7/15/2010

Dear Editor,
As you must know by now, Dr. Leslie Ford's contract as Superintendent of the Onteora School District has not been renewed. I, also, understand that as of today, she is no longer our acting Superintendent.
It is common knowledge that during this seated boards tenure they have neither extended her contract on a yearly basis which is common practice nor have they initiated any increaes in salary. Our very "transparent" board chose to deny these allegation right up until a most recent board meeting when they chose not
to re-negotiate Dr. Ford's contract and instead pushed for a buy-out.
So, I posed these questions directly to our trustees telling them that their
answer would be included in my next letter:
1. To what negligence, on the part of our superintendent, do we owe the
decision to replace her?
2. Is this a unanimous decision on the part of each and every board member?
3. If, in fact there is a search, since our budget doesn't allocate such, where
will the funding come from? Our fund balance, maybe?
4. Is it true that the board has already picked a successor internally, thus
alleviating the need for a search?
They answered my questions with a form letter stating that this was a confidential matter and they were not compelled to initiate any action until June 30,2010. By this date, they chose to not discuss any negotiations and instead went for a buy-out.
This board has accomplished very little during their tenure, while our administrative cabinet led by our very competent Superintendent have taken our school district to new and progressive educational heights.
This seated board has operated, time and again, outside the perimeters dictated by district policy. They have circumvented decisions made by our administrative cabinet and instead pursued their own personal agendas.
The latest being the instruction given by our trustees to the administrative
cabinet to plan for two kindergarten classes of 10 students each in the Phoenicia Elementary School when the administrators had already set forth a very
comprehensive and well modulated plan for a one classroom configuration based on the policy of our district to limit kindergarten classes to 23 or less.
Some of our district employees have taken to by-passing our administrators altogether, and going straight to the board to solve their internal problems. Again, against, ANY districts' policy and procedures.
Needless, to say, I am fearful of the direction our district is taking. I, personally, take affront to a board who wields their power in such a biased way, putting their personal agendas ahead of the welfare of the entire student population.
Rita Vanacore
Shokan, NY
Dear Editor,
As the owner of a local business oriented towards energy efficiency -- Knoth Heating and Mechanical in Shandaken -- I read with interest Violet Snow's article on "The Spirit of Green," in the May 2010 Phoenicia Times. She listed a number of green technologies and companies that both increase their bottom line and make a contribution towards cleaner and more energy efficient homes and business practices. Photovoltaic panels and wind turbines which produce electricity were noted, as well as the movement towards locally-grown, organic food.
Your readership also needs to know about a major component of business and residential energy savings and the NY State incentives for them. I'm referring to the old-fashioned practice of insulation and air sealing. Some of the technologies have been modernized and are greener than they used to be. Cellulose insulation, for instance, is a product made from recycled newspaper treated with non-toxic fire retardants and insect protection. There is even insulation made from recycled blue jeans. These are used now as well as fiber-glass. And some kinds of blown-foam insulation are now based on soy. But the principles are basic and have been around for a long time. By stopping the movement of air from inside to outside and vice-versa, a homeowner can save 30% or more on their heating and cooling bills. This includes the ductwork in basements and attics, which can lose up to 40% of the heated or cooled air going through them. The simple measure of sealing and insulating them gives an enormous return on investment. And local businesses can deliver these services to homeowners.
Other technologies, such as very energy-efficient boilers and water-heaters, or alternative heating systems such as geothermal and solar-produced hot water, are also on the market and New York State has programs which offer low-interest loans and cash rebates for all of it -- air sealing, insulation, and energy-efficient technologies.
The state imposes quality-control on the contractors allowed to offer these incentives. They must be certified with the Building Performance Institute, which is a nationally recognized standards organization. A contractor has to pass rigorous written and field tests and keep current. Every job is examined for compliance and cost-effectiveness. The work proposed has to at least save enough energy to pay for itself over its lifetime. The consumer is a big winner here, knowing they've got contractors and accredited businesses performing to a high level of competence and cost-effectiveness. (cont'd next page)
As an accredited local business, I can say that being in the BPI and New York State programs has helped my business and helped every customer I've contracted with. People can find my company and other energy efficiency companies in the area on the BPI website, which lists the company's specializations: www.bpi.org, and also the New York State website, www.getenergysmart.org.
