On the mend
I am an optimistic hypochondriac. I always believe I have some disease, but it’s always improving.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Frightening numbers
If the world population is 7.8 billion and the U.S. population is 328.2 million then, the U.S. makes up 4% of the world’s population.
As of July 20, 8:42 a.m., the global count of worldwide Covid 19 cases was 14,507,491. U.S. cases reached 3,834,208 or, 26 percent of all cases worldwide. Also, Covid-19 deaths worldwide is 606,173 and deaths of U.S. citizens 142,601, a rate of 24 percent.
Why then, if the U.S. makes up only four percent of the world’s population, do we have 26 percent of Covid-19 cases and 24 percent of all deaths?
William Hayes
Saugerties
What have we learned?
I recently sent a letter to our representative Antonio Delgado encouraging him not to support HR 2407 No Way to Treat a Child Act, and to join 413 of his 435 colleagues who also have not signed on. These 413 enlightened representatives realize that the so-called children are largely 15 to19 years old who are also terrorists.
Further, despite propaganda to the contrary, in fact, no Palestinians, minors or otherwise, are held in Israeli military prisons. According to B’Tselem, which is highly critical of Israeli policies, there are zero Palestinian minors being held by the Israeli military. As of August 31, 2018, 239 Palestinian minors were held by the Israel Prison Service (IPS). The IPS is independent of the IDF, and its prisons are civilian, not military.
An example of how anti-Israel peace extremists spew their propaganda comes from 2011 when Israel freed Palestinians in the second stage of an exchange. They claimed that one prisoner released, Izzedine Abu Sneineh, had been arrested in 2008, at the age of 15, for “throwing stones and hanging Palestinian flags from telephone poles.”
If in fact, Israel really imprisoned Palestinian children merely for putting up flags or throwing stones, there would be tens of thousands of Palestinian children in Israeli jails, instead of less than two hundred at that time. Whatever young Abu Sneineh did, it had to involve something much more serious.
In fact, it is not hard to find out what he did. The Israeli prison service published, at that time, a full list of all the prisoners about to be released. So what do we learn from that list? Az al-Din Shhada Akram Abu Snina, prisoner ID 855043360, was convicted and sentenced for “weapons training; attempted murder” and possession of “weapons, ammo and explosives.” So the “child” was not throwing stones and hanging flags. Rather he attempted murder and possessed weapons, including ammunition and explosives.
Unfortunately, 22 representatives do not understand that Israel is dealing with Palestinians, whose major thrust in life is to exterminate the nation of Israel. While the bill’s title seems to make it appear like it’s an “apple pie and motherhood” issue, it is actually an anti-Israel/anti-Semitic subterfuge. It is no surprise that this bill was introduced by Rep Betty McCollum, who, along with only 36 members of Congress out of over 400, voted against the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, which imposed harsh sanctions on Palestine and designated the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority as “a terrorist sanctuary.”
Susan Puretz
Saugerties
Court leaves women behind
Medical decisions should be made between a patient and their doctor. Employers should have nothing to do with it. Yet, last Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling has allowed employers to push their own religious agenda in the workplace by denying employees coverage for birth control.
Now, more than 75,000 people are at risk of losing access to birth control, further reducing healthcare coverage during a global health crisis. Women in every state are at a higher risk for unintended pregnancies without the ability to make reproductive decisions such as family planning and lack the social and economic support to care for a child following delivery.
This abhorrent ruling gives employers far too much control over the health decisions of their employees. It is a blatant attack on American women and their bodies to allow organizations and businesses to overrule personal choice and freedom. It is a blow to our hard-earned progress to advance reproductive rights and access to birth control, which are both basic human rights. Lack of access only furthers racial and socioeconomic health disparities. Without widespread contraceptive coverage, women are left behind.
This decision can’t be allowed to stand. The courts hang in the balance of the November election, so it is critical that we vote Trump out of office. Last year the Senate Democratic majority passed a long-blocked Reproductive Health Act, Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act and Boss Bill which strives in the right direction! We need New Yorkers to head to the polls to elect officials who will stand up for the health, empowerment and rights of everyone, everywhere. We need to #FightforHER.
Sarina Abraham
Cortlandt Manor
False god
History will likely identify this as the single moment when Donald Trump’s presidency began its irreversible descent: when Trump, his path cleared by tear gas and accompanied by his entourage of advisors and military chieftains, stood in front of a Washington church and held aloft — “wielded” is the better term — a bible.
