The views and opinions expressed in our letters section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hudson Valley One. You can submit a letter to the editor here.
Editor’s note
Hudson Valley One is experiencing a backlog of letters. The October 26 issue will be the last issue in which letters criticizing a candidate for office in the November 8 election will be printed, so as to allow for a response. If space allows, letters endorsing a candidate that contain no criticism of his or her opponent will be accepted for publication in the November 2 issue.
Deb Alexsa, Editor
Support the candidacy of Josh Riley for Congress
In this time of political polarization and intense emotional feelings on both sides, I offer the following information in asking you to support the candidacy of Josh Riley for Congress.
I can go on and on about his qualifications (his working-class background, his community activism and commitment to our region, etc.), but let it suffice to say that he has earned his stripes. Because some of the following are goals that he aspires to fulfill and will work for them in the same way he has worked for all the causes he believes in. I think we can take him on his word.
He says that:
We must revitalize, innovate and strengthen the economy (rise) in a way that lifts everyone up and brings everyone along. That goal is one way he will represent us.
He says that:
Working families need relief from high and rising costs and that seniors have earned the right to retire with dignity. As a senior, I can really identify with that goal.
He says that:
Healthcare should be a civil right for all Americans. I, fortunately, am adequately medically covered, but for many of you reading this letter, it should be reassuring that this is a major goal of his.
I urge you to visit his website (https://joshrileyforcongress.com). After doing that, I am sure that whatever political party you believe in, Josh Riley would be the best person to vote for!
Susan Puretz
Saugerties
Why I am voting
I am voting on November 8 because this election is one of the most important of our lifetimes. Our very democracy is at risk. Extreme religious and political views threaten women’s health and freedom. The availability of assault weapons coupled with inadequate background checks and insufficient mental health funding is leading to growing gun violence. Current Congressional support is lacking for critical environmental programs. And these problems are compounded further by limitations intended to diminish voter turn-out at the polls.
Please don’t buy into the intentional lies over social media and TV that would have you blame inflation on one party’s economic policies and forget the multiple impacts of a pandemic unlike any we have ever known, the war in Ukraine which is causing fuel oil and gasoline spikes and weather disasters. These economic woes are exacerbated by a tax system that favors the wealthy few while impacting the well-being of most of our citizens.
Vote thoughtfully. Your vote is needed. Election Day in New York is Tuesday, November 8, 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Early voting in New York is from October 29-November 6. In Ulster County the early polling locations are at the American Legion in Shokan, the Midtown Neighborhood Center in Kingston, the Ellenville Public Library, the New Paltz Community Center, the Marlborough Town Hall in Milton, and the Saugerties Senior Citizens Center. You can vote at any early voting location, but hours vary.
Andrea Barrist Stern
Hurley
Get the truth from Pat Ryan
Colin Schmitt is becoming increasingly desperate in his campaign for the new 18th Congressional District. In his recent advertising campaign, he makes untrue accusations about congressman Pat Ryan. I’ve known and worked with Pat for years and never once has he uttered the words “defund the police.” He has never supported “turning criminal defendants loose” or “non-doctors performing abortions up to the moment of birth.” And most ludicrous, Mr. Schmitt claims that “Pat Ryan does not support punishing criminals who attack pregnant mothers.” It seems that Mr. Schmitt has taken a page out of the Trump playbook: Just say it and hope it makes it true.
Being a legitimate political opponent is one thing, but spreading deceitful and pernicious falsehoods is something else and should make voters in the Hudson Valley sit up and take notice. We don’t need more disinformation in Congress. If you want to get the truth on congressman Pat Ryan’s actions and positions, visit his website at patryanforcongress.org.
Stacey Rein
Tivoli
Make your vote count
I’ll be voting for Democrats Pat Ryan, Michelle Hinchey, Sarahana Shrestha and Jen Metzger in gratitude for their steadfast support for action on climate change.
After I finish voting for them, I’m going to turn my ballot over and vote Yes for the Clean Air, Clean Water and Green Jobs Bond Act. This Bond Act will begin to cure much of the toxic, life-threatening harm we see every day, all around us. Just a few of the benefits:
• Harmful Algal Bloom abatement.
• Municipal grants for stormwater with green infrastructure.
• Flood buyouts for willing sellers.
• Green building projects including investments for green infrastructure and renewable energy on SUNY, CUNY and community college buildings.
• Investments to reduce urban heat such as green roofs, open space preservation, urban tree plantings and community cooling centers.
Kitty Brown
New Paltz
Vote for Gregory Simpson in Hurley
Gregory Simpson is on the Town of Hurley ballot this November, running to fill the remainder of the Town Board term vacated by our Supervisor Melinda McKnight, when she was elected last year. There are more than 2200 registered Democrats in the Town of Hurley. Fewer than half voted in the last election.
It’s critical that we increase voter turnout and elect Democrats committed to democracy and freedom up and down the ballot. Please make a plan for voting early or on Election Day.
Early voting begins October 29 at six sites throughout Ulster County. Visit https://elections.ulstercountyny.gov/early-voting/ for complete information. The two closest voting sites to Hurley are in Olive and the City of Kingston. See you at the polls.
Want to help? Contact Hurley Dems at HurleyDemsNY@gmail.com.
Tobe Carey
Glenford
In support of Jen Metzger
As a Rosendale resident, I was privileged to be represented by Jen Metzger, both as my Town councilwoman and New York State senator. I know firsthand that Jen will work successfully to meet today’s – and tomorrow’s – challenges. In Rosendale, Jen made sure that affordable housing was included in economic redevelopment plans, ensuring that enticements for developers would also benefit the community.
As my State senator, Jen not only helped pass the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act but held town halls to ensure that renters, landlords and homeowners understood how the new law protected them.
Also as senator, Jen invested in our children’s future, passing the strongest climate law in the country and introducing legislation to permanently ban fracking – unlike her Republican/Conservative opponent Jim Quigley! Quigley fought mightily to bring GlidePath’s fracked-gas burning plant to the Town of Ulster, even blocking public hearings. Only after public outrage and advocacy by Jen was the project resited and repurposed as a renewable energy facility. Now, Quigley wants to claim credit.
As County executive, Jen will tackle the affordable housing crisis, repurposing vacant buildings and working with developers to build new state-of-the-art housing. To the residents of the Town of Ulster, I am certain that had Jen been your Town supervisor for the past 12 years, you would not have had Tech City and the Hudson Valley Mall as dead weight on your tax rolls for all those years.
If you care about the future of our county, vote for Jen on Election Day!
Penny Coleman
Rosendale
Support Proposition 44 on November 8
I am asking that Proposition 44 be passed in November 2022 that will allow libraries to determine their own budget.
The Gardiner Library in Gardiner, Ulster County, New York is asking for a modest increase of $19,255; the last increase was in 2019. This increase per individual would cost less than a paperback or gallon of milk.
As a member of the Gardiner Library, I can affirm that this town library is beautifully run – growing a very active membership, offering interesting programs and events, a large gallery/all-purpose room for art shows and musical programs. But inflation is hurting the expansion of vitally important programs such as classes for children and adults, e-books, e-audio and streaming, which services are depended on by the elderly and homebound individuals, as well as an increasing number of regular attendees using digital services as well as the hard copy collection. Most importantly, this modest increase would enable librarians to be better paid, as they currently earn 35.07 percent below a livable wage for a family of three.
The quality of a Town used to be determined by how it maintained its cemeteries; but today, it certainly would be its library – a vital source of culture, spiritual and mental enrichment in a culture fast unraveling.
Katherine Greene
New Paltz
Vote for Democrats and say YES to Proposition 1
I am a voting Democrat and this year, I am excited to vote Democrat all down the line in this important midterm election. Why? Well, I am an environmental activist, and we happen to have a slate of candidates who really care about the environment. They care about trying to find ways to protect us from the changes that climate change is bringing and will bring, creating green jobs filled by local workers at a living wage, help to address the impacts that pollution and climate change has inflicted on the less fortunate in our communities,
And to help with all these initiatives, it is very important that you FLIP YOUR BALL OVER AND VOTE YES ON PROP 1 (Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act) which will put $4.2 billion in our budget to start doing the work that needs to be done to keep our air and water clean, to protect wildlife, create those green jobs, as well as developing ways to address the many impacts our changing climate is creating in our lives.
So please join me in voting for Democrats and say YES to Proposition 1!
Amy Kletter
New Paltz
Most qualified candidate for Ulster County executive
I’ll be casting my vote for Jen Metzger (D) for Ulster County executive and I hope you will, too. Jen has a solid record of executive and legislative accomplishments. As Rosendale’s deputy supervisor, she fought against Central Hudson’s rate-gouging and she included affordable housing requirements in the Town’s incentive zoning plans. In the State Senate, she continued to focus on local issues: broadband access, housing safety and protecting small farmers, to name a few, while tackling statewide issues, like the opioid crisis, climate change and veterans’ needs. Now on the New York State Cannabis Control Board, Jen is working to establish the most significant new industry in our state in over a generation.
Jen has the breadth of knowledge, contacts and know-how we want in a County executive. She is ready on Day One to deal with the housing shortage, lower property taxes, expand mental health and substance abuse services, build the local green economy and establish a redevelopment plan. Not only does her opponent have very limited experience, he has failed his own Town time and time again: raising local taxes during the pandemic (against public outcry); trying to bring in a fracked-gas burning power plant (against public outcry); refusing to join the Climate Smart Communities (a voluntary cost-free program that makes Towns eligible for significant grant money); and, perhaps most egregiously, allowing the Hudson Valley Mall and Tech City to rot away and lose hundreds of millions of dollars in value because he simply did not have the vision and passion to redevelop those properties.
The choice is clear: to move Ulster County in the right direction, vote for Jen Metzger for County executive.
Beth Kneller
Esopus
They are not bogus
When in doubt, punt: That is exactly what our supervisor did when he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He should have realized that a knowledgeable public would not be fooled forever, especially when they have a guidon.
Howard Harris
Woodstock
New Tech City
For those who don’t know, or may have forgotten, the Ulster County Charter came about as the result of the 30 percent increase in property taxes caused by the years-late and $30 million overbudget construction of the Jail. The same thing could have happened with Tech City. Our previous executive, Pat Ryan, appeared to have had some big plans for the site. Fortunately, National Resources came in and rescued us from our government.
Aside from the merits of what Ryan had in mind lies the universal truth that government has a proclivity of turning good ideas into taxpayer nightmares. Building a new jail began as a good idea. During the Charter transition the lead investigator for the jail inquiry committee recommended that a legislative firewall committee be automatically initiated to oversee any projects that exceeded X amount of dollars. The recommendation was not adopted. Perhaps it’s time to take another look at that idea.
Tom Kadgen
Shokan
Schemes
In early 2020, Democrat Tulsi Gabbard (a US Army Reserve officer, four-term Hawaii congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate) sued Hillary Clinton for defamation because of her indirect (she never mentioned Gabbard by name) but startling insinuation that Tulsi was a Russian asset. Although the suit was quickly withdrawn, Tulsi continued her criticism of Hillary and, increasingly, the Democratic Party. Recently, Tulsi made a political move that seemed inevitable: She left and renounced her Party in no uncertain terms.
With this in view, during his show, Ms. Gabbard was asked by Tucker Carlson to comment on the November midterms and the prospects of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris winning a second term in 2024, when nearly 70 percent of those polled think the country is going in the wrong direction. Instead of answering directly, Ms. Gabbard responded by singing the following cryptic parody of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” titled “Schemes.” Written for her by someone who asked to remain anonymous, Ms. Gabbard commissioned the parody after discussing the topic with the song’s writer in early June of 2022.
(Schemes)
Now here he comes again he says
“I have great visions
They’ll turn your whole world upside-down”
It’s always wrong when he
Says it the way he means it
Listen carefully you’ll start to frown
‘Cos of brokenness
From a good thing that’s gone bad
You’ll remember all the better days that you once had
But now are lost
That you once had
But now you’ve lost
(Transition Bridge)
Oh Biden’s only lying when he’s talking
Seems he’s always lost when he is walking
Say voters they will come and they will go
When midterm’s tales are told you’ll know
You’ll know
(Stanza)
Now here he comes again with scheming stories
Wish he would keep them to himself
It’s very few who ever find his new schemes helpful
Schemes of things we’ll have to buy and sell
They bring brokenness
‘Cos confusion’s oh so bad
From reasons unbelievable of why we lost
What we once had
Yes why we lost
What we once had
(Transition bridge)
Harris always laughs when she is talking
She can’t explain the schemes that Joe’s hawking
I wish that finally she would just come clean
Kamala doesn’t know what Joe’s words mean
What they mean
(Stanza)
Well here he comes once more
With dark sunglasses
The Tom Cruise aviator kind
They hide his eyes so well
No one can ever see them
But they cannot hide his failing feeble mind
Or the brokenness
From memories that are sad
That speak painfully of surprise at what was had
But has been lost
Yes what was had
That now is lost
(Transition closing 2X)
Oh Joe’s not always sleeping when he’s dreaming
But he’s always wrong when he is scheming
Elections they will come and they will go
When midterm’s tales are told you’ll know
You will know
We’ll all know
George Civile
Gardiner
Vote for Gardiner community’s own agency
Gardiner and the surrounding region is increasingly known and long loved for its open space, nature and natural beauty, farmland and outdoors lifestyle; indeed, many of us were drawn to and choose to stay in Gardiner for this very reason. However, Gardiner has few tools of its own to ensure that what draws people here and inspires us to stay – our open space – is sustained in the ways that matter most to those affected by it most: the Gardiner community.
Broadly speaking, there are two major avenues that have shaped preservation in the Gardiner area. There are larger conservation institutions (e.g., New York State Park system, local and regional land trusts and land conservation groups) and there are individual landowners who may be in a position where they can choose to preserve their land (e.g., by selling the development rights or donating it for a conservation easement, often in collaboration with the aforementioned institutions). Without the numerous preservation efforts achieved through these avenues, Gardiner wouldn’t be what it is today.
Historically, however, while these avenues for preservation could be influenced by the Gardiner community, they could not always be “officially” led or coordinated by the Gardiner community; there was no official mechanism to give the Gardiner community that role. That could change on November 8 with a Yes vote to support the referendum for the Gardiner Community Preservation Fund (CPF), which will be financed via a very nominal real estate transfer tax on new buyers of higher-priced properties in Gardiner.
Like the name suggests, the CPF will enable the Gardiner community to take more direct action towards fulfilling its preservation goals, in partnership with landowners who choose to protect the most environmentally valuable portion of their lands – and landowners will be compensated for it by the CPF. In doing so, it fills an important gap in the current preservation system that puts the power of both preservation priorities and preservation decisions into the hands of the Gardiner community. It gives us the ability to shape how preservation happens right here in our own backyards – and what better way to preserve what makes Gardiner special to us and all who visit it than by unlocking our community’s agency to preserve it ourselves?
A Yes vote for the Gardiner Community Preservation Fund is a vote for the Gardiner community and what makes this place special to us all.
Mat McDermid
Gardiner
Support Josh Riley for Congress
A native of the mid-Hudson Valley resident these 30 years in northern Ulster County, I strongly support Josh Riley for Congress. He has a strong record in public interest law – for example, on behalf of Florida children denied proper access to health care. In private legal practice in Ithaca, Josh has filed briefs in the US Supreme Court arguing for stronger campaign finance laws and for better health care for all, and, in lower courts, for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and improved access to benefits for veterans. He is well-grounded in the federal legislative process, having been general counsel to senator Al Franken on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Josh will work in Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1975, which was severely, if not fatally, wounded by the woeful SCOTUS decision Shelby County v. Holder. He will support HR 3755, the Women’s Health Protection Act, assuring USA providers the right to perform services and patients the right to receive them.
There’s more, but for the space limit. Fortunately, Josh’s website https://joshrileyforcongress.com gives full insight into where he stands on a wide range of key issues. In contrast, his opponent’s website, www.marcforus.com, up front about fighting inflation (like Josh’s), is silent on the candidate’s reactions to threats to our democracy like abuse of the Electoral Count Act that caused the January 6 insurrection, and silent about the candidate’s views on women’s reproductive rights.
Josh Riley is the right person to represent the people of the 19th in Congress!
Stephen Shafer
Saugerties
Save democracy, reject fascism!
I know it is impossible to change the inflexible attitude of implacable enemies, but I have tried to counteract their distortions for other readers’ information. Like John Butz, George Civile has never met me and, predictably, has not “heard” anything I have to say. Anyone who wishes to know my opinion on abortion rights should read my previous letters instead of accepting Butz and Civile’s misrepresentation of my statements. As for Joanie Jones, I know nothing of that person’s ideology besides Jones’s opposition to abortion rights, nor do I know whether Jones failed to recognize or refused to acknowledge that the “foul accusations” in my song parody specifically referred to right-wingers and were all derived from news reports and statements of right-wingers, including Butz. If some people are uninformed or lack reading comprehension, I hope most readers are more aware and intelligent.
John Sebastian, the former leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful, is a gifted singer-songwriter and respected Woodstock resident who has contributed his time and talent to various charitable community projects. Civile’s petty attack on me is unworthy of notice, but Mr. Sebastian does not deserve the misuse of his song.
Butz’s purported concern for human life apparently does not extend to brown-skinned refugees from Mexico and South America, whom Butz dehumanizes as “illegals” and accuses of rape. It should be noted that the southwestern United States was originally part of Mexico, most Hispanic immigrants are hard-working and law-abiding, and most rapes in this country are committed by white men. Butz has previously publicized his disregard for rape victims.
President Biden is not perfect, but he is a legitimate and competent President, which is more than could ever be said for loser and would-be dictator Trump. No alleged impropriety by Mr. Biden comes close to the harm done to this country by Trump and his followers. The only “derangement syndrome” is the delusional world view of Trump cultists who believe their leader’s thoroughly debunked lies.
I urge all people who believe in justice and oppose racism to support wrongly incarcerated African-American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal on his October 26 court date (rescheduled from October 19) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more information, contact https://lovenotphear.com or https://mobilization4mumia.com.
Additionally, I urge all citizens who value American democracy to vote Democratic on November 8. The Republican Party is no longer just a conservative party with repressive and inhumane policies; it has become a neofascist cult which intends to overthrow democracy and the rule of law in this country. I hope enough people turn out to save this country from fascism.
Rebecca B. Wilk
Woodstock
Important contacts
The last two letters in the paper, Parts I and II, I submitted a letter in its entirety of my concerns regarding my benefits, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. At the end of the letter, Part II, I listed the six senators I send this letter to. For those seniors that are not computer-proficient, all one has to do is pick up the telephone and call the numbers I left there.
You will not get the senator or congressperson themselves, unless they are standing right there next to the phone. Instead, you will get an office manager or a member of their staff. All you have to do is give your name and your location. After that, let them know in no uncertain terms to leave your benefits the hell alone. It’s as simple as that. Tell this office manager you are a veteran, if you are, your age, your concern about the way the Republican Party is going, the effect of loss of benefits on your wife of X age and yourself of X years, your brother/sister on Medicaid in the nursing home, if so. Let them know your anguish over this tampering by the GOP.
Let them know that the benefits instituted by FDR in the 1930s are a direct result of the mismanagement and philosophy of the seven Republican presidents after the Supreme Court decision of Santa Clara County v. S. Pacific Railroad in 1886, making the corporation a “person,” “personhood.” Let them know that if these seven GOP presidents, instead of a “business-only” attitude, had become somewhat involved in the interests of the states, that the Great Depression of the ‘20s and ‘30s just might not have occurred. After all, 81 percent of the Republican Senate did vote for FDR’s programs! They created the mess and then were forced/voted to clean it up. And rightfully so; they should have and did.
But things have changed. Donald Trump is the impetus, the “point man” for the GOP. He is the “landing force,” clearing the way for the GOP to unleash a hellish attack upon our benefits. Donald Trump owes no one any allegiance, period. He is all about Donald. This, in my opinion, is the main reason why the GOP keeps quiet and supports him. True, they might be cowed by him, retaliating if he does not do (his) Donald’s bidding.
But if one keeps in mind the heyday, the glory days, of the Republican Party was the period of time 1886 to 1934, the end of Hoover’s first term, one can understand this reluctant support; I say reluctant, as I believe many Republicans would not support him if the GOP party bosses were not leaning on them to keep their mouths shut. The party GOP is on the verge of getting out from under these “liberal,” “socialistic” overtures of the New Deal and the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson’s administration. They hated these overtures since then and would dearly love to get rid of them and get back to the pre-Hoover days, when the capitalists were running wild with no allegiance to any of the states and their constituents. We, the American people, suffered for those cowboys’ day of yore.
Donald is the first president the GOP has witnessed in the last 87 years who has no allegiance for previous programs instituted by Republican and Democratic presidents and Congresses. And with the Donald in office for a second term with a Republican-controlled Congress (the reason why the midterm elections of this year are so important), the American people will see change in their benefits, particularly if Donald gets nominated for a second term and wins. And this change will not be in the best interests of us “ole” prunes, our children and grandchildren. One can bet on that.
I was a Republican for 59 years, but the letter I placed in the paper where I wrote to Senator Alexander and copied to other senators, dated June 22, 2019, lays my beliefs and feelings right out there. So, those of you “ole” prunes, those of you who can’t stand this “wishy-washy,” “liberalistic,” “socialistic” government, is it worth it for you to lay your benefits on the line, given the history of the GOP? Is it worth it to gamble with your 80-year-old wife going through cancer treatments and is on Medicare? Is it worth it for you to not witness your dear ones and friends suffering for lack of appropriate medical treatment that they have now? Is it worth it for you to gamble on your children and grandchildren, the possibility of their not having what you are experiencing now? This is the threat Donald Trump and the GOP poses for all “ole” prunes drawing benefits. (By the way, for those of you reading this for the first time, I’m an “ole” prune of 84 to be. So don’t take offense.)
I will have some further letters coming before the midterm and after as well.
Robert LaPolt
New Paltz
A woman’s choice
The 15-year-old Iowa girl was raped repeatedly by her 37-year-old pimp. Then she killed him in a defiant rage, and the state gave her five years’ probation, only if she would pay the dead pimp’s family over $200,000. If she could not raise the money, she would go to jail. A GoFundMe raised all the money needed, donated by over 6,000 people nationally. Then the Republican-run State of Iowa told her that if she does any minor infraction in the next five years of her probation, she can go to jail for 20 years. Are they serious? Now she lives as a “free” woman at the age of 17, although she must live with the wounds and scars of sex trafficking and repeated rape experiences, along with the trauma of killing a human being in a desperate reaction from all the violence she had endured. How is it possible that the State of Iowa has a law that unbelievably penalizes victimized women who find the fortitude to fight back against their male perpetrators?
On another note, Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has introduced a bill in the Senate to make abortion illegal after 15 weeks of pregnancy throughout the nation, except in some cases of rape, incest and the health of the woman. This is becoming a key part of the Republican Party’s platform. They are unashamedly attempting to pass bills that weaken women’s freedom, in a multitude of areas, and to make it increasingly more difficult for women to live a dignified life of choice in our country.
The Republican Party’s apparently open contempt for women, and their consistent efforts at invalidating, intimidating and doing whatever they can to increase women’s suffering, is totally outrageous. Any Republican candidate who does not come out and strongly oppose the Republican Party’s platform is therefore colluding with the obvious misogyny of the Republican Party. Let’s be very clear: A vote for a Republican candidate this November 8, is a vote for a future of even more enslaving of women and the subsequent oppressing of all mothers, sisters and daughters.
Wake up, women! You must get out and vote. You must do all you can do to encourage all other women to make the commitment to vote as well. What you do this November 8 really matters. And you do have the power to make a big difference!
In 2016, and again in 2020, more than 50 percent of white women voted for Trump. I was fascinated when trying to comprehend those numbers, but now I will state the facts as clearly as I can. Women! You have a choice. If you want to live a life where you continue to have the freedom to choose, then get out and vote. And please remember: If you decide to not vote, then you are giving the power to those who want to hurt you and take away all of your freedoms.
This election stands as a crossroads on a woman’s choice!
Marty Klein
Kingston
Supporting veterans
Congressman Lee Zeldin, who touts himself as a veteran, along with 173 other Republicans, voted against the veterans’ Burn Pit Exposure Act, HR 3967, which would have provided special health care and wartime disability compensation for those veterans who suffered toxic exposure. He is now running for governor.
Republican Colin Schmitt is running for the 18th Congressional District against Democrat veteran Pat Ryan, Kingston-born-and-bred West Point grad who served two tours fighting in Iraq. Is there any doubt that Republican Schmitt would also vote against our veterans? As Ulster County exec, Pat has already accomplished a lot for our veterans.
Vote for Pat Ryan: veteran, West Point grad, who served two tours in Iraq – guaranteed to unwaveringly support our veterans.
Claude Suhl
High Falls
Please vote for all the Democrats
Here’s all I need to know about the Republicans running in my district. In the NY State Assembly, Marc Molinaro supported shackling female inmates during childbirth. In the NY State Senate, Sue Serino voted against preventing doctors from being charged as criminals for providing abortions. Patrick Sheehan campaigns by reminding voters that his opponent “isn’t from here,” implying that being an immigrant disqualifies her. Just last year, Jim Quigley offered to resign as Town of Ulster Supervisor after making a racial slur about a constituent. Values matter — and their values speak volumes. This election I’m going to vote my values by casting my ballot for the Democratic candidates Josh Riley, Michelle Hinchey, Sarahana Srestha, Jen Metzger and Juan Figueroa. Please vote for all the Democrats — up and down the ticket.
Bonnie Wagner
Woodstock
Senator Michelle Hinchey has it right
Save a penny here, save a penny there; it all adds up. That was the credo of my parents, children of the Great Depression. But it wasn’t all about saving. We save so that we can spend – wisely, in ways that improve our quality of life.
On November 8 I’ll be voting for State senator Michelle Hinchey (D) in District 41, who understands the constructive relationship of saving/spending. For example, in her first term she wrote and passed legislation to ban estimated billing (last year Central Hudson actually read our meter once) and called for an investigation of the company’s billing practices and charges. Money not spent on mysterious utility bills is available for other important housing costs.
Continuing a family tradition, Senator Hinchey is a champion of clean water investments and environmental preservation. As the chair of the Committee on Agriculture, she worked to help farmers deal with the effects of the climate crisis. Smart investments in clean water and air save larger expenditures on pollution-related health care costs. Hinchey’s opponent, Sue Serino (R), consistently voted against legislation to support a clean environment and received an “F” grade from the New York League of Conservation Voters.
Most thoughtful parents understand that consistent, adequate funding of public education gives their children a better chance at secure and productive lives. Senator Hinchey’s record in the State Senate – support for universal pre-K and affordable child care – documents her commitments. Senator Serino, in contrast, voted against education funding included in a number of bills. Robotic “No” responses to government spending don’t serve the public’s long-term interests.
Senator Hinchey has the right formula: Look for savings where we can promote affordable day-to-day living and fight for investments in programs that support better communities for all of us.
Tom Denton
New Paltz
Metzger for County executive
When I moved here nearly a decade ago, I had little appreciation for the role of the Ulster County executive. But as I learn about and experience both the dynamism and challenges facing our County, I really appreciate the critical job and leadership of our past executive.
Democratic candidate Jen Metzger is clearly the right person to further address both the problematic issues – many of them due to income inequality – and the great opportunities here in Ulster County. She has an economic development strategy that could create better-paying jobs without sacrificing the environment. And her focus is local ownership of businesses, utilities, health care and attainable housing. She has both experience and vision in tackling climate change, growing a green energy economy, expanding broadband access and fighting against the consolidation and shrinkage of health and mental health services.
As a former State senator and local Board member, she is also versed in navigating state-level politics and bureaucracies, and she seems to have the connections and the know-how to get money for her constituency. A native of Rosendale, she gets Ulster County and its mix of personalities and peculiarities.
Party affiliation aside, it seems that her opponent would bring us back to the status quo antediluvian.
Don’t forget to vote on November 8, or earlier.
Susan Manuel
Woodstock
The Fourth & Fifth Estates
When most of us went to school, at some point some good teacher told us about the Fourth Estate, a term used for the newspaper industry, later to include magazines, radio and TV news. In the past 20 years, the Fifth Estate is the name given to the likes of Twitter, blogs, podcasts and all things hip, cool and now, I believe, the primary source of “news” for most of us. I was luckier than most kids: Sunday, on our way home from mass, Dad would buy the Daily News and The New York Times, and as I grew up, I learned how much he had read both papers during the week. We also got The Reporter Dispatch daily, for which I was a delivery boy for several years.
Today, the newspapers do not even pretend to be fair, balanced or nonpartisan. I get both the New York Post and Daily News Sunday to see the different perspective both bring to the same world events. I recommend giving the other side at least 30 minutes of your time weekly, just to know what half of your fellow Americans are living on, “mentally nutritionally.” Whether you lean Trumpian or progressive, I promise you an adventure in storytelling.
From my perspective, the worst abuse of the Fourth Estate was the condemnation of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal just before the last presidential election. The New York Post did a major story that The New York Times and other big city papers and all but Fox TV denied, and “proved” that the Post story was a Big Lie by having statements from 50 top-ranking CIA, FBI, NSA and other solid American patriots declare it as Russian disinformation. The parts of the story that make me sick are that this story was really all about vice president Joe Biden, his brother Jim and his son Hunter, and their joint activities during the eight years that Barack Obama was president. (Joe was veep.)
Right under President Obama’s nose, The New York Times now verifies, access to the White House was being sold by the Bidens. Until now, I thought Valerie Jarret, brought up in the Chicago political machine and the de facto boss in the Obama White House, would have sniffed out this gross criminal conduct, but she did not. President Obama had risen quickly from community organizer to Illinois State senator. He and his wonderful wife were married by the Pastor Wright, who famously said from the pulpit, “Not God bless America, God damn America!” Soon, the Harvard lawyer moved up to US senator from Illinois, then in a couple of years to president.
