The River Reporter Online - Letters to the Editor

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The River Reporter welcomes letters on all subjects from its readers. They must be signed and include the correspondent's phone number. The correspondent's name and town will appear at the bottom of each letter; titles and affiliations will not, unless the correspondent is writing on behalf of a group.

Letters are printed as they are received, or at the discretion of the editor, and without correction to grammar or spelling. It is requested they be limited to 500 words; correspondents may be asked to cut longer letters. Deadline is 1:00 p.m. on Monday.

Hi, my name is Lindsay Michaels. I was once a student at Narrowsburg Central School. My seventh grade year I had to move away all the way down to Virginia, where I currently live. It was probably the hardest transition for me to move away from the people I love and all my friends I had (and still have). So, I decided to write a letter to everyone to let them all know how I am doing and that everything is going great for me:

Howdy! I am so happy I am writing to you all again. I am doing very well and my family is doing well too. I miss you all so much and I wish you all were here with me.

School is doing good for me and I have met tons of people. Don’t worry, I have lots of friends! I am in the band and I currently play the saxophone. My band, choir, flag team and dance team all went to Italy during our spring break, which was very exciting and spectacular. I enjoyed it a lot even though I would have also enjoyed spending my spring break with you all.

Yes I am currently single (no boyfriend). I’m still looking for that “perfect” man but anyways… there is some good news! I am thinking about coming up to visit you all in June. If you want to e-mail me to try to convince my parents to let me come visit you guys, or just to drop a line to me, go for it!

P.S. Everyone who goes to SWAN (students, teachers and everyone else) remember I am always—

Regarding Tom Kane’s article about John Gorzynski’s problem with the USDA watering down the organic designation: I feel very strongly about this. Were you aware that Progresso soups contain GM ingredients? Do you know how much of what you buy in the supermarket has such ingredients? It was John Gorzynski who told me about the scientific research that shows that negative effects from GM foods most affect those at the top of the food chain. That’s us. When I was growing up in the 40’s and 50’s, people did not get cancer as young as they do now, or as often. I never knew a kid with asthma. We are being forced to be guinea pigs for agribusiness (I am not talking about the family farmer) and chemical companies, and I think we are much too quiet about it. Any weakening of organic standards is simply a means of taking away our ability to vote with our food purchasing dollars.

I belong to the Organic Consumers Association. I don’t know if this is the best lobby group to support. If anyone else has a better idea, let me know. We are fighting agribusiness and the politicians they bought, and the USDA, but... We buy the food. We have power. I notice that Pecks in Callicoon and Narrowsburg have growing organic sections due to customer demand. The next step is to boycott foods with GM ingredients. You can get a list from Nature’s Grace in Honesdale.

We are so fortunate to be able to buy from local organic producers, and I believe the future of farming, and the preservation of open space in Sullivan County is dependent on the success of pioneer farmers like Gorzynski. I am appalled that the government is attempting to subvert our efforts to choose what kind of food we eat. There are many issues that we don’t have time or money to support, but this one, which is central to our health, our children’s health, to our area and our way of life, we can support, every time we go food shopping. I don’t want the government taking that right away from me

For further information about the Organic Consumers Association write: 6101 Cliff Estate Road, Little Marais, MN 55614; call 218/226-4164; fax 218/226-4157; e-mail campaign@organicconsumers.org; web page www.purefood.org

I support the Honorable Daniel Hogue for sheriff of Sullivan County, NY. His crusade to update our county jail shall not go unnoticed.

In my opinion, Mr. Hogue shall give the regional correctional facility a smarter look involving an end to ancient practices of “law and order.”

Now, regardless of current refusal to change old practices, we shall have therapy principles and paralegal techniques in the hands of better-paid officers and staff.

We shall support those believing equal access to “in God we trust” regardless of income, regardless if we’re entailed with the helpless and hopeless cases, or not. I mean a GED shall have a balanced agenda with probation and community time. The new correctional facility shall replace the ancient laws of stupidity chasing after handcuffs.

The correctional field shall replace our current failing services, and we shall stop using the county jail as a place to dump our school dropouts, our sluts, whores or prostitutes.

Within 24 hours of the Sullivan West Central School District’s Meet the Candidates Night at the Delaware Valley campus, local taxpayers were derisively referring to “Sullivan West” as “Stalinist West.” Why? Because the SW administration and its allies had the audacity to set up a meeting in which members of the public were not permitted to question school board candidates about the issues that concerned them. Not one question was allowed.

Instead, we were treated to a carefully stage-managed, sanitized and manipulated session designed to subtly help pro-administration candidates avoid discussing controversial topics.

Here are some of the issues that should have been discussed but were not because the administration and its friends muzzled the public.

1. Why has current Sullivan West school board member Richard Lander never publicly demanded that something be done about the ongoing scandal concerning the 28 percent shortfall in state building aid promised district residents before the last merger vote? When I personally confronted State Education Commissioner Richard Mills about the issue at a Chamber of Commerce meeting last fall, Lander sat back and said absolutely nothing.

2. Why did Richard Lander vote to prematurely force Narrowsburg high school students out of their home school this coming September thus overcrowding the Jeffersonville-Youngsville campus? Wasn’t he supposed to protect the hometown folks in Narrowsburg and the Jeffersonville-Youngsville community as well from this kind of administrative mismanagement?

3. Carol Wingert, the Town Clerk and Tax Collector for the Town of Tusten, is now running for a school board seat. After the meeting, Carol Wingert admitted to me that she has no intention of resigning from her original elected political job. She intends to hold down both elected positions, which are often in conflict with each other, at the same time. In effect, Wingert will set tax policy and collect those taxes as well. This is too much power for any one person to have.

Ms. Wingert claims she isn’t “power hungry.” I disagree. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have a public discussion of this important issue at the April 26 meeting? The voters deserved no less.

4. Prominent area faculty members have privately discussed with me and others the fact that they are shocked at how rapidly educational quality and discipline have deteriorated at the three Sullivan West campuses since the merger. This is a scathing internal indictment of the administration. Yet it wasn’t permitted to surface at our sanitized “ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies” candidates night. Incumbents Lander, Triolo and Daley should never have been allowed to leave without explaining their positions on this matter.

What is happening in the Sullivan West district is not healthy. You can help start breaking up the cozy self-congratulatory rubber stamp relationship between the Sullivan West school board and our smug and cynical administration by voting for the three most serious challengers on May 15. That means supporting Arthur Norden, Ken Uy and Tim Lanese.

It is time for substantial changes at Sullivan West before this administration and the current school board bankrupt us all.

Life gets busy and we forget to stop and thank people for a kindness or a thoughtful deed. And then we move on and it never gets recognized. So we wanted to say thanks—to the efforts of the ladies at Jeff Bank, Callicoon, with their beanie baby sales; and Joe DiPane and Jerry Smith with their ping-pong tournaments, the Youth Center finally has enough money to replace the swingset. Yay!! We appreciate their time and applaud their efforts!