The pageantry of the scene crystallized an unintended symbolism for many astonished Americans: Trump as a vengeful god, attacking his enemies and issuing his latest threat. Yet the moment captured with gaping clarity the essence of Trump the man: small and pathetic. The just-released memoir of his niece, Mary Trump, traces the dysfunction in the Trump family history. It produced for the world stage a weak man, desperately trying to project strength, spinning battle fields and enemies, leaving a nation tattered and exhausted.
In the face of Covid-19’s onslaught, he threatens state and local officials who don’t open their region’s economic and civic life as quickly as he demands. The virus rebukes him. Now, he threatens to withhold federal aid from other state and local leaders who hesitate to open wide the doors of their schools in the fall. Thankfully, those leaders ignore him and follow the guidance of science.
We have a cartoon gangster president without the mojo. Braying thunder without lightning, he’s no Tony Soprano. Pathetic. November can’t come soon enough.
Tom Denton
Highland
A sweet service for elders
I’ve been taking advantage of a new service in my local town that was created specifically to help elders. Because older folks are more susceptible to the negative effects of the coronavirus, the town has established a list of young townspersons who have volunteered their time to shop for elders who would like to avoid mingling with lots of people in stores. Everybody in town are wearing masks, and many are also wearing gloves, as they go about their daily activities. I’m proud of our community because most of us are functioning as if we love our lives and want to continue to love our lives. I like the slogan, “I wear a mask because I care about you, and I also wear a mask because I care about me.”
The volunteers shop for each person, and when they arrive at the cash register in the store, the cashier calls my home phone number and I give them my credit card info to cover the cost of the food. Fifteen minutes later the volunteer is at my front door, dropping off everything that I ordered. And I didn’t have to go out. It’s very cool. I am happy to give the volunteers a tip, but most of them don’t even want a tip. It’s their form of service, and they seem very happy just to help out a town elder.
It’s a great service, but I only have one issue with it. It’s my issue. To accept the service gracefully I need to embrace the fact that I am a senior citizen. Since I’m blind, and have been blind for over 40 years, I haven’t ever had the opportunity to see myself in the mirror and slowly watch the aging process and its effects on my body. I still have that old, internal image of a younger version of Marty. Even though all my friends tell me how my beard is all gray, I have stubbornly held onto that old image. But maybe it’s time to let go of that old image, and make friends, in this present time, with the new image. The wonderful elder that I am!
Marty Klein
Woodstock
Get to know the artists
You may not be interested in participating in the artists’ tour in Saugerties this year (their 18th) for various reasons, including Covid, but you owe it to yourself to go on their virtual tour. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic it’s the only way you can participate. If you do, and I hope you do, you will not be disappointed.
I have gone on the tour almost every year since it started, but nothing prepared me for the virtual tour. What an eye-opener. I’m no artist, but I can appreciate good art and hard work (they usually go hand in hand) when I see it. All the artists interviewed in five minute clips displayed an abundance of both. The interviews of each artist, working in their studio, discussing their methods and hearing from them directly about what inspires them, why they chose this path, what brought them to the Hudson Valley (some locally grown) or to this country (from Europe and elsewhere) and what keeps them doing what they’re doing. Simply amazing.
All I can say is you won’t be disappointed. Credit goes to Barbara Bravo for coordinating (she is also one of the artists interviewed) and Michael Nelson for the filming, editing, sound-track production, as well as the drone footage and Dr. Barbara Wild for the introduction. Log on, sit back and learn something about the artists living right next door to you.
Paul Andreassen
Malden on Hudson
Overstepping his bounds
The previous ethics board found [town supervisor Bill] McKenna in violation of the ethics law when at a Woodstock planning board meeting he used his position to influence its members. The current ethics board, based upon a complaint made against him, advised McKenna he should “steer clear of” any activities that could reasonably appear to be seeking to influence a decision of the building inspector.
At a previous planning-board meeting, a member of the library board said: “The town supervisor early on asked the town board and planning board if they wanted to be lead agency in the SEQRA environmental review and they said no, so he gave the library permission to go ahead.” The planning board then voted 7-0 for them to be the lead agency.
I wonder what the response of the ethics board will be to that.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Mask-wearing is necessary
Scientists told us that wearing a mask can reduce the pandemic’s spread. Ordering people to wear masks in public places became controversial because president Donald Trump encouraged the naysayers, polarizing the issue. The Republican position ridicules wearing masks. They want freedom to do as they wish.
Unfortunately, universal mask-wearing is necessary to be effective.
Their false argument is that our constitution provides for basic freedom and wearing a mask infringes on that freedom. All laws infringe on our freedom, and that is their purpose. Without laws there would be anarchy. Imagine a day when we could decide whether to stop for a red light. Even worse, imagine a day when we could shoot everyone we did not like. We know it is illegal to cry fire in a movie theater because it would cause panic and a stampede.
Passing a national law requiring universal mask-wearing in public is not unconstitutional and is hardly a novel action. Every civilized society has multitudes of laws and enforcement makes them work. Republicans want small government and limited laws. A reasonable position, but not a basis for rejecting a law needed for the common good.
Mask-wearing is the simplest and least expensive way to combat a raging pandemic. We have the worst outbreak in the world while other countries have shown that the pandemic can be brought under control. Refuters are uncaring about others and may bring peril upon themselves. We need a national mask law which is strictly enforced. Republican obstructionism is a pointless defense of unsound views of freedom accomplishing nothing but feeding the pandemic.
Hal Chorny
Gardiner
Greasing the skids
Today, July 21, Democrat Delgado and 324 other Congress misrepresentatives voted against a pathetic ten percent cut in the military budget.
Can someone explain to me the difference between a Democrat like Delgado and a Republican? I’m looking real hard but they look very much the same to me. Ninety-three Democrats voted for the cut. In them, I can see some difference, slight in most of them, but visible.
But when I look closer at the Delgado Dems, they actually look worse to me than the Republicans. At least one knows exactly where most Republicans stand, they’re very direct in their fascist leanings. But Democrats like Delgado, besides being just as damaging as the Republicans, also have the additional factor of being deceptive. Comfortable so-called progressive liberals, I have noticed over the years, take comfort from the fantasy that Dems are just a little better and that their privileges might be slightly more protected.
Actually, the Democrats are worse. They grease the skids that the country is riding the handbasket to hell on.
I’m really open to changing my views if someone can indeed show me some real positive difference. Start with Delgado.
Tarak Kauff
Woodstock
Keep them away
Active Covid cases in Ulster County have been going down; 107 as of July 21. But cases in Saugerties have been going up; eight as of July 21, up from three a few days ago. The likely cause are the HITS people from Florida and other states with out-of-control Covid.
Meyer A. Rothberg
Saugerties
Fact versus opinion
Fact: The AARP and National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare, both, have informed this writer that included in the 2021 federal budget, there are attempts to rein in Social Security and/or get rid of it. The Republicans would like nothing better than to get rid of Roosevelt’s New-Deal programs and Social Security is one of them. There are various proposals included in this budget, one of which is a 15-20 percent monthly cut in senior benefits per month; this is going to hit hard for those seniors 65-95 years of age who could lose $240 per month for anyone drawing $1200 per month or $2888 per year! Anyone drawing more than $1200 per month will witness a greater amount deducted monthly and a larger total yearly. Also, a payroll tax which comes out of Social Security and Medicare.
In addition, this ‘privatization’ concept is always on the agenda. However, the budget has to be signed by both parties and the president in order for it to be lawful and placed into effect. The big danger is that Trump will hold the Democrats hostage over these benefits. For example, Trump not releasing the next stimulus packet for Americans unless the Democrats cut some deals with him over Social Security.
Opinion: this, my way or the highway, is a slip-and-slide maneuver to get Congress to address the concerns mentioned above. It does not make a ‘hoot’ what party you belong to or what you believe in, if you are drawing benefits, you, me and other seniors in that 65-95 bracket are going to get it right up the old ‘whazoo.’
I belong to three organizations: the NCPSSM (National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medicare), the Democratic Party (just joined June 2019) and AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). All three give me periodic updates as to the shenanigans going on in the government, particularly concerning my benefits, that’s right, my benefits. If you’re in those age brackets 65-95, you’re also eligible for the whazoo ride of your life.
I knew an individual years ago who hated Democrats and their socialism, big-government programs, but yet drew his Social Security check each month and availed himself of Medicare when needed! What does that tell you about this sop of an individual. If you hate the Democrats, fine, drop your benefits and be honest with yourself; stop sucking on that big nipple and walk the talk.
There are at least 44 million seniors in this country of a population of approximately 341 million and if eligible, in those age brackets, I would venture to say, they are drawing benefits. I cannot imagine them not drawing them if they have paid in and are eligible for them! But people, seniors, get carried away by other happenings the Trump administration becomes involved in, such as immigration, abortion, Covid 19, racial situations, problems with allies and on and on. But if you are collecting benefits between the ages of 65-95, do not get distracted with these shenanigans; your primary function is to ensure your benefits for the remainder of your natural life, which at 65-95, the light is becoming dimmer by the month.
One final word, 44 million seniors going to the polls and putting pressure is one heck of a voting bloc on our representatives to support our positions on our benefits and, in addition, can get the present occupant in the Oval Office on the road permanently to his golf courses worldwide. Get with it seniors, complain, complain, complain!
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
M-S-N-B-C (a parody)
Robert Kennedy once said: “Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.”
I once said: “Some people notice the bias of the press and ask why. I notice the bias of the press and write a song parody exposing and ridiculing the bias …. It’s very cathartic”
M-S-N-B-C (sung to the tune of “Home on the Range.”)
(Chorus)
M-S-N-B-C
Where morning Joe and his wife have a say
where the views are all skewed
and all the comments exude
hate for “Donald” three hours each day
Oh give me a show where the pundits all crow
bitter vitriol all the long day
Where the truth is not told
and the pundits controlled
by the words they’re instructed to say
(Chorus)
M-S-N-B-C
Where Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow both work
Where Donald Trump’s always bashed
and fake news is rehashed
‘cos they think Donald Trump’s just a Jerk
Oh give me a man who does all that he can
to make all of Trump’s people look bad
where the talking heads know
that their ratings won’t grow
but they don’t care not even a tad
(Chorus)
M-S-N-B-C
Where Brian Williams and O’’Donnell thrive
Where fake news is rehashed
And Donald Trump’s always bashed
and they must hide the truth to survive
If you want a news gal whose a former Bush pal
turn the channel to M-S-N-B-C
You’ll find Nicole Wallace there
And George Bush doesn’t care
that her show is “Trump hatred” TV
(Chorus)
M-S-N-B-C
Where Chris Hayes is a star on the rise
Where fake news is rehashed
And Donald Trump’s always bashed
and they spread propaganda and lies
Oh give me a show where the pundits all blow
mere hot air with the words that they speak
where they don’t have a fear
that it’s made very clear
they think every Trump supporter’s a freak
(Chorus)
M-S-N-B-C
where they hope Old Joe Biden will win
Where Donald Trump’s always bashed
and fake new is rehashed
and every vote for The Donald’s a sin
George Civile
Gardiner
If not us, who?
We are saddened that we did not appreciate John Lewis fully until after his recent death. What an amazing legacy he had in both civil rights and environmental justice.
One of his favorite mantras was “If not us, who, and if not now, when?” As a proponent of the Green New Deal, and an advocate of climate change activism, he will be remembered as an environmental justice icon.
As we honor him, we should ask those same questions, and hopefully the answers will be “us” and “now.”
After experiencing a pandemic and realizing that planning and preparation are essential, we must be aware that we cannot be cavalier about our next incredible challenge. Let’s each take John Lewis’s advice, and “be the change we want to see.”
Dan and Ann Guenther
New Paltz
Storm troopers in Portland
In the Portland protest an unmarked, uniformed man unmercifully beat, with a baton, a man wearing a shirt with NAVY written on the front of it. Why? The Navy guy asking questions was large, the baton wielder was small. Size matters, as we’ve seen in the video of George Floyd being murdered.
Size is the first factor men consider on the playgrounds and in battlefields. What I also suspect is baton man had to follow the unwritten rules of fraternity of his organization, one of them being to not show vulnerability, because it jeopardizes fellow troops. If those rules were broken, baton man would pay with being rejected, he would get no promotion and would be given the worst jobs in the future.
Navy shirt was a truth-teller. When baton man heard him say that he was breaking the laws of our constitution, baton man was instantly trapped between being a lawbreaker and a lawkeeper. This impossible truth may have fueled his violent actions.
We are witnessing inhumanity being done to protesting citizens as well as some protesting citizens demonstrating with violence. Our government’s response is being led by sociopathic leadership. To me, it is like watching a tormented snake biting anything within its reach and frightening everyone that is watching.
