617/2010

Dear Editor,
What a disappointment to see our favorite vacation destination "Sweet Sue's" has changed hands. It always made the meal to have the owner buzzing around the dining room smiling and greeting everyone and it felt good to watch her working, joking and laughing with her employees. You knew it was a great place to work.The highlight would be if Sweet Sue herself would serve us and graciously indulge my grandchildren with her story of Battling the Bear. We really missed the "feeling" that Sweet Sue's possessed. I guess you can sell a building and a recipe, but you can't sell the "heart".
Sam and Matty Whitaker
Phoenicia, NY
Dear Editor,
In my line of work I have the privilige of working beside the Central Hudson linemen. When most of the community is sleeping or huddled up warm in their homes during a cold winter storm, the men at Central Hudson are replacing broken poles, connecting wires, and restoring power often for countless hours. Thousands of people are counting on them. These men are also our neighbors. They have homes, pay taxes, and raise their families in our community.
I find it disturbing that the Town of Olive has decided to purchase its electricity from the reseller called Energy Plus. Has anyone ever seen an Energy Plus line truck? Who is Energy Plus? Where are their substations and power lines? Is it possible that they are just a paper company that takes its profit from Central Hudson without having to do any actual work? I would rather see our taxpayer's money going to the company and men who are doing such a fine job keeping our electricity on, and not to a parasite company.
Roger Adsit
Lineman for Verizon
Shokan, NY
Dear Editor,
I'd like to thank Mr. Langbert for his extensive reply to my letter. Not my last letter, the one before that. If he has responded to my last letter, I haven't seen it yet. I get the paper rather late.
Mr. Langbert makes some swell suggestions. The Wicks law idiocy, of course.
Accounting reform. Absolutely. I didn't know about the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. Was it at least an improvement? Or a failed attempt at an improvement that mucked things up more?
Also absolutely on procurement reform and sensible infrastructure maintainence. Alas, politicians seem to prefer building something new named after themselves rather than fixing something already named for somebody else.
But Mr. Langbert lost me when he wrote about "Decades of Democratic rule in this state." We had a recent eight year stretch with a Republican Governor and Republicans running the State Senate. Was the advent of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Late Cuomo or early Pataki?
In the letter after Mr. Langbert's, a Mr. Bob Surprise had some fine points about FICA, one of our largest and most regressive taxes. I warn Mr. Surprise that the reason to pay rich folks their due Social Security money is so that the program cannot be called an entitlement. Because Americans these days hates entitlements. 'Cept money and family entitlements. Go figger.
Amazingly, a swell idea came from the guy who will probably be the next Governor, Andrew Cuomo, who suggested eliminating State Agencies. These are enormous sink-holes of tax money and corruption. And they're opaque. We'll see if Mr. Cuomo remembers this idea. It would be purely great if he did.
Now, I'm all for quirky views. I personally loathe cars. (They're evil! Really!) But Mr. Langbert needs to walk me through his antipathy for the Public School System.
Personally, I detested school, and was bad at it. But I nevertheless am in awe of teachers. What a hell job! I know that i couldn't do it, not nohow. I do not think teachers could be paid enough. If only to reduce crime, educate the chill'uns.
I wonder what Mr. Langbert means by twelve years of brainwashing. I've paid close attention to my daughter's Public Schooling, and the brainwashing was mostly Don't Hit Other People, which is fine with me, as my daughter is small and shy. (She's very good at Math and Science. Yay.)
Maybe it's different in West Shokan. Still, as I remember, indoctrination produces cynics. I'd rather we produced skeptics.
Gus Murphy
Brooklyn, NY
Dear Editor,

Gus Murphy claims that the Wicks Law and similar kinds of governmental failures are accidents and that government can work. But Murphy does not illustrate his claim with facts. Murphy is right that some government is essential, and he is also right that Henry David Thoreau wrote in Civil Disobedience that the government is best which governs not at all. When I assign that short and passionate essay to my senior seminar students they are often surprised that the inventor of civil disobedience, an abolitionist and opponent of the Mexican War, disagreed with big government.
