“To tell you the truth”…“I have to be honest with you”…when someone starts a sentence with these words, does that mean every other time that person told you something, they have not been truthful or honest? Then you have, “Really”…which is often the reply when you tell someone something, as if you are telling them a lie; and finally you have the person who says “can I ask you a question” before asking a question, although, can I ask you a question , could have been the question they wanted to ask.
Howard Harris
Bearsville
HOW MANY CARS
I am tired of people comparing Woodstock Meadows Affordable Housing (behind the post office) and the proposed Woodstock Commons (behind Bradley Meadows). Woodstock Meadows only houses seniors and disabled people. Most of these units are for a single person. Single occupants can only have one car, if they can drive at all. That is why in the 24 units, there are usually 17 cars in the lot (as David Boyle says on his show). Perhaps some of these 17 cars may not be registered or drivable. Seniors and handicapped people drive less than full families.
The Woodstock Commons proposal has one building with 20 units solely planned for seniors. That would be pretty much be equal to the entire Woodstock Meadows community. Okay, 17ish cars.
All of the other buildings are for families…33 one, two and three bedroom apartments. That means to me, the possibility of three or four cars per unit — one for each of the parents and one or two for their teenage children. This does not count friends and family, deliveries, service trucks, etc.
One can not compare the population, autos, water and sewer usage, traffic, noise, safety, lighting etc. between 24 senior units and 53 mostly family units.
Don’t compare apples and oranges.
Woodstock Commons will not solve the affordable housing problem in Woodstock. It is the wrong place for the wrong size development. It would totally impact negatively the surrounding very quiet communities, unlike Woodstock Meadows, which seems virtually quiet almost all of the time. Drive by there and you will never see anyone outside. I doubt that potential children in Woodstock Commons would remain indoors and silent, nor should they.
17 cars vs. 517 car trips per day.
Let Habitat for Humanity reconstruct abandoned houses with affordable apartments throughout Woodstock for Woodstockers that need the help.
Phyllis Lane
Woodstock
LOWER THE MAVERICK ROAD SPEED LIMIT
Last Monday the Town Board of Hurley approved the request of The Friends of Maverick Road to have the speed limit lowered and that truck traffic be limited to local deliveries only. They will now be sending the requests to the appropriate county agency for final approval.
We, the Friends of Maverick Road want to thank the Town Board of Hurley and Karin Horner for their support in our attempt to make Maverick Road safe for residents and other people using the road. We also want to thank the 101 people who signed the petition and we are looking forward to the day when we can pull out of our driveways without feeling as if we’re putting our lives in our hands.
Karen Falch
Friends of Maverick Road
RECOGNIZING SRPS
November 16, 2010 is School-Related Professionals Recognition Day in New York State. The third Tuesday in November is the day designated by the state Legislature as a special statewide recognition day for School-Related Professionals (SRP).
SRPs work long and hard each day. They work side-by-side as partners in education with other school staff, teachers, parents, and primarily, students.
SRPs help to educate your children and keep them safe. They transport your children daily, provide their meals and keep their environment clean. We answer the phones and hopefully your questions and concerns as well. We are school bus drivers and attendants; cafeteria workers, teaching assistants, monitors, maintenance and grounds keepers; custodians and clerical support.
So, thank you to the New York State Legislature for acknowledging our efforts and thank you to all SRPs for their continued commitment to our schools and students.
Francine Hollander
ONTEA, President
(Onteora Non-Teaching Employees Association)
THE MONSTER IS US
With the latest wikileaks revelations what many have suspected is now fully documented! “The Monster is me”...cried the Little Prince at the moment of his consciousness awakening: our Nation, Under God, is a dastardly cut-throat and murderous sump!
Truth has long been subverted, our political, military and industrial leaders are greedy prevaricators of the worst sort. Our material needs and deceptions have caused us to become the most deservedly hated Nation on the festering face of this diseased and fundamentally savage, warming-toward-Hell, decadent planet.
