Dear Editor,
Phoenicia’s annual Halloween Parade was awesome. Thanks go to all the parade marchers and watchers, because it was a pretty cold day out there. You persevered, and we didn’t lose any children to sudden wind gusts and that’s always good. There are a number of people to thank, so here goes:
To the M.F. Whitney Hose Company – We wouldn’t have this event without your kind sponsorship; and it is always a big thrill for the kids to be escorted on the parade route by the fire engines.
To the fabulous Rotarians who every year serve up donuts and apple juice. A quick sugar fix that is loved by all.
To Jim McGrath and the Shandaken Police Department. We appreciate your insuring our safety through town.
To the parents and kids who not only march, but dress in elaborate and imaginative costumes. It really raises the bar and insures that the Parade is colorful, festive and a great time.
This year there is one person we all should sing our praises to. To the lovely and talented Jen Dragon. Her artistry is phenomenal and enviable. We continue to use her lovely pen and ink drawing to publicize the parade, but perhaps more notably, this year she orchestrated the creation of the Phoenicia PTA’s first annual Haunted House. For those who came through it, you know how extraordinary it was. Jen was able to gather up the troops to build it and also along with Liz Appelson; Belinda Cowan and Kathleen Wilber created an afterschool workshop where children made the props that adorned the Haunted House.
And to the Phoenicia PTA under the inspired leadership of Christina Himberger – A number of you joined in early Sunday morning to create the Haunted House. The depth of creative talent amongst the parents, and their ability to work effortlessly with each other insured that Jen’s vision became a reality. And, there are a few parents who also had acting roles within the Haunted House – and all I can say is – who knew we had such talent? Chuck Cornelis as the mad scientist and originally from the fields of Iowa, demonstrates all that can go wrong with genetic engineering. (Just kidding).
So, thanks everyone from Phoenicia and its surroundings. It was a great time. See you next year.
Maxanne Resnick, Parade Organizer Chichester, NY

Dear Editor,
Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of MHV's 2007 Family Fun Fair last Saturday. This free annual community event to promote child safety and family fun attracted hundreds of children and family members for our Hollywood-themed program.
Special thanks to...Casanova Carriage Limousine Service of Lake Katrine who donated a stretch limo for three hours so the kids could be photographed (in top hats) on the red carpet leading to the tent; Rodney Batista of Triumph Karate in Kingston who donated his services to work with the children in the Karate Kid Korner; Bonnie Simmons and John Dickson of Ulster Police for providing fingerprinting and child ID cards; Kingston Fire Department for escorting children through the Fire Safety House to teach them how to prevent and survive fires; Clarke-American check printers, who provided sample Super Hero checks so the kids at the check writing booth could write a pretend check to "Kids on Stage" which was later matched with a real check from MHV's Community Relations Fund for a $305 donation to the Rhinebeck children's theater program, and the MHV staff members who always work so hard to bring this annual event to the public.
MHV is proud to be associated with these organizations and individuals who care so deeply about our kids and our community, and we want to publicly recognize the contributions they make to help enrich our quality of life here in the Mid-Hudson Valley.
Nan Greenwood, VP Marketing
Mid-Hudson Valley
Federal Credit Union

Dear Editor,
By the time this letter is published [or considered] November 8, 2006 will have come and gone. The results of the Nov. 7th elections will have been ingested with some being regurgitated. I have envisioned who the winners will be [today is 10-30-06] since we live in a society that condones law breaking, avoiding good order and rule "bending". We permit or overlook misbehavior, forgive failure to do one's duty and in fact celebrate arrogance, ineptness, greed and corruption.
I believe Alan Hevesi has won even as I vote(d) for Mr. Callaghan. Mr Hevesi has that element of arrogance in that he belives that he is entitled to use [4] Civil Service employees and NY State vehicles for his own personal use. Oh, he made restitution in the amount of $82,000 [or $33,000] which is about 20-25% of the real cost to New Yorkers. I estimate a cost for 1 driver at $160-180,000 for 4 years. Don't forget the over time. Then there is the cost of the vehicles and for fuel, tolls, etc. for 4 years. Now I hear of the same thing when Hevesi was Controller of NY City for 8 years. Oh yes, I still have contacts [and people talk].
Mr Hevesi is seen stating [TV] that his life and his wife's life was threatened and therefore needed an official vehicle for her. Who would dare attack a State vehicle complete with decal and official plates? There is a section in McKinney's book #9 [NYS Civil Service Law (annotated)] that makes it very clear re: "theft of service" and "misuse of resources" by elected, appointed, temporary or provisional personnel. Mr Hevesi knows that.
One of the functions of the NY State Comptroller is to investigate, observe, document [written and graphic] and set up "stings" of any wrong doing by personnel employed by NYS or any political sub division [cities, counties & towns]. It's called a NYS Comptroller's audit. The offender is then prosecuted at some level and if found guilty [or admits guilt] forfeits his/her position with all rights and benefits [no matter length of service or good works]. Hevesi has admitted all of the above and the "Ethics" commission has substantiated that confession. I believe that the IRS should be interested in Hevesi's "ill gotten gains". It is, after all, income!
Now we move to Elliot Spitzer whom I have admired as Atty. Gen. of NY State in that he won judgements and "consents" against the Wall Street gang(s) and big business "Gurus" but failed miserably to "get on" Alan Hevesi. Mr. Spitzer obviously picks and chooses his "victims" and punished Mr. Hevesi by withdrawing his support for re-election instead of donning his "Top Law enforcement officer's" hat to pursue a flagrant violation of the law(s). I voted for John Faso for governor even as I know nothing about him except that he came into the election with "clean hands". Elliot Spitzer failed to look after the people's [money] interests.
Voting for Jeanine Pirro for Attorney General was a "slam dunk". She has a convicted felon for a husband but has done her job as Westchester DA with diligence, zeal and impartiality. According to web searches the most Andrew Cuomo did was accept a job as Secretary of HUD as "salve" when Clinton referred to Italians as "Mafia" which insulted Mario [the father]. I wonder if the Vikings had been criticized we would have had a Norwegian HUD Secretary. Vikings were much more violent and brought no fire works displays to the table. Here Andrew squandered money to sue the gun manufacturers which went down in the courts. He'll make a great Attorney General trying to unscramble the eggs [2nd Amendment].
Another candidate that I ignored [but won] is Madame Hillary who supports personal misbehavior by husbands [her own], abortion and of course prevarication. She would have us believe that she did not support the Iraq debacle, has created numbers of jobs in NY, has saved the NY farmer from extinction ["and boy, has she come through for us!].
I left the Bonacic/Zimet contest for Nov. 7 as I don't care to "hold my nose" while voting for anyone and I am afraid of people from New Paltz. They act as if they grew up in Woodstock and own whatever is in their sights [Mall, Reservoir, etc].
I guess I'll have to wait for the opportunity to vote for the Paretes [whom I know and like] with their friends. Mrs. Parete makes a super "Chicken Parmigiana" and that's in the equation.
Glenn T. Anderson
Olivebridge, NY

Dear Editor,
This is a plea to the people who seem to believe that our Pine Hill library needs your discarded books. Boxes of books are brought in and left with our librarian, who is too nice to say No, or left on the doorstep in the dead of night. Does the library need the books? No. We have more books than our shelves can hold, and every month we buy more.
If you have books that you think our shelves deserve, please send a list to our librarian, Charlis Weiss. Enclose a phone number or a stamped envelope. If you have a book or
books she thinks we need, she'll let you know. Otherwise, find another way to dispose of them. You might try the thrift shops in Margaretville or Phoenicia, or the Salvation Army or Goodwill stores if you visit Kingston. Also, the libraries in Woodstock and Olive have lots of space for book sales. This is what we have to do with your books when you leave them with the Pine Hill library. And to be truthful, Ms Weiss is busy enough as is, and the members of the board of trustees are mostly (sadly) past the more vigorous times of our lives.
