Letters to the Editor Saturday, Jan. 16

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Trump brought all this upon himself

I am amused (dumbfounded?) by the Letters to the Editor saying Trump has been a victim of baseless media attacks.
The latest said he has suffered “death by a thousand cuts.” If there were a train wreck each day and the media reported it, would that mean the media had something against railroads?
Ex-employees and family confirm that he is a dangerous, narcissistic sociopath. Trump has almost daily done irreparable damage to various departments of our government, institutions of our country and traditions of our nation, ushering in the death of truth and culminating in conspiracy theorists storming our Capitol.
It is he who mastered the new media to these nefarious ends. If he has suffered from a thousand cuts, these have most certainly been self-inflicted and well deserved. He should be frog-marched out the door.
Tom Barkley
Saratoga Springs

Thankfully, Trump is headed out the door

With a raging pandemic and an attempted insurrection of our nation’s Capitol, will 2021 really be a better year?
A shining ray of hope is the massive presidential victory of Joe Biden in a free and fair election -– 306 Electoral votes, 81.3 million popular votes and a 7.1 million-vote win. Combined with majority leadership in both the Senate and House, and the continuing New York state leadership of Andrew Cuomo, the country’s best governor, we should work our way out of this mess.
The Washington septic tank filled by the unhinged, would-be-dictator Trump will finally be removed, as the worst president ever is thankfully booted out.
And there will be local repercussions when the democracy traitor and sedition caucus supporter Rep. Elise Stefanik comes slinking out of Schuylerville to run for higher office. We’ll be here to remind voters that she encouraged a government takeover attempt and invalidation of our national election by parroting and promoting Trump’s baseless, fairy tale claims of election fraud. For shame.
Stan Strauss
Niskayuna

Accept the results of fair elections

In response to her Jan. 12 letter (“Investigate questions raised during election,”) Meg Messitt who, although too young to vote, was ‘deeply concerned about the integrity’ of the election.
There have been numerous investigations, recounts and lawsuits about this election. They have resulted in zero evidence of fraud, recounts that didn’t change any outcomes, and no merit found in the lawsuits.
Many of the officials who certified the elections in their states were Republican and many of the judges were appointed by Republicans, including the three Supreme Court appointed by President Trump.
You can feel confident that this election was conducted properly and fairly.
You claimed that Democrats have brought objections in previous elections.
I hadn’t heard that, and I bet most people hadn’t either because those objections were insignificant and symbolic.
The losing candidate never called the election rigged, never coerced officials to ‘find him votes’ or encouraged supporters to stop Congress from confirming the election results.
I hope you vote when you are of age. It is the most precious duty of American citizens.
And it is why it is so dangerous when President Trump and so many Republican legislators (like my Representative Elise Stefanik) make spurious, unfounded accusations against the integrity of this election.
I am much older than you and have voted in many elections.
Sometimes my ‘guys’ won. But when they didn’t,
I always accepted the will of the voters. That’s the bedrock upon which our government is built. I hope you continue that tradition.
Ruth Levinton
Johnstown

Why doesn’t Cuomo release covid report

I liked That the Gazette supported efforts to pry loose the report of the state level committee that was supposed to review the proposed vaccines. For several years, scientific research has noted a link between the PEG used in those vaccines and anaphylaxis.
That deadly reaction would not necessarily reverse with an EPI pen. Even drug manufacturers and CDC do not say the vaccine prevents covid. They also admit ignorance on transmission.
When capitalists with heavy interests in profit put on the sheepskin of socialists to force feed us “for the greater good,” it is time to pay attention.
If the report supported the governor’s efforts to get ‘herd immunity’ by getting the substance into every arm ASAP, don’t you think he’d be waving it in our faces instead of making us FOIL to see it?
Betty Pieper
Scotia