Our primary business is War: we make and sell the weapons, feed and brainwash our ignorant prole soldiers, brutally murder “enemy” civilians and torture innocents across the entire globe. Our mindless military mercenaries are rewarded for their “patriotic” servitude with wholesale rape and desecration sanctioned by their blind superiors. We are inheritors of Daemonic evil. We are the snake in the garden of possible human enlightenment and the cross from which we hang our trembling opponents.
No longer may the innocents among us claim ignorance of how we have acquired world material domination! No longer in the name of the people may our vile political (both major parties) machine remain above punishment. It is time for the people to rise up and destroy by their vote the present corrupt ruling class.
Michael J. Heinrich
Glenford
HALLOWEEN ON THE GREEN
The full moon is in the sky searching for the best homemade costumes at the Woodstock Halloween on the Village Green on Sunday, October 31 at 4:30 p.m. A special treat this year will be at the Woodstock Center for Photography. After the prizes are awarded on the Village Green, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners go to the Photography Center to have your pictures taken.
This year I would like to have a hula hoop contest. I have four hoops but you may bring your own. It’s really going to be great fun. All the prizes are wrapped are ready to go.
See you all Sunday.
Raggedy Anne a/k/a Renée Englander
Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and Arts
SHARE THANKSGIVING
In the pantheon of wonderful Woodstock community celebrations, Thanksgiving with Family of Woodstock ranks among the best! Family invites everyone to our 35th annual free Thanksgiving Day Feast. It is a heartwarming day filled with amazing and delicious food and a loving spirit of giving thanks for all that we have. Come eat with us and help create the feast by donating your favorite holiday dish. We need both cooks and volunteers to help serve food. The Feast is open to all.
We will serve between three and four hundred meals on Thursday, November 25 from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. at the Woodstock Community Center. We will also provide “take home” to people who cannot join us and to our police officers and hotline staff who work on the holiday. We cannot do this without your help.
If you can purchase a turkey (or cook one provided by someone else) or would like to contribute stuffing, a vegetable dish, dessert or other food item or if you have time to help on Thanksgiving Day, contact Family now at 679-2485. Ask for Ruth. Family also accepts financial contributions for items we will purchase and prepare to fill in gaps.
Give thanks and share your gratitude with others on Thanksgiving Day this year!
Susan Goldman, Family volunteer
Woodstock
WE ALL WON AN AWARD
This week, after months of growing numbers, increased pantry hours, repeated trips to Albany for classes and extra food, and, yes, some complaints and inspections, Woodstock’s tiny Good Neighbor Food Pantry has been designated a “Best Practice Agency” by the Northeastern New York Food Bank. All those complaints and inspections paid off.
This would never have happened had it not been for the cooperation, generosity, and involvement of everyone in this community. Not only have the managing congregations changed and adapted to meet the needs of the changing economy, but the citizens of Woodstock joined in the effort when the need was greatest.
Your generosity not only at the monthly food shipment/stocking event but also in everyday, small increments, moved the tiny Good Neighbor Food Pantry to the top of the list. There is no way to individually name everyone in our community who has contributed to the success of the Good Neighbor Food Pantry in its mission to feed the hungry. For one thing, there wouldn’t be any room left for other letters in this paper. And, for another thing, the majority of the contributors in our community have chosen to remain anonymous.
It is this spirit of generosity that has made our pantry the success it is today. And, it is this spirit of generosity that will keep it serving the people as long as long as the need is there.
This letter is to thank everyone and every congregation who has helped make our pantry a community where all are fed. It has become a place where people come to receive food and to feel comfort, safety, and welcome.
So, whether you dropped money in the donation jar at the Sunflower Natural Market, or put a can of food in the basket in your church or synagogue when a collection was taken or whether you worked in the pantry on delivery day or gave the refrigerator or gave the space to store the refrigerator, please know that your gift has been appreciated, and used, and that it contributed to the success of this community effort.
The Good Neighbor Food Pantry could never have been the success it is today without your help.
If you would like to join in the effort, our next community delivery day is Monday, November 15.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
MESCAL’S MESSAGE
When a person hasn’t a car and therefore can’t drive, just remember that not having a car makes that person, other things being equal, financially ahead of the one who has a car. There is a tendency on the part of one who gives rides to people to “pooh pooh” the idea of accepting money for so doing. Actually the person accepting the ride would be glad to be able to pay for some of the actual cost of being driven. Being driven is such a blessing and the kindness of driving isn’t reimbursable.
It seems that there could be a standard amount for remuneration. When an employee drives his own car on the job the mileage reimbursement is 25 cents or more per mile based on calculation of the actual cost of owning, insuring, maintaining and fueling a car.
It would be good to have a consensus on this subject. Without one we individuals might consider 20 cents per mile as a reasonable amount.
As a recipient I would be delighted to make this a practice. Perhaps if this were a standard practice more people with tight budgets would be happy to offer this wonderful service of helping others to “get there.”
Mescal Hornbeck
Woodstock
POISON POWER
I’m for hi-tech carbon nanotube solar cells and hope Bob Berman also agrees that to vote the Working Families/Democratic ticket is preferable to the party of Dick Cheney’s backroom deals on U.S. energy policy.
But did offer alternatives like hydro, wind and wood gas as preferable to nuclear and coal (unfortunately Clean Coal goes in the same wastebasket as Safe Nuclear). Bob’s statement that “no one in the US or Europe has been killed from a nuclear power plant” may be an attempt to duck Chernobyl, which besides being considered part of Europe (the Ukraine and Western Russia are), spread its contaminating cloud beyond its borders into Europe proper and north to the Lapland lichen. While the “official” death toll is 4,000, Greenpeace estimates 140,000 cancer deaths. And the same whitewashing and disinformation occurred at our own Three Mile Island and is occurring now every time your hear (if you hear at all) that exposure from released radiation from a nuclear power plant was at “acceptable” levels.
There is no safe level of exposure to radiation and any technology which increases its presence in our air and water puts us all at risk. Please Google “CT Scans and cancer risk” or “cumulative radiation exposure” to look at the more benign side. We simply don’t know when and how many people will die from radioactive air and groundwater contamination released by the same centralized capital intensive corporate overlords who can’t seem to drill for oil or gas and protect our oceans and drinking water at the same time. It is painfully and toxically obvious that our egos are too big and our greed to dominant to spread nukes, an even more dangerous technology, any further than we already have.
Now add to that a determined group of terrorists and I’m ready to add tidal hydro, geothermal and showering with a friend to my list before building another nuclear plant. And please remind your friends in Monroe and Mahopec to vote for John Hall who sang so beautifully “give me the warm power of the sun...please take all your atomic poison power away”!
Julian Lines
Mount Tremper
CIVILIZATION IS DOOMED
It’s a great idea to vote against war — unfortunately there isn’t anyone to vote for who is willing to do the job, except the socialists, communists or some other person or party who will be considered a wack-o by 99% of America and ignored. The best recent shot was Kucinich, but no one elected him because he is short and has funny ears. That’s America for you, they care more about funny ears or the length of the male appendage than racist, mafioso mass murder. I’m afraid our civilization is doomed. 100,000 years from now a chimpanzee archeologist will be digging up human remains and wondering what happened.
Tim Slowinski
Phoenicia
BELLEAYRE RESORT PROGRESS
It has been a while since we communicated Crossroads’ progress to the community; and, in the absence of hard news, the inevitable rumors of our abandonment of the project and the Belleayre Resort’s demise have circulated.
In reality, we and our engineers and consultants have been steadily at work producing the very detailed studies necessary for our upcoming Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. It’s not very newsworthy stuff.
Despite the enormous amount of information we had supplied to the regulatory agencies over the first eight years in pursuit of this project, much of it became obsolete when we agreed to remove from the Ashokan Basin all of our planned assets on the Big Indian plateau and relocate most of them to Highmount in the Pepacton basin. We had to start new studies from scratch.
In addition, we have spent considerable time and money making significant further revisions to the plan in order to alleviate concerns that have reached us from the community.
But it has been time well spent. We believe that these changes should alleviate most, if not all of those concerns.
In the coming few months, we expect to re-introduce the project for both public and regulatory review by the DEC and DEP, and to be able, by the middle of next year, to present our plans to the Planning Boards of both Shandaken and Middletown.
