Help Schoharie Co. by becoming an EMT

80

SHARES

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save

Share

Help Schoharie Co. by becoming an EMT

I recently read an article about the current dire state of emergency medical services in Otsego County.

The situation in Schoharie County is just as dire. There is a shortage of certified emergency medical technician (EMT) volunteers in our county. This is a two-fold threat for Schoharie County because if local rescue squads fold, not only will there be spotty coverage for emergencies, but the volunteer time squads spend covering local events will soon end.

Over the past several years, local squads donated time to the Schoharie County Sunshine Fair. Last year, the total number of documented hours spent by EMTs and support staff at the fair totaled over 675 man hours. If you use $15 an hour as an estimate, this equates to over $10,000 in donated time. When you calculate other costs (apparatus, insurance), that cost goes way up.

Other events for which local squads volunteer are Patriot Highlander, Crop Walk, SUNY Cobleskill events, football games (all ages), the list goes on and on. All are important to our local economy and quality of life. What the public needs to ask is if our county goes to an all-paid corporate ambulance service, will these types of services continue? Unfortunately, it seems this is where we are heading.

We live in a rural community, and many of us who serve are very busy. If we don’t have the time, we make it. We all have real jobs, we have kids, and we have bills to pay. We don’t do this because we have to. We do it because we care about our neighbors.

If you can, please consider helping us make a difference and volunteer to help your local rescue squad. The skills you will learn are invaluable and the rewards great.

Peter Nichols

Cobleskill

The writer is first lieutenant of the Cobleskill Rescue Squad.

Clinton’s email use did cause some harm

On Sept. 18. there was a letter to the editor from a Mr. Frank Elfland. Mr. Elfland states that there are no documented cases of Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email server costing any lives.

This, in fact, may be true. However, it has been reported that a Dr. Shahram Amiri was recently executed by Iran as a spy for the United States. This occurred sometime after his name was contained in some of the State Department emails.

Mr. Elfand might also like to look up the fate of Navy veteran Kristian Saucer, who was recently convicted for his failure to protect classified information. His crime? Several years ago while serving on a nuclear powered submarine, he took several pictures of classified areas on the ship in order to show to his family. For this crime, he pleaded guilty and will be serving a year in federal prison.

If, as Mr. Elfand says, he once held a secret security clearance, then he should remember that in the yearly recertification, which Hillary cannot recall ever attending, that regardless of how sensitive the receiver feels the material is, it in fact must be handled under the protocols that the material is delivered under (i.e. confidential, secret etc.).

I will agree with Mr. Elfand on one point — information is often over-classified. But this does not exonerate Hillary for her mishandling of classified information — the mishandling of such would have put most of us “mortals” in federal prison.

Thomas McGarry

Schenectady

Muslims can’t rewrite history in their favor

The Sept. 26 article, “America would be diminished without contributions of Muslims,” seems to be a stretch on Muslim contributions to America.

The author, Ekram Hague, notes that Morocco was one of the earliest countries to recognize a new nation called the United States of America. During the late 18th century, any ship entering the Mediterranean Sea was fair game for the Muslim pirates that existed then. Our U.S. Marine Corps earned part of its anthem; ”To the shores of Tripoli” after it was sent by President Jefferson in 1803 to combat the Barbary (Muslim) piracy in the Mediterranean.

We have enough of our own people rewriting history without having Muslims, who are such a small factor in our country, and have not lived here long, also trying to rewrite it.

I worked with many good Muslim engineers over the years. However, the good work they have done does not offset the World Trade Center destruction and the many other terrorist activities that have been going on the last many years.

Noting that less than 1 percent of the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world are radical does not give me much comfort. Even half of 1 percent amounts to a million-man army. Does anyone see an end to the terrorist activity going on here and around the world? What will it take to stop this small fanatical side of Islam?

I am not Islamophobic, nor am I racist. But common sense tells me that most of the good done by Muslims will be lost in measuring history.

Gerard F. Havasy

Clifton Park

We must be tolerant of opposing views

This morning [Sept. 28] I awoke to find our Trump flag was ripped out of the ground.

It was 12 feet high, anchored securely, and fortified by four boulders. It was not done capriciously by young vandals. My wife later told me that all the Trump signs on Vley Road were stolen.

My first encounter at work today was with a co-worker (who happens to be African-American), and he succinctly stated, “Why is it that liberals preach tolerance, unless your point of view is different from their own?”

And if this ideology continues to be espoused, we will never have meaningful discourse where there are constructive exchanges of ideas. We will never see another’s perspective, and our country will continue down a very dark path.

Eric Almond

Scotia

80

SHARES

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save

Share

Categories: Letters to the Editor