For those who want to understand where this kind of overt narcissistic pain comes from, it is when love has been taken away in childhood. Today, the pain of one individual in power is being manipulated by those in our government who want to destroy tradition and rhetoric that is restricting their own full power and wealth.
Wealth, greed and a lack of ethics is now running the most tax-funded and powerful economy in the world. We the public, are watching leadership plow through our natural resources, step upon our human integrity and ignore eons of philosophical insights and wisdom learned from morally successful societies.
I personally see the Vietnam war as having been the societal inflection point by televising war for ten years. The ability to see real death on TV numbed the public, allowing morality to be pushed aside for politics. We literally watched human life being turned into capital night after night.
The violence coming from Black Lives Matter demonstrations has frightened leadership enough to pass a few laws. At the same time, it has created an opportunity to bring in storm troopers. We are witnessing our judicial system be undone by the element of time.
Politicians have neutered our justice system by making it so complex that by the time it takes to make legal decisions, large numbers of deaths have accumulated. Examples are with migrants seeking freedom, blacks in the streets calling for equality, our elderly in nursing homes and pandemic patients in our hospitals waiting for help.
Perhaps this is what is needed to awaken us to behave like every other animal on the planet does by taking care of and loving their young.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Next step, martial law?
Supercallousfragileracistsexistnazipotus and his camouflage Gestapo-tactics police force is the new stagecraft of a desperate man. We are now witnessing Trump creating a false narrative that America is burning. So who are these “federal agent troops” anyway? His thugs? They are using tear gas on peaceful protesters, they beat up protesters and they throw other peaceful protesters in the back of unmarked vans.
Trump is attacking our very democracy when he postures as the tough guy, manufacturing chaos to play the law and order president. Lies and misinformation are this administration’s stock and trade. The DHS now has a Gestapo image because it’s acting like the authoritarian agent of a president who is enamored with despots and cruel dictators. This is a whole of government approach by our a-h*le muthafaker leader and now we must readjust and roll our eyes once more!
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Trapped in a bad movie
As a bible-believing Christian, I must confess to enjoying watching end-times movies. The plot was always along the same lines, the church gets raptured and a small group of new believers is left behind to face a world gone mad.
One of the things I enjoyed was the silliness of the non-believers. They all became irrational, called those who wouldn’t take the mark of the beast ‘haters,’ and betrayed their own neighbors. I would laugh at the bad actors and the poor scripts.
Then 2020 came, and I suddenly find myself trapped in one of the movies I had mocked. The irrational fear, the blind following of the stupidest of government regulations, the extreme in your face self-appointed mask police. It’s all here. Now.
Please don’t get me wrong, the virus should be taken seriously, but that doesn’t mean that every idiotic suggestion must be taken as necessary to stop the spread.
There was no reason to shut down the entire economy, no rationale for some businesses being ‘unnecessary’. If the governor’s paycheck was stopped, and he was kept to his tiny apartment, I wonder if he would have been so bold.
But you can’t criticize. No! You’ll kill people if you question them. Meanwhile, people die alone in hospitals and nursing homes while government officials take their bows. Satan has turned up the temperature and found that most of the frogs won’t jump out of the pot.
So I apologize to the makers of all those ridiculous end-times movies. You had it about right.
Jeffrey Mahoney
Hyde Park
Fighting COVID-19 internationally
In the current tumultuous state of national affairs, many have lost sight of the important and valuable work that must be done overseas, particularly regarding COVD-19. What is infrequently recognized, by both citizens and officials alike, is that an investment in global health security is an investment in U.S. national security. Our economic interests are at stake as previously developing economies take even larger hits than ours, closing markets for American products that have been growing for years.
I have been encouraging Rep. Antonio Delgado as well as Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to increase the international affairs budget to make an investment in global relief in addition to the domestic relief. The Borgen Project is an amazing nonprofit involved in tackling global poverty on all fronts and they have been leading the charge to lobby congressional members nationwide on this issue.
Many do not believe that foreign aid is a useful investment, but to the contrary, it is a vital investment in ourselves. By creating a safer international system, we bolster our own national security, reduce the need for the U.S. to be a global policeman and create opportunities for economic growth of our own.
I hope these issues can gain more traction in our national dialogue about COVID-19.
Scott Oatkin
Rhinebeck
Get rid of the black police cars
Over the years, I have written several letters expressing my appreciation for the New Paltz police. The one “critical” letter I wrote was several years ago when the department was moved from the center of the village to the South Putt Corners Road location. I still don’t think the move to that location was a good decision.