Trump lied, bullied his way into power

In all of my years of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, I never mentioned the name of a president of the United States.
I pledged my allegiance “….to the Republic…” That is the way the founders set it up. Our nation was created because the colonists could no longer pledge fealty to a king.
For those who feel marginalized by the democratic process, we have means to address that. It is casting a vote, for whatever your ideals are.
The two-party system that our nation has evolved into means that you are going to be dissatisfied at least half of the time. For those, myself included, that believed that Donald Trump was unfit to be the president of the United States, the events at the Capitol on January 6 come as no surprise. Trump cannot face defeat. Who did not know this?
He has bullied, lied and cheated his way through life and gotten away with it because he outlasted his adversaries with lawsuits and smears. You can do that as a private citizen. Just let your enablers take the fall when bad things happen, right Michael Cohen? At the end of the day, the Constitution won out.
Trump was willing to further the goals of special interest groups not because he believed in them, but because they pledged allegiance to him. Any protest can get out of hand. Many that start peaceful evolve into a riot. In this case, the match was struck by Trump.
Thomas Benson
Niskayuna

Get vaccinated, tested for cervical cancer

There are two ways to prevent cervical cancer — vaccination and screening.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) causes nearly all cases of cervical cancer and several other cancers. The HPV vaccine prevents about 90% of HPV-related cancers, including cervical. The HPV vaccine is recommended for boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 14, and young adults through age 26.
Cervical cancer screenings can find the cells that lead to cancer before it starts so the cells can be removed and can be most easily treated. Screening should begin at age 21 and is covered under most health plans, including Medicaid plans and plans participating in the New York State of Health.
Getting vaccinated at the right age and regular screening gives the best chance of preventing cervical cancer. If you are concerned about the risk of COVID-19, talk to your health care provider about your overall health and risk for cervical cancer. Together, you can decide if vaccination or screening is safe at this time.
No insurance? No problem. The Cancer Services Program (CSP) of Fulton, Montgomery and Schenectady Counties can help eligible, uninsured women age 40 and older get screened. The program, supported with funds from New York state, also provides free breast and colon cancer screening to eligible NYS residents. Call 518-770-6816 today to find out if you qualify.
Lesley Montenaro
Amsterdam
The writer is health education promotion coordinator of the Cancer Services Program of Fulton, Montgomery, Schenectady Counties.

Act now to reverse climate change

The Saratoga Friends Meeting recently wrote to our congressional representatives.
We encouraged them to advance carbon pricing legislation. As members of the Religious Society of Friends, we are motivated by our Quaker faith to endorse the position of our Friends Committee on national legislation which is as follows:
Carbon prices remain a necessary condition of ambitious climate policies.
Many economists agree that pricing carbon is the most cost effective lever to reduce carbon emissions at the scale and speed necessary. Emission targets need to be in line with the scientific community’s recommendations to avoid catastrophic impacts of climate change. If reduction targets are not met the price should increase.
The legislation must ensure that the costs of a carbon price are not borne by marginalized and low-income communities. Polluters must not move operations to other countries to avoid paying for their emissions. Legislation should include transparent reporting to monitor emission levels.
Our Quaker faith guides us to acknowledge and celebrate our interconnection with the natural world, pay attention to related concerns including climate change, and join with others in active stewardship.
As Quakers we believe in science. The overwhelming consensus of scientists is reflected in the report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We are in an existential crisis that threatens all life on Earth. Once all carbon emissions stop, relief begins 30 years later. Meanwhile, weather-related disasters will worsen. We must act now.
James Ralston
Quaker Springs
The writer is a member of Saratoga Friends Meeting.

Electoral College: No. Term limits: Yes.

We, the American people, need to look at what happened on January 6 at our Capitol. Part of the problem is that there is not an actual ideology by either major parties. We don’t hold our representatives accountable to us.
Make no mistake, Donald Trump stole the Republican Party, and the party let him get away with it. It’s about time that real Republicans step up. Let’s not forget that four years ago, Trump really lost the election by the popular vote. This happened again in this last election.
I would think that it is time to do away with the Electoral College. All that it causes is chaos. Let’s also demand term limitations for our U.S. representatives and senators.
I would recommend no more than four terms of four years each. It’s ludicrous that a representative has to think about re-election after one year in office of a two-year term. It’s not fair to us to not have that person more concerned with our rights and protections. I also believe that the term of a U.S. senator should be no more than four years, not six. A politician shouldn’t be looking at his serving us as a career.
It’s an honor that the people have bestowed on them. Their self-interest should not be a factor. I hope people realize that our democracy has been and will be threatened.
Just think of all the ordinary men and women who have stepped up and have died for our freedoms.
Richard Moran
Scotia

Media should publish fact, not accusation

On the front page of the Jan. 8 Gazette, the lead article begins with: “Calls grew Thursday from local congressional representatives for President Donald Trump to be removed from office following Wednesday’s attack by his extremist supporters on the U.S. Capitol, which they accuse him of encouraging.”
Anyone who watched Trump’s speech to the rally on the Ellipse charging the crowd, “Let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue” to the Capitol, would have no doubt that he encouraged the attack. House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said: “There is no question that the president formed the mob. The president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob.”
When our media retreat to describing this fact as an “accusation” from partisan opponents, you encourage people to see alternative realities – just polarized “he said, she said” opinions. We need media to speak clear truth, not “Democrats claim X, but Republicans claim Y.”
Don Porter
Schenectady

Time for bold action on climate change

Global warming poses an existential threat to humanity.
The need for bold and timely action on climate was a major reason why voters rejected the Trump administration this November.
A decade ago, the Green Party initiated the call for a Green New Deal (GND). It combined a rapid 10-year transition to 100% renewables, zero-emissions with an Economic Bill of Rights (guaranteed living wage jobs, universal health care, housing, education) as FDR had called for in his last State of the Union addresses.
Congress should make the GND a core part of a COVID economic relief package to reboot our economy, as Europe is doing.
Climate groups have also outlined a series of critical executive actions that President Biden should take on day one (see ClimatePresident.org). This includes stopping new fossil fuel infrastructure.
In December, the UN Secretary General called on all countries to declare a climate emergency or face “catastrophic” results. A climate emergency declaration needs to launch a full-scale mobilization of the nation’s resources to solve the climate crisis, similar to what America did after Pearl Harbor.
While it is too late to completely stop climate change, hopefully the worst-case scenarios can be avoided. Young people are increasingly leading the demand for climate action. They realize that so-called adults have jeopardized their future by sitting on their hands for the last 30 years despite increasing warnings from scientists.
Mark Dunlea
Poestenkill

Sad we have to wait for the next election

Thanks to The Gazette for publishing in the Jan. 8 edition (“Calls grow for Trump to go”) the names of the three anti-democracy New York state representatives who participated in the election nullification attempt in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6.
Lee Zeldin of Long Island, Chris Jacobs of Erie County and our own home-grown quisling Elise Stefanik all slugged down the Trumpian election-fraud Kool-Aid with a gullibility that would have embarrassed a kindergartener.
How it must have galled them to have their anti-democratic farce upstaged by an even viler insurrectionist mob dispatched by the president. How frustrating to have to hide under their desks and miss the treasonous Confederate flag being paraded through the Capitol.
The Three Amoebas have established themselves as nothing but parasites in the presidential digestive tract — no guts, no brains, no spine. The school districts that gave diplomas to these microorganisms should consider revising their curricula to include a unit on critical thinking. Unfortunately, we the electorate will have to wait nearly two years to show these enemies of democracy what the vote really means.
Kathleen Petersen
Schenectady

Fear not. Positive change is on the way

Dear Environment: Hope is on the way. After four years of the Trump administration gutting environmental rules and regulations, relying solely on polluting fossil fuels, failing to promote job-producing renewable energy, and calling climate change a hoax, the Biden administration will reverse over 100 executive orders and rule changes based on science, not the oil industry.
Dear Leadership: You are back in vogue. No longer will we be given pablum when straight talk and honesty prevails. Gone will be daily lying and conspiracy theories that government is the enemy of the people.
Dear People of All Colors and Religions: Respect for our diversity will be addressed. While many of our existing issues are ingrained to a certain degree, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be addressed by bringing opposing sides to the table to work out solutions.
Dear Rule of Law: Welcome home. The attorney general will represent us all, not be the president’s private attorney.
Dear Health Care. Sorry for the long wait, but again science and leadership will take center stage to overcome the pandemic and protect and improve services to all Americans.
Dear Common Sense: Please let Trump supporters know that the pandemic is a health emergency, not a political football. Refusing to wear a mask, social distance and congregating in large gatherings only prolongs the pandemic, causing serious illness, death and stress to our healthcare system that is busting at the seams. Unfortunately, I think we are fighting two pandemics — coronavirus and stupidity.
Raymond Harris
Glenville

