Disappointed that flyover skipped us
Everyone was waiting to see the tribute to Ellis Hospital on May 12, the last stop on their way back to Glenville, their home base. People were everywhere with cameras, kids and adults alike.
Everyone with such anticipation and then, nothing. Everyone was listening for the roar of the plane and feeling so happy that those at Ellis and Sunnyview were being acknowledged and thanked in a grand way.
But they only got the view of the plane “in a distance” apparently returning to the base. It was very disappointing for all those healthcare workers.
By the way, in Colorado they had the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds fly over the hospitals, and we can’t get one plane to fly over the base’s hospital, but they can fly to Antarctica.
Linda Cortese
Niskayuna
Krackeler will be innovative on board
Please join me in voting for Tony Krackeler for Saratoga Springs Board of Education. As a parent of two children in the SSCSD, I cannot imagine a better candidate to support the best interests of our students, teachers and families.
I consider myself blessed to have known Tony for the past 10 years and have found him to be a caring, compassionate, highly intelligent man willing to listen to all sides of an issue.
More importantly, Tony is tireless in his involvement with his family, the schools, youth sports and the community. His ability to successfully balance all of this with owning and operating a local business leaves no doubt in my mind he has the right skill set, experience and aptitude for this position.
These are challenging times, and the district needs an innovative leader like Tony. I know he will serve the BOE with the same passion and creativity he exhibits in all of his endeavors.
Eric Nemer
Saratoga Springs
Plenty of ideas to make lives better
The Chinese symbols for crisis include danger and opportunity. Today, war, poisoning the Earth, poverty, profit over people, health insurance and COVID-19 are dangerous, but we have opportunities. Imagine if we:
1. Try the UN proposal for a global cease-fire, saving money, pollution and lives (both soldiers and civilians). Our employees in Congress and the White House should try it.
2. Enact a simple Medicare for All (including president and Congress), saving billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives nationally, or Gov. Cuomo and New York Senate leader could support the New York Health Act, saving billions of dollars and thousands of New York lives (which is supported by a majority of New Yorkers and state legislators, only lacking “leadership”).
3. Enact a Green New Deal, putting people back to work at good, living wage jobs cleaning up our act and the Earth.
4. Re-enact the FTT (financial transaction tax), a 0.1% sales tax on Wall Street corporate gambling (quite a bit less than the 7 or 8% sales tax on toilet paper we the people pay) that would cover court ordered fair school aid and New York’s huge budget deficit.
Let’s make our state, country and world even greater than before.
Pete Looker
Glenville
Casino host deal would have helped
Moody’s Investors Service recently announced that the casino industry earnings will plunge 60-70% through March 2021.
With coronavirus safety measures in place, casinos will reopen at 50% capacity. Entry will be restricted to patrons living within 120 miles to help prevent the spread of the virus between the state’s regions. Earnings will plunge and local governments will collect lesser amounts of sales and other taxes.
Schenectady cannot buck that trend with the mediocre regional casino Mayor Gary McCarthy and Ray Gillen gave us. After reopening, the Rivers casino will drain money only from locals because there will be fewer tourists from other regions.
If Schenectady instead had a first-rate supermarket, an essential business would be hiring new workers and paying bonuses, bringing in more sales and property taxes now, instead of sending people to the unemployment line.
In reality, Schenectady is now a casino town and Mayor McCarthy is trying to force more people to Mohawk Harbor with the state’s DRI dollars.
If the mayor had only demanded a host community agreement guaranteeing Schenectady a fixed yearly income, instead of a percentage of the casino revenue, he would not be cutting 30 police officers and firefighters’ jobs and risking public safety in the process.
Mohamed Hafez
Schenectady
Garlic may have an added covid benefit
Regarding Jack Underwood’s May 16 letter (“Try garlic, hydrogen peroxide for health”). I don’t know about his suggestion to use garlic as a potion. But if you wear garlic in a sack around your neck, it might help with social distancing.
Peg Lapo
Delanson
Trump very fearful of accountability
There are two things any servant of Trump cannot do: Disagree with him and tell the truth. He especially cannot abide allowing the public to know what he’s doing (or has already done), as evidenced by his replacing five inspectors general in six weeks, even during the pandemic.
Michael Atkinson of the Intelligence Committee made the mistake of handling the whistleblower’s complaint that led to Trump’s impeachment over Ukraine.
Mitch Behm, a 17-year official in the Department of Transportation and member of the Pandemic Responsibility Accountability Committee (PRAC), kept too close an eye on that $2.4 trillion.
Glen Fine, deputy inspector general in the Department of Defense, headed the PRAC. He took his responsibility too seriously. So much for accountability.
Christi Grimm, a Health and Human Services official since 2004, made the mistake of detailing actual supply shortages in hospitals during the pandemic.
Steve Linick, inspector general in the State Department since 2013, was the most recent oversight official to be purged, an act some in Congress have called “unlawful retaliation.”
Trump obviously doesn’t want any watchdogs. Only lap dogs.
Richard W. Lewis, Jr.
Glenville
Duanesburg class showed generosity
Regarding the article by Jim Schiltz in the May 9 Gazette (“Senior class donates $4,000 to food bank.”): Those 57 students (our Eagles) voted to donate $4,000 of their senior funds to the Regional Food Bank. This is money they have been saving since sixth grade toward their prom and senior trip to Ocean City, N.J., which had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I applaud this senior Class of 2020, their advisers, Kevin diTondo and Rebecca Press and Andrew Drescher, senior class treasurer, and Paul Munson, student council vice president.
We can be very proud of our young adults in Duanesburg and wish them all the best in their future endeavors. Congratulations to the Class of 2020 and many blessings.
C.M. Dewey
Duanesburg
Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion
