(letters from February 16, 2006)

Dear Editor,
To the Phoenicia Water District taxpayers:
I hope everyone listened carefully at the wastewater treatment plant meeting at the Shandaken town hall the night of January 31st. You now have your tax bill for 2006 - you'll wish next year that your 2007 tax bill would be that low! Your county jail is up to 20% cost overrun (and still rising) and we -the taxpayers- can't get any explanation why from either political party! Your Phoenicia Water Tax bill was 137% higher - but wait 'till next year's tax. There is still $150,000 -$200,000 more to spend to complete it!
I think as taxpayers we should have a complete accounting - to whom and how much - as to how the grant money for this filtration plant was spent. And who said to have it built on a floodway? Some of the boulders and fill it was built on were washed away in the April 2 flood. And the erosion it is causing across the way has to be faced up to. These are mistakes that have been made and have got to be corrected - but - for our sake - let's prevent making another even bigger mistake.
Yes - I'm talking about the wastewater treatment plant that is proposed - much, much larger and much more expensive than the filtration plant. At the meeting January 31st, the committee's lawyer from Albany ($1,200 every meeting) was asked who pays for any cost overrun on this project. He quickly replied that the Phoenicia Sewer District would be responsible! Think of it - this could easily run one or two million over the estimate. And you thought that tax from the $50,000 cost overrun on the filtration plant was bad? Do you think this would be enough to bankrupt Phoenicia?
Also, the questions on flooding still were not answered. I've seen maps for the pipe locations - and I know that on our property on Main Street I saw deeper holes caused by the 1980 flood than the depth the pipes will be. If one of these pipes are broken or cracked - leaking sewage into the stream - we will be fined plenty by DEC. If you think I'm wrong - ask them to be responsible and put it in writing that we won't be.
We still are hearing that NYC has to maintain our septic systems if we don't build the plant - at no cost to us. Yet we hear from the committee and lawyer that this is not true - but I think we should have that confirmation in writing from NYC.
Now we come to the easements (right of way) for the pipes. If you are one of the unlucky ones that the pipes go through your land - the easements will be 25 feet wide - with restrictions. One big thing is you can never put a building over the easement. This wouldn't be so bad - but picture a 25 foot easement on property in Phoenicia that is mainly divided into 1/4 or 1/2 acre lots! Oh yes, if you don't give them that easement - those nasty words came up at the last meeting - eminant domain!
In the beginning we were told that the plant would be small and very little could be added to it. At the last meeting it was discussed about Chichester (at no cost to them) being added on - along with all the houses on Rt.214 between Phoenicia and Chichester.
As I said before - nobody is against this but let NYC take the responsibility, the cost of the system, and the maintenance. Give us the same as Chichester, Pine Hill, Tannersville, Grand Gorge, and Margaretville. We can't help that it was turned down many years ago - restrictions have changed a lot since then, too.
There are still many other questions. Everyone from the Phoenicia Water District - make sure to come to these meetings before we all lose our homes to taxes.
Lonnie Gale
Phoenicia, NY

Dear Editor,
Having recently attended our 20th Snow Ball, this everyday skier and this wannabe trophy wife were not amused by the snide commentary of your intrepid reporters, Violet and Sparrow. Perhaps they are unaware that it is unseemly to bite the hand that feeds you.
In any event, Sparrow was dashing in his tuxedo and not at all reminiscent of a Mafiosi and Violet looked elegant in her 20 year old outfit. We are glad that they were able to successfully navigate the rough stone dance floor. It should not be overlooked that the event took place in a ski lodge where the customary footwear is ski boots.
By the way, we found it particularly annoying that total strangers would mischaracterize the politics of so many people. Republicans, indeed!
John and Janet Fishkind
Big Indian, NY

Dear Editor,
I commend and thank you for your recent “A Nation at Stake” editorial about Al Gore’s Martin Luther King Day speech. I was out of the country when it was delivered, so I didn’t hear it; can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
At the same time, I respectfully wish to draw your attention your phrase “...our founding father’s vision of a nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and so on...” That is erroneous. Neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights contains any language referring to ...”a nation under God.” A variation of that controversial phrase became part of our nationalist lexicon more than 50 years ago, a time of almost hysterical fear of so-called “Godless” communism.
It’s important to remember that the Europeans who first settled in America came here because of religious persecution in their native lands, mainly from the Anglican church.
Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and most of the other founders, though they respected people of faith and their right to that faith, did not believe in God and therefore wanted to keep Church and State separate. In writing the Constitution, Jefferson’s main argument was that all governments derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed and that a government without such consent had no authority to rule. Jefferson chose the word “Creator” instead of “God” because he, like many of his revolutionary colleagues, were deists. (Some members of the Continental Congress were theists, others atheists.) Jefferson was contemptuous of the idea that a “God” truly interfered in the lives of men and he despised clergymen all his adult life. “The earth belongs to the living,” he said. No statesman of his time would match Jefferson in his hatred of established faith, particularly the Anglican Church. During the Revolution, the destruction of the power of the Anglican Church became one of his chief goals. According to one of Jefferson’s biographers, “...his distrust of clergymen as factionalists, schismatizers, and imprisoners of the human spirit continued to his death.“
As a younger man, he had proposed legislation to separate church and state forever in his native Virginia, though he was not confident that it could. In urging that the church be curbed he pointed out that it was still legal to burn a heretic in Virginia. Notes on the State of Virginia, a text Jefferson wrote many years before he became President, is described in a 1955 edition as “probably the most important scientific and political book written by an American before 1785...” In it, Jefferson said, “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.”
Clem Hallquist
Mt. Tremper, NY

Dear Editor,
It seems impossible that anyone who fly fishes seriously has not learned of the master’s death by now. If through some space-time warp you are unaware of Ernie Schwiebert’s death, you should know that he passed away December 10, 2005 at home in Princeton, New Jersey surrounded by his family. He was 74, and succumbed to renal cancer.
He was a genius, of course. I won’t list the proofs of this, but they are many. Above all, he was fascinated with the act of writing (and illustrating). His precise placement and use of words—wonderful words—delivered to us the multi-layered tale of his gentlemanly, lifelong obsession in pursuit of salmo.
It is tempting to quote him. His book DEATH OF A RIVER KEEPER leaps to mind, as do others—MATCHING THE HATCH, or his magnum opus TROUT. But I think the words of his son Erik fit best here—they are generational. Erik wrote them ten years before Ernie’s death, about Ernie’s father. In their way they tell you more about Ernie than you might think.
THOUGHTS ABOUT GRANDFATHER SCHWIEBERT ON OCT. 17, 1995
On the prestigious occasion of my grandfather’s 100th birthday, I thought it important to write about my thoughts and admiration for him during these family celebrations. I remember one particularly memorable anecdote out of many special memories.
Shortly before his 90th birthday, my grandfather, my father and I all shared a wonderful fishing experience on our favorite trout stream at Henryville, Pennsylvania. It was a memorable day of flyfishing. I stayed with my grandfather through that entire day, helping him wade the stream, although at ninety years of age, he was still able to stand alone in the current and cast to the opposite bank, where the trout were lying.
He was fishing a dry fly in the riffling throat of the Buttonwood Pool, and on a particularly good cast, when the fly dropped tight against the roots, a fish rose and took his fly. We were both startled.
When he struck to hook the fish, the fly broke free from the delicate tippet. We were both disappointed, but my grandfather stayed the entire day to watch my father catch more than his share, which he does too easily, and watched me catch a few more.
Before my grandfather returned to Florida, he asked me to catch the fish that had stolen his fly. My father and I returned two weeks later, and went back to the Buttonwood. I had momentarily forgotten my grandfather’s instructions in the excitement of fishing again, but worked upstream through the riffle where we had broken off his fish.
As my fly drifted on the riffling currents along the bank, a large trout rose quietly to intercept its float. I hooked the fish, and during its strong fight, in traveled twice downstream to visit my father, who was fishing under the sycamores. It was a sixteen-inch wild brown trout, if memory serves. But while I was removing my fly to release the fish, I found another dry fly seated in its jaw. It was also a fly that I had tied, a matching olive-bodied Henryville Special in size fourteen. Its hook was slightly bent and rusted, and the point broke off when I pushed it free.
It was the fly that my grandfather had lost!
And on this exciting occasion for the entire Schwiebert clan, I am reminded that my grandfather has always encouraged us, transmitting his energies and gifts to help us excel in both work and life. I am inspired by his grace, the stubbornness of his scholarly passion, his blessed longevity, and his strong love for our family. I work tirelessly to make him proud of me, and believe I might share some of his wonderful luck as well.
Our trout told me this secret. Erik Schwiebert
You might wonder how I got hold of Erik’s homage to his grandfather in the first place—certainly a very private family message. And you might well ask what reason it has being in this letter (this being a missive aimed at making connections to Woodland Brook, and, let us be frank, one that is calculated to put the squeeze on you for some dough).
Ten years back I was pulling together a book to honor my father after his death, full of his Esopus and Woodland Brook writings. Eventually I gathered up my courage and phoned Ernie to ask him to write an introduction. I did this with the misgivings of a youngster asking a girl out for a first date. Though Ernie and my father had known each other, I fully expected the master to turn me down. I could offer him no money, and he was one of the busiest men in the world.
No problem. Ernie immediately agreed, and wrote a wonderful homage to my father and his fishing, which I treasure. In the course of talking back and forth we shared stories of small streams, and fishing, and fathers, and sons learning from fathers—a series of shared reminiscences that I also treasure. And in this spirit he sent me a copy of Erik’s story, as well as his own words commemorating his father’s 100th birthday.
It reminded me of so many similar stream adventures that I (and my sister) had had with our father (and with our mother for that matter) on Woodland Brook and the Esopus. So that is how you, dear reader, have become privy to these lovely Schwiebert words as well. They deserve to be shared.
If my tenuous record keeping is correct, this is the forty-first annual Woodland Trout letter begging alms. It will allow us, I hope, the wherewithal again to stock Woodland Brook’s fly-fishing section with hardy, strenuous browns, and to have some fun doing it. First Fred Muehleck, then Paul O’Neil, and now I (all fellows with father and son fishing stories to tell) ask you to help so that you too might enjoy the possibility of creating your own such bonds. Please make out a check to THE WOODLAND TROUT FUND in the amount you feel the Brook and the stocking effort deserve, and send it to Mike O’Neil, 101 Rambling Road, Vernon, CT 06066.
Mike O’Neill
Woodland Valley, NY

