It is that time of year when students in our county will be taking part in proms and graduations. Although it is justifiably a time of joy and celebration, it is equally one for caution and restraint. I am writing to enlist your assistance in helping to prevent the potentially tragic consequences of drinking and driving.
Alcohol is by far the most widely used drug among our youth and is directly associated with risk-taking behavior and other disinhibiting effects that increase the chance of unsafe conduct on their part. Unfortunately, in recent years, our county has experienced its tragic results.
On February 19, 2008, in an effort to combat drunk driving Ulster County passed a Local Law Number 2 of 2008, which, in pertinent part, provides that “no person having control of any premises shall allow an open house party to take place at said residence if such person knows or has reason to know that any alcoholic beverage or drug is being unlawfully possessed, served to or consumed by a minor (under 21) at said residence.” It defines open house party “as a social gathering at a residence or other private property with minors present.”
In addition, the Social Host Liability Act of the State of New York imposes civil liability upon any individual who knowingly serves or permits alcohol to be served to a minor if that minor causes injury to another as a result of his or her intoxication.
Furthermore, Section 260.20 of the Penal Law of the State of New York authorizes the prosecution of any individual who gives or sells or causes to be given or sold any alcoholic beverage to a person less than 21 years old. I ask that if you permit the use of your home for a prom or event, you monitor the situation carefully to insure that minors in attendance do not imbibe alcoholic beverages.
Please help to make this graduation season a time of celebration. Help keep our children, our loved ones, and our county safe.
D. Holley Carnright
Ulster County District Attorney
ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK AGAIN
Israel, that bastion of democracy, the only one in the Middle East, is under attack again as it has been for over 60 years. Where else in that war torn area can women have equal rights, and homosexuals not be harassed or killed? Where else are there free elections? What other country in that area has so many scientists, Nobel Prize winners, and people of creativity? Where else is there freedom of religion, where Christian churches and mosques stand as well as synagogues? Is it Egypt, where churches are burned? Is it Saudi Arabia, where churches and synagogues are banned? Is there democracy in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, or Libya where the people are so tired of their dictators that they are rebelling? Is it Iran where the elections are rigged? We would say a loud no.
Recently, Hamas and the Fatah movement have decided to share power. Hamas has been branded as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and others. For 63 years, Israel has celebrated the creation of its state. Each year the Palestinians and their supporters commemorate the “nakba,” the catastrophe of Israel’s birth. To his day they have not come to terms with, and do not accept the State of Israel. This year in honor of the anniversary, Hamas’ leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said, “Palestinians mark the occasion this year with great hope of bringing to an end the Zionist project in Palestine.” The Zionist project is of course Israel. How is it possible for Israel to make peace with a governing group whose aim is the absolute destruction of Israel?
We would remind Americans that Hamas and Fatah celebrated 9/11. We would like to remind Americans who their friends are. Where would you prefer to live? Egypt, Iran, Libya, Lebanon or Gaza?
Americans protect your freedoms. Israel is the canary in the coal mine. If they go, we are next.
Joan and Sanford Krotenberg
Woodstock
CONFUSED
To those who believe that they may have understood what they think I have written: I’m not sure if you realize that the way you may have interpreted what you read may not be what I meant.
Howard Harris
Bearsville
GARISHLY OBSESSIVE
Poor Jay Cohen. He’s never forgiven Jeremy Wilber (or yours truly for that matter) for giving the majority of Woodstockers cell service. Although the cell tower we helped locate is nearly impossible to detect, we dared to intrude upon his exclusive mountainside neighborhood. Now, with Jeremy running for Town Supervisor, Jay can unabashedly direct his weekly fulminations at his true Moriarty. Perhaps Terrie Rosenblum will benefit and get a break from Jay’s diatribes for a while. Although, I know if I was running, I certainly would rather have the garishly obsessive Jay Cohen rail against me than to sing my praises.
Jay had cited Jeremy’s blog (woodstockmayor.blogspot.com) as a source for nefarious impressions of former town board members. Perhaps it was Jeremy’s depictions of Jay in his blog that really has Mr. Cohen reeling. I suspect however that his disproportionate outrage is more deeply rooted and Jeremy but helped awaken the abeyant imprecator.