By the way, I wish that more people would visit our library. Most users are impressed with our collection, which has grown wonderfully in past years. We try hard to get current fiction and nonfiction books, and whatever we lack can usually be ordered from MidHudson libraries. The library is open from two till six on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays, and from five till nine on Wednesday and Friday evenings.
Elaine Mueller
President, Board of Trustees
Pine Hill Library

Dear Editor,
Topic: Anti-Semetic Attitudes expressed in the new Maverick catalogue from WAAM (page 23).
When I get to this point in Tom Wolf's essay, I always wonder why this historian didn't realize his power in that second to soften this history that he must have found so painful.
Why didn't he stress the next fact that he discovered in this research that both Whitehead and Hervey White's bigotry 'apparently faded over the years'. How often does one hear that? That in this fraught world, two people were able to make that long "come around" and learn to examine their own anti-Semitic attitudes and work to remove them from their lives? That is the truly BIG news! The hope for us all And this historian tells us here that it happened. People do not change easily. That is the great HURRAH! I will be forever grateful to Tom for bringing this to my attention because in my recent research on the Maverick story I met many people who whispered to me, 'But wasn't Hervey antiSemitic?' I didn't know where to find this wonderful news for them, that he changed, and NOW I have this statement by a historian to prove it so we can get to the new work of maybe feeling closer in our town. And I am overwhelmed with happiness to be able to shine the light on this discovery with all of you. Just one little wonderful human being, Hervey. I have hundreds of pages of work I am putting together in the "SYNOPSIS OF THE MAVERICK NOTEBOOKS" and I am now concentrating on finding a proper home for the collection so you can all enjoy them and research through them. It is a vast job but it is fun and fantastic in its knowing a human being like Hervey White and seeing what gifts of life and living he is still sharing from his vivid life. Sharing with us all the intimacies and intricacies of his thinking as he carried on with the burdens of his frailties and fears, trying his utmost because of his belief and love for this human race cast into this gorgeous, improbable life carrying each their assignment to turn the struggle into a personal celebration. That was really the sum of everything he taught. Learn more about him, It will make you, everyone; feel better.
Jean Lasher Gaede
Woodstock, NY

Dear Editor,
As a steadfast Democrat who has been frustrated and disgusted not just with the current Republican controllers in Washington, but also with my team's complete inability to define who they are and articulate it in a concise and honest fashion, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and define the platform I'd like to see. It's this: lead by example. Simple. Lead by example.
It's a rallying cry that can be convincingly shouted by Democrats both national and local. It's anti-corruption and anti-incumbent and anti-politics as usual. It's pan-religious, philosophy-for-dummies common sense and I think it could help the Democrats to regain control of my country.
Lead by example. Here's how:
Lead by example. Create a government of transparency and honesty. There is no other way to have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Accountability should be the first task of every government official.
Lead by example. Our officials are not elected to advance their own individual party's agenda, they're elected to advance the American people's agenda. Act like it.
Lead by example. Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of this great nation. It is the thoughts therein that continue to make America a concept and a reality that is the envy of the world.
Lead by example. Government benefits must be given to deserving citizens regardless of race, creed, age, economic status, gender or sexual orientation. There must never be a second class of citizens in this country.
Lead by example. Return this great country to the great ideal of separation of church and state. As John F. Kennedy said: "I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish -- where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source -- where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials -- and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all."
Lead by example. If we are going to be the most powerful country on earth, we must always use that power for good, not evil. We must ensure that our motives are beyond reproach and if we use it at all, we must use our military might righteously and without prejudice. We must stop the dealings of murderous dictators whether they have oil under their soil or not. We must step in to prevent genocide whether it takes place in countries of strategic importance or not. We must promote nuclear nonproliferation abroad and at home. We must not turn a blind eye to atrocities no matter where they occur.