While the Belleayre Resort project has been under review for an extraordinary eleven years, we have never given up our hope and expectation that, with the its completion, our community will benefit from the introduction of several hundred well paying jobs; that the resort and the improved Ski Center will serve as powerful magnets for much-needed increased tourism in the area, and that it will provide world-class recreational facilities and services open to all members of the community.
We look forward to that day with confidence and, in the meantime, we shall make every effort to earn your support in making this project a reality we can all be proud of.
Emily Fisher, Dean Gitter, Kenneth Pasternak
Shandaken
WHAT GETS BETTER
The “It Gets Better Campaign” and the many new allies lesbian and gay people have added is a significant development. It’s about time the media has reported the many L&G people driven to suicide or murdered.
I do need to mention, however: regarding the “It Gets Better Campaign” — well, in 33 states employers and landlords can legally fire or evict L&G persons. It gets better? Instead of high school harassment, one can lose his/her housing or livelihood.
Non lesbian or gay people might not understand the questioning phase and dire consequences of coming out to those who may not get it or may be malevolent. Once the information is out, it’s out of the individual’s control. Witness Clementi’s heralds. Please remember that L&G people are one of the very few minorities who may lose their biological families. Coming out can be dangerous. I personally know several L&G people who have been beaten up by fathers or brothers upon coming out. This is why L&G people have strictly adhered to the rule of never coming out for someone else.
In my own life, I’ve been harassed out of a neighborhood over months which included a boy in our yard with a rifle. (We had made no indication that we were lesbians except we chain sawed wood for the fireplace and changed our own car oil in the driveway). I’ve been denied a better car insurance policy and never qualified for coverage on a partner’s health insurance when all her legally married heterosexual coworkers were. My relationship status has never been acknowledged by my family, and I’ve been passed over for family financial privileges. I’ve been silent among coworkers during a major family medical crisis when the work place social life thrived on conversations and support for each other’s families. I’ve withstood the awkward silences when a professional connection asks if I have children or why I moved. One really never knows why one isn’t hired.
I also will never include in my medical records that I‘m a lesbian. Worst case scenario: being taken to an emergency room, then operating room and having a religious fundamentalist anesthetize or operate on me. One would hope medical people would act professionally, yet think of how gay men were treated in the early years of the AIDS crisis or how African Americans have been treated with medical negligence and overt and covert malice across the decades.
Although we do have a separation of church and state (thank goodness, when it‘s applied), we definitely live in a predominately Judeo-Christian culture where politicians are afraid of fundamentalist voters. Fundamentalists can take action prompted by their bigoted Bible and believe that this is God’s bidding.
People who do things for God are dangerous to me. Another way our supportive friends can be helpful is to ask our own churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples to publicly denounce any religious organization that includes fundamentalist branches.
We have many more steps to take before once and for all we can prevent a lonely, humiliated boy from jumping to his death, but in the meantime, it’s very nice to have more friends on the road.
Sharon Stonekey
Woodstock
THANK YOU GOLDEN NOTEBOOK
I started this letter when Golden Notebook announced it was to close and Jacqueline Kellachan and Paul McMenemy’s purchase was not yet a given. My mission then — and now — to express to the store’s intrepid founders, Barry Samuels and Ellen Shapiro, and to Gaela Pearson, who lovingly managed the kids department for 33 years, how grateful we are to have had them.
We can now breathe a collective sigh of relief. We will still have a local, independent bookstore. Such a loss would have been terrible blow in a town where writers and artists are to be nurtured.
One is grateful to the staffers who called when our books came in, who located that special edition, who stayed open when we were running late and who had ‘book knowledge.’
The Golden Notebook was a model local bookstore in its unequivocal support for area talent – names known and unknown and for its encouragement on book projects. And, everyone got the same publicity and even-handed treatment. There were many trials, I am sure, for them — ie., book signings for a writer, knowing that three people might show up. Our visitors never left town without a stop there — to find out what they had that was new or to be uncovered. Even when the store was strained during the last years — when that other Woodstock treasure, the library, was denied its budget and couldn’t buy new books — Barry and Ellen stepped in with a special promotion where the community bought books the library had on its wish lists.