We should thank Jay however for bringing attention to Jeremy’s blog, as Mr. Wilber has recently posted his version for a desperately needed town comprehensive plan on that selfsame blog. If you care about Woodstock and the direction that you think that we should take, read it and leave a comment. This is a conversation, unlike some, that should be worth your time.
Gordon Wemp
Woodstock
THE TRUTH ABOUT NABKA
Sunday May 15 Arabs commemorated “Nakba Day.” Nakba meaning catastrophe as a result of the U.N. partition plan establishing Israel and Palestine based on demographics of Jews and Arabs.
But “Nakba” is a lie, as is the rest of the Arab anti-Israel anti-Semitic propaganda, which seeks to delegitimize, debase and destroy Israel!
The truth about “Nakba” is that on May 15, 1948 seven Arab armies invaded the reborn State of Israel with the openly declared intention of destroying the state and massacring the Jewish People! It is a miracle and a mystery how the small nation survived the Arab onslaught. Only a few years later the very same Arab states marked the 15th of May as “a day of revenge” — revenge for Israel not allowing herself to be destroyed.
The Arab “exodus” from the Land of Israel began as a result of promises by Arab leaders from the surrounding countries that they would return to all the land after the Arabs would inflict on the Jews the greatest massacre since “the Mongol Massacre”! The so called “refugees” are the result of the UNRWA $330 million-a-year project (“business” enterprise) and the rich Arab countries that refused to absorb them in contrast to the way Israel absorbed the Jews that were thrown out of Arab countries.
Natan Ben Yehuda
Bearsville
STAY IN SAUGERTIES
Nicole Roskos’ negative critique of Jeremy Wilber, printed in the Woodstock Times letters to the editor on May 18, is totally meaningless. Since Ms. Roskos resides in Saugerties, she should mind her own business and be concerned about her own home town, not ours. I’m sure that Saugerties needs her attention, we don’t!
Alan Shapiro
Woodstock
SHOW THE COLORS AT THE PARADE
As a veteran, and member of Woodstock’s American Legion Post 1026 I invite all residents of our community to come out on Monday, May 30, and be part of our annual Memorial Day parade. The parade, sponsored by the American Legion, begins by the Playhouse at noon, proceeds up Mill Hill Road to Rock City Road, then continues to the Woodstock Cemetery, where we will hold a memorial service for deceased veterans. This is an opportunity for all of us to say thanks to the many men and women who gave their lives in service to our country, and a show of support for troops presently serving. While it is always encouraged that we display the red, white, and blue on Memorial Day, this year will also mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11. So let us all proudly fly our country’s flag, not only for our veterans, but also in memory of those who perished on that tragic
September day. Let the families and friends of those heroic victims know that Woodstockers truly care. See you at the parade!
Don Haberski
Woodstock
PANTRY CEREAL DRIVE AT SUNFLOWER
The cereal drive rolls around on the calendar quite often, actually. It’s become a necessary part of pantry life. We gather at the Sunflower Natural Foods Market one Saturday each month and get enough cereal for the pantry. If we didn’t have this cereal drive, there really just wouldn’t be much cereal in the pantry. And, of course, we need a lot because about 1000 people visit the pantry or get food delivered to their homes each month.
In addition to cereal, this month we asked for butter, eggs, cheese and peanut butter. We’re asking for the butter, eggs, and cheese because we have our refrigerator in the pantry now and these items are such luxuries in a pantry. We’re asking for peanut butter because we are just flat out of it. Peanut butter is a basic in a pantry because it is delicious, nutritious, and needs no refrigeration.
Volunteers this month included Ann King, Bobbie Blitzer, Lisa Calcagno, and Marilou Paturel.
Many people see the Good Neighbor Food Pantry as an outreach service of the various congregations in the area. To me, the pantry is not an act of outreach. Rather, it is an act of gratitude. When we feed others, we are honoring and acknowledging our hunger while at the same time honoring and acknowledging the amazing abundance available to us all.