Lead by example. Let's be a country with no imperial aspirations, Let's remember that if it's spread at the point of a gun, it's not Democracy, it's tyranny and that stopping unjustice is not the same thing as spreading Democracy.
Lead by example. Give our military and paramilitary forces the tools they need to do their jobs. And when they've finished serving their country, we must make certain that we honor their service with a secure retirement and benefits.
Lead by example. Make America the most secure country in the world and maintain that security without compromising our principles or the rights of any human. Shut down the Guantanamo detention center and all secret prisons.
Lead by example. Our balloting systems must be open, accountable, accessible and impartial. We must get more Americans to vote.
Let's make every environmental decision based upon the notion that we don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Why was the biggest global environmental agreement ever called the Kyoto Protocol and not the Washington Protocol? Let's sign it. Let's reduce CO2 and SO4 emissions and get mercury out of the environment all together. Let's take the lead.
We must lead the way in the invention and perfection of safe, renewable energy forms. American business will profit in this quest, as will the global environment and all mankind. Let's have a 100 mile per gallon car by 2010. Let's make all our energy consumption more efficient. Let's work towards energy independence.
Medical, environmental, and energy innovation are the growth areas of the 21st and 22nd centuries, let's lead that growth.
Let's lead by example by forging the path toward responsible globalization. The global market is an inevitability, putting profits before principles is not.
Lead by example. Our children are the leaders of tomorrow. Our educational system should be the envy of the world. Higher teacher salaries, better training, and more technology will help.
Lead by example. Let's spend only the money we have and borrow only the money we know we'll be able to pay back in a timely fashion. Our current culture of credit is fiscally and psychologically dangerous and makes America vulnerable.
Lead by example. Make decisions based upon the ethic of reciprocity that is found in every major religious text: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Let's end poverty and ensure health care for all. Let's treat our elderly as we will demand to be treated when we are older.
Lead by example. Incorporate the lessons of history into the leadership of today. If America is to stay great, we must be a country of great insight and justice.
Lead by example. That's what I want the Democratic party to stand for and I know they can do it.
Norm Magnusson
Lake Hill, NY

DDear Editor,
A front-page guest column in the 26 Oct issue of Olive Press was written by a woman who says she was invited to speak to the Onteora seventh-grade humanities class on Native American history. It appears from the column that this woman is not Native American. As a Native American resident of the area, I cannot help but wonder why a Native American was not asked to speak.
Is the Onteora Central School District unaware that there are hundreds of Native American people living here? Is the district unaware that quite a few of us often speak about our heritage throughout this region (if not in Onteora) -- to classes, churches and synagogues, and civic organizations?
Do district officials think it would be appropriate to ask someone of French extraction to speak about Chinese culture? Or a person of Russian descent to explain African culture? Why, then, are non-Natives invited to speak about our culture?
We have in the area a thriving Native American community that meets monthly. Many of us are deeply involved with our heritage -- we speak our languages, we practice our traditional spirituality, we make the crafts taught to us by our ancestors. Area resident Donna Coane, who like me is a Mohawk, has spoken for many years to schools throughout the mid-Hudson Valley. Marist College Professor Evan Pritchard, of M'iq-M'aq heritage and author of Native New Yorkers and other books, does thes the same. The Rev. Nickolas Miles, of the Pamunkey Nation, does the same. So, too, does area schoolteacher Deborah Joyce, who is of Anishinabe (Ojibweh) descent.
And, of course, I have given lectures on Native American culture for four decades from Canada to Mexico; I am an internationally known speaker on Native American culture and the author of The Circle of Life (www.clearlightbooks.com/circleoflife), among other works.
If I had spoken to the Onteora humanities class, I would have pointed out the fallacy in the very question posed to your columnist. The question she addressed -- "How did environment influence the Native American culture?" -- is in the past tense. And, according to her own words, she answered it in the past tense. Apparently your columnist is unaware of the fact that Native American culture is living and thriving, thank you, despite all attempts by the European-American culture to thrust it unwillingly into the past, into forgetfulness.
