Health update on the Mullers

Ted and Sue Muller of Narrowsburg are both doing well after the operation July 19 in which one of Ted’s kidneys was transplanted to Susan. Ted is back to work with Narrowsburg Water & Sewer District. Follow-up to the surgery required the Mullers to travel to Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York (109 miles each way) for testing twice a week for four weeks; then once a week for three weeks. Susan now returns once a month, and is tested at a regional lab each week. Ted will be checked again next July. He summed it up by saying he would do it again if he could.

The community responded by sponsoring a spaghetti dinner in June to benefit the Sue Muller Kidney Transplant Fund, and other donations were solicited. The committee reports that over $11,000 was collected, including a grant of $2,000 from Thrivent Financial through St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Narrowsburg, where the Mullers are members. Committee members were Ron and Jane Rasmussen, chairmen, Charles Knapp, Jr., Kathy Hector, Rolf and Edith Heinemeier, Joe and Maria Meyer, Ron and Carol Schalck and Warren Doetsch. For several weeks, women of the community provided dinners for the family, which includes Thomas, 11, an acolyte at St. Paul’s, and Rebecca, 9.

Susan was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of three and is insulin-dependent. The disease has also taken a toll on her pancreas. In November, she expects to be placed back on the active list to receive a pancreas transplant. She’s been told the wait is usually six months to a year.

Repaving Jericho Road

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice, which produces beggars, needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.

All of our personal and societal injustices disturb and interfere with the peace that exists inside of us and amongst us. Please bring as much peace into your life as you possibly can for it will make your life richer and will radiate out and have a positive effect locally, nationally and throughout the world. Thank you for trying.

Let there be peace. Let there be peace.

Keeping the memory of POWs alive

An ennobling piece of legislation passed the New York State Legislature prior to their adjournment in June, namely, Senate Bill #618, encouraging all New York State Police barracks to fly the POW/MIA flag under the nation’s colors whenever the flag of our country is flown. This legislation was signed into law on August 2 and becomes effective 120 days after passage.

The significance of the bill is that the POW/MIA issue remains before the conscience of all Americans until as full an accounting as possible is made by our government as to the fate of our missing service members. Approximately 2,000 remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam War and 8,000 from the Korean War, and the search for their remains continues with identifications still forthcoming as a result of analysis from the laboratory in Hawaii. Many families have received the peace of mind they have so sorely needed.

I have been privileged to initiate this effort for legislation with Senator John Bonacic and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, and over a 15-month period finally to see the fruition of our respective efforts. They are to be commended for vigorously pursuing a noble goal.

The American Legion, through the efforts of past department commander Paul Cortright, department adjutant Richard Pedro, department legislative chair John de Persis and chairman William Clancy (POW/MIA), supported this program by letter of resolution.

I am proud to still be in the position of POW/MIA chairman for district 3, the American Legion, and will continue to devote efforts to report on and assist whenever possible to achieve whatever success can be achieved.

Once again, on behalf of the American Legion family, a heartfelt thanks to all for making this legislation a reality.

Space dollars a waste

It seems to me that the U.S. has foolishly spent billions of dollars trying to conquer outer space, which is nothing less than ridiculous.

The administration should now take all that money and help all the flood victims and the poor, and last but not least, spend the money on the exploration of oil so that we are never again dependent on foreign nations to supply us with such an important raw material.

My view: Losing the river
By NANCY P. LAUERSEN

In living along the banks of the Lackawaxen River and observing its beauty, the river becomes part of one’s lifeline.

The seasons come and go, and with them the constantly changing wildlife. The eagles are back and they can be seen sitting on a branch in our back yard or swooping down to catch a fish. The variety of ducks flying upstream or floating down with their chicks in tow, the Blue Heron that stops by and rests on the rocks always looking for the elusive fish, the mink that is seen scurrying along the rocks and the deer that venture to the waters edge to drink or eat of the wet grasses there—these are the river’s gifts. The river brings the wildlife and beauty and the very reason for living along the river.

We also enjoy the fun of walking the rocks, bathing in its pools, floating down in tubes, kayaking, canoeing, or simply skipping a rock for maybe even four or five splashes. To cast a fly and wait for the hit of the fish that has always been a call to the river. The river becomes an intricate part of one’s life. There is always something alive along the river. We become so aware of the beauty of God’s creations and are able to escape, for a while, the trouble that abounds elsewhere.

The Lackawaxen River level downriver from Kimbles is controlled by the PPL Generating Station. The Lackawaxen can go from a slow meandering river to white water in a short period of time. Water is pulled from the bottom of Lake Wallenpaupack and sent through the pipeline to the generating station to generate power. It is then released into the Lackawaxen River at Kimbles.

The terrible fear that we now have is that we can see a deterioration of the river. The water is no longer crystal clear and the rocks have become slimy with algae, but we are extremely upset, at times to the point of tears, that over the last month or so, the river has turned a thick olive brown. The flowing river, when the tubes from the lake are open, is olive brown. When the river is on her own, the green lies in pools stagnating our beautiful river and leaving a brown silt on the rocks. When the lake water is flowing into the river, one can witness the now brown water flowing into the Delaware River at the town of Lackawaxen.

We call the river “our” river. That’s what it becomes when your first move every day is to observe its beauty. We believe our friend, the river, is starting a slow death. She’s lying with a “not so slow” poison IV drip. Something must be done now to stop the death of the river and wildlife that depend on it. We have never become so aware of our love for her beauty and life until this last month or so when this greenish brown invasion has stopped the fishermen, the tubers and wanting to even walk her banks.

How long will it take before the fish can’t thrive and the eagles retreat and the wildlife along with them? Are we to lose our friend? Will the remains of a healthy river become only a flowing trickle of thick algae?

Our prayer is that those who are trying to solve certain problems with the algae in the lake and smells that occur from releasing the dead waters in the lake ( now creating a stronger problem in the Lackawaxen River) will use their abilities to remedy this problem before it’s to the point of no return. We hear over and over again, nothing can be done with the algae in the lake, so why are excessive amounts now being sent down the river?

We plead for the life of our friend, the river, and for the lifeline she is to us! Thank you, gentlemen, for your prompt response to this issue. Every day is another day lost in the battle to save our river. Time is fleeting.