Independents (‘mom & pops’) have been folding in every industry. In publishing, it is competition from the big box stores like Barnes & Noble, their ability to purchase more economically from their suppliers and their glitz; from Amazon and other internet sales and now e-books, the Kindle, I-phones and you name it. It’s a new world out there. And so much is in flux. But there are things we need to preserve about the old, and we have to go the extra step to do this.
Publishing industry statistics tell us all book store sales are slipping. One of the best of the Barnes & Noble’s in Manhattan is closing, and it’s a fact that a lot of bookstore sales are all that other stuff.
So what now? If we want to keep a book heart beat in Woodstock we need to give it support. Buy locally — not only from Golden Notebook but there are also others here with books. There is the Reader’s Quarry, and, of course, Mirabai. Some books are sold at Catskill Art, at the Historical Society, and the library also sells books. Maybe I am saying we just better read and tell our kids to read.
One can see the direct cause and effect of our buying books on the internet. Other factors impacting on Ellen and Barry’s (or any retailer’s) decision to close is not the issue, but here is an example of individual actions having a cumulative effect. We buy on line because we are in a hurry; it’s prudent to save money and it often makes sense. But what are our priorities? How many dollars do we really save? These are larger questions that reach much beyond book buying and perhaps go to the heart of what our culture is to become.
Then there is the issue of e-books about which I will not take sides. But the experience of turning the page is irreplaceable. My late husband, Arthur, worried that people wouldn’t be holding books in their hands so much in the future. “What kind of a world would that be?” he asked.
In any event, we need to keep encouraging our children and ourselves to read and to find those places where books are sold.
So, Ellen and Barry: Your shop with the chair with the sagging seat will be sorely missed, and we now welcome Jacqueline and Paul. Thank you all.
Jo Yanow-Schwartz.
Woodstock
THANKS, LEVON
We are fortunate to have Levon Helm and his incredible team in our community. And, we, the community, are the beneficiaries of his amazing generosity. Last Friday night Levon Helm and his band rocked Onteora’s Harry Simon auditorium. The band sounded amazing, and their joy was contagious. We had a fantastic and enthusiastic audience, with the place almost filled to capacity. And, we thank all of those folks for coming out to help us raise money for arts in our schools. It was a great success.
We also thank the local group, The Paper Planets, for opening our show. You guys were fabulous. And to our emcee, Justin Foy, from WDST, thank you for helping us out.
There are many people who were involved in the planning of this event — too numerous to list, but our gratitude for their efforts is huge. And, we thank the Onteora staff for supporting this event and for making it possible, and most importantly, for working to inspire the creativity and learning in our students each and every day.
There were a few businesses/people we’d like to thank for their donations to the silent auction, or to the event, please remember them when shopping locally. They are:
Onteora Mountain House; Angelli Designs; Woodstock Picture Studio; Solar Generation;
Dreamweavers Salon; Kathleen Wilber of Joseph Roberts Hair Stylists; Belleayre Mountain; Total Tennis; Adel Chefridi Fine Jewels; Revamp Organization — Sarah Stitham; The Emerson Resort; Boiceville Supermarket; Adams Fairacre Farms;
Peter Himberger and Impact Artist Management; Artists Christie Scheele, Karen O’Neil and Peter Clapper; Lysa Ingalsbe of Body & Soul Integrative Nutrition; Brandon Remler and Fujifilm; Erica Brunner, Mary Kay Spa Package; Matt Savatgy and Dr. Kenneth Bock.
And a special thanks to Barbara O’Brien who has supported Onteora for many years, and whose attention to detail on behalf of Levon insured that we were going to be very successful.
Maxanne Resnick
Levon Helm Concert Committee at Onteora
POLITICAL LETTERS
ROVE V. HINCHEY
Ed Koch is now supporting George Phillips (who)? He’s the formerly unknown tea party candidate that Karl Rove is pitting against Maurice Hinchey, with tons of dollars. Rove’s American Crossroads was formed in April, 2010 along with Ed Gillespie and Dick Cheney’s daughter, Mary. Koch, coupled with 300K, set aside for the formerly unknown Phillips is said to have already wiped out Bill Clinton’s rally for Hinchey in Binghamton. American Crossroads said: “Hinchey is vulnerable. He hasn’t had a competitive race for years and his fundraising has atrophied.”
