Letters to the Editor for Saturday, March 7

PHOTOGRAPHER: Letters to the Editor

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Move ahead on new Florida fire station

A while back, the town of Florida in Montgomery County was supposed to get a new fire station built in the vicinity of the Target distribution center, Dollar General and other major construction on Route 5S. Now also included is a new motel nearing completion.
I’ve inquired around and am under the impression that Target’s lawyers are the hold-up.
Are these reasonable folks really waiting for something to happen before the town gets the OK to go ahead with the project?
Paul Tylutki
Amsterdam

America once had it much, much worse

In response to Kernan Davis’ Feb. 20 letter (“How far back do we go for greatness?”), I would personally go back to 1980-’88 when I was proud to be an American or 2016 when my faith was restored in America. Any way, you speak of King George with his “combed gold-colored hair.”
This is what I know, not think. When our previous president (Obama, and yes I did not vote for him or agree with his politics and he still was my president) was in office, I did not hear you sound the alarm when he overstepped his bounds with his pen.
I did not hear you sound the alarm when the super-majority rammed unconstitutional laws down our throats. How dare you try to compare our current president to a king. We live in a Republic, not a Democracy, not a Fascist state, not a Socialist state.
I charge everyone to read the Federalist Papers. The Founding Fathers of this country lived tyranny. We have not seen this tyranny since the Revolution; hence we forget. They crafted a constitution for the greatness of a nation. The idea that liberty above all is the most important.
Bill Whipple
Ballston Lake

Paper only covers races for the crashes

Really? Is that what it takes to get coverage of a Nascar race in your newspaper? A spectacular, life-threatening crash? Sad, so sad.
Linda Fuller
Schenectady

Democrats need ideas, not excuses

This is the Democrats’ new plan, to sully anyone they do not agree with and who they think stands in their way of regaining power. How has a celebrated political party come to this? On the local level, we have eliminated bail for basically everyone.
The nonsense that the wealthy have access to bail money and the poor don’t, while factually true, does not excuse the fact that the crimes committed by the poor have a long-lasting effect on the average citizen.
The rich do not attack people on the street to steal their possessions; they do not sell the opioids that are the damning of many; they do not use guns to kill people they do not know.
Now we have Russia, Russia, Russia. While I am not a socialist, this is their answer to someone winning their party’s endorsement. Not the person, but Russia, Russia, Russia. Perhaps if the Democrats could come up with some ideas supported by the majority of legal citizens, they would not be in this quandary.
Geraldine Krawitz
Saratoga Springs

Bloomberg article was dark humor

I look forward to the Sunday comics in the Daily Gazette, but this time I found the humor (dark and ironic) in the March 1 article “ Michael Bloomberg is No Centrist.”
Who knew that this politician has said that we as human beings have to take care of ourselves, our families and other people on God’s planet while standing by his support of the Iraq War?
He used those sentiments to address “the problem of sugary drinks” in New York City by limiting the size of said drinks. He noted that too many people (on God’s planet) were obese.
Just when we thought no one could have worse intellectual understanding or worse judgment than President Trump, don’t you wonder who Mike would have put in charge of containing the Coronavirus (Corvid 19)? I do.
Betty Pieper
Scotia

U.S. letting Russia hijack our elections

Roughly 1,130 days ago, Russia started an attack against the United States and our democracy.
An attack, due to our ignorance and arrogance, went unseen. An attack that didn’t require Fidel Castro, nuclear missiles, troops, not even a single bullet. An attack that didn’t cost them anything, because it was just a nudge.
A push on that first domino of the beautiful construct that is our democracy. A push that is dividing our nation, poisoning the highest office and corrupting our judicial system.
This February, the Republicans had the chance to stop this attack and prevent further damage. But due to their blind devotion, greed and lust for power, did nothing.
Roughly 1,130 days later, our intelligence agencies have determined that there will be yet another interference in the 2020 election. Reports were filed, people were fired.
Nothing will be done. Would Russia do it again? Why not, when you can cripple an enemy without spending a single ruble.
They’re playing the long game and letting us ruin this country ourselves. Washington had their chance, now it’s in our hands this November, to remove the vile, immoral individual occupying the Oval Office.
Eric Trier
Pattersonville

Put Amsterdam in Amsterdam Recorder

What happened to the Amsterdam Recorder? Ever since the Schenectady Gazette bought it, it seems like the Schenectady Recorder. The sports pages are no longer local (Amsterdam area) and pages 2,3, and sometimes other are identical.
Local bowling with aces of alleys is no longer there. Juniors and seniors like to see names in aces like before. There is more of Schenectady bowling in the paper. What will happen with summer local sports? No more youth baseball, no more Amsterdam youth soccer?
Since The Gazette bought the Amsterdam Recorder, either give us our coverage or you might as well stop printing it, if that was the intent anyway.
Sandy “Rogo” Roginski
Amsterdam

Medicare for All will save lives and money

I just heard from a friend how to save 68,000 U.S. lives next year.
Sounds nice. How much will it cost? I ask.
“Nothing, it will save $450 billion a year.”
OK, who says so? “Yale professors in prestigious peer review Lancet medical journal study.”
OK, what’s it called? “A simple Complete Expanded Medicare for All” (better than all our present insurance plans).
OK, why does it save that much money? “By doing away with waste, fraud and those dumb billboards and commercials.”
OK, what will my doctor do will all her extra time? “Help more patients and take a lunch break.”
OK, how do we get it? “Call your representatives Schumer, Gillibrand, Tonko, Stefanik and Delgado and tell them to do it now. And only vote for candidates who will do it (like Sanders).
OK, finally, what will our family do with the $2,400 we save every year? “That’s up to you.”
Peter Looker
Glenville

Trump undercuts our ability to fight disease

President Trump’s supporters applaud his corrupt and lawless behavior. Will they cheer when the coronavirus pandemic hits?
Trump assures us that all is well. But since taking office, he slashed public health spending by $15 billion, crippled the Centers for Disease Control’s ability to fight global infections, with an 80% cut to fight new diseases, and shut down the global security unit of the National Security Council.
Now only three of our 100 public laboratories are capable of testing for the virus. He also eliminated global health and security teams at the NSC and DHS. And his 2020 budget proposal calls for even more cuts in public health spending.
Thanks to Trump the United States is unprepared to face a pandemic that threatens the lives of all Americans and is already destabilizing the economy.
Bill Scheuerman
Scotia

Judge today’s Nazi-like policies harshly

A ‘time machine’ brings Adolf Hitler back. Not Jesus, Einstein or Groucho. We get Der Fuhrer.
Numerous programs the Nazis implemented are proposed today under the social progressive banner. Reduction of animal meat consumption (plant based ersatz meat), butter kaput, smoking verboten, eugenics “kinder and gentler,” censorship, etc.
Would Hitler be put on trial today? If the answer is yes, then Nazi-like agendas should be judged accordingly.
“A New Dark Age Is Dawning,” Winston Churchill said in 1946. Churchill is now boarding the time machine; hope he arrives in time.
“Deja vu all over again” is in overdrive. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is the 21st Century Gestapo. A Smart City will do more than monitor light bulbs. Smart City cheerleaders cannot or will not explain it. Can you?
Chris Matthews of MSLSD compared Bernie Sanders to Hitler. Try again, Chris. Go for Stalin.
Edmond Day
Rotterdam

Fondly remembering care from O’Laughlin

I was greatly saddened to hear of the death of Suzanne O’Laughlin, NP, in reading James Wood’s Feb. 27 letter (“Remembering a compassionate nurse practitioner.”)
She was my caregiver for over 30 years. She was a kind and loving person and her diagnosis was always spot-on. She got me through some bad times in my life and would always call to check on how I was doing. We both loved the Cape, especially Provincetown. There will never be a caregiver like her. She was also passionate about her husband and son. My prayers are with them.
Nancy Bedard
Schenectady

Dems need broader base to beat Trump

Another debate/shouting match that included Mike Bloomberg is history. And the Democratic field appears as muddled as ever.
While Sanders has passion in appropriate places, I fear elections won’t be won by preaching generalities like free college and free health care or the moral evils of large corporations and their obscenely wealthy CEOs paying little or no taxes.
What might gain traction is ‘reward work, not wealth.’
To defeat Trump, Democrats need to capture the youth, centrist voters and never-Trumpers. Bernie will keep his base, just as Trump will. But if the youth ‘Feel the Bern’ but stay home rather than voting for another, Trump wins. And if the moderates and never-Trumpers stay home rather than vote for a candidate who will certainly be cast as a communist, Trump wins.
This is especially true in critical swing states. It’s likely that many more of these crucial voters will vote on gut feel, not reasoned thought. (MAGA won more votes than all the plans, policies and statistics.) I think ‘I have a plan’ will need to stop very soon and be replaced by the clear message that under this administration, ‘Drain the swamp’ has become ‘Pollute the swamp.’
Thomas P. Herrmann
Charlton