Thank you,
Eugene Knoth
Knoth Heating and Mechanical
Shandaken, NY
Dear Editor,
Gus Murphy wanted to know how public schools indoctrinate students. Take the "stimulus" last year. The jobs picture has gotten worse, not better, despite nearly a trillion dollars wasted. A friend who works for a manufacturing firm on Long Island told me that his firm had bid on a stimulus project but it was awarded to an Italian competitor. In other words, the Democrats told you that they were stimulating the economy, but they didn't mention that they were stimulating the Italian economy.
The public did not protest the ridiculous "stimulus" because they have been brainwashed in school. This is done by teaching students that big government is "progressive" and "liberal" and that freedom is "reactionary" and "conservative". The ancient Romans had policies just like Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Or didn't they teach you that in school? Government-run economies were well known to Aristotle, who describes Sparta's in detail. It is freedom and free markets that are progressive and liberal, the word liberal coming from the Latin word for freedom, liberalis. Hence, there is nothing "progressive" or "liberal" about the advocacy of big government.
Second, students are taught to defer to authority. Thus we saw the public listen quietly while quack economists told them that trillions of dollars in bailout money were needed to subsidize banks. Like sheep the public acquiesced to the Democrats' nonsensical claims. Students are taught to defer to "experts." But there is no such thing as an economics "expert."
Third, the school system advocates socialism. When I was a student in New York City around 1970 we read Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto in my tenth grade social studies class, but we did not read Adam Smith. In eleventh grade we read left-wing economist Robert Heilbroner's Worldly Philosophers but we did not read anything by Friedrich Hayek or Ludwig von Mises. In twelfth grade I took an environmental studies class where the teacher preached the evils of capitalism but did not discuss the pollution in the then Soviet Union. All of that was propaganda.
I have frequently heard students, both at the MBA and undergraduate levels, who are uninformed about Hayek and other free market scholars but who are familiar with Marx. My students are unaware that Soviet socialism murdered 65 million human beings. There is nothing humane about the left. It is a butcher movement. The students have never learned the economic causes of socialism's repeated failure and mass murder. They are taught that the United States was successful because of the "frontier" and "resources" but not told that Europe had a frontier for centuries after the discovery of America and that Russia (which still has a frontier) has resources that exceed those of the US and Japan despite a life expectancy in the 50s.
Government has grown and the public's welfare has decreased but the public is unable to figure out that if you pay government employees for nothing then society becomes poorer. The public has been taught that committing 40% of the economy to waste and to subsidies to banks is "moderate" and that only extremists want to drastically cut the waste. That is brainwashing.
Mitchell Langbert
West Shokan, NY
Dear Editor,
Mitchell Langbert, in the Letters section of June 17th, says that i claim that Government can indeed work. That is not quite right. Rather, i claim that Government is inevitable.
Do I have any facts to back up this claim? Wull, not really. But I can't think of any case where something as big as New York State (let alone the United States) has managed without some kind of Government. Even Kibbutzim have rules. Even a hippy commune would kick Johnny out if Johnny kept intentionally breaking the communal plates ("We only have five left!").
Also, I do not think it would be a happy experiment. It would be anarchy, literally. I do not think that a somewhat elderly extremely scrawny fellow like m'self would do very well in an anarchy. I do not want to try.
I freely admit that Government cannot be perfected, not if it's made by humans. Nothing made or done by humans will ever be perfect. But perfection is not necessary. Our choice isn't between perfect and nothing but between better and worse. That is why our list of ways to reduce the costs of Government is a useful exercise. I hope someone is keeping track.
Sometimes it sounds like Mr. Langbert would prefer living under the Articles of Confederation. I am a big Sam Adams fan, but he lost that argument. So we got our wonderfully self-correcting Constitution. (See Amendments 18 and 21.) Let us use it.
Gus Murphy
Brooklyn, NY
Dear Editor,
In 1950 Americans paid $43.5 billion in taxes to the federal government. In 2010 they will pay about $2.2 trillion, 50 times as much, according to US Government Revenue.com. Of course, those numbers need to be adjusted for increased population and inflation. A dollar in 1950 would be worth $9.05 today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is, inflation has been 900% and federal tax revenues have increased 5000% since 1950. As well population has doubled, from 151.3 million to 309 million, since 1950. Taking population and inflation into account, federal tax revenues have increased from $287 per capita in 1950 dollars to $774 per capita in 1950 dollars, almost a threefold increase from 1950 to 2010.
The letters of your readers show why the real hourly wage has stagnated since 1970. Hard working Americans have allowed fast talking grifters, socialists, commercial bankers, school teachers, hedge fund managers and other beneficiaries of governmental thievery to bleed them dry. One of your readers, apparently educated in one of America's mind-numbing socialist public schools, claims that the threefold per capita tax increase since 1950 did not occur and that taxes are lower now than in the 1950s. Another complains that class sizes of 20-25 students are too large. Another demands increased spending on nursing homes.
Well, I can be a grifter too. I have the most important demand. As a professor, the salaries of professors are too low. So mine must be raised. At everyone else's expense. All America should labor on my behalf. Taxes should be raised and the excess paid to me and my union, NYSUT. Those who disagree are selfish and greedy. I must have a raise. You must pay.
Mitchell Langbert
West Shokan, NY
Editor's Note: Although we usually try to limit letters to one per writer, we inadvertantly left the first of Mr. Langbert's printed here out of our last issue. In light of the ongoing dialogue between he and Mr. Murphy, it seemed important to keep the flow consistent, as it were...
Dear Editor,
(The following was read as the valedictorian's speech at Coxsackie-Athens High School in recent weeks, creating quite a stir among administrators, to great applause from students and many of their parents)
There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master: "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen?" The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." (The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast - How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?" (Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."
This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.
Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.
I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning.
John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, "We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that." Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)
To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of "critical thinking." Is there really such a thing as "uncritically thinking?" To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?
This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.
And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.
We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.
The saddest part is that the majority of students don't have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can't run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.
For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, "You have to learn this for the test" is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.
For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.
For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.
So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn't have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.
I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a "see you later" when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!
Erica Goldson
Athens, NY
Dear Editor,
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Main Street meeting a couple of Saturdays ago. We had a great turnout and are getting excited about the possibilities for our little Hamlet. This note is to remind and inform you about follow-up projects/meetings.
As part of the Resource Inventory for the Rt 28 Scenic Byway initiative an intern with the Catskill Center is doing a sign inventory of the Rt 28 corridor and hamlets. This inventory is important for a couple reasons, mainly because the municipalities in the Catskill Park have recently agreed to use uniform road signage that will create a unique sense of place within the park. Signs will be brown and white (same as in National Parks) and will feature a Catskill Park logo. Because funding to make this changeover might be some time in coming, the Community Center has offered to look into the possibility of helping raise funds for this changeover in Pine Hill as a pilot project. We're thinking that the signs will not be that expensive, and the inventory will help us determine this. We need volunteers to help with the inventory.
Those of us who are concerned about Pine Hill's streetscape, especially as it pertains to the design of the stormwater retrofit project, will have attended a meeting last Saturday July 10 here at the Center. During this time we prepared a short presentation to the Shandaken Town Board, and delegated people to contact our Highway Super, our Supervisor, and the engineering firm that is working on the project in an attempt to open up communication and ensure our ability to participate in the design process.
People whose interests lie in the work of other committees should also attend and use this time to organize. These committees are: Organization, Promotion,
Architecture/Design/Beautification.
We are also initiating a cultural/historical resource inventory for Main Street
and a few side streets. This is helpful for a number of reasons, including the process of Historic District Designation. We need volunteers to help research the histories of Pine Hill properties. If you are interested please contact me.
I urge all of you to sign up on the Main Street Toolbox website for Pine Hill; it is a great way to keep in touch with one another and to share information. The URL is http://ulstermainstreets.ning.com/group/hamletofpinehill.
The next Main Street meeting with the Ulster County Planning Board is scheduled for Saturday July 24, 10 AM - noon. Please spread the word and get involved. Thanks for caring for Pine Hill and our region!
James Krueger, Director
The Pine Hill Community Center
Pine Hill, NY
Dear Editor,
Wake up America - a silent coup has taken place within our beloved country. It is a coup carefully crafted by corporate greed and political avarice, boldly concealed by media-master corporate shills screeching profane misinformation bellowed loudly into the public ear. The Murdock-funded fear-baiting histrionics of the likes of Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, and others of their ilk, harkens back to the murky, now reprehensible time, when our nation was reduced into the communist fear frenzy of McCarthyism.
I laugh when I hear that the media is "liberal." Are we all fools? The media is corporate owned and controlled, and gives the mere flavor and odor of 'leaning' liberal to blind us from the real truth. Stimulated and distracted by the misleading tags of leftwing, rightwing, Republican, Democrat and independent, straight, gay; Hispanic, Muslim et al. we are thrown these labels as blood-bait to keep us busy from seeing the real architect of this coup, corporatism at its finest.
In my heart of hearts I am not a Democrat, Republican, or Independent; I am an ordinary middle class hard-working American who is feeling rage toward his own government and his country. How can this be? I have always deeply loved America. I was as proud of this country as any American can be. I loved its diversity, its willingness to change when times changed, its national humor, but all that has gradually morphed.
America's diversity has turned into suspicion of differences; its willingness to change has turned to bitter unswerving closed-minded thinking, and its humor into snide cynicism. One can only be lied to so many times by the Congress, the President, the Judiciary, the media, the banks, the energy companies, and Wall Street, before a dogged determination to stand strong in national pride, wears down into a jaded pessimism about what tomorrow will bring.
I am determined to no longer stand by and silently tolerate the wilful destruction of this country. Awake America. It is our duty as citizens to take stock in who we are as a nation, what we stand for, what we want our country to be, and how we can embrace the values that are good for all humankind. I am going to personally make every effort to enlighten those I come in contact with and awaken them to our plight.
We need a new commitment to holding fully accountable those that disparage our legal process and break the bounds of what is in our collective national and global interest, irrespective of their office and station. It is those among us in positions of political and corporate power that hold the greatest responsibility to the common good. The company 'bottom line' is simply no longer a good enough excuse for egregious behavior. Their very first responsibility is to humankind, not the stockholders.
Joined in unity; one citizen at a time, together as a nation, a people, and a purpose, we can redirect our country and place it back on the path of enlightenment, toleration, humanitarianism, and honesty. Those will be my goals, and I will take every opportunity and every possible step to voice my angst, and cry for change, for only when others see us and hear us will they recognize their own voice and strength. Unite my friends and let us return to the America that represented us all, and stood as the envy of the world.
In the words of the mad hatter of the airways, Howard Beale, in the prophetic movie "Network," (surely Rupert Murdock's inspiration) "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
Mitch Rapaport
Woodstock, NY
Dear Editor,
All 40 Republican senators and one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, used a filibuster to keep the unemployment extension bill from reaching a vote. The reason was that it would increase the federal deficit which is expected to soar to $1.4 trillion this year, according to DailyFinance.com.
What in the name of all that may be Holy and left in this world does this say about our government? A 33 billion dollar sum was recently asked to be voted on for the wars, the president and Mrs. spent 10 million on social functions this past year with Mrs. supporting a personal entourage of 25 people at the cost of over a million in combined salaries each month! I can readily see where cuts could be made, can you?
Congressmen voted themselves a raise this year, and Social Security recipients won't get the yearly cost of living allotment. Something is radically wrong! The consumer report says sales are down more than in seven months! How can sales increase if 10 million people can't buy anything? Shouldn't Congress have thought about the deficit when the new cabinet and president came on board?
Folks, we're at the bottom of the totem pole in the eyes of our government. It is shameful that unemployment extension is denied while billions/trillions are spent elsewhere and our leaders bask in luxury. An awful lot of folks will be eating bread instead of cake and you know where this could lead.
Joyce Benedict
Hyde Park, NY
Dear Editor,
We missed it. Our opportunity to re-declare our independence from the British Empire (i.e. B.P.) It's interesting to re-read the first paragraph of the Declaration that we hold sacred, so here it is:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
Notice the 'separate and equal station to which the laws of nature - entitled them." So, we declared that back in 1776. Wow. It seems that we have not fulfilled our responsibility to the Laws of Nature. So, here we are, with British Petroleum still in charge of the effects on the wildlife of our southern coast line, and continuing to protect their profit making venture which was placed only 48 miles off of the U.S. shore line. Why didn't we re-declare our independence on this anniversary?
Well, it wasn't my fault. I had two friends pass away this week. One my sweet friend, Ray Tumbleson, who spent his life performing and teaching music, and who ended up spending his last years right here, singing in the Church Choir for as long as he could, and the other Bernie Wilens, whom I met when he was an agent at the William Morris agency, my first job of privilege, which I attained because I was the fastest typist of those that applied. Well, at least two people I know have declared their independence. For the rest of us, I suggest that we return to our obligation of protecting life on earth, or at least life in the United States of America.
Jill Paperno
Glenford, NY
Dear Editor,
While it is true that I was in charge of this years' Library Plant Sale for the first
time, I could not have done it without the guidance & help from Veronica Rowe and Terry Spies. Both Veronica & Terry have been doing the sale for years & years with great success . Without these two wonderful gardeners & devoted volunteers this years' success would not have been possible.
Also, I would like to thank all of the generous gardeners who donated so many plants to the sale and, of course, all of the lucky gardening customers who got
such great deals and helped to make it all happen.
See you next year!
Marvella Casale, Volunteer
Phoenicia Library
Dear Editor,
My heart is bursting with joy as I type this, and I want to thank some incredible people as well as the entire Hudson Valley for really turning out for "All Love, All Woodstock," last weekend.
Our benefit concert and auction for Constance McMillen and the ACLU (and the Onteora Central School District's Gay Straight Alliance -- we wanted to bring some of the money back home to the community who generously supported us) was a runaway hit! We ate, drank, danced and partied long past midnight and raised over $30,000 for this very meaningful cause! Now we're busy paying our bills and we can't wait to write some checks to these three very worthy recipients.
Of course, this labor of love could not have happened without the amazing support of so many people and I'd like to take a moment to publicly thank them for giving of themselves of so generously!
My core committee of Laurie Osmond, Robert Burke Warren, Ken Schneidman, Jason O'Malley, Martha Frankel, Cat Cooke, Barry Cherwin, Michael Lang and others worked tirelessly for this cause, spent hours online, on the phone and in person with me planning every last detail. Likewise, so many young people, led by Onteora students Liam Khan and Asia Hunt, poster'd, postcard'd and otherwise blanketed the area with event info, stuffed goodie bags, did plenty of grunt work and were simply outstanding in every possible way!
What can I say about Peter Cantine, who generously gave us the Bearsville Theater space (bumping a paid event!) and staffed our event with his team of wonderful professionals? He is a prince among men and I am eternally grateful to him. Biggest props to Mary Gormley, Tracy Lynch and their team at The Emerson who hosted so many of our VIP guests and took extra special care of them all! And we just bow at the feet of Arthur F Mulligan Bus Company and its drivers, who stayed till the wee hours to transport our talent and VIP's.
Chris Anderson of Nevessa Production (our stage manager), Luc Moeys of Oriole 9 (our food coordinator), Glenn Meyers of Meyers Law firm and Jenna Spector of Susan Blond Public Relations also put in overtime hours, making sure our event was fine tuned and perfect in every way.
Desiree O'Clair gave "All Love, All Woodstock" its glamorous vibe, with her gorgeously outfitted "cigarette girls" who offered custom Lucky Chocolates, t-shirts, corsages and more as they vamped around the room in their vintage prom wear! Bravo!!!
We can't forget sponsors Joshua's World Cafe, Oriole 9, Bistro to Go, The Peekamoose, Cucina, New World Home Cooking, Wittenberg Store Catering, Sunfrost, So Many Roads Printing and Lucky Chocolates. Without them, we wouldn't have looked (or tasted) so good!
And who could forget Franco Vogt, the lovely Lucia Reale-Vogt and their "basement of love" prom picture set they designed? Go to our website, allloveallwoodstock.com, click on GALLERY and check out our attendees and guests of honor acting out their most far-out prom fantasies for the camera.
Finally, dear friends Stefanie Schachter, Alison Gerson, Barbara Mansfield, Donna Parisi, Christina Himberger, Phil Mansfield, Siobhan Schneidman, Maryanne Asta, Maxanne Resnick, Daisy Kramer Bolle, Robin Kramer, Joe Perry, Lou Deering and Dennis O'Clair all worked overtime and always with a smile on their faces. We love them!
As for Constance, I'm delighted to tell you that she had a wonderful time, made lots of new friends and certainly felt the "Woodstock love vibe," which leads me to YOU, dear readers.
Thank you thank you thank you for your support in me and this project. I feel so happy and blessed to live here among you all and count you as neighbors and friends.
With all my love,
Abbe Aronson
Mt. Tremper, NY
Dear Editor,
Thank Heavens
My life was spared only because of the unbelievable efforts and response from the men who worked to save me.
There are no words to express my deepest gratitude to the Phoenicia Fire Dept, Shandaken Amubulance core and all the people of Phoenicia who really care. It worked!and each day I am slowly on the mend . I wll never forget what a luckey woman I am to be alive and able to say THANK YOU to the many hands that saved my life.
Lynn Parker
Phoenicia, NY