Letters to the editor (6/1/22) – Hudson Valley One

The views and opinions expressed in our letters section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hudson Valley One. You can submit a letter to the editorhere.

National politics have arrived in the 103rd District

Yesterday, 19 children and two teachers were murdered in their school in Uvalde, Texas. On the same day, in the neighboring Congressional District, representative Henry Cuellar won a Democratic primary to retain his seat by less than 200 votes. Henry Cuellar is the only Democrat in Congress with an A rating from the NRA. Henry Cuellar.

Despite holding back efforts to protect kids from gun violence, national party leaders like Nancy Pelosi and James Clyburn campaigned for Cuellar, recorded robocalls for him and directed aligned super-PACs to spend nearly a million dollars on the race in the last three weeks of the campaign. They did all of this to fight off a challenge from a 29-year-old progressive woman who excited young voters and represents the values of the party. The Democrats hold both houses nationally, but will do nothing on gun violence because of officials like Cuellar.

This same playbook is happening here in the New York State 103rd Assembly District. Climate change represents an existential threat to the lives of our children. Representative Kevin Cahill has represented our area for 20 years, has seen the effects of climate change on our area and yet still cant bring himself to sign onto public infrastructure for renewable energy. He still takes money from privately owned energy companies.

Despite these facts, State Democratic leaders who control all of New York State government will rally to defend Cahill from a challenge by Sarahana Shrestha, another young, progressive woman. They will pour late money into this race and flood us with messages against a candidate with a proven track record of environmental activism and organizing young voters. And when nothing happens to protect our childrens future, you will know why.

Dont let this happen. The answer is not to Vote blue no matter who; it is to vote for a better shade of blue. Vote Sarahana.

Timothy WelshNew Paltz

Landscape of our demise

Non-thought and everyone freaked out. Look out, theres a monster coming.

Something I was thinking about, please share. Forget about the zombie apocalypse that will never come. Ill give you something to cry about! No one ever said why, and then for some reason you just knew say what you will, Worry about the idiot apocalypse that is already upon us!

Stupidity is one of lifes big mysteries. The convergence of many seemingly unrelated elements has produced an explosion of brainlessness and textbook cases of idiots en masse.

So, true: saw them and its scary and unsettling. Instead of brains, they crave Faux Views and reality television. This cancerous far-right monster is an anti-science, anti-academia and anti-truth creeping blob. You can easily tag em as it talks, repeating lines like You laughin at me? and Im burning MAGA mad!

If we are overrun with stupidity, doesnt that portend dire implications for the assumptions surrounding democracy? This is a much bigger fight. They, the marching morons, are moving to the ultra-right at light speed. What theyre showing us is that fascism fuels them, which makes for a really dangerous time. Our democracy is on the line.

If youre depressed about the state of the world, take comfort in the fact that, yes, many are tagged and we must always be on the lookout. We recognize them for what they are. Theyre vulnerable if you fight back with proactivism, fidelity and truth. Can I get an Amen?

Neil JarmelWest Hurley

Hydrogen is the future

Presently, only hydrogen can replace fossil fuels as a total energy source; solar, wind is intermittent and dependent on batteries for storage. Even if battery technology improves significantly, the number of batteries needed to store the electricity required for our energy needs is undoable because of space considerations and limited by our finite resource base used for battery production.

Using electricity derived from solar and wind farms scaled for mass production to produce hydrogen from water, a process called electrolysis, we could produce enough hydrogen to power our homes, transportation and industries. The infrastructure necessary to do this is already in place. Existing gas stations could be modified to dispense hydrogen to fuel our vehicles. Hydrogen fuel vehicles already exist: Toyota sells them on the West Coast and there are now a chain of hydrogen fueling stations operating from California to Washington State that could serve as a model for the transition.

Hydrogen fuel cells can also be used to generate electricity and heating for homes, replacing boilers and furnaces, and hydrogen can be delivered and stored the same as we now store propane and oil in our homes. Power companies could convert to hydrogen fuel cell technology to produce electricity and to deliver hydrogen fuel to their customer base using their already-existing electrical grid and gas pipelines.

Finally, by transitioning from fossil fuels to green hydrogen, we will be moving from a climate-changing combustion-based to a renewable electric-based economy.

Robert J. RiveraWest Hurley

The myth of plastic recycling

It has been painfully clear for years now that plastic recycling in the US is a myth. The latest reports from Last Beach Cleanup and Beyond Plastics show that the plastic recycling rate of post-consumer plastic waste for 2021 was between five and six percent. This rate of recycling, which has never reached ten percent, has been sliding downwards for years, just as the generation of plastic waste (per capita) has risen by a staggering 263 percent since 1980.

I am deeply concerned that the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries continue to endanger and mislead the public about the efficacy of plastic recycling and the risks of continued plastic production and use. Ninety-four percent of US plastic waste ends up in landfills, incinerators, our landscapes and our oceans: 94 percent, while the majority of plastic that is actually recycled is typically (re)used only once before joining the rest.

If the plastics industry was a country, it would be the fifth-highest emitter of greenhouse gases on earth. Despite this, despite microplastics in our food, in our water, in our bloodstream, despite PFAS in our food packaging, despite the harm of industrial sacrifice zones like Cancer Alley, the plastics industry is charging forward with plans for expansion and growth.

The latest EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) and Bottle Bills introduced in the New York State Legislature potentially represent an overdue first step in the fight against the rising tide of plastic pollution. It is past time that citizens and legislators hold the plastics industry accountable for criminally endangering human health and natural environments across the globe.

Visit BeyondPlastics.org to learn more about the crisis of plastic pollution.

Oliver FerlandNew Paltz

Disappointed in Cahills comments on abortion

Im disappointed that Kevin Cahill said celebrations of the passage of our abortion rights law were offensive during an interview with the Daily Freeman last year.

The Reproductive Health Act codified Roe v. Wade in New York. Kevin Cahills comments were: There was cheering, and I found that offensive no one was cheering from my corner.

We lit up the Empire State Building in pink to mark the legislations passage. Kevin Cahill equated that with Donald Trumps lie that the passage of [this] legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mothers womb moments before birth. Cahills words were, [Trumps comments were] really inappropriate as inappropriate as lighting up the buildings in pink.

Roe v. Wade might be overturned by the Supreme Court. Now more than ever, we need elected representatives who will be loud and proud in their support for reproductive rights, not criticize us for being happy about that freedom.

Kirstie KimballKingston

Correction to article on absentee landlords

I am writing to submit a correction to an article composed by Terence Ward on 5/25/22. In the article (entitled Absentee landlords accused), he incorrectly refers to a property address/landlord used as an example during a New Paltz Town Board meeting.

The picture that I included in my letter, as well as those displayed during the Town Board meeting, were of 6 Howard Street. They were not 11 Cicero Avenue.

Matt PilekNew Paltz

Shootings merit strong action from school boards

Given the spate of armed attacks on schools, the Onteora School District should hire a full-time school safety officer and an additional mental health professional ASAP. Each new hire can be trained to deescalate conflicts. This proactive step would not eliminate the chances of an attack, but perhaps it would reduce the chances of a tragedy.

David WallisBearsville

From infant formula to wet nurses

In the frenzy to import infant formula from around the world, are we totally forgetting the common sense that nourished me in a New Haven hospital ward dedicated to natural childbirth in 1948, when my mother could not produce enough breastmilk to feed me and her roomie had extra?

How about reestablishing the time-honored system of wet nurses? Quickly, before infants suffer and get malnourished due to the lack of infant formula. Wet nurses could supply pumped milk or actually feed the client baby.

Would there need to be an emergency use authorization like there is for the anti-COVID remedy Paxloovid, or perhaps just a lab analysis of the proposed wet nurses milk? Im guessing that an organization such as La Leche League would be best at establishing guidelines, so that families seeking a wet nurse would have help in establishing criteria to interview a potential provider. This could be a pop-up business that truly benefits all parties, and yet another way to escape foreign control of an essential, undervalued American asset.

Beverly HarrisLake Hill

Memorial Day 2022

On Memorial Day, the best we say in America, Today, we remember those who died in war and those families that lost loved ones. But unfortunately, memorializing war allows us to overlook the generations of moral injury war inoculated into our culture, causing the side effects of suicide, addiction, domestic violence and homelessness.

A few simple observations: Generals are not killed in war. No politicians die in war. Government leadership declares war and soldiers and civilians are killed on our battlefields. Today, wars moral injury steers veterans lives towards self-destruction after returning home. On Memorial Day, the publics job is to take moral responsibility by owning the truth about why their childrens lives were taken. If we choose to continue healing from war, we must also honor the enemys lives weve taken.

On Memorial Day, we make up convoluted and complex answers to why soldiers lives were lost. We repeat the same ideological language, These dead were protecting our freedom, which was used to motivate the now-dead soldiers to join the military and die in unjust wars.

Our soldiers have come home shamed by the American public for fighting in bad wars, starting with Korea, including Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the side effects on veterans when the country morally stopped supporting what they were doing after firing the first few shots have taken more soldiers lives than in the wars they fought in.

War strategies have not been updated since we dropped the first atomic bomb because we need ground troops to enlist, and if they didnt think their homes and families were actually at risk, they wouldnt join.

The Ukraine war is an example of Putin being stuck in the same antiquated war tactics we are. Putin sends massive numbers of men to their deaths. The moral backlash this act will bring into the Russian culture will be astounding. If the war ends, these soldiers moral injury will become self-destructive. Putin will have to send them to jail and to Siberia for self-protection. When a soldier is forced to kill, and hes aware the majority of the public hes fighting for disagrees, you will soon see the consequences of self-destructive behaviors and rebellion.

Here in America, weve witnessed the side effect of our returning troops finding out their lives are human capital. The suicide rate is the accurate compass of the moral injury created by fighting unjust wars. Our recent insurrection has roots in our troops becoming aware they have gone to war to protect the resources of the wealthy. Add that poor health care, low wages, racism and the dominance of power and capital available to fewer and fewer. These inequities stimulate rage.

Republicans use that rage to create rhetoric their voters believe, many carrying the side effects of the billions spent on those wars. Democrats have been ineffective in navigating the wealthy and lack warrior politicians willing to fight for democracy over losing their jobs. So, on this Memorial Day, reflect closely on why the lives of our loved ones and enemies were taken in wars they themselves did not declare.

Larry WintersNew Paltz

Transparency?

After a discussion took place at a recent Town Board meeting regarding a resolution pertaining to the transfer of 1.2 million dollars in surplus funds, a taxpayer said, Id like to ask that when you do put it in a resolution, that youd be very specific in the resolution to say how many dollars and where the money is going in, so that it appears in the minutes of the meeting.

The citizen made this request because, as he stated, on April 20 of last year, 1.8 million dollars was transferred, and the resolution said transferred per transfer sheet; it wasnt explicit in the resolution and did not appear in the meeting minutes, and the recording of that meeting disappeared, so we have no record of it. The response to the request was, Ill look into that.

Howard HarrisWoodstock

Response to Messrs. Butz & Civile

When I wrote One Mans Abortion: 1963 for last weeks paper, I assumed there would be an angry response from the anti-abortion folks. I was not disappointed. There were two. The first, from John Butz, starts with the statement that Abortion is murder. I would suggest to Mr. Butz that not everyone subscribes to that belief. I certainly dont. He then says, The moral, civil and right decision was staring them right in the face all alongThe humane, moral and ethical decision was to bring the child to term and immediately put the child up for adoption. That is definitely not what Em and I thought was the humane, moral and ethical decision for us, and I would not assume I knew the right decision for everyone, as does Mr. Butz, nor would I try to impose my religious beliefs on anyone else.

He continues: The inconveniences, real or perceived, are only temporary. A month or so of disrupting employment or studies can be quickly resumed. My school, associated with the Methodist Church (which I attended as a youth), would have unceremoniously thrown us both out of school immediately had our condition been known, and it would have been difficult or impossible to enroll in another school with that on our records. We did not consider that an inconvenience.

He also states that these people [Em and I and anyone who has ever had an abortion] never gave a moments thought to the significant heartache suffered by couples who desperately want a family but are unable to have children, and we are people who have nonchalantly murdered unborn children. I assure Mr. Butz we spent more than a moments thought on our decision, and if Mr. Butz wants to point out nonchalantly murdering children, he need only look at this weeks murder of 19 children in Texas and the other 26 school shootings just this year! More children have been killed in schools than police officers have been killed on the job. Pro-life, Mr. Butz? I think not.

Mr. Butz also seems to have a big problem with folks peacefully demonstrating in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices and, he emphatically states, If the attorney general was in his right mind and knew right from wrong, he should have arrested those demonstrators so the justices could resume their normal lives. Mr. Butz, our pro-life champion, doesnt seem to have much of a problem with the over 3,500 students shot and killed every year. Nor does he seem terribly concerned that their parents can never resume their normal lives. Im sure we all wish Justice Thomas and his charming wife Ginny can resume their normal lives immediately and not have to hear the cries of bereft parents.

George Civile, another one of my critics and an almost weekly contributor to this paper of right-wing misinformation, says I never explained why abortions were illegal or were considered wrong or sinful by the major denominations prior to Roe V. Wade. He is correct. I did not explain that, nor did I explain why:

Interracial marriage was once illegal

Why it was illegal to be homosexual

Why women voting was illegal

Why it was illegal for Black citizens to sit anywhere but the back of the bus

Why it was illegal to consume or possess alcohol from 1920-32

Why it was illegal to shop on a Sunday

Why birth control was once illegal

Why pinball, golfing and playing football on Sunday was illegal

Why dancing in a joint without a cabaret license was illegal

Why sexual acts outside procreation were illegal

Why being a communist was illegal

Why swearing in public was illegal.

Both Mr. Butz and Mr. Civile profess to be vehemently pro-life and their only concern is for the lives of the unborn children. I submit that if they were indeed pro-life, they would be out on the streets or writing to this paper protesting automatic weapons that indiscriminately kill our children, not foetuses; weapons in the hands of unbalanced teenagers and right-wing zealots. They would be protesting open-carry laws and meaningless or no gun restrictions that allow 18-year-olds to buy assault weapons and 700 rounds of ammunition, as did the shooter last week, on his 18th birthday!

They would be protesting the 20 percent of New Yorkers living in poverty, 35 percent of minority children suffering food insecurity. If they are pro-life, why do they not protest the substandard nutrition of children, chronic disease and mental health problems of minority children, inadequate child care, lack of access to healthcare for children, unsafe neighborhoods, undersourced schools and shortened life expectancy for children of minorities?

Pro-life, Messrs. Butz and Civile? Thats just so much crap. Youre not pro-life. Youre just anti-abortion.

Eric GlassSaugerties

Mental health care system broken

In light of the most recent events of the past two weeks, we once again find ourselves questioning how such tragic and senseless events as the mass shootings experienced at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Laguna Woods Church in California and, most recently, Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, continue to occur in this day and age. Calls for enhanced and stringent gun control laws are louder now than ever before.

I too agree that greater gun control is in order. However, if we truly want to eradicate these senseless murders, we must acknowledge and fully understand that our mental health care system is broken, not just here in New York but throughout our nation, and there lies the root of these mass shootings. Until such time we recognize that our mental health care system is in crisis, and we start reinvesting toward building a robust and responsive mental health care system, then and only then will we have a fighting chance toward eliminating these senseless acts of violence that continue to be perpetrated against our children and our communities.

It is truly the duty of each and every one of us to implore that our elected officials start spending our tax dollars on the real issues affecting our daily lives. Simply taking guns away from people will not deter the illness that causes them to act out so violently against others. If its not a gun, it will be some other deadly instrument that will be used to inflict their reign of terror.

Joseph A. SinagraChief of PoliceSaugerties

Colin Schmitt: our next congressman

Im so thrilled to see the new district lines reflect fairness for once, but nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to Democrats trying to finagle their way into office and power. I am so excited that Colin Schmitt will be our next congressman. He has always had my vote because hes finally a candidate I can put my faith in to fix the nonsense locally and nationally.

Im talking about these ridiculous gas prices and empty shelves everywhere you turn. Hes always been a voice for middle-class families and taken a stance for whats right. I know he will work tirelessly to make improvements and real change. I cant wait to see all that Colin will accomplish when hes elected this fall.

Nina HeinNew Paltz

Concerns about proposed asphalt plant

The proposed hot asphalt mix plant on Route 28 in the Town of Kingston has several concerning aspects. The site would lay beside the busy Route 28 highway in a former quarry, in plain view for everyone to see, smell and hear. It would also be beside several local retail businesses, possibly degrading their operations. Typically, hot asphalt plants are smelly and dirty. In the application, the developers state that the operations will have diesel exhaust and particulate from an open-air process.

Ulster Strong doesnt dispute the applicants contention of a need and opportunity of providing a variety of highway-oriented services and solutions to the area, as well as added jobs and new tax revenues. Its that the location beside Route 28 is clearly at odds with the bigger picture. An asphalt operation such as this would not just be a temporary inconvenience (e.g., such as during its construction), but an ongoing negative distraction and hazard. This is clearly at odds with the long-range vision of Route 28 being a scenic Gateway to the Catskills.

Unless the applicants can clearly show ways to mitigate the noted concerns about visual, smell and particulate pollution and traffic, Ulster Strong thinks this project would find a better location in Ulster.

Martin DunkleyLake Katrine

A few questions

Butz and Civile make the emotional case that a woman who becomes pregnant owes a sacred debt of responsibility to the developing embryo to bring it to term. But this no-nonsense approach to taking responsibility for ones actions and the overarching sanctity of human life begs some important questions: Since Betz and Civile would make abortion illegal, what legal remedy would be required of the fathers, who are at least equally responsible for the new life? If the woman is to be penalized by forfeiting nine months of her life and the emotional trauma of putting a baby up for adoption, what does the father forfeit?

Secondly, how do they deal with the consequences of rape or incest cases in which pregnancy results from a crime inflicted on the woman or girl? Thirdly, if the state requires women to carry all pregnancies to term, will the state take financial responsibility for the babies women are forced to bear against their will?

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Letters to the editor (6/1/22) - Hudson Valley One