Dear Editor,
I have been playing "catch up" with the Phoenicia Times of January 19, 2006 and find a very stressful letter written by a very distressed person.
Let me preface that with my comment based on experts in the field [Game Animals of North America by Leonard Lee Rue III; Stuart L. Free, Sr. Biologist, NYS DEC; Albert W. Erickson, Bell Museum of Natural History; C.R. Harington, Canadian Wildlife Service] of a letter from Jo-Anne Rowley of Phoenicia who states that "the bears are bedded down....." and they arn't. The weather has been such that the bears have been up and about and as of this date, February 3, 2006 they are still roaming around. The old hibernation theory is just that; a theory. Makes a good bedtime story. The bears in northern Canada will get into a cave or shelter in the side of a hill but will come out on a warm [for them], sunny day. As for the bird feeders; "that's for the birds". Who is going to feed them when you are gone? Have they ever built a hospital or a senior bird center? But I digress.
The stressful letter I alluded to above is from Mr. Brendan Maidian whom I and any psychiatrist or psychologist would characterize as vicious, disingenuous and one who bears false witness. The "vicious" and "disingenuous" is obvious in his presentation and the "one who bears false witness" becomes quite apparent in that Mr Maidian cites no sources; he just spews his hate off the top of his empty head.
Let me inquire of Mr. Maidian that which I strongly suspect; you are an immigrant or your folks were. Welcome to the country of your choice where you may do that which you do best; throw "verbal" bombs and the American constitution [First Ammendment] protects your right to do so.
Mr. Maidian charges that the Bush brothers "rigged" the election of 2000 and fails to credit his source(s). My source that the election was legal and fair is the manner in which the Constitution directs the Presidential election; The states will regulate those elections [of Electors] except for the day of the election which is to be all states on the same day. The U.S. Supreme Court directed the Supreme Court of Florida to "just follow the law". Of course the media of that time continued on with their own recount until they admitted that Mr Bush had indeed won [AP]. Then the absentee military votes [for Bush] began to pile up because most military mail does not get post marked from APO's and NPO's [also AP and NY Times]. It is true that Al Gore of Washington, DC; finally of Tennessee won the popular vote but guess what? The Constitution promotes the "electoral" system in that small states have a level playing field with large states. This is a Republic Mr. Maidian, not a medieval fiefdom.
Then we have 9/11, seven months following GW Bush's inauguration. Mr. Bush was never an official in Washington prior and had very little time to organize with the terrorists. Mr Maidian again cites no sources as to Mr. Bush's "partnership" with the terrorists who have been shown to have attended colleges, flight schools, traveled to training camps and planned for over two years [TV news and wire services]. When the Twin Towers were attacked the president was informed and yes, he kept reading to the children. Many psychologists, teachers and counselors [including Dr. Phil (on Oprah)] stated that the president did just right. What else was he supposed to do Mr. Maidian? Run around like Chicken Little? After all, the sky was indeed falling. He then was whisked onto Air Force One by the Secret Service and flew off and away from whatever might be coming as part of a larger attack. He also had a fighter escort until AF-1 put down. The Vice-president was also taken into "custody" because of the nature of the assault. [I think he was in a Guiness "aging" cellar]. This is what we do in America, sir. Of course in some places terrorists open fire on funerals at the cemetary and the mourners become as dead as the deceased.
The Patriot Act traces it's genesis to 1978 [Cong. Record] when George Bush was dancing on the local tavern bars in Houston; he was not president. Now, I am opposed to violation of the Fourth Ammendment Mr. Maidian but I want you to site your source as to the Bush officials and administration implimenting that provision of "breaking and entering" without a search warrant. Mr. Clinton's agents did it in the Aldrich Ames case. You remember that, don't you?
Mr. Bush as Governor Bush did not send any record number of "evil doers" to their death; the criminals, mutants and mis-fits did that for themselves with the assistance of the good Texas jurors, the sentencing judges and the appeals justices. Gov. Bush may have laughed or giggled when describing an appeal by or for Karla Faye Tucker who was executed on Feb. 03, 1998 [but so would I]. Ms. Tucker [Brown] had been convicted of murdering Jerry Lynn Dean and Deborah Thornton with a pickax on June 13, 1983 and freely admitted it [TV, Radio & Print of the day]. Ms Tucker outlived her victims by 14 years. Again you cite no source, sir. Just a lot of [your] facts based on a fertile imagination filled with hate. Even Hitler gets honorable mention along with Stalin. You forgot Aids, Mr. Maidian. Bush did that?
Mr. Maidian pleads with anyone to prove him wrong. Well, Mr. Maidian, the ball is in your court and one thing that I can prove is that by your letter and it's content you are a vile, hateful and vicious person; not a man; not a human being. I am not a Bush supporter but the truth is quite important and a virtue which you are devoid of.
Now go out and yell "fire" in a crowded theatre or meeting hall. Do it! I will defend your right to do it.
Glenn T. Anderson
Olivebridge, NY

Dear Editor,
Dear Conservative Friends,
I have previously accused you of ingoring the Truth. In case you are simply unaware, here are a 10 truths to think about.
Truth: The Downing Street Memo reveals that Bush decided to overthrow Saddam Hussein in the summer of 2002.
Truth: Jack Abramoff remembers meetings that Bush dishonestly denies. “The guy saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows.” – Jack Abramoff
Truth: Tom Delay, indicted for financial corruption, has been appointed to the House Appropriations Committee. What a great place for crooks, dispensing
money.
Truth: Lewis “Scooter” Libby testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by his boss,
Vice President Dick Cheney, and other White House "superiors" to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence.
Truth: The Bush administration never alerted the Mayor of Los Angeles, about the alleged terrorist plot against his city, "I'm amazed the President would make this announcement on national television and not inform us of the details through appropriate channels." - Mayor Villaraigosa
Truth: Bush knew the New Orleans Levees failed a full day before he claimed to have found out.
Truth: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits by secretly slipping in language to a DOD appropriations bill AFTER it had been voted on.
Truth: Spying on Americans is ILLEGAL!
Truth: So is torture!
Truth: Tens of thousands of human beings are dead and hundreds of thousands seriously maimed and wounded, thanks to the self-proclaimed “War President”
Are you still feeling safe and secure?
David J. Turan
Stamford, NY