We need to find good leaders to follow

We were not at our best. For me, that is the issue with Trump. I am still not sure how he got elected. Especially in New York, where he was known. Not a very good businessman, more of a gambler.
Most of his accomplishments we see listed were either already in place from previous administrations, both sides, or not as world changing as he states. Unemployment was already low. Opening up, probably in some cases forcing, opportunities for those who were not given opportunities in the past.
Four years ago, I was wondering why fact checking was not part of the media’s information when covering the debates. During the debate between Clinton and Trump, I was checking three fact-checking sites. Trump was overwhelmingly false. Yet, when it was over and CNN commentator Savannah Guthrie said, “He did a good job” I was appalled. They continued to gab, no investigative reporting, just gabbing.
Joe Biden recently said we should have fact checking on the bottom of our screens during debates. I hope someone in the media world understands how important that idea is.
What if they had that back in 2016 for the debates? Would there have been a different outcome? Would a better candidate come out ahead?
There have got to be better leaders out there. No matter what we label ourselves, we have to want to be better. And finding that balance; what works here may not work there. Good leaders can work together and find the solution.
Jeanine Leo
Rotterdam Junction

Trump’s loyalists are now a liability to him

A week after Mr. Trump and his allies whipped up his supporters to a frenzy with known lies, exhorted them to “fight like hell” and encouraged the enraged crowd to march on the Capitol, he released a videotape (during his second impeachment hearing). In it he said: “the incursion of the U.S. Capitol struck at the very heart of our republic…our movement has always been about defending the rule of law…No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence…If you do any of these things you are not supporting our movement…You are attacking it and you are attacking our country.”
So, he did something he has had some practice doing: throwing people under the bus (just ask Mike Pence). This time it was his most ardent supporters, those who took his inflammatory rhetoric to heart and did what they, arguably, sincerely believed he wanted them to do.
Of course, he only made these remarks because he fears possible liability, lost business interests and just plain looking bad. Be that as it may, he has dropped his fiercest loyalists like hot potatoes because they are now liabilities to him and his brand.
John Harper
Albany

Middle class needs to get organized

January 6 and all of 2020 was a wakeup call to all of us that make up the middle class. The media and the upper class are trying to sway us to believe what they think is best not by what we know is best. It’s simply a power thing.
We are the people who pay for all of the benefits that the poor and rich classes receive each day; the backbone of our nation, the majority. If we decided not to do what we are responsible to do each day the nation would definitely come to a halt.
What we need to do is to organize ourselves and stand up for our rights without outside interference.
We need to elect people like us, not millionaires/billionaires. We need to elect individuals with people like us, average, middle class individuals who are really in touch with our plight. Vetting may be necessary in order to weed out those who have personal agendas like power and amassing money.
A special public fund should be established to allow an average American to run for high office with no contributions allowed from the outside. A specific amount to be used by all should be established for campaign costs so no one has a monetary advantage. Voter ID is a must so that abuses related to who actually voted can be resolved.
We have a great future ahead of us if only we, the middle class, can be fairly represented and listened to.
William Wills
Amsterdam

Media must be more truthful, less biased

Last Thursday morning, Jan. 7, many newspapers across the country carried the headline: Trump Supporters Break into the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
For years, the 73,100,000 people who voted for Trump, or was it 73,200,000 (we’ll never know), have been treated as one garbage pile, racist and incognizant of the way the world works.
Many people who watch TV and read newspapers don’t think. They simply believe what they hear or read at face value. The radical left counts on this.
An unbiased journalist would have written the following headline the other morning:  A Small Group of Angry, Radical, Stupid Trump Supporters Break into the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
The four adjectives I used in that headline are either observable or definable and therefore truthful.
Now I might lose my Facebook account if this gets published.
As Sen. Schumer said the other day, “Buckle Up!”
John Eldridge
Fly Creek

Why does Trump back anti-Semites?

Donald Trump supports anti-Semites.
When our President called the hoodlums “good people,” did he notice some were wearing shirts printed with words saying that the Holocaust was good and that 6 million Jews was not enough? (Those were the dead ones.)
Ironic that he has a Jewish son-in-law, his daughter identifies as Jewish, they are raising Trump’s grandchildren who go to an Orthodox Jewish school, and they traveled (when all the rest of us were to be in our own homes) to Ivanka’s in-laws to celebrate Passover.
Is something wrong with this picture of who the president identifies as “good people?”
Sally Magid
Schenectady

Stefanik complicit in Trump’s election lies

Like most Americans, I watched with horror on Jan. 6 as a group of terrorists breached the U.S. Capitol at the behest of Donald Trump.
What I find equally despicable were the actions of a group of our elected representatives, including Elise Stefanik. In their disingenuous assertions that the ouster of Trump was the result of elections fraud, they set the table for these thugs.
The 2020 election was the most secure in U.S. history, according to CISA. State after state recounted and certified their results. The courts rebuffed and repudiated the ridiculous claims of Trump and his proxies. Yet Elise and her compatriots continued their farce. Where was the outrage and concern in 2016 when the evidence of election tampering was strong? The Republicans refused to consider legislation designed to protect the process then. Instead, they became Trump’s henchmen in an effort to overturn the lawful results. It’s very clear to me that Stefanik is either a dupe or a liar. Whichever it is, she is unfit to serve in the U.S. Congress. With the death of Officer Brian Sicknick, Elise has blood on her hands.
Laura Andrews Gardinier
Amsterdam

Shouldn’t be hard to stop bridge collisions

This is NOT rocket science. And, even if it were, we have enough engineering schools and scholars in the immediate area to figure out how to stop trucks from running into the Glenville railroad bridge, as one did again on Jan. 6.
Let’s get it done people! Make this old Scotia boy proud!
Dick Curtis
Scotia

Veteran killed at Capitol was silenced

The veteran murdered in the People’s House served multiple Middle East tours from 2004 to 2016. That just happens to include the time frame that Obama and Biden cut military funding, implemented incredibly dumb rules of engagement in the Middle East, and aside from a very few times they micromanaged, they ignored the war.
Obama and Biden also watched the veteran suicide rate rise to 22 per day and did nothing.
This veteran traveled from San Diego to voice her support for Trump. She made it into the People’s House with the only weapon she had, her voice. She was silenced.
Paul Finnegan
Delanson

Trump was type who founders opposed

Like many Americans, I was shocked and appalled to watch the storming of the Capitol by insurrectionists.
Amongst the many destructive acts to our nation was not only the physical damage but also the symbolic, accomplished by the carrying of flags from America’s Revolutionary War.
Included was our nation’s first liberty flag – the 1771 Liberty Flag of Schenectady. Blue silk with white letters declaring “Liberty,” it was adopted by the First New York Line Regiment.
Yet the qualities of the man that the 2021 insurrectionists were supporting are the very qualities that our Founding Fathers and Mothers fought and bled and died to defeat.
Listed in the grievances against the king in the Declaration of Independence was his refusal to fill vacancies of office and permit the naturalization of immigrants, obstruction of justice and the use of soldiers against their own people.
So, too, can these grievances be laid at the feet of Donald Trump.
Also noteworthy is that the 2021 insurrectionists were predominantly white supremacists, while approximately one fifth of many Continental regiments was Black.
The rest were either immigrants or their recent descendants and Native Americans, all defending their homes.
The act of removing Trump from office would, likewise, go beyond the physical act, but also be a crucial and symbolic act of reclaiming our proud history and fighting for democracy.
Should we continue in our reticence to prosecute lawlessness and inciting rhetoric, our nation’s enemies will continue to assault our Republic, from within and beyond.
Kimberly Waldin
Rotterdam Junction

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Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion