Another kind of trapping

To the editor:

I have followed with interest the letters in your paper concerning the 13-year-old young man who trapped a bobcat. I’m not writing to take sides because, first, I think enough has been said both pro and con, and second, because I can identify with all sides in this matter. When I was 13 and living in a small town, just a little larger than Narrowsburg, in southeastern Kansas, I, too, spent a great deal of my time in the woods trapping animals—though never a bobcat; my intended victims were rabbits and muskrats. And I must say, I think I benefited from all the time I spent on my own, running my traps in all kinds of weather. But I grew out of that phase in time and now, looking back, I find myself ashamed I made cruel sport of these animals for little or no reason.

I have a suggestion for this young man and for his mother, whose letter in defense of her son I found loyal and touching. There is a way of catching any wild animal that requires even more cunning that trapping. I am suggesting, of course, that the young man consider photography. With a nice digital camera, several motion detectors and a small amount of ingenuity, photographs could be taken of rare wild animals, like a bobcat, that could be treasured as a trophy. And, I suspect, developing photography skills may open more doors for this young man in later life than trapping ever could. Maybe someday we will be reading in The River Reporter how this young man has won a prize for the best nature documentary in some prominent film festival or see his photography on display at the DVAA, and then wouldn’t we all be proud. And he would have nothing in later life to regret.

Keep the lake’s future open

To the editor:

I became an owner of property in “Luxton Lake Estates” last year. I saw big equipment in what would be the middle of Luxton Lake last spring. A man and his son that did some work for me told me that someone was rebuilding the lake. My neighbor and I were ecstatic.

Perhaps this was a story concocted to conceal what was really going on. And I sympathize with Melva Jackman’s plight of difficult winter access. I bought my property with access from Route 97 so I wouldn’t have a winter access problem. But with all the talk about preserving the gorgeous unspoiled beauty of Sullivan County and specifically the Town of Tusten, it would seem to be a step in the wrong direction to approve Jackman’s request to build an access road across the lake bed.

I heard about the DEC, using two days of dynamite, to remove the dam that was in danger of failing. I have visually studied where the dam was and don’t see where it would be that difficult to rebuild it. Rebuilding the dam and restoring Luxton Lake would seem to be a prudent goal for the future. Allowing anything that would preclude that goal would seem very shortsighted.

Clean up your act

To the editor:

With the opening of Bethel Woods on the very short horizon, it may be time to restate the obvious—and to echo what has been promoted by Sullivan County Renaissance and others.

Simply put, keep getting your house in order. Just two days ago, I had a conversation with a couple from St. Lucia in the Caribbean. He is a retired businessman from the island, who had been a member of their tourism board for nine years. He mentioned that one of his priorities was to get islanders to understand the importance of first impressions.

When tourists land at the airport and head for their accommodations, the first things they see are whatever lines the road from the airport. This gentleman said that he pushed very hard for citizens to clean up their businesses, their homes and their neighborhoods, as a way to improve visitors’ experiences when they came on holiday.

St. Lucia happens to be having a serious resurgence in their tourism industry, and while it’s impossible to attribute that to any one factor, it’s always instructive to hear the perspective of people from elsewhere who have a very large stake in the success of that business sector. If St. Lucia, which is still not a wealthy place by any means, can take seriously the requirement to create and maintain a good first impression for its valuable visitors, Sullivan County can certainly do the same.

Much improvement has taken place in the county—much remains to be done. Keep it up. The turnaround is coming. And remember that culture and nature trump casinos every time.

Excluding the public

To the editor:

Much space has been given to the National Park Service invitation for public comment on its proposal for an update of its Management Policies, 2001 manual in 2006. Trouble is, the comment deadline of February 18 allowed just 10 days for a response from the time the park service invitation appeared in New Jersey and Pennsylvania newspapers. It was hardly enough time to consider nearly 300 pages of issues and treatments, much less make a reasoned response to a document, which may provide agency guidance for five years. Moreover, although the section titled “Environmental Leadership” in the 2001 version remains in the proposed version, its appeal for “each individual” park visitor to become a citizen activist has been stricken from that section without explanation. Further discouraging any public role in shaping park policy is a separate, but nonetheless controlling, opinion on January 17 by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Wilderness Society v. Gail A. Norton (Secretary of the Interior), which reduced the current management manual, and presumably its successor, to only “unenforceable agency statement of policy.”

It should not be an undue burden on the National Park Service to reopen its comment period for 90 days, to invite both comments and specific management suggestions and to circulate a summary of both among the contributors.

Dispatch Santorum back to private life

To the editor:

It’s not too early for Pennsylvania voters to begin planning to redeem themselves from the shame of having put a loudmouth clod in the U.S. Senate.

Rick Santorum has made a disgraceful career of slavering support for virtually every policy thrust forward by the reckless Bush administration. Whenever truly responsible Senate voices (such as that of then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle) opposed Bush’s disastrous tax cuts for his wealthy cronies, or his absurdly unqualified judicial nominees, or the lies to promote the wholly unjustified invasion of Iraq, one could always count on Rick to make an ass of himself by libeling Tom “a rabid dog” and all other protesting voices as “disloyal to American values.”

Rick led the Senate’s push to “privatize” Social Security (a cynical scheme to reap profit off the poor), and while New Orleans was still underwater, he opposed emergency health care for Katrina’s victims.

It’s even rumored that this vicious poseur has ambitions toward succeeding his master in the White House. That would be not only an eternal embarrassment for Pennsylvania voters but for Catholics across America.

Happily, the highly qualified Bob Casey is running for the Senate seat Santorum has sullied. A staunch advocate for working families and opponent of the special privileges Rich champions, Casey is the right man to represent us. Here’s a chance for those head-in-the-sand Republicans, who voted Bush into a second term, despite the worst first-term record in presidential history, to regain their dignity by dispatching one of his chief facilitators back into private life.

But brace yourself for an ugly campaign: Rick has proven himself capable of grotesque distortions and lies, and when he’s desperate he fights even dirtier than usual.

Alfred Lees

The lessons of history

To the editor:

At last! More than 60 years after the second World War and 15 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assemble, on January 25, 2006, officially condemned totalitarian communist regimes for their massive human rights violations. At the same time, this assembly expressed sympathy, understanding and recognition for the victims of these crimes.

The Council of Europe consists of 46 European countries and they met in Strasbourg in France. The resolution passed by Council of Europe states that the communist regimes in central and eastern Europe committed heavy atrocities against humanity, including individual and collective assassinations and executions, death in concentration camps, starvation, deportation, torture, slave labor and physical terrors. The people of the former USSR (Soviet Union) outnumbered other people in terms of number of victims. These crimes were not investigated by the international community until now and, according the Council of Europe, those who committed them have not been brought to justice, as was the case with the crimes committed by Nazism.

According to the National Tribune, in the Soviet Union alone, about 18 million people were exiled to Gulag concentration camps for “counter-revolutionary activities” where they were subjected to brutality, slave labor and death. It is estimated that between seven and 10 million peasants in Ukraine died between the years of 1832 and 1933. The “Great Famine” was intentional genocide committed by Stalin, during which one-quarter of the population lost their lives. Nick Webster, who has studied communist regimes, states that another million of Stalin’s political enemies were executed during the “Great Terror” of 1937 to 1938.

The Council of Europe believes that the awareness of past history is a precondition for avoiding similar crimes in the future. Condemnation of these crimes can be used as an important lesson in the education of younger generations. By expressing a strong condemnation against the atrocities committed by totalitarian communist regimes, the Council of Europe calls for the international community to take a strong and clear position on these and all similar crimes without delay. It is our moral obligation.

Bohdan Kandiuk