I’m writing with much passion today on behalf of Maurice Hinchey, not only because I believe in his foreign policies, which Koch and Rove oppose, but for his fearless stances against big foreign oil corporations. Hinchey was against the Iraq war, (which you may remember was originally supposed to be in retaliation for the bombing of the WTC — but later, more about “nation building” — (or perhaps oil?) Koch was a consistent war supporter, not only against Iraq, but wars in general. Hinchey points out that we have lost trillions of dollars and thousands of lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, a fact that American Crossroads would like to over-ride with well you know: “Keep Fear Alive.” Koch says that Sarah Palin is not dumb, but that she’s smart because she’s made millions of dollars from her book sales. That shows you how Koch identifies intelligence — in dollars, and he gives absolutely no credit for principles, not to mention morality — something that seems to be lost in today’s politics.
Phillips supports using resources we have in the U.S., including off-shore drilling (BP is one of the funders of American Crossroads), to meet our energy needs. He says that “current domestic energy resources must be utilized in the most efficient safe manner possible. This includes harnessing the huge potential of our native natural gas supplies, which provide clean, low cost energy.”
AhHa! That is why Karl Rove and his billionaires have joined in against Maurice Hinchey. It’s because of Hinchey’s legislation against natural gas hydrofracking, currently called the “Frack Act,” which would bring the federal government into the process, in order to ensure it’s safety), and delay it, giving us time to figure out how to keep fracking from destroying our water supply, or better still, to find other, less destructive means of creating energy. Hinchey has been fighting diligently to protect us from Fracking in our neighborhood. It never even occurred to me that we could lose our main supporter of our safe air and water.
And, what does Phillips stand for? He will fight for reduced taxes on millionaires, and corporations so that “they can keep a greater share of their earnings to reinvest in their businesses.” What does that mean? Send the money to other countries to outsource our jobs, and put the rest into their mansions in Abu Dabi.
How’s that working for you so far? In other words, don’t tax the super rich and it will “trickle down.” I’m simply sick and tired of being trickled on. So please, please, please, vote Hinchey back in. Get out and vote, and implore all of your friends and family to show up. This is a very serious election. It is the first one that allows corporations to fund our campaigns, even if they are foreign and have opposing agenda’s to ours. It has never been truer that democracy is not a spectator sport.
Jill Paperno
Glenford
SUPPORT CAHILL
I want to express my wholehearted support for Assemblyman Kevin Cahill. Kevin has been able to bring much needed jobs to Ulster County through his tireless support for the solar industry. As Chairman of the Energy Committee, he has been in a position to help land Solartech Renewables at Tech City where good, hi-tech jobs are being filled and added everyday. He did this during the worst recession in our lifetime. In a time when we have been bleeding jobs he has helped put our area on the world map in regard to solar energy. This is beginning to pay off and will only get better with Kevin as Chairman of the Energy Committee. It is more important than ever that Kevin returns to the Assembly.
David Donaldson, Ulster County Legislator
Kingston
OLIVE LIBRARY NEEDS OUR HELP
I am writing today to urge the residents of Olive to vote yes on the referendum for the library. Any of us who are lucky enough to live in Olive know that part of that luck is having access to the Olive Free Library. It works as library, community center, a place to share and grieve for our neighbors when they’re in trouble, and a place of civility and laughter. From the very first time I walked in there in 1974, it has been my place of refuge. My readings there have been some of the highlights of my literary life. The library needs our help. Even in these hard times, who would want to see story hour gone? Mrs. Burgher and the rest of the staff deserve to know how much they have meant to us all these years. Please vote yes on the referendum.
Martha Frankel
Shokan
SEND ME A CHECK
After reading last week’s edition, I’ve saved you the trouble of writing your post-election editorial. Here, in full, is your post-election editorial:
“Middle class, white Americans are stupid bigots who don’t know what’s good for them. And that doesn’t include me, even though I am white, because I’m a hippie communist and I live in Woodstock.”
Please arrange for direct deposit into my account of half your check for the week after the election.
Stephen Thomas
Woodstock
CAHILL GETS IT
“More nuclear power and a lot less government regulation.” That is the energy plan Kevin Cahill’s opponent has said he supports. Wow! Did he miss the BP fiasco in the Gulf? What about the mine explosion in West Virginia? More nuclear and less regulation? No, I don’t think so. This plan is dangerous and clearly out of touch with our 21st century energy needs.
Kevin Cahill gets it. He has used his position as the Energy Chair to take us in a new direction based on conservation, efficiency and renewable power. In doing so, he is not only protecting our environment, he has also helped create badly needed jobs. For the first time in years, we have manufacturers bringing jobs to the region. Kevin said he wants us to be the solar center of New York and he is actually doing something about it. Green building and renewable energy businesses are taking off and the people in this industry credit the laws Kevin has passed in Albany to make it more affordable to go green.
What do you call a solar energy spill? A nice day! Send Kevin Cahill back to the Assembly to help us protect our environment and grow new jobs while doing it.
Don Gregorius
Woodstock
BEND OVER, PLEASE
With the expressed support of 70% of the general population, French workers refuse to sacrifice their pensions to pay for the malfeasance of global finance, while the bankers reward themselves with taxpayer dollars after crippling large sectors of the world economy.
No such resistance here in the U.S.A. With corporate backed Republicans poised to retake many seats in congress and state houses, progressives here appear to be paralyzed by voters’ futility and cynicism — the inevitable consequences of Obama’s obeisance to his inner circle of Wall Street agents. Meanwhile, taxes soar, jobs are lost, workers are squeezed, the economy stalled — and we give the public treasury to the ones who caused the problem.
If Democrats don’t get to the polls on election day and vigorously resist the corporate/financial juggernaut, what are our options? Revolution? Not likely. Bend over and continue handing our money to the financial elite.
Call me an incurable idealist, but I’m gonna vote.
Liam Watt
Saugerties
BE PROUD OF HINCHEY
I have been fortunate for many years to be able to say with such pride that Congressman Maurice Hinchey is my Congressman. He has always stood bravely for his principals whether it was “safe” or not. He was an early opponent to the ill conceived war on Iraq; he has fought against the monopoly of the airways and for a free and honest press. He was consistently been in the forefront in the fight to protect our environment and is recently leading the battle against HydroFracking which could destroy the clean water of our communities. He is a co sponsor of the Clean Water Restoration Act which will protect waterways throughout the country from the dangers of industrial pollution.
During this time of recession, Congressman Hinchey has not simply worked to bring needed Federal money to our communities but he has worked to help New York and our community be a leader in Green Jobs and Green energy — by helping develop the Solar Consortium — our hope for the future. As a senior member of Congress he has both the knowledge and the position to lead our country forward.
He also works for his local constituents and is always available as our advocate.
And now he is being targeted by the forces of reaction to unseat him with money coming in from who know where. Saugerties should not risk loosing one of our most valuable and trusted resources! I hope that everyone will come out on election day to assure that we continue to have a Congressman who we can be proud of. Bring your friends and neighbors too and support the Democratic ticket.
Sue Rosenberg
Saugerties
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
Senator John Bonacic voted against marriage equality in New York this year. He stated that his Catholicism prevented him from voting in favor. No matter what your personal belief is on marriage equality, the idea that our State Senator is following the dictates of his religion to legislate is an issue that must be carefully examined. How would Senator Bonacic vote on a woman’s right to choose, on stem cell research, or for that matter, women’s rights in general? Mr. Bonacic obviously feels that people’s civil rights are trumped by his personal religious beliefs.
I urge all voters to look at David Sager and his platform. Mr. Sager is the right person to represent us in Albany.