Thank you for participating in the monthly pantry food drive at the Sunflower Natural Foods Market. Our next day at the Sunflower will be June 25. If you want to make a donation but are unable to come to a Saturday food drive, you are invited to send a check to Good Neighbor Food Pantry, c/o Woodstock Reformed Church, 16 Tinker St., Woodstock, NY 12498.
If you want to make a donation using your computer, go to www.foodbankofhudsonvalley.org and click on “Donate Now” to secure your online donation. Enter your donation and direct it to the Good Neighbor Food Pantry #2033F. You may designate this as a recurring automated donation if you desire.
To make a donation by phone, call 845-534-5344 and request that your donation go to the Good Neighbor Food Pantry #2033F. Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
VETS FOR PEACE TO OBSERVE MEMORIAL DAY
Veterans For Peace will have its Memorial Day observance on Monday, May 30, in Woodstock. As Veterans, we work to raise public awareness of the true costs and consequences of militarism and war. We reject armed conflict as a tool for national politics. We seek peaceful alternatives and we point out the lies used to ‘justify’ war. We know that the appropriate way to honor the war dead, indeed the way those men and women would want to be remembered, is to focus on the living victims, military and civilian, and the warmongers who get obscenely rich on suffering. We point to the attacks on working people, the environment, the degradation of education, infrastructure, profiling of minorities, and removal of civil liberties as a partial list of the true costs of war. After coming up the road, we will gather on the Village Green for a brief ceremony.
Jay Wenk
Woodstock
AMMA THANKS
Jai Karunamayi! Our town was recently graced for the twelfth annual year by Amma Sri Karunamayi, who spent all day Monday, May 9 individually blessing each person who came to see her at the Bearsville Theater, and on Tuesday, May 10 led a day-long silent meditation retreat there.
Amma often surprises people by speaking to the secrets in their hearts, even recognizing them by name after the interval of a year or more, during which she’s probably met tens of thousands of people. But the greatest surprise is always the divine sweetness and genuine love that emanate from her, and how her blessings unfold in the silence of the mysterious relationship she opens within us.
As usual, many people tirelessly and selflessly volunteered their time and resources to make Amma’s programs here possible. Amma’s organization, SMVA Trust extends its gratitude to Tamara and Michael Lang, Marion Van Dooijeweert, Dawn and Arthur Markle, Peter Goodman, Joy Lofstrand, Nurit Spector, Camille Harriton, Jasmine Shah, Susan Butterworth, Maya Horowitz, Linna Bose, Susan Holland, Colleen Hernandez, James LaMontagne, Dawn Meola, Fre Atlast, Marguerite Shinouda, Tim Callender, Sahaja, Sharon Parkinson and many others.
Though most of Amma’s offerings are free, each locality she visits is responsible for raising the considerable amount of money it takes to host her programs and contribute to her transportation expenses. SMVA Trust thanks the numerous individuals who made donations large and small, and area businesses that gave monetary or in-kind donations: Chronogram, Ulster Savings Bank, Emmanuel’s Market, Mirabai Books, Mother Earth’s Storehouse, Sunflower Natural Foods, Adams Fairacre Farms. Gratitude always to Woodstock Times for carrying news of Amma.
Amma’s mothering extends from the subtlest levels to the most practical. All donations given at Amma’s programs go directly to her charitable projects that provide essential services to impoverished tribal people in Andhra Pradesh, S. India. This year the emphasis is on water purification plants for 175 villages where the bones, teeth, kidneys and nervous systems of children and adults are being destroyed by fluoride contamination in the water. To see details about their horrific plight, go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF-VR2EJqK0. Donations can still be made online.
Amma will return to Manhattan for one day to address the U.N. on Friday, June 17, 12:45 p.m.-2:45 p.m. The event is free to U.N. employees, with limited attendance by others for a suggested donation of $25, which goes to Amma’s women’s charities. Go to www.karunamayi.org/News/UNProgram2011.shtml to register.