Mr. Murphy offers foreign affairs and road building as examples of the essential services that government provides. But both of these functions were with us long before the explosion in government spending in the past fifty years. In 1950 government spending was 15% of the economy and today it is 45%. But the US isn't any safer and doesn't have better paved roads. Berndt Leifeld and Barack Obama have gotten plenty of votes through handing out jobs, though, even if the roads are worse.
I agree with Murphy on his proposals to cut drug enforcement and military spending. Prohibition didn't work and neither does criminalization of drugs. Likewise, the use of large scale, second generation warfare (see Thomas Hammes, the Sling and the Stone) has been incompetent and wasteful, much like everything else in government.
But I respectfully disagree with Murphy that once it starts spending government can avoid persistent failures like the Wicks Law and a long list of government boondoggles. The Wicks Law has been with us for nearly a century, yet it remains law. There are four reasons why government does not work. First, the brokerage of special interests arises from economic incentives that government creates. Mancur Olson in Rise and Decline of Nations shows that lobbying and political manipulation result from a straightforward cost-benefit calculus that that favors wealthy special interests like Paul and Nancy Pelosi's Star Kist Tuna at the expense of the average American. In the 2009 Bush-Obama bailout of Wall Street, even the mass media was coopted. There was hardly an opponent of the bailout permitted on any media outlet.
Second, in the 1920s to 1940s Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek showed the impossibility of socialist calculation. That is, the only way to efficiently allocate resources is through markets. Government interferes with markets and so makes us poorer.
Third, government lacks feedback about whether its tactics succeed over time. Government budgets are for one year, so decisions that dump costs into the future are encouraged. There is no stock price to inform decision makers whether they are failing.
Fourth the complexity of government means that neither legislators nor the public can monitor it. Few Americans are familiar with the intricacies of the tax code or pollution law. Recently, we heard Nancy Pelosi say that the health care law should be passed so that we can find out what it says. Pension law (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) is a joke, yet few Americans question it.
Thus, government cannot work, has not worked and never will work. As government has expanded from 15% of the economy in 1950 to nearly half today, real wages have stagnated. In the nineteenth century and into the 1960s real hourly wages increased two percent per year. Since the 1960s explosion in government and the abolition of the gold standard in 1971 the real hourly wage has not grown at all. The explosion led to the freezing of standards of living at the 1970 level. The frauds in the banker owned "liberal" media claim that the stagnant real wages were due to Reagan, but the freezing of the real hourly wage started in the 1970s. In turn Americans became two income families, then three income and now we see both spouses working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. In my day my dear mother could stay at home while my father worked in a factory. Reason: there was less government.
But the public and Mr. Murphy have not figured out that if you pay half your income in taxes and get little or nothing in return, you will be forced to work like a slave in order to pay for government's greedy incompetence. Henry David Thoreau would turn in his grave if he saw how America has become a slave society.
Mitchell Langbert
West Shokan, NY
Dear Editor,
This is concerning a tower in the Town of Shandaken on Rt.42 that you can see from our front yard. The tower has no reception, nobody gets any cellphone service in the area. I recently received a cell phone from Safelink, due to being on State Aid and it's totally useless with a tower across the road. Why did they put up a tower that is useless? Something should be done about this. Those of us that own cellphones can't use them up this way because they put up a tower that isn't complete. You don't get cell service until you are almost in Boiceville. Those of us that rely on cellphones need to have something done about this. I've heard people complain about no cellphone service up here, we should be able to use our phones. So our question is why did they put up a tower that was not completed? I think that those of us that have cellphones should say and do something about this. Also, who is responsible for the construction of this tower and why did they not complete the job? Is there something that can be done about this, so those of us that own cellphones from Phoenicia on up to Pine Hill can use them?
Kathy & Jim Perka
Shandaken, NY
Dear Editor,
As predicted, the student population in our school district has once again
dipped to a new low of 1,621. Our kindergarten registration for this 2010-2011 school year is 80 students with 25 at Bennett, 21 at Phoenicia, and 33 at Woodstock...14 students below the professional statistical analysis for this school year.
The numbers don't surprise me. What amazes me is that the Phoenicia Elementary School's administration and teaching staff are actually campaigning directly to our Board of Trustees for two kindergarten classes... that's right, two classrooms of 10 and 11 students.
The State Education Department has guidelines for the maximum amount of students allowed to be in a classroom at each grade level. Onteora always set their own guidelines which are considerably lower. The guide line for kindergarten at Onteora is maximum of 23 students. A higher registration necessitates more classrooms.
The Trustees have been actively considering lowering the Onteora guidelines to 21 students per classroom, siting smaller classrooms bring better education. Even if this new idea became a guideline, that still puts Phoenicia in the position of reducing to one classroom. Phoenicia would, then, have two grade levels of one classroom size. Bennett right now has one grade level with a one classroom population.
Too few of us are voicing outrage at the irresponsibility of our elected officials who continuously put their heads in the sand refusing to acknowledge that declining student population is the wave of the future. This board refuses to consider consolidation at an elementary level.
How long will this district sit back and watch our educational direction and
fiscal solvency decline? Experts in our school district predict that by continuing the same policies and budgeting factors, within 5 years our school district will be "in the red" by about $27,000,000.
Consolidation is being sought on all levels of government and education. It is not fair to "break the backs" of a population, whose average income is $25,000 per working person. Let us not forget those with a fixed income, as well.
Wake up, Onteora, before we become reactive instead of pro-active. My fear is it may already be too late.
Rita Vanacore
Shokan, NY
Dear Editor,
One of the terrible side effects of a bad economy is an increase in domestic violence.
It has been true since at least the days of the Great Depression when increasing family strife and abuse was layered on top of unemployment, homelessness and hunger.
Today, we at Ulster County's Domestic Violence Services /The Washbourne House are seeing the same sad trend. The number of people looking for services is drastically rising.
But along with the rise in need, the tough times also mean resources to help fund the services are more scarce. In an unprecedented move, Ulster County Department of Social Services has cut 100-percent of domestic violence funding for The Washbourne House's children's program, leaving us wondering how we are going to deal with the loss.
In the end, a lack of domestic violence funding, much of which goes toward prevention and intervention, touches everyone. When a situation escalates, police are called in and find themselves involved in manhunts and dangerous standoffs. In some cases schools are closed or locked down if law enforcement believes there is a volatile situation. Businesses deal with absenteeism from employees who are victims.
And we all hear about one of the terrible increasing trends: murder suicides. In our own community there have been far too many. The worst element of domestic violence, of course, is when someone dies. Those numbers continue to increase in Ulster County.
We need to move from reacting to escalating acts of abuse and violence to working to prevent them. Part of getting a woman to be free and become a survivor is to offer full services to her and her children which include children's groups.
Now, of all times, the resources provided for victims of domestic abuse are essential. Domestic abuse reporting is already down as a result of the recessionary economy. More and more abuse victims are choosing to remain in coercive relationships for the economic security provided for them and their children. Funding cuts exacerbate the problem as their options are cut off. And, all too often there are children involved who will be subject to the same abuse, perhaps growing up to be abusers or victims themselves.
To leave physically injured, and intimidated victims of domestic violence under protected, under served and under funded is to our disgrace whatever the budgetary excuses.
We won't be able to provide these services unless we can find other funding. People in our community can help out. Please send a check today to: The Washbourne House, PO Box 3817, Kingston, NY 12402 (Attention: The Children's Program)
Kathleen Welby-Moretti
Family Domestic Violence Services
Kingston, NY
Dear Editor,
Let's lose the "spill/leak" misnomer and call it what it is - THE GULF GUSH. It's like we intentionally pierced a giant artery and didn't even have a suture nearby. Couple this most likely "worst manmade environmental disaster" ever, with the impending depression, and the aimless but very angry "Tea Party", and we have some hard times ahead.
Now we watch our first black president, with his extraordinarily controlled emotional personality, try to negotiate between the corporations, now unarguably
in control of our country, and the disappointed people that elected him. I personally don't agree with his way of dealing with BP, but what do I know? Surely I don't have a clue as to what the "powers that be" can do to him, us and all of life on earth. I didn't even know that they had the rights to our oceans and shores before, so I only have uneducated guesses to go on.
President Obama knows that the monumental cost of this disaster could near the cost of the "bailout". When you faction in the lawsuits for the death and sickness of people, on top of the loss of businesses in the Gulf, with whatever else this loss of life in the oceans will do, that statement is not so out of line. So, he's apparently trying to stick some of this cost to BP, instead of having to pick up the bill with our taxes, which means keeping them in charge.