The environment influenced in the past, to be sure, but it continues to influence it, and always shall. For us, this Earth we walk upon is sacred, and everything that lives in it (including even things non-Natives do not consider alive, like rocks and wind and rivers and spirits) is likewise sacred, and to be treated with the utmost respect. We look with horror at how the Catskill forests are cut down to make way for posh golf resorts. We feel pain when wild animals are slaughtered and their bodies used properly rather than wastefully. We worry when we see the land fenced off into ever-smaller parcels, the rivers dredged in ways that foster flooding, wetlands drained and poisonous runoff allowed to pollute aquifers.
So it is utterly wrong to say the environment "influenced" us -- it influences us every moment of every day. We hope and pray that non-Native people will learn from us to work in harmony with the sacred environment, and not seek to force it into unhealthy, destructive patterns.
It is indeed this climate of speaking about Native Americans in the past tense that provides districts like Onteora with ostensible justification for choosing our proud people as their "Indians" sports mascot without even asking us if we mind -- who can complain, after all, if you just assume there are no Indians left in this area? And who can complain if non-Native speakers fail to challenge the assumption that we Native Americans live only in the past, in a sanitized memory that forgets all that was done to us when our people were systematically raped, tortured, robbed, and killed, our culture and spirituality declared illegal, and our land stolen from us? Even today, in the Catskill Region, non-Native people are taking advantage of pseudo-governments that do not legally represent my Iroquois people, in order to build casinos that are aimed at making multi-million-dollar profits that will harm our fragile Catskill environment and not (no matter what you have been told) truly benefit either Catskill Region residents or Native American residents.
I call on your newspaper in the future to present a full and fair picture of the living Native American community in our region. And I call on the Onteora Central School District to ask Native Americans to speak about Native American culture.
And I invite the general public to attend either of two Thanksgiving worship services that will include aspects of Native American spirituality: on Tuesday, 21 November, 7:30 p.m., at the Shandaken Reformed Church of Mount Tremper (on Route 212 a half-mile north of the junction of Routes 212 and 28), or on Wednesday, 22 November, 7:30 p.m., at the United Reformed Church of Bloomington (take Route 32 to between Kingston and Rosendale, and take the turn between the signs for the church and the Bloomington Volunteer Fire Department, heading east to the "T", and then turn left).
The Rev. James David Audlin
Pastor, Shokan Reformed Church
Pastor, Shandaken Reformed Church of Mount Tremper, NY

Dear Editor,
Is the life of a squirrel precious? A bluejay? A bunny? Yes, of course, the answer is always yes. Our lives, as well as the lives of the wildlife we share this land with, are indeed precious. I want to thank all the wonderful folks who took the time and energy to bring orphaned or injured wildlife to a wildlife rehabilitator to be cared for. Many precious birds and mammals were saved and released back into the wilderness.
A special thanks to Brian and Jennifer Ellsworth. We held our breath as Brian climbed a forty-foot ladder to rescue a nest of flea-riddled orphaned squirrels. Eight weeks later those squirrels were released as healthy, strong, and wild as the day they were born. Thanks to Emily Thing for stopping to pick up an opossum hit by a car and left for dead on the road. The opossum had a pouch full of babies. Sadly, the babies didn’t make it, but after a month of intense nursing care, the mother was released. There are many more people to thank for their rescue efforts. You know who you are. Thank you from the heart.
And thanks to the folks who made it possible for me to leave home now and then and get to my job. A good wildlife babysitter is hard to find! Thanks to Zig Arbatsky, Viva Fraser, and Tony Morelli. Thanks to my good friend and neighbor, Carol Shalaew, for being there every time I needed help.
More than a hundred wild creatures passed through my doors this season. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help and support of Denise Edelson, Wildlife Rehabilitator Extraordinaire! Thank you, Denise, for your expertise and help and support every step of the way.
Jo-Anne Rowley
Phoenicia, NY