To the editor:

I’m writing in reference to your article in The River Reporter, “Detective tags alleged vandal in Rasmussen assault.”

I would suggest that anyone who writes newspaper articles get facts straight before a story is published. For instance, the accused William Everett III is not 17 years old. He is a 16-year-old student.

I find it a little strange that you can put a statement from an anonymous tipster in the paper when the New York State Police investigator quoted that he could not confirm the story. Someone asked the anonymous source about a possible motive, and she quoted, “it had to do with the thrill of causing expensive damage to a well-established Main Street business.”

Is this anonymous source a specialist in child behavior? Does this person have teenage children? The woman also said that parents don’t spend enough time with their children. Little does she know that teenage children do not want to spend time with their parents; they want to hang out with their friends.

I feel that by putting in a statement, when the facts cannot be confirmed, you make the accused guilty before he is even given a fair trial. Sometimes articles can hurt reputations when newspaper reporters report information that is not even confirmed.

Is it guilty until proven innocent or innocent until proven guilty?

Tara Everett

Mongaup Valley, NY

To the editor:

In December of 2003, King’s Catering had a fundraiser for our troops, which was a great success! Thanks to Craig, Erica and Dave.

Well it is time to help again. They need our support now more than ever!

Craig, Erica and Dave (owners of King’s Catering), myself, and Peck’s Market Inc. (Livingston Manor, Callicoon, Jeffersonville, Eldred and Narrowsburg) are putting together a U.S.A. Support the Troops Golf Tournament Fundraiser. It will take place at “The Big G “ golf course at Grossingers in Liberty, N.Y. Tee-off time is 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 6, 2004.

The fun continues from 6:00 until 10: 00 p.m., there will be another U.S.A. Fund Raiser at King’s Catering. The golfers will receive their tournament prizes, and for all others there wall be 50/50s, raffles and other prizes. With free food and music and a great get together to honor our troops! Donation is $10.

All donations will go to the USO to send packages to our brave men and women overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The response we have received for donations and prizes for this worthy cause has been tremendous! M/M Ford Auto Group, Liberty, NY is putting a Ford Explorer on a par three, and if you get a hole-in-one—it’s yours. Boars Head, Thumann’s (deli meat, etc), Coors, Budwieser, Friehofer’s, and Pepsi, to mention a few, have been so supportive. We thank you all so much! We may make this an annual event!

Our soldiers are dying everyday and every year for our freedom! They need our support to let them they are not forgotten and never will be forgotten!

Please come and join us on June 6, whether you golf of not to thank God for our troops in the armed forces! Any information you need to know, call me at Peck’s Market; Livingston Manor at 845/439-4091. Or stop in!

Judy Melchick

Livingston Manor, NY

To the editor:

The young people being killed in Iraq are not heroes. They are victims of the political administration. Leave Iraq to Iraq. How many coffins must we weep over? God bless our troops and bring them home.

Marylou Betancourt

Glen Spey, NY

To the editor:

I listened intently to the President’s news conference on successfully establishing democracy in Iraq. Things here for democracy and our nation are not going well.

I’m a common, conservative, patriotic man. I work hard, pay my taxes, try to keep the family and house afloat. I’m writing because I have never felt so strongly about a subject before.

In the short span of three years Mr. Bush’s record is a dismal failure beyond California: our jobs are disappearing, the Federal Treasury is being looted and bankrupted, we have lost our goodwill standing in the world, the condition of the military, economy, education, social security, veteran’s benefits, Constitutional rights, Medicare, and energy resources are suffering, our air and water are dirtier, our forests are thinner, our states are reeling from unfunded mandates, and our young are dying in unnecessary wars for oil. Our foreign policy is a mess; Iraq is a costly mess. This administration has chosen corporations and profits over people, and politics before policies. I don’t believe Mr. Bush and his friends give a hoot about you, I, the common man, domestic or world opinion. They seem to care only to empower themselves and enrich their financial backers.

The wealthy—especially the very rich—are stuffing their pockets with his largesse. Our leaders are secretly closing the doors and drawing the shades of government in the most isolated and unresponsive administration since Watergate. The White House attacks anyone who speaks out: silencing critics, adeptly manipulating our major media, and ‘spinning’ the public to believe otherwise. I am shocked by what I’m seeing from here.

There is not a single issue affecting Americans now that is better off than when Mr. Bush was appointed office (remember he wasn’t elected). He has taken a country in the midst of prosperity and positive international relations and promptly drove it off a cliff in short order.

Citizens, while you may agree or disagree—please talk to your friends about these critical issues; more importantly, please vote. I fear we are heading into dark times for our once representative democracy.

Steve D’Agati

Arcata, CA

To the editor:

Relating to the slot machine fiasco and the surely forthcoming casinos: A payoff unjustified exampled con-job on the Pennsylvania Commonwealth general populace locally in residence or in the outlying areas around the racetracks.

Some of the outsized politicians egos should be exposed who claim to be serving the body of voters who have the power to elect or designate.

Those politicians are deceiving people by distracting a focus of attention with their ideas and mistaken perceptions of reality and with their wishful thinking that will bear little resemblance to a real-life situation.

With the elected in jurisdictions not submitting to a grant as requested by the unduly concerned public by giving them the right to a vote on a public referendum; without them giving in sheepishly to the politicos sole attentions with souls of used car salesmen then they will deserve what they get.

With too many of the pots squabbling among themselves, disgusting the average citizen with their certain behind-the-scenes secret commitments and understanding.

Submitting shadowy half-truths to the public, specifically, in regards to the three vested syndicated outside influences and the additional services that will be required out there that will change evermore the character of those environs.

It has to be remembered—only irredeemable not-too-smarts allow positions of power to those who entertain them with their witty, charming manners and the too many wild sale pitches.

Chas J. Sidlowski

Beach Lake, PA

To the editor:

Governor George Pataki has proclaimed the month of April Sexual Assault Awareness Month in New York to increase public awareness about this important issue. It’s a time when every person should consider what he or she can do to help stop the epidemic of sexual violence that plagues our society. While we frequently hear about rape and sexual violence in the news, we still like to think it happens to other people in other communities.

Sexual assault affects every man, woman and child in New York State, the country and the world. Sexual violence does not discriminate. It knows no racial barriers, no economic barriers, no social barriers, no age barriers. It exists in all neighborhoods, in all cities and in all countries.

The statistics are staggering. The FBI and the Journal of Traumatic Stress estimate that one in three women, one in four girls, one in six boys and one in eleven men will be the victims of sexual assault at least once in their lives. That’s one sexual assault every 90 seconds in the United States.

Despite these facts, sexual assault remains a silent crime in our community and throughout New York. We don’t talk about sexual violence. And because we don’t talk about it, sexual assault is the least reported of all crimes. Every time we doubt the validity of the victims’ experiences, question how they came to be in a certain place or what they did as if they caused the action, we maintain the illusions of secrecy, shame and silence. Victims hide this secret because we blame them. They are afraid they will not be believed and supported.

The New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault—and the 78 rape crisis program it serves throughout the state—sees not only the damage done to survivors, but to those who care about them. As a community, we damage ourselves by not talking about sexual violence. We continue to fail to reduce the risk by not supporting victims and not holding perpetrators accountable. Why should a survivor step forward if there are no services in place to support them? If there are no legal remedies available? Or if there isn’t ongoing education to raise overall awareness?

We encourage you to join us this month in our efforts to reach out to survivors to take down their masks and share their secrets so that we can bear witness and call for greater safety in the future. And let us commit to face the reality that rape and sexual violence lives in our own backyards—and it needs to be evicted.

Anne Liske, Executive Director

New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault