbors. I use to have a beautiful, natural, green fence of bushes separating our driveways, providing privacy until the Minews had a fence installed by workers who tore out a few of my bushes, which she refused to replace with bushes of my choice for the same price. I put up a small tarp where the bushes once were, shortly thereafter my tarp was slashed, tore down and thrown in my driveway. I put it up again. Angie then trespassed on my property, ripped it down, and threw it on my front door step with a nasty note, cursing at me and calling me white trash, that’s a mature person. She then proceeded to cut down more of my bushes while I was away. This is on record at the police department. The former owner of my property planted these bushes 12-plus years ago. Where there once were beautiful bushes there are now two tarps.
This woman is a spiteful, vengeful person. She talks about being held to a higher standard, she should take her own advice. Character matters. Is this the kind of woman you want as your Ulster County legislator?
Arlene Canonico
Saugerties
Peaceful hospitality
I would like to thank the veteran members of Lamouree-Hackett American Legion Post 72 who hosted my students and myself on Sept. 10. As a tour escort for the 17 students who attended Niimi College’s Study Tour to America, I took the student group to Saugerties. Our visit to Saugerties started after I helped the old Japanese soldiers’ flags in World War II that they had kept in their war museum return to the relatives of the original owners in Japan in 2012. In the study tour, we stayed in the village of New Paltz, the sister city to Niimi, and paid one-day visit to Saugerties. My students learned a lot by seeing the artifacts and listening to the explanation about them in the museum, and talking with the veterans, especially the WWII veterans who fought against Japan. Since this year is the 70th anniversary year of the cessation of the war, I do believe our meeting with the WWII veterans was very special to my Japanese students as well as to the veterans themselves. We enjoyed visiting Saugerties Lighthouse with the members also. We really appreciate the very peaceful hospitality of the veterans as you reported in your article titled “Japanese students come to see the people who returned their flags” on Sept. 17. Thank you and Arigato very much.
Kiyoshi Yamauchi,
Professor of English, Niimi College, Japan
Addressing concerns
During the last four months, I have heard various concerns many of which I was able to address. After contacting Town Highway Superintendent Doug Myer and Mayor William Murphy, both did outstanding jobs in addressing nearly all of the concerns that I called to their attention. Mayor Murphy had the Village Highway Department repair an entire road within 24 hours, and Superintendent Myer did the same within 48 hours. In addition, I was able to have CSX Railroad pledge to send their engineering crew onto a dangerous railroad crossing. As a member of the Health Care Committee, I voted on an expansion of the county-run methadone clinic so that recovering addicts can have access to methadone seven days a week. As a member of the Health Care and Ways and Means Committees, I plan on pursuing a continued expansion of mental health services so that counselors can assist those residents who are afflicted with addiction and other mental health issues.
As a member of the Economic Development Committee, I am pursuing a self-generated idea in which I am courting a large foreign-owned company to expand onto Kings Highway. This company has numerous manufacturing/distribution facilities throughout the Northeast, and an expansion onto Kings Highway would bring many jobs into Saugerties. More work like this needs to be done throughout Ulster County in an attempt to curb the excessive commuting distances that many workers endure in our area.
It is unfortunate that my political opponents have seized upon some false allegations that have been leveled against me in order to try and get themselves into political office. If you talk with them and read the letters that they write, it is obvious that they are uninformed and not well versed on issues. They do not possess the same level of knowledge, experience or education. Ask around, one of them cursed at the Chief of Police on New Year’s Day on Main St. in the presence of several other police officers and has had many run-ins with multiple neighbors over the last two years. I do not hide who I am as an individual, and I have been very forthright about myself to voters. Most voters know that I am telling the truth when I state that the charges leveled against me are false, and that I will be fully exonerated of any and all allegations. In 2010, the Federal Justice Department determined that 67, 697 criminal cases were terminated. In recent years, numerous cases of fraudulent allegations have been well documented in the media. It is a misdemeanor to file a false written statement to the police, and anyone 16 or older can be charged as an adult for this crime. I am pleased to hear from hundreds of people who do not believe everything that they read in print or on the internet.
Chris Allen
Legislator, District 2
Defining the debate
Regarding the opinion letter by Jane Toby:
Mr. Nagel operates by repeating lies often enough so his audience, he hopes, will assume they are the truths and Ms. Toby has succumbed to that. For some reason, Nagel and Toby do not know the definitions of the words they use or that their distortions of facts do not change those facts.
Definition: The tern “apartheid” refers to the official government policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in South Africa. Under apartheid the minority government did not allow black South Africans to vote nor were they considered citizens of the country in which they were the overwhelming majority of the population. Israel is not an apartheid state. Arab citizens, a minority in the State of Israel, just like their majority Jewish counterparts, enjoy full and complete citizenship rights, including the right to vote and be represented in the government.
Fact: Israel does not “occupy” the West Bank and Gaza. After the Oslo accords, Israel transferred virtually all civilian authority over Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. Fortunately, it did retain the power to control its own external security. Israel withdrew from every inch of Gaza in 2005; not a single Israeli soldier or civilian remain.
Definition and fact: Genocide is defined as the extermination of a race, i.e., “the systematic killing of all the people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this.” If Israel was truly warlike and by extension, acting in a “genocidal” way as Ms. Toby postulates, there would be, by this time, no Palestinians left. Instead, Palestinians have multiplied by well over 100 percent in the past 30 years.
I find it very interesting that Mr. Nagel and Ms. Toby do not say a word about the nations and Islamic extremist rebel groups, currently operating among their own people, causing the current massive refugee crisis and killing hundreds of thousands. Both Nagel and Toby’s silence on this topic is a true example of hypocrisy. If they want to misapply the term genocide they can use it there; instead they go after the Jews, the historical scapegoat of bigots throughout the world.
Nor are the issues of terrorism towards Israel, not only by the Palestinians, but by “neighbors” such as Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, ISIS/the Islamic State, and Iran even (or ever) addressed by Nagel and Toby.
Jews were the victims of true genocide, and they vowed it would never happen again. Bigots like Nagel try to turn history on its head by constantly hammering Israel with the term genocide. Israel is not perfect, its actions, by and large and with a few exceptions, reflect a democratic, humane society trying to survive amongst nations whose leaders and people are pledged to a “juden free” Middle East. That explains Israel’s deep concern over security and her need for a strong military.
Susan Puretz
Saugerties
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