So, he makes them put in two relief wells, instead of one. What a novel idea - a back-up, in case something goes wrong. I wonder if that ever happened before. In exchange, he keeps them in charge, and responsible for those costs. But here's the big rub for me. BP is still using a dispersant that the EPA has told them to stop using, due to it's toxic effects. It may well have a bigger effect on life in the waters than the oil does. Oh, BP and it's associates apparently have financial connections to this brand of dispersant. But I won't go there, because the connections might reveal more than I want to know. All I care about is that they stop using it.
And so, I've decided to devote my time to this cause. If anyone wants to join
me, (especially video editors), please get in touch, or write a letter to the Editor next week. Let's stop the Kill Baby Kill and replace it with an understanding that we are just one species of many that exist on this jewel of a planet. We are so fortunate to be here. Let's start to show our appreciation to our magnificent Mother Earth and do what we can to protect her.
Jill Paperno
Glenford NY
Dear Editor,
BP's ruptured oil well is quickly becoming a watershed historical event that will change our world. The recent acknowledgement by both the United States government and BP officials that the release of oil will continue unabated until at least August is the prelude to our collective "fossil fuel moment." Furthermore, as if the situation wasn't dire enough, we also learned this week that, in order to prepare the ruptured well for the planned relief wells (which are currently under construction), the ruptured well is expected to spew an additional twenty percent for three days to a week before the procedure is attempted. Who are they kidding? At this point, who can say that the fifth attempt to cap the well will be anymore successful than the previous four? What about the extremely active hurricane forecast? What about the ineptitude, mismanagement, subterfuge, and stasis that has plagued this operation for nearly 50 days? Are those things just going to disappear? Let's face it. Nobody can definitively predict how long this monster will spew its poison into the Gulf of Mexico.
Needless to say, when this catastrophe does end, our way of life will not be the same. For the first time in history, our uncontrollable hunger for fossil fuels will have fundamentally damaged the ecology of an entire region of the planet. Furthermore, even if we get the oil well under control by the end of August and find a viable way to deal with the petroleum damage, what about the dispersant? As The New York Times pointed out on Monday, this toxic substance is unproven, only made by one company, and has been used abundantly.
It is easy to blame BP, or Halliburton (which owned the rig), or Dick Cheney, or the Bush Administration's deregulation and cronyism - particularly in the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service - or the Obama administration's lack of foresight or urgency. But history will blame us all. For over 30 years we've known the deal. Unfortunately, it took a moment this ugly to seriously address the problem.
Darren Kimmet
Woodstock, NY and SUNY Albany
Dear Editor,
In the coming hot summer days, an air conditioner can be a welcome relief! But there is an important impact that AC's have that may make you think twice about using it when it's unnecessary.
Air conditioning uses huge amounts of electricity, causing spikes in our mid-summer electric demand. Electricity usage is a top contributor to climate change because the majority of our electricity comes from oil or coal-burning power plants. As we all become more aware of the dangers associated with our dependence on fossil fuels, we must acknowledge that the United States is the world's biggest energy consumers per capita. Having air conditioning is a luxury that not everyone can enjoy; and turning it on for those not-so-hot days is a habit we should stay mindful of. Keeping a room cool while saving energy can be done by reducing heat gains by shading from the sun and keeping heat producing appliances off such as lights. There will be many mild summer days and nights that can be enjoyed with open windows and not the AC, so this year let's minimize our energy usage with our AC and only turn it on if it's really necessary.
Jens Verhaegh, on behalf of the
Climate Action Coalition
New Paltz, NY
Dear Editor,
I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading Rose-line Simon's pro-life letter in your last issue. I am in complete agreement and say bravo to Rose-line. We do need to be consistent in protecting ALL life around and within us.
Mary Sanzi
Shokan, NY
Dear Editor,
It is comforting to know that in this era of financial uncertainty, when our country faces massive cuts to education, Medicaid, worker pensions, and our public parks, one area or government spending remains sacrosanct.
Let us take pride in the fact that not every program faces the chopping block. That there is still some regard and respect for the values that we collectively hold dear, the support of the apartheid state of Israel.
