This flap over Iranian Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trip to our state this past week, to speak at the United Nations and visit New York City – as all world leaders do – signals troubling changes in our approach to the world as a nation, and to any ideas we don’t like, as a people. It feels regressive, petty-minded and in need of some distance so we can see what it must look like not only to the rest of the world, but to ourselves twenty, thirty years from now.
Yes, Ahmadinejad has said some very bad things. Yes, Iran has been a provacateur to our nation for half a generation now. And yes, there are many who now feel we should be preparing to go to war with he and they for having defied us over our demands that they cease any nuclear ambitions.
But does that all mean we should put our fingers in our ears whenever he starts to speak? Or refuse to read his letters to us. Or refuse to talk to him? Or, as has been occuring all week, we refuse to let him visit sights in our city that have meaning to all in the world, including those we don’t care to like? And bemoan anyone who does want to allow him his word, to debate him on his stances?
If my son were to refuse to let a neighbor into our yard because he didn’t like what he’d heard he’d said, I’d talk to him about how we all need to move betyond such childishness. But I’d also have to let him know that, like it or not, such attitudes are rife in America these days, and at the root of many of our gravest problems on a worldwide basis.
They’re visible in the way more and more people will refuse to watch channels besides the ones they like, or read newspapers whose news they don’t agree with. Such activity, in our view, limits our horizons and makes us all less able to function within communities that are made up of anything but like-minded folks.
Sure, there are some that say our nation was founded on such principals… look at the Pilgrims or others who came here to get away from persecution and set up colonies of their own. But we say one should look deeper at the hard work our vaulted Founding Fathers did to overcome the prejudices inherent in such closed communities. And the distances they and others went, over the years to ensure that we are United States, with a sense of openness to ideas not always to our liking.
Are we really ready to let all of that history go simply because we’re being led to hate a man who was not our first choice to win Iran’s 2005 elections, four years after 9/11… a tragedy that Iran commisserated with us for. Are we really ready to get up on the world stage and say to everyone, “You can come, but he can’t.” Where does that lead?
These are important things to consider as we enter our own election season here in the Catskills. As well as during the next phase of the approval process regarding Dean Gitter’s Belleayre Resort project, or our dealings with Large Parcel legislative threats, or the changes being called for throughout the Onteora School District. Why? Because the same humanist qualities we’re raising here will soon be needed for all of us to get through each of these processes.
In terms of the elections, we are hoping that some local candidates’ tendency to refrain from attending Meet The Candidates events be brought to an end. It behooves anyone asking for the public’s vote to attend these events… to show that they care what people think, and to show respecvt for the professionals from the League of Women Voters who have been handling these events in our towns in recent years.
To wit… we are currently working towards such events to happen on Saturday October 20 in Olive and Sunday October 21 in Shandaken… in the morning for the former and the afternoon for the latter, which both events occuring in each town’s Town Meeting Hall. Invitations have gone out to ALL candidates, no matter wherther they’ve got major party endorsements or not. We hope everyone will find the time to make it and, if not, send a statement as to whay they can’t. They’re proud events… democracy at their best.
In terms of the resort project, we urge those parties who signed on to the recent MOA with Governor Sputzer to explain their deal to the people of the Route 28 corridor who will be most effected by the project. And for the dialogue to begin with the many local residents who still feel that what’s being proposed is too much.
As for Large Parcel issues, we applaud recent moves we’ve heard about that suggest that those in Olive concerned about not getting hit with drastic tax increases again are now ready to dialogue with officials and residents in other Onteora District towns about their concerns, and how hard they were hit, and hurt, by the law’s implementation a few years back. How will such talk happen? That’s the next step.
Lastly, regarding Onteora, we would like to see whether what we’ve been hearing is true… that the board is NOT thinking of closing Phoenicia School but actually finding ways to put the new district-wide Middle School onto the Bennett Campus, close Woodstock, and re-open West Hurley because of its growth potential, and ability to house Olive students (along with Phoenicia) once the big changes start happening. If so, say so. If not, let us know what you’re thinking.
These are all public processes that need strong dialgue, no matter how uncomfortable it may get. That we hear what all have to say is more important, we feel, than our simply hearing what we want to hear.
Just as it’s important that we hear what this duly elected president of our new rival, Iran, might want to say during this week’s visit to our state.
As long as he’s not throwing sticks or stones, after all, his words shouldn’t really hurt us. PS