Though most of Amma’s programs are in larger cities, she loves Woodstock and promises to return to us next year. To join our local mailing list and receive occasional messages from Amma and news of her events, email Woodstock@karunamayi.org.
Cassia Berman
Woodstock
WHY I LOVE WOODSTOCK
It is May 21 and the landscape here is like an artist’s canvas touched by the soul of the universe that some say will end this day. The beautifully stark winter has birthed a thousand subtle shades of green and I spend part of my day in sincere, devout concentration searching for a new hue against a verdant patchwork quilt as solid as stone, as liquid as quicksilver. The day overflows with enlightenment as a series of art openings add beauty, thought, cheese, wine and old and new friends to the canvas. Someone jokes that it is now after 6 p.m., and that we, all, must have missed The Rapture.
Missed the rapture? I don’t think so, as a man walks by wearing a bold green shirt that shouts for my attention. 1001, I count.
Michael Suib
Woodstock
FINE YOUTH THEATER
I would like to congratulate the young cast of The Jungle Book, the musical that opened Friday night at Backstage Studio Productions. This vigorous, tuneful Disney romp is presented by Stages in the Arts, also known as the Woodstock Youth Theater. Dot Penz, director, has created a bright jungle set that even includes a swinging “vine.” With lots of dancing and singing, the play has great appeal for young and young-at-heart audiences.
Woodstock Youth Theater, now known as Stages in the Arts, was founded more than 28 years ago by Beth Lipton. Throughout the years, it has provided an excellent theater experience for young people in the Hudson Valley, serving youth from ages 8 to 25. This cast ranges in age from 4½ to 13.
The Jungle Book will be performed next week-end also: Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at 323 Wall Street, Kingston. Reservations are recommended but not required. Call 338-8700 for more information. Don’t miss this one!
Marcia Panza
Woodstock
RADICAL ZONING CHANGES PROPOSED
Last week the town board took another sledge hammer blow to Woodstock’s zoning laws by proposing that site plans not be required for changes in the use of existing buildings. Under current law, if the use of a building changes, a site plan is required to insure the new use meets the applicable standards.
If a dress shop is converted into a restaurant, a site plan considers additional traffic, parking, water usage, sewage, garbage collection, etc. introduced by the new use. The proposed changes to the zoning law would eliminate this requirement for a site plan review.
The zoning changes would also eliminate any need for additional parking and consideration of increased traffic. The estimated amount of water used could not be increased or accounted for, and there would be no requirement to alter existing parking, driveways, landscaping or site features.
This proposal is a complete erasure of existing site plan requirements for the commercial districts. When the town board announced that councilwomen Terrie Rosenblum and Cathy Magarelli would form a subcommittee to revise and rewrite the town’s zoning law, they announced these zoning revisions would be written in private, behind closed doors.
True to their word, these zoning changes were announced without discussion, without explanation, and with no opportunity to ask questions. Although the town board won’t take questions, it might be possible to question the candidates about their views on these changes before the election. As a candidate for supervisor, Terrie Rosenblum could be asked why she is advocating these radical and apparently irresponsible changes to the zoning law.
Ken Panza
Woodstock
MUSICAL CITIZENS
Are residents of Accord called “Accordions”?
Sparrow
Phoenicia
GARDEN PARTY FORMING
The world needs more gardens, but are we ready for the Garden Party? The Garden Party is all about how to create more cooperation. Our goals are sustainability, self-sufficiency, wellbeing.
Throughout history, as it is told, there have been ground-breaking events: Fire, the Wheel, Monotheism, the Industrial Revolution, etc.
The U.S. has served as an ideological beacon, guiding civilization forward. Now, a byproduct of this ideology, materialism (the competition for things & information to aid in the acquisition of more things), is the ‘Raison d’etre’ for many in society today.
This competition has brought the American Dream…now morphing into a Global Nightmare. Wellbeing shifting to misery, for some, much more than others. A more consistent feeling of contentment could replace passing pleasure, with increased safety for all.
We’re all in it together. A moral race to alleviate suffering, replacing the ‘Rat Race.’