Not that this monetary support has been easy. Israel's recent invasions of Lebanon and Gaza have killed hundreds of children and left over a million homeless. The use of high tech weapons on civilian targets has created further revulsion in the rest of the world. What other country would be sending Israel well over three billion a year in foreign aid? The Israelis are completely dependent on us to continue their war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The recent Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a convoy of international ships bringing humanitarian aid to 1.5 million Palestinians, is a case in point. The cold blooded killing of aid workers in the middle of the night provoked disgust and outrage in every other country in the world. The fact that these boats were boarded in international waters provoked cries of terrorism and piracy, not to mention kidnapping when the aid workers were put in Israeli jails.
What other country in the world would possibly support such crimes with billions in military aid? Only in America.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck, NY
Dear Editor,
North Korea stands to gain nothing from provoking war with the South. U.S. corporate interests do stand to benefit from removing Kim Jong-il and creating a unified Korea, to hold a sphere of influence against the economic dominance of China. The same motives and strategies got us into Viet Nam. But Viet Nam couldn't ship over a nuke disguised as a refrigerator.
Israel will never obtain security through fascist brutality and apartheid suppression of Palestinians, policies that guarantee resistance and endless conflict. Only by allowing Palestinians' equal rights and opportunities in their own homeland can peace be secured. The U.S. brutally suppressed the indigenous people here, an apt role model for Israel. But the friends of the Native Americans didn't have a nuke disguised as a refrigerator.
Western financial moguls have recently received an unverifiable amount of taxpayer handouts, estimated to be at least five trillion dollars. Upon receipt of the taxpayers' money, the first thing these "central banks" insist on is cutting social programs to balance destitute state budgets. If people were only aware of this titanic rip off, these phony financial "institutions" would be replaced by valid National Treasuries, and economic cycles could be managed with less drastic consequences.
And why burn one more drop of oil, one more chunk of coal, or split one more atom to provide energy for the comforts and prosperity we seek? Isn't the permanent destruction of the Gulf enough of a wake up call? All the harmless alternatives are available, if we simply had the will to utilize them.
We need only identify the profiteers from every corner of the world who are willing to drive us all to the brink of catastrophe. There are now enough gaping cracks in the walls of the old structures to expose this tyrannical plutocracy. Although judgment and condemnation are part of the old ways - the endless cycle of suffering - these offenders must still be constrained. A unified voice in a non-violent, grass roots uprising could render the old structures obsolete and make way for a peaceful and cooperative new way of sharing the Earth's resources for the benefit of all.
As certain as dawn, the new way is coming. But we may, of necessity, experience a crisis of awakening. As one elderly shrimp fisherman from the Gulf of Mexico recently said, "If you drive a car, you own a piece of this (disaster)."
Liam Watt
Saugerties, NY
Dear Editor,
Consider the connection between the $9 billion state budget deficit and the $6.3 billion tax bill this year for treating smoking related diseases in New York. If there was no tobacco use and none of those diseases to treat, that would eliminate 70% of the deficit that is wreaking so much havoc and cuts to many valuable services, programs, and jobs.
May 31 was World No Tobacco Day and it is a goal, a hope each year. Imagine if you will, John Lennon's song Imagine with the words "Imagine there's no tobacco, I wonder if you can, no unnecessary deaths, around us only fresh air; Imagine all the people still living today."
When we cut tobacco control last year, smoking rates increased. More cuts to tobacco prevention efforts means more kids will start, the tobacco industry will lick its chops, and more people will become sick - costing all taxpayers billions. If we want to reduce taxes and save lives, we must maintain a strong tobacco control program. "You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one, I hope someday [we'll see, a world that's tobacco free]."
Checko Miller
High Falls, NY
Dear Editor,
I own a tourism business that recently experienced the positive change in attitude of Ulster County government under Mike Hein. First, I was having trouble and becoming quite frustrated getting the listing for my business updated appropriately on the state tourism website. I called County Executive Hein's office and spoke to March Gallagher, Deputy Director for Economic Development. She told me that she would get to the bottom of the problem. The problem was solved by the next day and my listing was updated. Then recently, the Ulster County Tourism Department asked me if my business Rondout Inn would like to have a special deal listed on www.UlsterCountyAlive.com. I immediately posted a "Special Deal" package. Within two days, I received a booking in response to my listing on www.UlsterCountyAlive.com. I want to express my thanks for the turnaround in attitude toward business in County Executive Mike Hein's administration, and also appreciate his proactive support of the tourism industry.
Larry Zalinsky, Rondout Inn
Kingston, NY
Dear Editor,
Thank you for everyone who came out Friday night to support Woodstock Day School's Soundout for Scholarships. It was an awesome concert benefiting the school's scholarship fund. Special thanks to Gary Chekof and WDST our radio partner (Go Mountain Jam!) And huge thanks to our special guests Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, Matt Katz-Bohen, and Tommy Kessler from Blondie, Tracy Bonham and her band, and Happy Traum. Thanks also to the Woodstock Day School Whup @$$ Band, Alex Belmont, Peter Dougan, Carl Matteo, Jerry Marotta and David Van Tieghem and all the students of the Upper School Rock Ensemble. Thanks to the Bearsville Theater, Peter Cantine, Robert Frazza and Grace for providing a great venue and service. And thank you to our concert committee of volunteers Cate Woodruff, Dennis and Desiree O'Clair, Bill Kollar, Rose Noone, Adrian Hood, Adrienne Zabriskie, April Traum, Lys Kursh, Jane Struzzieri, Jackie Kellachan, Allison Ober, Lisa Krause, Sneha Pradip, Nancy Singer, Dave Cook, Michael and Tamara Lang, and of course our Head of School and emcee, Jim Handlin.
And thank you to all who came out on Sunday for a great art auction. Special thanks to Tom Fletcher and Heather Toboika of the Fletcher Gallery for another great event. Thanks also to all the volunteers for that as well, Cynthia Schoonmaker, Rachel Remler, Marie Kropp, Andrea Moss, Adrienne Zabriskie, Desiree O'Clair, Sneha Pradip, April Traum, Lys Kursh, Farah Polaski, Kelly Ryan, Toni Henderson, Suzanne Wind, Liza Mones and Jackie Kellachan.
Thank you all. It truly takes a village.
Sarane O'Connor, Chair,
Development Committee
Woodstock Day School
Dear Editor,
In my last letter that you published you changed a word in the second sentence of Richard Serra's interview. The word "with" was changed to "without, " changing the meaning of Mr. Serra's thought 180 degrees. Serra said "One thing American Educationdoes not do is teach how to cultivate aesthetic sensibility. In that sense public art is dismissed WITH reason; how are people going to understand..." Serious error: not so serious when "producing" was changed to "produces" in my last sentence.
From David Brooks, OP ED NY Times, June 8, "History for Dollars," (Brooks refers to that force deep within us that drives us creatively and destructively as "The Big Shaggy").
"But over the centuries, there have been rare and strange people who possessed the skill of taking the upheavals of thought that emanate from The Big Shaggy and representing them in the form of story, music, myth, painting, liturgy, architecture, sculpture, landscape, and speech. These men and women developed languages that help us understand these yearnings and also educate and mold them. They left rich veins of emotional knowledge that are the subject of the humanities.
"It's probably dangerous to enter exclusively into this realm and risk being caught in a cloister, removed from the market and its accountability. But doesn't it make sense to spend some time in the company of these languages - learning to feel different emotions, rehearsing different passions, experiencing different sacred rituals and learning to see in different ways?"
Few of us are hewers of wood. We navigate social environments. If you're dumb about The Big Shaggy, you'll probably get eaten by it.
Thank you David Brooks!
Robert Jacobson
Mt. Tremper, NY
Dear Editor,
Last week my husband and I saw Arthur Miller's "The Price" performed by PAW at the Town Hall. We loved this show. Great acting! The theme is prevalent today. You don't need to go to New York City to see great Broadway plays. They're right here. Go and enjoy!
Elsje Brandt
Bearsville, NY
Dear Editor,
This is with regard to the death of our brother Heinz Kris Wood. On behalf of our family, thank you for the personal approach by whomever submitted the death notice. I would also like to express our heartfelt thanks to Beth Krentz, Mike Ennis, Leon Taufield, and John and Lorena Pomeroy for being the best friends and caretakers Kris could have had. We will never forget you.
Grace McDermott & Family
Cape Canaveral, FL