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.

Please accept my compliments on running a very successful forum on the Development of the Delaware River Corridor. You provided not only an opportunity to hear expert opinions from those directly involved in the process, but also to network with our counterparts from Pike and Wayne Counties.

Thank you for affording us such a forum, which will produce results for years to come,

May 1 will mark the 44th anniversary of Law Day since its establishment by President Eisenhower. He noted that it was “fitting that the people of this nation should remember with pride and vigilantly guard the great heritage of liberty, justice and equality under law which our forefathers bequeathed to us.” He went on to state that it is “our moral and civic obligation as free men and as Americans to preserve and strengthen this great heritage.”

This past year, the ideals of our great democracy were directly attacked in a heinous act of terrorism. Those events imbued our nation with a renewed commitment to the principles of freedom, equality and justice.

This year, the theme of Law Day is to assure equal justice for all. In furtherance of that goal, I would like to use the observance of Law Day to introduce the Sullivan Family Drug Treatment Court. This is a specialized court designed to intervene into the lives of parents and children who are struggling with issues of substance abuse and to provide intensive, community-based treatment, rehabilitation and supervision.

Statistics show that 80 percent of all child abuse and neglect cases are related to substance abuse, and 50 percent of all domestic violence cases are related to substance abuse. A recent survey of 2,500 middle school and high school students in Sullivan County indicated that our children are abusing drugs and alcohol at, or above, the national average.

The first goal of the Family Drug Treatment Court will be to identify, at an early stage, parents and children that need substance abuse treatment and provide services not only to the individual, but also to the family in an effort to keep the family united. The ultimate goal is to reunite the family, which will reduce the need for the services to the family and reduce the costs, both monetary and societal, of having the children in foster care.

The need for a Family Treatment Court in Sullivan County has been clearly identified and, with the hard work of our planning committee, we look forward to having our first client in October of 2002.

In Sullivan County Family Court, we have resolved to attack the issue of substance abuse and its devastating affects upon the family. With the cooperation of the entire community, we will be successful.

Our daughter, Erin, who is a freshman at the State University at Stony Brook on Long Island, was recently nominated for two distinctive and impressive awards. She was nominated for a leadership award based on her fund-raising efforts on campus on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, and she was nominated as Outstanding Freshman of the Year.

For those of you who know Erin, she has always been active in community affairs and was a willing participant in school activities while a student at Narrowsburg Central School.

We are extremely proud of Erin and wish to thank all of her teachers, family, friends and acquaintances that have helped instill in her such a wonderful sense of citizenship.

I’d like to point out how Lee Karr plays games with numbers and language. And, I might add, his numbers need looking at. He does admit that 92 percent of gamblers gamble responsibly, but he and Donald Trump want 100 percent of them to gamble out of state. We know why The Donald wants them out of New York State.

Mr. Karr says that the $179,000,000 that racetracks in Delaware contribute to their state and then throws out the line “and even that sum was deeply offset by costs such as those for addicted gamblers.” How much is “deeply offset” in terms of dollars and cents? Where are those numbers, Mr. Karr? Why are they not revealed? Or does it sound more ominous by saying “deeply offset”? It’s like Mr. Karr’s reference to $2 spent for every $1 of gambling money taken in by the county. From where is that statement gleaned? Does he mean that the two tribes contributing $15 million each to the county will cost us $60,000,000? Just where will the money go, Mr. Karr? Up in smoke? Where?

It’s time Mr. Karr thought more about the 92 percent who want to gamble and do so responsibly. It’s time he explained some of his more outrageous statements and his need to oppose 92 percent of those who gamble.

It’s time someone questioned his numbers and insinuations more closely. He has thrown accusations and threats at everybody who he thinks might in some way be encouraged by the arrival of casinos to include legislators, casino operators and many county residents and business owners. He questions Allan Gerry and the Bethel project by casting aspersions at Mr. Gerry’s motives. Mr. Karr chooses to embrace Donald Trump instead.

And all this to protect eight percent (Mr. Karr’s own figures) of those who gamble irresponsibly!

Relating to the rebuttal dated 4/25/02 submitted by a NY Manhattanite. Who was so duly engrossed with a showing not displaying any good sense.

That person’s opinionated article with the self-compounded ideas solely a willful, vindictive demented representation having again no basis on representing the true facts, merely smoke oil, making a tedious show of learning with most of the nonsensical statements of intent.

I still cannot understand a society, which produced such an abundance of conceit with such smallness of mind, knowing no bounds. Who are continually in search of victims who might deflect their uncertainties about themselves. And who will always try to actuate desirable people’s behavior on the naive and misinformed with the wildly divergent ideas. Perhaps this critic should stick to the comics and sport sections instead of taxing whatever faculties that remain to try to understand the intellectually and truthfully subscribed opinions.

It has to be remembered. A propagandist’s purpose is to make sure too many of one group of people forget that certain other groups of people are human.

Chas. J. Sidlowski
Beach Lake, PA
PS: Israel since its inception after invading Palestine. With the United States constituted one of history’s oddest international two-some.
PSS: What country ever had their armed militia fire on children demonstrating, throwing stones and forfeiting their lives, for their freedom.