A moral system focusing on the more fortunate helping the less fortunate, spiritually as well as physically. Basic issues of unclean water, lack of food, greed, clothing & shelter, healthcare, transportation etc., could be addressed in efficient ways — until they are all but gone. Monies & energy for these projects would come from excesses saved from people living a happy, comfortable, cooperative creative austerity. Live simply that others may simply live.
A few people have told me to write a Sci-fi novel. I’d rather see things happen in reality. “The ramparts of the sacred are tottering, if they are not leveled we will all be crushed beneath them as they fall.” — unattributed quote.
I may be a dreamer (or naive), but I believe a more peaceful world is possible. The time is now; We propose the Garden Party. Promote and Vote The Garden Party! First meeting mid-June in Woodstock. Any comments welcomed at my temporary email:dtttkitt@webtv.net. Think good thoughts.
Dave Kitt
Woodstock
WOODSTOCK AQUIFER/TOWN WELLS
The presentation on May 16, at the Community Center, given by hydrogeologist Paul Rubin, was not only factual but totally apolitical. How refreshing! It did not, however, disclose anything that wasn’t already a known fact. Based on past such studies, innumerable people and volunteer bodies have attempted, over the past several decades, to convince innumerable Town Boards to drill the town’s wells deeper and install deep well pumps. To have such an enormous aquifer, with depths of up to 130 feet, but only having wells with depths of 25 to 30 feet is simply beyond comprehension. Penny wise but pound foolish. There is enough retrievable water in that one aquifer to supply the needs of a town many times the size of Woodstock. If proper wells were drilled and proper pumps installed there would never be another need for water advisories or restrictions. I am well aware of the current economic situation, but I sincerely hope, as the economy rebounds, our Town Board will finally make deep well drilling in this aquifer a top priority.
In closing consider this: If one were to agree with the quoted opinion of Woody Allen (in Robin Segal’s letter of last week) that merging Dissent and Commentary produces Dysentery, then there are several locals who would have died of dehydration quite some time ago!
Mary Phillips Burke
Woodstock
THERE’S PLENTY OF WATER
Robin Segal interrupted her busy law practice last week to convene a meeting, bash RUPCO and write a letter to the editor which, unfortunately, misinformed the public.
According to RUPCO consultant Russell Urban-Mead, CPG, Senior Hydrologist at Chazen Company Engineers, “available evidence describing the presently-developed aquifer capacity near and under the Town of Woodstock’s seven Water District wells is around 500 gpm (720,000 gpd). When considering drought flow records, a firmer safe yield estimate is approximately 400 gpm (576,000 gpd) or 288,000 gpd if the wells are pumped just twelve hours daily. Pumping the six least productive wells continuously (with the “best well out of service”) would yield 413,280 gpd.”
In addition to the water resources described above Mr. Paul Rubin, a local consultant hired by SAGE, indicated that “there may also be a deeper horizon of water-bearing sediments in this same location.” We agree with Rubin that there are significant unexplored water resources in Woodstock.
Also, according to the City of Kingston’s Water Supply Application No. 493 (May 27, 1929) the city of Kingston shall furnish water to any publicly or privately owned water supply system situated in the town of Woodstock.” This is a right which Woodstock has never formally activated but for which an interconnection between the City and the Town’s water connection lines already exists. The agreement and the installed infrastructure already connecting the Town’s water district to Kingston’s source further supports the reliable water capacity available to the Woodstock Water District.
The Town of Woodstock planning board studied this proposal and all of its ramifications for more than five years. Every question we were asked to answer was answered — by qualified engineers. Then those answers were reviewed by their peers for accuracy. Because Woodstock has its own environmental quality review act which is even more stringent than New York State’s SEQRA, everyone can be assured that this proposal is safe, sensible and sustainable. Ms. Segal has already lost one legal battle to prove otherwise. Her public relations efforts — like last week’s meeting — do not alter the facts. We look forward to a ground-breaking in the near future.
Guy Thomas Kempe, Director of Community Development
Rural Ulster Preservation Company
UPLIFTING EVENING TURNED TO DESPAIR
Last Wednesday evening, the Woodstock Community Center showed a film on the 1961 Freedom Bus Riders. Reverend Don Moore of In His Name Ministry introduced the film to a well attended audience.
Those Freedom Riders were representative of everything we would like to think is characteristic of American moral values in direct opposition to what they encountered in their travels through the South: hate, violence, bigotry, threats of death, pain, incarceration, and the ugly face of indifference to human suffering because of a challenge to ingrained prejudices. The Freedom Riders believed that persistence would overcome the hate, would show them to be more noble, more American that the haters, the inciters. They succeeded.
And the Rev. Moore rose to speak at the end of the film. He started out by repeating five or six times “I want you to think. I want you to think.” We initially though he was urging us to think that nobility of purpose can defeat violence and prejudice. We were soon disabused of that notion. He quoted was claimed was a Sura from the Koran that urged the killing of Jews and Christians. That is indeed a broad interpretation. The Sura he is referring to and I quote: “….that which has been given to Moses and to Jesus from their lord…no difference do we make between any of them: And to God we are resigned (Muslims)…God will suffice to protect thee against them.” He offered protection against what he considered infidels. Later still a Sura urges “deal gently therefore with the infidels; grant them gentle respite.”
So what Reverend Moore was urging us to think about was to fear and hate Muslims. They were to be the perpetual enemy.
Reverend Moore went beyond the hatred of Muslims. Planned Parenthood was also his target. He spouted the old shibboleth that Planned Parenthood established itself in poor neighborhoods to kill black children. Did Planned Parenthood also plan, with evil intent, to prevent women from getting breast cancer, from knowing they may be suffering from HIV, from cervical cancer, and most evil of all, from planning the number of children they should have?
Reverend Moore sadden us and turned what was a remarkable and uplifting evening into an evening of despair because of the knowledge that people, including reverends, are incapable of learning anything from such noble people as the Freedom Riders.
Abby Johnnes
High Falls
THANKS FROM THE PTA
On behalf of the Woodstock Elementary School PTA, we’d like to thank Jill and Stephen Slutzky of Hickory BBQ Smokehouse, as well as Mike and Carol Slutzky, for their generous donation of proceeds from a BBQ Chicken Dinner Fundraiser at our school earlier this month. They kindly set up shop on school grounds so the community could enjoy a picnic dinner on the lawn or in their own homes. This event helped raise funds for our general PTA account, which goes towards Family Fun nights, Homework Club snacks and other enriching school events. We are grateful to the Slutzkys and to our community for all the support given to the education of our children.
Lysa Ingalsbe, PTA President
Stacey Anderson, PTA Vice President
Kristen Eberhard, PTA Treasurer
Rachel Remler, PTA Secretary
HERALD FUND BENEFIT A SUCCESS
I would like to thank all of the people who made Saturday night way more of a special event than what I could have ever expected to be. Brian Hollander and I started to plan this event way back in February of this year so it was a long time in the making and I really didn’t know what the turnout would be with several major events happening in town that evening including Bob Dylan’s 70th Birthday Bash at the Kleinert. We opened the doors at 7 p.m. sharp and the music continued throughout the evening until about 3 a.m. or so. First and foremost I would like to thank Sha Wu, De Chen and the staff of Harmony Music. Not only did Sha Wu get behind this fund raiser for The John Herald Fund 100 percent, he custom made limited edition T-Shirts with photos of John that were sold to raise money for the Fund, printed up a special poster of John and cooked up a midnight buffet breakfast extraordinary for all of the performers and those attending. He even made up band laminates with a photo of John on them for the musicians to wear around their necks so they could eat on the house. I would like to thank Eeo Stubblefield for designing the posters that were used to promote the event. Karen Falch was also nice enough to print the posters and distribute 100 of the posters throughout Woodstock promoting the event. We were very fortunate to have Janet and Tom Klugewicz of Phoenicia’s Phirst Phriday to volunteer and work the door for us being the avid supporters of the John Herald Fund that they are, donating money from most of their Phoenicia Phirst Phriday concerts to the fund. Better people could not have been at the event working the door.
I want to thank all of the performers who played excellent sets of heart felt music. All of them were more than professional in their manner of working with us. All egos were left at the door for sure. Mike Hunold and Matt Bowe, Don Sparks, Peggy Atwood, Brian, Fran and Abby Hollander, The Chris Zaloom Band with Joe Bones and Mike Colletti, The Princes of Serendip with T.G. and Julie Vannini, my Junkyard Angels with George Quinn, T.G. Vannini, Chris Zaloom and Rob Stein who drove up from Long Island and was a good friend of John’s working with him for over 6 years. I also want to thank some of the performers who came down after the Bob Dylan event to play some tunes and keep the night alive even longer, Kyle Esposito, Doug Yoel, the magnificent Tim Moore, Dean Batstone, Dave Kearney and Elly Wininger. A special thanks to Woodstock’s legend Tom Pacheco who came down to blow the house away with a few of his magnificent tunes. Thanks Tom! I want to thank Beverly Traum for bringing down some of Artie’s CD’s to sell at the door and contribute to the fund. Artie was a very good friend who supported John’s music even after John was gone. Hence “Moneyland” covered by the Del McCoury Band who covered the song. Thanks Bev & Artie!!
I want to thank Julia Nichols and Peggy Atwood as well as Brian for their working the sound; Brian wore many hats that evening. I would also like to thank Russell Richardson who was kind enough to come down and set up his projector to show some rare footage of John Herald singing a few songs. A very special thanks to my friends Bob Ackershoek and Artie Martello at WIOX 91.3 in Roxbury, NY for promoting the hell out of this show and playing John Herald and Charles Lyonhart music most of last week and also for having me live on the air last Friday morning to promote the show. I want to thank Erik Lamont for taking some incredible photos of the evening and posting them on line. For those of you who could not attend the event and would like to make a contribution to the fund please send your donation to this address: Family of Woodstock, Post Office Box 3516, Kingston, New York 12402. Please make the checks payable to Family of Woodstock and it is important to mark on the check where you can put a memo for “The John Herald Fund.” Any contributions are more than welcome and tax deductable.
At the end of the evening we raised over $1600 and we have a mysterious donor who cornered Brian at the start of the event and offered to match the amount of money that we raised that evening. So all in all it was a great night and I cannot thank Brian enough for helping me to put this whole thing together and working with me to pull it off. Even though we did well we are already planning the next one and are hoping to do at least three of four of these a year to keep money in the fund and at the same time keep John Herald’s name alive. There are many artists in need of the basic necessities of life and I am committed to doing whatever I can to keep the fund alive and healthy. If I forgot anybody in this letter, thanks for your help. Those who want to be involved in the next John Herald Benefit you can email me at Charles@charleslyonhart.com
Thank you everybody and it was a great night indeed!
Charles Lyonhart
Chichester
By Captain John Maniscalco, American Airlines Pilot
I've been trying to say this since 911, but you worry me. I wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me.
I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.
On September 11, ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings, killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers.
The Palestinians celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So, I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage, hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.
How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim Americans and the Arab/Muslim terrorists in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good neighbors and children?
The events of September 11 changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.
I want to know, I demand to know and I have a right to know, whether or not you love America ... Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation; that He will protect it and let it prosper? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your Jihads? Are you thankful for the freedom that this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America ? If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.
Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America . Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent, because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks, because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy; I am interested only in action. What will you do for America - our great country - at this time of crisis, at this time of war?
I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting 'Allah Bless America'. I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole.
The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize right now in Muslim communities. You know them.
You know where they are. Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals.
The very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States proves who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing 'leaders' like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.
If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, pure, and true, when your 'leaders' are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance? It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.
We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others, for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us, our rights under the greatest constitution in the world. I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it, a right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family.
I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance, and it is up to YOU to show ME where YOU stand. Until then, "YOU WORRY ME!"
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The authenticity of the claimed author of this piece cannot be determined. See http://www.snopes.com/rumors/soapbox/worryme.asp for more.)