Bernie is using our money to buy election

Bernie Sanders’ theories benefit the poor and non-workers with funds from the wealthy and working class. Trump’s policies benefited the wealthy, middle, working class, the unemployed and minorities by creating an economy that supports itself.
Quotes Bernie: “When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?” Castro imprisoned 600 Batista supporters, executed them in an open arena with citizens applauding. All that is missing is a toga and a thumbs down. Some of his ‘literacy program’ included teaching children to spy on their parents etc. …,’a bad thing’?
Bernie’s beliefs as a freshman in college have not changed in 78 years. The TIAA Institute report noted that only “16% of millennials qualify as financially literate by correctly answering three basic questions assessing fundamental financial concepts.”
They say the problem is lack of financial education. It’s attractive for millennials to hear they won’t have to pay for any of the “free” things “because the wealthy will.
The truth is: “as Bloomberg wants to buy the election with his own money, so Bernie wants to buy the election with all of our money.”
Dr. Arthur Salvatore
Malta

Keep the choice in the hands of voters

It’s our time to consider whether, in the face of a pandemic, it makes any sense to have a health care system that’s not available to all regardless of income or insurance status.
Yet, in the face of that and other major threats, we have this further affront, a Democratic Party that allowed Bloomberg to hire the vice chairs from the states of Texas and California to work on his campaign.
Whatever anyone thinks about Sanders, he’s the only candidate running on the Democratic ticket who espouses voter, rather than party, choice of candidate. We’ve seen what happens when super delegates take choice out of the hands of voters and we’ve seen where that takes us.
People are awake and aware, and acknowledge the need for more democracy, honor in representation and fairness in resource accessibility. I guess it takes a pandemic to show the one percent, the two major parties, and the five corporate TV news networks that they’re still connected to the rest of us.
Humanity working together for the true good of all is the bulwark against pandemics, catastrophic climate change, want, injustices, wars, rivalries and revolutions. The exclusivity of wealth offers no protection against that basic fact.
Joanne Mann
Schenectady

Share your views on NY Aid in Dying law

The state Legislature has Aid in Dying bills in both houses this session.
As passed by the Assembly last session, the legislation allows terminally ill people over 21, with less than six months to live, to request medication to end their suffering.
While this may not be an option that everyone wants to take, consider the people you may know or have known who might have been well served with this option.
My relative underwent treatment for a brain tumor, ultimately declined a second phase of treatment and passed at 59. Instead of fading away over several weeks, a medical option would have allowed a more peaceful end, with family members knowing the timing of the outcome and being present, instead of not. Honestly, I do not know if this relative would have used a medical option, but I have read that the option reduces stress and brings some comfort to people with terminal diagnoses, even if they do not use it, to know they have some control.
Whatever your opinion, please make yours known to your Assembly representative and state senator.
Ruth Curley
Ballston Lake

Cuomo not looking out for our safety

Once again, our illustrious governor has decided for our best benefit.
The premise of his no-money bail program is valid. He doesn’t want poor people to remain in jail while awaiting their court appearance and chance losing their job. On the news last week, it was mentioned that of the potential criminal releases, 3,200 were off the grid. I may be wrong but I’m guessing the loss of one’s job wasn’t paramount in their thinking. In the business world, if a product is responsible for a certain percentage of accidents, the product is recalled in an attempt to save the public.
Although I’m not sure of how many accidents have to happen, my guess is that 3,200 would qualify for that necessary percentage. It’s time to recall that law. A number of police officials have been on television asking that it be rescinded. Realizing that the governor feels he knows more than we do, the only way he’ll rethink that law is if “God forbid” one of those no-bail releases hurts one of his daughters or someone very close to him. Is this man any less egotistical than Trump?
Pete Pidgeon
Scotia

Let’s get together and vote Trump out

Since Trump was elected, I have been thinking about writing a letter to The Gazette. I saw the perfect letter written by John Quinn (Feb. 23, “Trump is not what a Christian should be.”) Thank you, sir. You put my thoughts in your letter. How can anyone think this Twitter-addicted person, who couldn’t even run his own companies, could run our country? Fake university, fake charity, fake tan and over 16,000 lies. I will never understand his supporters and the Republican senators, the ones who called him all kinds of names before he was elected and changed their tunes right after. I hope we all get together and vote him out. Otherwise our country is in danger.
Sevim Morawski
Fort Plain