Lou Deering
Bearsville
GEORGE PHILLIPS HAS WHAT IT TAKES
It is time for the Hudson Valley and the rest of the 22nd Congressional district to put Maurice Hinchey to rest! George Phillips has the personal integrity and intelligence to represent our interests in Congress. George has worked in Congress as a congressional aide and knows how the system is supposed to work and where the improvements need to be instituted. He is also an expert on American history and has the intellectual overview of who we are, where we came from and where we should be going as a nation and has the intelligence, integrity and courage to lead us there.
Phillips is correct on national security, jobs, the economy and all the other issues that affect our lives and businesses here in Ulster County and beyond.
New York City Mayor Ed Koch and international business leader Ronald Lauder came to Kingston and Newburgh to endorse Phillips for many reasons. Both are international experts and leaders on the economy, national security and America’s national goals.
Vote like America’s security depends on it — it does!
Butch Dener
New Paltz
JOBS ARE HINCHEY’S LEGACY
Day and night, 24/7 this election season, the mantra on cable TV, editorial pages and political blogs has been Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Given that’s supposed to be a determining factor behind whom we support or turn away at the polls next week, I submit that no one within miles around deserves our vote more than Rep. Maurice Hinchey in his bid for re-election.
Maurice has toiled hard and effectively to bring The Solar Energy Consortium to the Hudson Valley and with it, Congressional subsidies and manufacturing companies who employ, initially, hundreds of employees with solid promise for those numbers to continue to increase by impressive multiples.
Over time it’s not unreasonable to hope that TSEC will help close the employment gap that IBM left behind in the wake of its enormous pullout some years ago. And that, ultimately, will prove to be a shining legacy for our long-term Congressman among his many other impressive achievements.
Bill Schechter
Lake Hill
VOTE YES ON OLIVE LIBRARY
On behalf of the Olive Free Library Board of Trustees I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all the residents of the Town of Olive to vote Yes on the upcoming Library Referendum on the ballot on Election Day. The Library Board has worked hard to obtain a secure funding source for the library and we believe the Referendum will provide this. Yes, the amount we are requesting will affect the taxpayer, however the amount is approximately $10 per $100,000 of assessed value or an average of $ 25 per year on a property assessed at $250,000. This is approximately the cost of one hardcover book or two pizzas! The library funding referendum is not the cause of the 14-15 percent increase in the Town taxes as some people would like residents to believe. The amount of $129,000 is just 3 percent of the Town of Olive’s overall budget of over $4 million.
Our library is the Community Center of our Town and having a great library in your town increases the value of your property. Our library is a vital resource for the town. It provides a large selection of books, magazines, CDs, DVDs and programs to town residents. Our computers are in constant demand and we also have free wireless for those who bring their laptops. Our community rooms are a center for many wonderful cultural activities and organizations.
During this economic downturn, the library has been especially busy assisting people searching for jobs and providing materials and resources for training for new employment. It is also a great place for free entertainment for the family. (DVDs, games and programs.) We would love to continue to provide these services and much more but we cannot do it without your support.
Please Vote “Yes” on Election Day, Tuesday, November 2. “Our Community, Our Library.”
Mary Ann Shepard, President
Olive Free Library Board of Trustees
DON’T GO BACK TO BUSH
George W. Bush left office with over 670,000 jobs lost. He turned a hard-won budget surplus upside down, into a deficit of $1.3 trillion. During the worst economic downturn since the Depression, the Tea Party’s answer is: privatize Social Security and eliminate Medicare — benefits earned by hard-working Americans; benefits that keep millions from falling into desperate poverty.
It’s a myth that Social Security is in crisis. Republicans keep repeating it as they have tried to raid SS, or kill it, for decades — prevented by Democrats. If they succeed now it’ll be the biggest handout ever to Wall Street.
Tea Party patriots don’t want one penny spent on America. Their answer is tax cuts for the highest incomes and multinational corporations — entities sure to outsource American jobs and invest in foreign countries.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey says investing in America’s infrastructure makes sense. We applaud his efforts in job creation, green energy technologies, tax cuts for families and small businesses, and Wall Street reform to safeguard the public from another economic collapse. These programs are starting to succeed and will turn the US economy around. We must not go backwards to the very “trickle down” economic policies that failed us.
JoAnn Chamberlain
Ulster County Democratic Women
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