Dear Editor,
Did you know...
1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the voting machine industry.
3. The vice president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
4. The [recently resigned] chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
5. Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. Hebecame senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
6. Hagel, long connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
7. Hagel was on a short list of George W Bush's vice presidential candidates.
. 8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the US and counts almost 60% of all US votes.
9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the. machine is .the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
13. Jeff Dean was senior vice president of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.
14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting "back doors" in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the secuity was so bad. Despite Diebold’s claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it. (see the movie at www.bbv-docs.org/videos/baxterVPR.mov/).
17. 30% of all US votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
18. All - not some - but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
19. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is the president's brother.
20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida - again always favoring Bush - have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
Sources are available at nightweed.com/usavotefacts.html.
HR 550 the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2005 by Rep. Rush Holt, D-NJ, would allow voters to verify their ballots and election officials to conduct meaningful recounts. See also verifiedvoting.org.
Beverly Braly
Roxbury, NY

Dear Editor,
I n arguing in favor of the proposed mega-resort at Belleayre, Shandaken Town Board member Joe Munster has been quoted as quipping that “trees don’t pay taxes; tourists do.”
Mr. Munster is half right. The fact is that all wild or forest lands owned by New York State within the forest preserve are taxable for all purposes. Yet that is only part of the story, for trees do something more than just pay taxes; they offer local governments a net gain in revenue, thus helping to offset the net tax loss from developed land.
From Maine to California, from upstate to downstate, study after study has demonstrated this fact: development drains the local treasury, while open, undeveloped land adds to it. Development brings increases in property taxes because it invariably requires new public expenditures to create and service the infrastructure for growth. Here’s the equation, as measured in studies from across the nation: for every tax dollar collected on undeveloped land and open space, government expenses are about 55 cents; for every tax dollar collected on developed land, government expenses are about $1.15. Bottom line: development costs more than it contributes.
This is one reason why municipalities committed to open space preservation have typically been issued better bonding rates than those that allow development without reservation or qualification. Once lost, open space cannot be retrieved, and the long-term costs of its loss tend to be prohibitive. Preserved as undeveloped land, open space constitutes a non-depreciating, non-reproducible asset that offers increasing benefits over time. Among these measurable benefits are non-market ecosystem services—components of nature directly enjoyed, consumed, or used to yield human well-being; retention of the potential for other future uses; and subsidy of other land uses. Of immeasurable benefit, of course, for current and succeeding generations, is the public environmental value of open space.
Mr. Munster has offered a disingenuous sound-bite, but the reality is that the same trees that hold the very land we stand on also hold the key to a sustainable economic future. Trees don’t just cost nothing; they actually pay us back for their existence in hard cash.
That’s a reality Ulster County’s legislators can take to the bank.
Susanna Margolis
Chairman, Catskill Heritage Alliance
Fleischmanns, NY

Dear Editor,
CORETTA SCOTT KING D. 1-30-06/STATE OF THE UNION 1-31-06
You had the grace
to die a day early
leaving the demons full court
though you watch and denude them
bare in their puerile concoctions
that kill
You are gone from our plank of
history
but we who are pierced by
your vision
continue glad that you suffer
no longer the hell you have left.
Roberta Gould
Woodstock, NY

Dear Editor,
I was shocked to read that Al Spada, who retired after 39 years as Ulster County Clerk, is now accepting a job to do P.R. for the unpopular Seneca-Cayuga-Thomas Wilmot casino development project, bringing with him his political connections to fight the very towns that paid his salary for his working life, in order to push something which most agree would spoil our area while enriching government coffers.
With Al Spada at the helm, the fight to keep the casinos out will be longer and more expensive. Why should we be forced into this fight? And why is it OK for a former government official to turn against the very people he served?
It seems everywhere we turn, proposed development along the Hudson, such as the one planned for the Rondout Creek in Kingston, pits big money interests against our small neighboring cities and towns. We are being asked to pay for both sides of the fight.
This goes against the very foundations of good government. People need good jobs, affordable healthcare, clean air and water, access to recreation and in our area, access to out beautiful Hudson River. Is everything we have grown up with suddenly for sale to the highest bidder? Who looks out of out interests? We do not need to be expected to first pay the high cost of government, then have to dip into our pockets a second time in order to fight that government in order to maintain a good quality of life here in the Hudson Valley.
Toni Weidenbacher
Woodstock, NY

Dear Editor,
I am writing regarding your article about officials Bonacic, Hinchey and others who are blaming the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for problems with flooding. Villifying the NYC DEP is a political step for Bonacic and others who want to gain support from area residents.
The Vly Stream in Fleischmanns flooded its banks last April and I had to evacuate my home. The reason had nothing to do with any reservoirs but is a result of the effects of global warming such as a sudden rise in temperature, heavy rain and eight inches of snow already on the ground.
Senator Bonacic, in particular, encourages residents to sue the NYC DEP to hold them accountable for our flooding. Rather than increasing lawsuits, Senator Bonacic and others ought work to improve conditions in the Catskills. They should stop supporting the current administration in Washington which allows large corporations to continue their greenhouse gas emissions and discounts every environmental issue that has come before it. They should promote environmental projects such as more mass transportation and less cars. They should educate the public about conserving energy. They should maintain all infrastructure to minimize flooding. Our officials should stick to the facts and apply themselves to improving conditions in their own backyard and the world.
Larissa Sobi
Fleischmanns, NY

Dear Editor,
I read, “Snowball” in the Feb. 2nd issue by Sparrow and Violet Snow with enjoyment and a good laugh!
I was impressed with their music knowledge, observations, French Dadaism commentary, and colorful use of the words, Mafioso garb, affluence, populist sports, Republicans, Democrats, chartreuse rhinestones, Navaho jewelry (by Shokan resident Jean Duffy), us, them, local, non-local, trophy wives, secret boyfriends, tofu, writing style (a la Tom Wolfe in Bonfire of the Vanities and his description of a cocktail party), etc., etc., etc.
What in the world did all of that have to do with the annual uncomplicated
Snowball?
Their review of the annual event told me more about the two of them, than
the Snowball. Perhaps they were a little uncomfortable. After reading their column, I sensed that they would have been more at home at a Woodstock Reunion or a Dead concert. They did say the food (Main Course Caterers, New Paltz) and band (Special Delivery, Ossining) were great, but perhaps Violet and Sparrow felt like fish out of water. As guests of the Coalition, I hope they had fun.
I would like to make a few corrections. If they had spent a moment and looked at the program, they would have observed that the Chair of the event this year and for the past nine years has been Judy (not Carol) Shiner. There were 275, not 200 guests. Violet reported that almost everyone there was not a local. In fact, almost everyone there was a business owner or a homeowner in Ulster, Delaware, or Greene County. Violet and Sparrow sat at table #15 in which there were 12 guests. Nine were local and 3 were friends of Ward Todd from out of the area. “French Dadaism”… I had to look it up. Webster stated “a movement in the arts based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional values.” Oh well. I guess a great night of good food, good music, good company with a good purpose is not for everyone!
Now about the Snowball, which the article said very little about. This annual event is a fundraiser and celebration for both the Coalition for Belleayre (they called it the Friends of Belleayre) and for the Belleayre Music Festival. Everyone attending has a deep commitment to the success of Belleayre: winter, summer, and all year! Belleayre Ski Center was not closed in 1985, a result of the hard work of all of the “populist,” “affluent,” “Republicans” and “Mafioso”. We really didn’t care what their
political persuasion was. The possible closing of Belleayre would have been an economic disaster to the area. Through our hard work, the mountain was kept open and the Route 28 corridor is alive and well. The growth of the Music Festival, with its world-class music has been a wonderful addition.
On behalf of the 141 “trophy wives” and “secret girlfriends” that Violet and Sparrow alluded to, thank you. What about some of those trophy husbands? I think I spotted a few! I guess we all looked pretty good, as did both of you. Sorry Sparrow, about “your small red grapes getting bruised on the plastic chairs.” Perhaps skier’s grapes don’t crush so easily. I would hope that the “us” and “them” titles could be dropped from future reporting. Come down from your perch Mr. Sparrow and join the fun.
Judy Shiner, Local
Big Indian, NY

Dear Editor,
May a cartoonist get a word in edgewise? The New York Times is making a mistake.
You are all Word people. Good for you. But when the New York Times said, "especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words," it was WRONG.
Cartoons are not prose. They don't work the same. In this case, the words make them sound WORSE!
I'd like to see all twelve. And the added things. And the photos of Bush with Abramoff.
Granted, the Times has an extra arrogant, smug squeamishness about cartoons.
A burden us cartoonists must bear.
Gus Murphy.
Brooklyn. NY