Current president Joe Biden climbed the ladder much slower, learned the DC ways and on the climb got very wealthy. He was accused of being too touchy with many women, admitted to plagiarism and fabricated a self-glorifying story about being a coal miner’s son. If you have not heard, he also tragically lost a wife and two young kids to a car accident and a war hero son to cancer. Joe used to be able to tell a great story, and if you get a chance to watch some of his greatest performances, do so! My favorite is when he was in the pulpit of a mostly Black Baptist church and raised his voice and snarled out, “Deez gonna put you back in chains!”
In a few weeks, the chickens are coming home to roost. If you have chickens, you don’t much care for foxes. Please, think about all those chickens and all the eggs we are going to need in the coming few years. I love eggs, but I don’t raise chickens. The White House is not a chicken coop, either, and you should care about who is guarding your nation and our children’s futures. Not that the other guys are more honest, but just to make it a fairer fight over our wallets.
Paul Nathe
New Paltz
Why vote?
I vote because it is the only certain direct action I can take to protect democracy. Fear is being sown throughout the known world and is making us brittle, weakening our courage, stopping us in our tracks and closing our mouths. Where is the civil discourse I used to love so well? Where are the champions of diversity? Will smarter brains than mine prevail?
We are losing our rights. I have already noticed reluctance in myself to talk and ask questions. For this reason, I am voting for Democrats in this midterm election. I feel our Democratic candidates hold my concerns higher. I encourage others to do the same simple yet magnificent action and vote.
Susan Denton
Plutarch
What are Republicans thinking?
In 1966, when I was 19 years old, I moved from Minnesota to New York City to live with an older sister. Patti was the mother of a three-year-old, recently divorced and finishing her Ph.D. She found herself unexpectedly pregnant. She was not ready for a permanent relationship and certainly not for another child. She and her boyfriend elected for her to have an abortion, then illegal. Someone recommended a provider in Baltimore and they drove there, Patti had the abortion and then they drove back.
By the next day, Patti was running a fever and had severe chills. I needed to take care of her and her daughter. It was a scary time. I feared she was going to die before the antibiotics from her local doctor kicked in. But she did recover, received her Ph.D., later remarried and had a son.
I never want another woman to go through this trauma. What are Republicans thinking? Do they mean to be cruel?
Making abortion illegal does not stop women like my sister from having abortions. It just puts their lives and health in danger.
Kathy Gordon
Saugerties
Show support for Gardiner Library
Repair Cafés, Italian conversation, Ukulele Club, nature walks, storytime, miniature historical gaming, Dungeons and Dragons, the Haunted Library. Oh, and all the new books: children’s books, e-books, audiobooks. DVDs, CDs. There’s only one place where you can access all these opportunities. And they’re free.
Proposition 414 will increase the budget of the Gardiner Library by a modest $19,255. This will allow the Library to continue to offer and even to expand the multitude of services they already provide, so many of which are free of charge. The cost to each taxpayer is a mere $2.50 per $100,000 of assessed home value.
What will you spend $2.50 on today? $5? $7.50? $10? Maybe a slice of pizza, a pair of socks, some in-app purchases or a month of a streaming service. My guess is that whatever these items might be, you will probably forget you bought them by next week. Instead, let’s put those amounts to good use over the next year!
We are all feeling the effects of inflation. Ten dollars doesn’t buy half a tank of gas anymore, and it probably never will again. However, it can buy access to thousands of books, periodicals, movies, local museums and parks and weekly children’s programming.
Please, vote Yes on Proposition 414. Let’s show our support for the Library!
More detail about Proposition 414 can be found on the Library website at gardinerlibrary.org.
Rachel Moscicki
Gardiner
A time for choosing
As Americans, we have become far too familiar with broken promises over the last few years. This is especially true for residents of New York State and Ulster County.
We were told by voting for Andrew Cuomo, New York would have steady leadership and accountability in the Governor’s Mansion. However, as a result of the bail reform bill he forced through Albany, violent crime increased by 9.1 percent from 2019 to 2021, with murders seeing a 54.4 percent spike in the same time period.
We were told by voting for Pat Ryan, Ulster County would thrive, as he would bring green jobs and spur economic development. This has proven to be yet another empty campaign promise. Under Ryan’s watch, projects such as the transformation of Tech City and the Kingstonian have languished. Wages in the area have stagnated as well. His Ulster County government website bragged about the fact that the average private annual salary in the County is $33,558, compared with $53,733 in the Hudson Valley and $64,007 in the State.
As a result, residents of Ulster County are at a crossroads. Either we continue down the path of broken promises by supporting Jen Metzger, or we vote for Jim Quigley for Ulster County executive on November 8.
Metzger’s top priority is to tackle climate change. Yes, the climate is important, but her focus should be on improving the lives of Ulster County residents, not passing ideological dictates that increase the price of energy for hardworking people. Metzger has never worked in the private sector. Her lack of experience in doing “real work” has given her the luxury of focusing on problems that might impact Ulster County residents in 50 to 100 years. However, the people of Ulster County are hurting today and need real relief, not another broken promise.
Conversely, Jim Quigley has a proven track record. His years of experience in the private sector are what made him a competent executive. As the Town of Ulster supervisor, he turned a $200,000 budget (a borrowed amount) into a $3 million surplus with only one source of revenue stream.
Given the trying times we are living through, I prefer to back someone who has achieved success in both the public and private sector over a community organizer and ideologue. Therefore, I urge all Ulster County residents to vote for Jim Quigley for Ulster County executive on November 8.
Zacharias Zacharia
Kingston
Democracy itself on the ballot
If this were an ordinary election, weighing the various policy positions of the two candidates running to represent Congressional District 19 would be appropriate. But this is no ordinary election. Our democratic republic itself is on the ballot. Until Marc Molinaro denounces the extremist wing that now dominates his party, a vote for him is unthinkable.
That extremist wing is too cowardly to stand up to the pathological liar and serial offender who lost the last presidential election. They’re zealots who deny the clear-cut evidence regarding that election, who seek to undermine voting rights, who applaud violence in pursuit of political ends and who hope to deny women autonomy over their own bodies. They’re also hypocrites who crow about law and order but remain silent (at best) about a dangerously lawless ex-president and denigrate law enforcement officers brutally attacked while defending the Capitol.
If Mr. Molinaro had the courage to stand up to those radical extremists – like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Anthony Gonzalez and others have done – I’d grant him a full and fair hearing. But he’s done nothing of the kind.
Historians who study the decline and fall of democracies universally warn us that we are in treacherous waters. The subversion of truth in service to the Big Lie, the attacks against the press, the refusal to accept the results of fair elections and the embrace of violence – it is all part of a dangerous pattern.
Josh Riley has denounced such extremism in the strongest terms. He’s earned my vote.
David Corbett
Olivebridge
The calm you need
The more yoga you do, the more yoga there is to do.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Baseball is as “American” as…
There is a new American League single-season home run king. Yes, when Aaron Judge hit No. 62, on the next-to-last day of the 2022 season, breaking a tie with Roger Maris, a record that stood for 61 years disappeared. Among all sports records, baseball’s record history seems to be the most sanctified and about which fans seem to be the most sanctimonious.
As for many baseball fans, Mr. Judge is now being touted as the single-season home run king. Many are saying: “Now the true ‘home run record’ is back in the Bronx. The lineage is Ruth-to-Maris-to-Judge. All is again right in the baseball universe.”
Why? Many believe “roids” spoiled that story line and “the cheaters in the National league – those McGwire-Sosa-Bonds seasons are tarnished when they also broke Maris’ record – don’t count.” These three have all been associated with PEDs, either through legal investigations, dogged news reporting or, in McGwire’s case, a public concession.
Say it ain’t so – legitimate record! Please. But for certain records, for certain players, my player’s records count but your player’s records don’t count? Stop it!
When one looks at legitimate records, how critical are we looking at the past? Back in the Maris era, bowls of “pep pills”/“greenies” were in clubhouses to boost performance, especially after a night of drinking. Pundits don’t place an asterisk by records from the ‘50s through the ‘60s! Don’t get me started on records that do not include any statistics for Black baseball players before 1947!
As for cheaters, we’ve had corked bats, spitballs, stolen signs et cetera. Teams even altered their ballpark infield to enhance chances that would favor them. Teams with speed would grade the baselines to help bunts stay fair. Teams playing a fast team would water down the base paths between first and third into quagmires. Teams with sinker-ball pitchers would water down the area in front of home plate so that grounders would be slowed down. If you had slow middle infielders, you let the grass grow long.
Steroid use showed up in weightlifting and bodybuilding in the ‘50s. So, it could have been in use in baseball at that time. Who knows?
There were plenty of other players, specifically pitchers, who are currently in the Hall of Fame, and they were doctoring the baseball. Yankees great Whitey Ford admitted to doctoring after his playing days were over. Ford said, “I didn’t begin cheating until late in my career, when I needed something to help me survive. I didn’t cheat when I won 25 games in 1961. I don’t want anybody to get any ideas and take my Cy Young Award away. And I didn’t cheat in 1963 when I won 24 games. Well, maybe a little.”
And we can’t forget Don Sutton, a Hall of Famer and 300-game winner, was widely believed to scuff the baseball throughout an illustrious career by using his fingernail, and he even got caught once. Another Hall of Fame 300-win pitcher, Gaylord Perry, who won the Cy Young Award twice during a 22-year career, was so famous for “loading” the ball that his autobiography was titled Me and the Spitter.
Baseball “like it ought to be” never was and that’s a fact. Baseball is a game that has been played by players and teams looking for edges that may have violated the rules or accepted practices for the entire history of the sport.
You must be caught cheating, which is the major point of historical contention. Bonds, after a failed “anonymous” test before MLB banned the drugs, never tested positive after MLB implemented its testing protocol and was never suspended by the MLB for a positive test. He never officially broke any rules. You must be disqualified for cheating to be called a cheater.
The owners knew. The commissioner knew. The managers, coaches and players who didn’t partake knew! Whatever Bonds used, many pitchers and catchers and infielders used too! What he did during that time was magical to the point where people who didn’t like him still went to see him, and none were disappointed.
MLB knew all about the steroid-fueled home run show that McGuire, Bonds and Sosa were putting on and did nothing. They were loving every minute of it and did nothing but cash the steroid check! You can’t reap financial benefits, TV promotion, the attendance and gate receipts et cetera and blame the players. Baseball allowed the PED era, and we’ll have to live with it, dubious records and all.
Congrats, Aaron Judge, but you’re still Number Four. Judge himself seems to agree, too, that Barry Bonds, who he watched as a kid chase the home run record, has his 73 home runs stamped with official MLB approval until some other player passes him. IMHO, Barry Bonds is the greatest home run hitter in baseball history, both in season and lifetime, and nothing that Judge has done so far has changed that. I think Judge is terrific and seems authentic and should be celebrated. His 62nd home run transcends his own era.
Final thoughts: Is there some PED in use in baseball now that can’t be detected by current tests? Probably. The records are what the records are. Also, is there such a thing as a “clean” professional sport? No. Check out the latest news on professional chess. In the best interest of baseball, we shouldn’t change the records or add asterisks; you can stamp your feet all you want, but none of that is going to happen.
And for you Yankee fans, the Yankees’ title-winning team in 2009 had four PED users. The 2000 team had ten named in the infamous Mitchell Report. The 1999 team had a dozen. The 1998 team had three. The 1996 team two.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Tiffin Take-Out Project
The United States has a robust plastics industry. Virgin plastics (plastics never used before) are produced from fossil fuels, the same stuff we drive our cars with. In the United States, the fossil fuel industry gets subsidies. Because of subsidies, virgin plastics are artificially cheap. Thus, virgin plastics are more profitable than recycled plastics. Most plastics have carbon backbone polymers that make them strong and resistant to biodegrading. A single-use plastic cup or takeout container will be here on Earth 200 years from now, doing who knows what damage.
When we hear about plastic pollution in the oceans, we expect to see plastics floating in the seas. But plastics break down to very tiny particles, and most of the time, the oceans look pristine blue and the waves are crashing. We don’t see the millions of particles that are present in that water. Microplastics drift down to the bottom. They are in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Who wants to eat and drink plastics, and who wants them to wind up in their bloodstream?
I recently joined a small local group, CCAPP, or Citizens Concerned about Plastic Pollution. I have found that when I am active in trying to do something about the climate change crisis, I feel less anxiety and less worry. I am part of a group of people and we support each other. I no longer want to wait for a broken government that maybe will implement changes, and one day may make laws to protect me and my water, my air, my soil, my animals.
CCAPP has started an action called the Tiffin Take-Out Project, for which we purchased 100 tiffin boxes to sell at wholesale cost. These are three-tiered, reusable stainless steel takeout containers that hold 54 fluid ounces.
Here’s how it works: Instead of getting a plastic container each time you order takeout, you indicate that you want to use a tiffin box. Participating restaurants use tiffin boxes supplied through the Tiffin Take-Out Project. The restaurant puts the food in tiffin, and when you come to pick up your food, you give them an empty tiffin box, while they give you a filled one. This system has been used in India for centuries, and today is also widely used in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. With this system, the restaurant has not had any additional cost in providing you with a container, and you have saved the environment from another piece of plastic garbage. Good ecological practice paired with financial benefits for the business!
A couple of weeks ago, Bob Siracusano from Sawyer Motors very generously bought 50 tiffin boxes from us. These are now available for free to any and all restaurants who are interested in this project.
Although heavily promoted by the plastic manufacturers, plastic “recycling” is largely a hoax because, even if some plastics are technically recyclable, 95 percent of the time plastics simply do not get recycled. Recycling programs are expensive, and they are funded by taxpayers.
We need to start working very hard at keeping plastics out of this little planet Earth. Basically, there is no space to put all the plastic garbage we produce. Hopefully, our Tiffin Project can make a difference. I urge everyone to consider participating in this program!
Edith Bolt
Saugerties
Environmental disaster on taxpayers’ dime
The Town of Ulster (TOU) and Central Hudson created an environmental disaster on the taxpayers’ dime, affecting Lake Katrine, Glenerie Lake Park and anyone living downstream on the Esopus Creek. Without vetting a flawed 2020 SEQR application, TOU quickly greenlit a Central Hudson Training Facility and Gas Village on Route 9W that sits atop a large aquifer, straddles the CSX Railways and our residential community and whose runoff dumps into the Esopus Creek. As a result, Central Hudson’s disruptive sooty dynamite blasting and clear-cutting of approximately 50 acres of forest displaced eagles, bears and wild turkeys and decimated the native habits for millions of wildlife. Additionally, their runoff causes flooding and creek erosion.
The Daily Freeman reporter who writes 99 percent of the articles about the TOU refused to cover our plight, saying, “You go too far in your reactions and appear to say things that are simply not true” – implying that I’m a hysterical woman and a liar. The truth must be repeated when the truth is ignored or customized to fit the prevailing power structure, such as Central Hudson or the TOU. That is not hysterical. That is just the uncomfortable process of speaking truth to power.
The truth:
1. Drinking water quality: Residents on well water are concerned for their safety, given the site was a former lumberyard.
2. Esopus Creek pollution: Inadequately sized culverts flood runoff into our streets and the Creek. In October 2021, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued a notice of violation of $37,500 per day to Central Hudson for “pollution from discharges from stormwater runoff related to construction activities.”
3. CSX train derailment: The runoff creates a potential derailment, as excess water pools under the trackbed across from our homes.
4. No representation: Most site perimeter residents report they weren’t given any official notice. The few that attended a public session were misinformed about the extent of the acres of deforestation. The promised 200 feet of visual screening tree border is virtually nonexistent, and they’ve offered no carbon offsets.
For the last 15 years, despite weather emergencies, water shortages and the Ashokan Reservoir turbidity releases into the Esopus, TOU has rejected the creation of a Conservation Advisory Council (CAC), even though most Ulster County Towns have one. If we had a CAC, perhaps we’d be taken seriously rather than seen as “naysaying neighbors.” The TOU supervisor installed himself as a volunteer on the Ulster County Environmental Council; however, because we don’t have an official CAC, he’s actually barred from serving –once again rendering our voices silent at this critical table.
In April 2022, after a year of meetings with Central Hudson and a major flood, we demanded the TOU mitigate all of our noise, air, light and water pollution concerns before they worsened. After multiple requests, they’ve yet to respond. Meanwhile, our environment continues to suffer, threatening our properties and safety. We are taxpayers and being ignored. What’s it going to take?
Caylin Sanders
on behalf of Esopus Creek Neighbors
www.kingstoncitizens.org/category/central-hudson
Glenerie Lake Park
Trader Joe’s could change Town for the better
As a high school senior in New Paltz and having parents that are small-business owners in New Paltz, I am constantly finding new reasons to love our Town, especially the businesses that make our Town so special. From The Bakery to Manny’s, they are New Paltz classics. Our Town is a small hippie alternative Town that relies heavily on the Health and Nutrition in Town for all our community’s vegetarian needs. A Trader Joe’s could absolutely change our Town for the better.
There is no Trader Joe’s in the Hudson Valley. Why would we let a corporation like ShopRite or Tops into our small town but not Trader Joe’s, which would satisfy so many more of our community’s needs? There is such a want and need for a Trader Joe’s and many people really love their brand.
Sage Wolfson
New Paltz
Frequent & reliable makes successful bus service
I am a non-driver in New Paltz. I have been concerned about the nearly empty buses I have traveled in here. My first suggestion is that any newly purchased buses be smaller.
Secondly, I was a child and teen in Utica in the ‘40s and ‘50s. That city was well-served by buses on which I went everywhere, ever since I was so young that my mother had to tie my dime into my handkerchief so I wouldn’t lose it.
I think the secret of their popularity (they were nearly always full) and their use by all classes of people was that they came around their routes regularly and no one had to wait more than 20 minutes. They were so dependable that the city School Board did not run schoolbuses.
Many things were different then. There were fewer cars per family. But isn’t that a goal we are reaching for again in our hopes to put an end to climate change?
Frequent and reliable makes a successful bus service.
Margaret Human
New Paltz
Time travel with Carol Johnson
Many thanks to Carol Johnson for her monthly compilations of fascinating local history, and to Hudson Valley One for bringing these articles to us. What a pleasure it is to envision our area not so long ago in time, but seemingly a very different world. The topics are so down-to-earth: the harvests of apples and grapes, the prices obtained at market, the baseball games between rival towns New Paltz and Gardiner, the completion of a new paved road to Highland, the manufacture of bricks in New Paltz (where a number of “colored” men worked alongside white men), the excursion of girls from the “Normal School” to Mohonk in 12 carriages on a holiday. It’s easy to picture the crowd of “baseball enthusiasts” sitting around Johnston’s Garage to hear the broadcast of the Yankees/Giants World Series over the “radiophone.”
I know it’s a temptation to romanticize the past, and often inaccurate, but these articles are a pleasant diversion from the news of our own time that bombards us with such intensity, and I really appreciate this opportunity for a bit of lighthearted time travel each month.
John Gotto
New Paltz
Zeroes & ones
The computer and the Internet have become toll-free superhighways that war stewards travel at supersonic speed. In addition, the refinement of surveillance has advanced assassination killings to even the bathrooms and bedrooms of anyone they choose.
A megalomaniac or psychopath with the proper surveillance equipment and a team of frightened followers can parallel the powers of the armies who fought in our past World Wars. American survivors swore after World War II, “Such wars should never happen again.” But in reality, we’ve entered a panoply of terror wars with less noise and selective killings. These wars are blatantly sponsored by the world’s wealthy, making fast cash by reaching into every mind and bank account, using the media and fear as effective weapons to make us pay.
Our civilization was created by building trust with truths. These values contradict the impulse to accumulate vast wealth. Unless paid for, human life and health are thrown into the ever-expanding garbage heap with all our other natural resources. Civil society is like a book that seldom is opened.
It’s becoming critical that all of us humans reevaluate what civilization actually means. Animals follow the laws of nature, and humans step over all other animals and the gods we’ve made, who were to help us create what we call civil society. The new god in charge is the motherboard.
If you fight on a battlefield, it changes your mind and soul. If you can’t feel the sword hitting the bone or have your rifle’s recoil jam your shoulder; if the drone’s death flash on the screen replaces the lifelong battlefield image of the splattered blood made by your bullets; if you’re too far away to smell the rotting flesh of those you’ve bombed; if you cannot hear the death cries or the last words of the wounded calling for their mothers; if the photos of those you killed are suppressed by those who ordered the bombs – then you might believe you’ve escaped moral responsibility.
Today’s soldiers’ battlefields are screens where life and death are digital flashes. But ground combat soldiers have no choice but to role-reverse with those they kill. They see themselves in the dead. This translates into moral memory that generals and politicians never earn. Our leaders have no role-reverse with their enemy or the troops they sent to kill those the pols named enemies.
Robert McNamara is an example of a man in his elder years who may have awoken to his responsibility for the 58,000 dead soldiers he lied to about Vietnam. He became aware that only God knows how many of his troops and enemies he killed for politics and money.
We can have all the apps, write code and have the fanciest computer made and not understand how to say “I am sorry” or know the power of forgiveness. Our animal nature, which focuses on bringing and preserving life in this world, is being ignored. The computer’s zeros and ones are nothing more than zeros and ones. All humans are made of one zero and one 1 and an infinite of other numbers. Until we understand our emotions and instincts hold true meaning, there will be little hope that we can keep our children’s lives from being spent.
Larry Winters
New Paltz
Still a chance to save our iconic Library
We need clarity, transparency and real community input before we seal the fate of our Woodstock Library. For too many years, money allotted to maintaining the Library building was not spent on fixing the structure nor ending its mold problem, but in preparing to have the Library torn down and replaced. Several local architects and designers offered plans to renovate and add to the existing structure, but were ignored by the Board and their ideas were never brought to a public vote.
When we recently had a vote on whether we should move the Woodstock Library to an industrial building on a site located in Bearsville, those of us who disapproved of closing our Town Library and moving its contents elsewhere posted signs saying: “Vote No – Save the Library.” The Library Board responded with signs which read “Vote Yes – Save the Library,” which caused major voter confusion because only one group actually meant to leave the Library where it is.
Other questions remain: Why does the Board want to move our Library out of Town? Most Town libraries are nestled in the midst of the Towns they serve. And why did they agree to pay a million dollars more than the commercially stated value to purchase this industrial building?
Meanwhile, the mold problem at the Library has been fixed. We had been told this was not possible to do. I guess once the Board figured that they had permission to move elsewhere, it made good financial sense to keep this valuable building in good shape.
Library Lovers of Woodstock is a group of local residents who are trying to put the brakes on this rush to end the Woodstock Library as we know it: an intrinsic part of our Town for over 100 years, walking distance from the elementary school and most Town residents, many of whom really depend on being able to get to the Library on foot. Jen Stewart, a good lawyer who understands both library and real estate law, has been hired; so, before anything happens which can never be undone, maybe we still have a chance to save our iconic Library, renovated and added to and by local architects, designers and builders in its current location. That is what I’d like to see, and I think many Woodstockers feel the same way.
For more information on the GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Jen Stewart’s legal fees, please contact HERA: (845) 706-4439, sculptorhera@gmail.com.
Antonia (Toni) Weidenbacher
Woodstock
Rebecca still doesn’t get it
I’ve already explained, with clear examples, that the term “reproductive rights” simply refers to a woman’s AND a man’s “right to reproduce” and to seek medical care and treatment of any illness or disease to their reproductive system … period, end of story. But the politically created version of “reproductive rights” makes the huge illogical and disconnected leap, alleging that it confers the “right” to kill an unborn human being … an unborn human being with its own independent fingerprints, DNA, etc. that makes its body separate and distinct from the body carrying it, thus debunking another abortionist’s political poster and chant of “my body, my choice.” The unborn human being is in your body but it is not YOUR body.
Why does Rebecca insist on differentiating a viable human being from a fertilized egg, zygote or embryo when viability is irrelevant in a discussion of abortion? All human beings start out as a fertilized egg, zygote and embryo. That’s how Rebecca and all of us started out. So, what does viability have to do with anything, when considering the slaughter of an unborn human being?
In her letter of 10-5-22, Susan Puretz demonstrates similar confusion in stating that the unborn human being is not really a baby until it literally exits its mother’s womb! It’s a new human being/baby from the moment of conception, no matter what phrases people choose to use to describe it. Despite the exponential achievements of women in all walks of life during the past many decades, Susan surprisingly thinks that ONLY the pro-life people STILL consider women as “baby-making factories.” Obviously, having babies is not the sole purpose of women on earth. However, if families want children, the woman is still the ONLY person on earth who can have a baby. That hardly defines today’s women as “baby-making factories.”
My “diatribe,” as Rebecca puts it, is not an attack, at all. It’s simply stating my opinions just as Rebecca has stated her opinions. What I believe was confusing to readers was Rebecca’s apparent contradiction in her beliefs … i.e., on the one hand she says she has moral reservations about abortion, yet she clearly tries to rationalize its justification.
Except for rape, incest and saving the life of the mother, the vast majority of the other 96.5% of aborted pregnancies is a result of immoral consensual sex without protection by BOTH the women AND the men. Rebecca doesn’t remember my letter months ago suggesting severe financial penalties for the men responsible for unwanted pregnancies. If put into law, these measures would stop a man in his tracks before he considers engaging in a one night hookup or an irresponsible relationship.
Then, Rebecca drifts off into my defense of fossil fuels and “structured racism,” aka, another Democratic politically created term, “systemic racism.” She forgot how I addressed these two issues. I cited statistics showing, currently, 1.79 million black millionaires, 1.57 Hispanic millionaires and a handful of black billionaires. How is this even remotely possible, Rebecca, in a country that is structurally/systemically racist? … terms clearly meaning that racism is alive and well at all levels of government, corporations, businesses and society.
Regarding fossil fuels, like any other product or service, they are replaced ONLY when a tested and proven alternative is ready and available to be installed, on a massive scale, as a legitimate, effective and reasonably priced replacement. The green people have NOTHING anywhere near being at a full effective capacity ready to replace fossil fuels, yet. Is Apple going to get rid of its latest I-phone BEFORE it has a tested and proven replacement ready to introduce into the market? Sadly, we elected an Idiot-in-Chief who is out to lunch, along with his string-pulling puppeteers, when it comes to an understanding of this basic business principle, consequently leading to his sabotage of our energy independence and financial stability, on his first day in office.
John N. Butz
Modena
The bigger problem — privatization
Those in the ongoing struggle against smart meters and 5G technologies for any length of time should have come to the awareness of what the bigger problem is they are really up against. That would be privatization of the common sphere. A search of utilities with an analog meter opt-out choice will reveal, that those utilities are owned by the local municipality.
Those utilities that don’t provide an analog meter opt-out choice are usually privately owned. Utilities owned by the local municipality are accountable to the local people, who being residents, have a say in creating policies of that utility and will obviously consider the health ramifications of the policies they create.
The privately owned utility, like Central Hudson, are not accountable to the local people but only to their stockholders so they only consider profits and are not concerned with the health and wellbeing of their power consumers. For six years, I have been litigating against Central Hudson for refusing to provide a simple analog meter opt-out choice for power consumers, like myself, who have medical reasons for needing to avoid the chronic exposure of pulsating microwave emitting smart meters. Central Hudson, or any private utility for that matter, does not care about your health and wellbeing and neither does the Telecom Industry. The latter like the first, will fight you tooth and nail when placing 5G equipment right next to a school, 20 feet from a bedroom window or on top of a firehouse even though in each of those cases the inhabitants are being significantly affected. It doesn’t seem to matter that people are indeed being injured by this wireless technology. I for one watched my partner suffer a stroke standing ten feet in front of a smart meter and have her whole life upended from that experience. If the utility was owned by the town, the thousand signatures we gathered from the local townspeople would mean something to the town board members, but not to Central Hudson Board of Directors, because the latter are only concerned with protecting their profit margin.
Take Chattanooga, Tennessee, who has the fastest internet service in the US at speeds of 25 gigs per second, yet only costs consumers a mere $9.99 a month, generating in community benefit $2.9 billion in the first decade. That is because Chattanooga owns the fiber network and not the Telecoms. It is amazing what towns can do when they own the utilities, the libraries, the fire department and the police, which if were privatized, would cost citizens an arm and a leg for such services, like what is happening with Central Hudson’s recent price gouges. Chattanooga also eliminated the need for dangerous wireless infrastructure bringing the internet, directly to each residence and business using safe hardwired fiber optics. Towns need to stop the current trend of privatizing everything and keep control of its environment so it can be in a better position to protect the wellbeing of its residents and visitors.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
A report back from Cuba
Members of our community are invited to hear from activists who recently traveled to Cuba to learn about the island’s health care system and to connect with the Hatuey Project, which facilitates the delivery of much needed medical aid.
Gloria LaRiva, who led a summer delegation to Cuba, will speak at Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz on Monday, October 24, 2022, at 7 p.m.
LaRiva, an internationally known expert on Cuba and prominent defender of Cuba’s right to be free of the 60-year U.S. embargo, will describe the highly advanced health care system that Cuba has managed to achieve, as well as the Hatuey Project’s medical aid program. She will be joined by two upstate New York activists who were members of the delegation.
The name Hatuey refers to a Taino chief who resisted Spanish colonization in the 16th century and is considered Cuba’s first national hero. The name has been adopted as an acronym to mean Health Advocates in Truth, Unity and Empathy.
I hope you will join us for this important presentation on Monday, October 24.
Donna Goodman
New Paltz
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