A few years ago (don’t remember how many), I was totally put off by the sudden, new look of the police cars! At this point in time, I do not recall what the cars looked like before, but I remember them as projecting a pleasant, rather friendly, inoffensive message-image. These mostly black cars send out a very different message: macho, aggressive, angry, “stay out of my way”, “we’ll get you.”
“Black is negative.” Let me tell you a story. Last winter, while parked on a New York street, I forgot to turn my lights off and when I came back, yes, the battery was dead. I stopped a few cars to charge it for me, until a cab stopped and a young black guy cheerfully took my cables and connected our batteries. I told him I never know which color on the battery and the cable go together. He hooked them up, smiled, and said “remember, black is negative!” We chuckled over it as a rather trumpian remark; he refused to take my $5 (“we are all New Yorkers!”) so I gave it to his fare, who promised to somehow make him take it. We parted, and I was able to drive back to New Paltz.
“Black is beautiful!” is another, more familiar, positive, slogan. But our police’s black cars are NOT beautiful, they are aggressively “negative”. It would be desirable if as part of the reinvention process, they also make an attempt to project a helpful, inviting image, by repainting their cars.
Misha Harnick
New Paltz
Federal Covid aid package
In the wake of the 2008 collapse of the financial order, the American system saved itself by propping up with hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars the very bankers whose recklessness, greed and immorality caused the meltdown. The bailouts left bankers with huge bonuses for a job badly done, but left average taxpayers on their own to lose their homes and their jobs.
Oh, well.
Now, the American system is prepared to perform a variation on that theme.
Senate Republicans want to reduce Covid-19 federal unemployment benefits from $600 per week to $200.
Not at all coincidentally, those same lawmakers and President Donald Trump also want the benefits legislation to absolve employers from any liability connected to workers contracting Covid-19 in the workplace.
It is a two-pronged, unified political strategy — force labor back into danger by cutting benefits, but hold employers harmless for the level of that danger in the workplace that they control.
And if workers (and their families) die because they were made to work?
Oh, well.
As in 2008, this is the political system seeking to protect capital at the expense of humble citizen-workers.
In the 2020 variation, the conscious strategy of compelling American labor to perform regardless of its human cost is no anomaly. This model of labor control — in which lawmakers are in bed with capital — traces its roots to our long history of slavery, which treated labor as a thing that legally could be bought, sold, abused and depreciated, all with the steady support of the machinery of government.
Think of the Republican package in this case as a kind of Fugitive Slave Act of 2020, designed to return workers to the plantation.
Tony Adams
Kingston
What are you thinking?
Senator Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi what are you watching? Don’t you see what’s going on in cities coast to coast? I can imagine how you would have been screaming if the Tea Party had used these tactics during the Obama administration. These are not protests — they’re even more than riots. They’re an attempt to start an insurrection with the goal of the overthrow of the U.S. government. Antifa and other radical groups make this plain and their tactics mimic those of Hitler’s Brown Shirts before he came to power.
Do you believe it will stop if Joe Biden is elected? It won’t. They’ll continue to push until our republic is replaced by an authoritarian government. You call the federal agents protecting federal property Storm Troopers and ignore the tactics of Antifa and their allies, that anything goes if it stops Trump from being reelected. Like Dr. Frankenstein, you better be careful of the monster you’re helping to create.
John Habersberger
New Paltz
Let’s focus on our failure to adequately fund social services and safety
The case of Robert Guarino, the Anderson Center for Autism resident arrested 14 times since April, is not proof that bail reform isn’t working as Saugerties Police Chief Joe Sinagra claims. Instead, it shows that municipalities, states and the federal government have invested in law enforcement over services for people with mental illness and disabilities.
Guarino’s multiple arrests for property damage and aggressive behavior strengthen the case for redistributing funds away from policing to services that actually address the underlying causes of many crimes — mental illness, poverty, homelessness, addiction and unemployment. We should be calling for programs that can actually keep people out of jail rather than decrying that an autistic man should have been in jail after his first time breaking facility windows.
If the Anderson Center cannot provide Mr. Guarino with the structure and services he needs, it should find a therapeutic program that can. But those therapeutic group homes and facilities are scarce, if they exist at all. Therein lies the rub. Let’s focus on our failure to adequately fund social services and safety nets rather than bemoaning bail reform.
Christine Dinsmore
Saugerties
Join the family! 
