No shuffling or rolling of eyes

MONTICELLO, NY -- Sullivan County Veterans Services Director Eric Nystrom, standing right, is pictured with members of area veterans’ organizations who were on hand at the February 17 meeting of the county legislature to protest. Nystrom, several members of the veterans groups and Veterans Committee Chair Ron Hiatt all expressed displeasure about several references in a brief story in the February 12 edition of the Times Herald-Record, which characterized the veterans as shuffling when they walked and further observed that several legislators rolled their eyes in apparent impatience when a February 10 meeting of the Veterans Committee lasted 30 minutes as legislators were preparing for a subsequent special meeting to vote on five casinos in the county. Hiatt said the media was welcome to take shots at the elected legislature, but maligning the vets was wrong, he said. “It’s because of them we’re not speaking German,” Hiatt said of the veterans.