To the editor:

Congratulations from Asia! The River Reporter’s recognition by the NY State Press Association is well deserved. Our family has been living in Taipei, Taiwan for the last three years. We are home to Narrowsburg for five or six weeks each summer, but we are kept well informed by the on-line version of The River Reporter.

Living in a country with little English-language media, I rely on the Internet for most news. There are three on-line papers I depend on: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The River Reporter. All three are well written and informative (and from NY), but with different perspectives.

Keep up the good work.

Ted Hersey
Taipei, Taiwan
Narrowsburg, NY

To the editor

In a recent letter to the editor, Legislator Chris Cunningham accuses the current legislative majority of being insensitive to the agricultural industry. He bases his premise on a single issue that was recently debated at a planning and community development committee meeting. Legislator Cunningham is wrong and he knows he is wrong. Agricultural projects have always been a very important segment of our plan to develop the economic landscape of Sullivan County. To confirm this, all one has to do is review the many initiatives that come out of the planning department’s agricultural arm under the very able leadership of Rick Bishop, our agricultural economic development specialist.

The particular issue Cunningham refers to came about in a fashion whereby the legislature had both very little knowledge of the group in question and very little time to make a decision. The prudent thing to do, when these conditions exist, is to learn more prior to spending taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, this case was presented as being time sensitive and the majority of the board felt spending taxpayer dollars without appropriate due diligence was not a wise choice. Legislator Cunningham concludes by chastising the decision-making and leadership of the current majority, a majority that is truly bipartisan and has made the main interests of the tax-paying public its number one priority.  

Chris Cunningham has a short and selective memory when it comes to leadership. At the start of the current legislative term, some three years ago, he was appointed by former Legislative Chair Raymond Pomeroy and given a golden opportunity to lead a task force designed to rehabilitate the Route17B corridor, which is a major portion of his legislative district and the main artery into the county from Pennsylvania. This corridor contains a large agricultural district that is home to a variety of farms and other agricultural businesses and is also home to the proposed arts center in Bethel. His leadership and involvement in this initiative consisted of a single meeting almost a year ago. This was at the time he was scurrying about trying to gain support to become chairman of the board. Unfortunately he dropped the ball. As a result of his laziness and lack of responsibility, the initiative will now be incorporated into another program, which will be part of a new comprehensive plan implemented by the same bipartisan leadership that he refuses to endorse.

These are hard times for our entire nation. In Sullivan County, we are in the midst of many positive projects that must be seen to completion, even though the climate is forcing us to seriously review expenditures and devise creative ways to produce revenue, without making it burdensome on the taxpayer. Our constituents can be assured that we are on course and committed to a continuance of open government designed to meet the needs of all facets of the population.

Bob Kunis, District 8 legislator
Monticello, NY

To the editor:

It seems like yesterday that I congratulated John LiGreci for his successful victory to become Town of Lumberland supervisor. He is intelligent, humble, disciplined and cares for our town and his constituents. He is doing his job with dedication and devotion and for that he has earned our respect. At one point he stated: “Until my last nail on my fingers is broken, I will fight.” And for almost three years he has been fighting to reform the state law concerning the tax-exempt properties.

What I cannot understand is that the newspapers are giving most of the credit for the accomplishments on this matter to Senator John Bonacic and Assemblyman Jacob Gunther. In my view, it is great disservice because John LiGreci was the first to raise the problem of that unjust state law. He is the one who deserves all these credit.

To my surprise I learned from the article in the newspaper that Supervisor LiGreci announced his candidacy for District 2 seat in the Sullivan County Legislature.

In the conversation I had with John LiGreci, he convinced me that he, as a member of legislature, will be able to do more for Sullivan County towns, including ours. Knowing his skills in leadership and his devotion to his elected position, I wish him good luck and smooth sailing to victory. If he reads this letter, he can be assured that he has my vote and support.

Bohdan Kandiuk
Glen Spey, NY

To the editor:

A local reporter recently encountered legislator Leni Binder talking. Which is, of course, hardly newsworthy. But, remarkably, she acknowledged and talked about very, very substantial financial costs associated with casino gambling. And her answers to the follow-up questions? We may never know. Incredibly, there don’t appear to have been any. And it is likely that Ira Cohen, the legislature’s mahout, will clap the irons on her before she can say more.

The last time a local politician (State Assemblyman Jake Gunther) got the bright idea of examining something associated with casinos (in that case, traffic) the roof of negative publicity fell in on him. It’s not likely that casino interests will allow that kind of mistake again. They’re still trying to make that one go away.

I once believed that it was largely aggravated ignorance that drove the Sullivan Legislature, that they were simply incompetent and arrogant blunderers. Ms. Binder’s recent and revelatory remarks have now forced me to recognize that I was only partly right and that their motives may be less pardonable.

Lee Karr
Forestburgh, NY

To the editor:

Although a U.S. Senate subcommittee concluded in 1991 that lawn and garden fungicides, insecticides and herbicides are hazardous, and although subsequent studies also suggest that these hazards extend beyond 24 hours after application, millions of people continue to apply chemicals to lawns and gardens. These chemicals have been linked to leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, blindness, human birth defects, severe skin reactions and acute toxic reactions.

Dogs, cats, birds, squirrels and other animals can’t read the warnings to avoid chemically treated lawns for 24 hours. They, too, have suffered and died from chemical lawn treatments. Lawn chemicals often travel via toxic clouds or streams to pollute areas beyond the treated area.

The chemicals kill clover. However, the root nodules of clover contain bacteria beneficial to the lawn. Nature itself usually controls insect populations. Unwanted dandelions can be removed manually (chemical-free dandelions make a tasty soup or salad).

After lawn mowing, grass clippings or ground up leaves become good natural fertilizers. Chemical fertilizers are unnecessary.

For the sake of the Earth and its inhabitants, please keep your lawn chemical free.

Joel Freedman
Canandaigua, NY

To the editor,

We had the pleasure of seeing the recent Eldred Central School presentation of “The Music Man,” and congratulate the students and staff who took part. We respected the enthusiasm and professionalism of the cast, including the gratitude expressed  after the final curtain to many people who helped make the production a success—from the construction of the wonderful sets, to the costume designs and the pit orchestra. This shows how people can work together to benefit a community.

The joy of musical theater can seem far away from the turmoil in the world now, yet we have learned from our study of the education, Aesthetic Realism, founded by the philosopher and critic Eli Siegel, that acting, in its purpose and technique, can make the world kinder. He explained that art is the great opposition to the human desire for contempt, the “addition to self through the lessening of something else.” In a 1961 lecture he said:  “Acting shows that you don’t have to be fettered to yourself. You can be other people. There is no limit to how much you can be other people!... [Acting] is a way of being somebody else for the purpose of coming back home immediately. You take a trip in order to find out who you are.”

And, in the journal “The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known,” titled “Art: The Opponent of Contempt” editor Ellen Reiss writes: “People have acted and people have watched acting. But never before was it seen that when a person takes on a role, the biggest hope of everyone’s life is concerned: the hope to be ourselves through being so fair to the outside world that we become it.” (www.AestheticRealism.org)

Through the good and evil in Professor Harold Hill, and the way Marion shuttles from sternness to letting go, from aloofness to warmth, we can know ourselves and humanity better. We have learned that the conscious hope to feel what another person feels—to see him from within—is not only the purpose of acting but is justice itself. As husband and wife, we know how much this understanding is needed by people everywhere—in marriage and families, and by nations to ensure that the there will be no more strife and wars in this world.

Jaime R. Torres
Donita Ellison-Torres
Yulan, NY