WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER Compared To Elsewhere, No Exceptionalism Here By LARRY BENNETT • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com The world population is 7.8 billion people. The U.S. is 330 million people, making us home to 4 percent of humanity. The world’s total COVID-19 cases is 20 million and climbing. The U.S. is 5 million and climbing faster than most of the world. With only 4 percent of the world’s population, we have 25 percent of the world’s COVID-19 cases. The…
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Columns - Page 126
FROM WOODSIDE HALL Ailing, Married, But Separated By COVID By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com All right, friends, I’m back on the metaphorical horse, feet in the stirrups, reins in hand, hands on the saddle pommel. Which is to say, I ready to write to you again. And so, I’ll clop on. Ours has been an interrupted correspondence lately. I never finished recounting my adventure at 15, when I traveled in luxury by overnight steam packet from Baltimore, Md.,…
ISSUE & DEBATE: AYE Mandatory Mask Law Essential For Safety Editor’s Note: Judith Greenburg, Bassett physician, submitted this letter in support of requiring mask-wearing in downtown Cooperstown. Local Law 7 was approved by the Village Board after a Monday, Aug. 10, public hearing. By JUDITH GREENBERG • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com As I cannot safely attend the Cooperstown Village Board meeting on Aug. 10, I request that my concerns, listed below, be included in the record of the meeting. I strongly…
ISSUE & DEBATE: NAY Mask Law, $1,000K Fine Unecessary, Overreach Editor’s Note: Marc Kingsley, Inn at Cooperstown proprietor, gave this testimony against at law requiring mask-wearing in downtown Cooperstown. Local Law 7 was approved by the Village Board after a Monday, Aug. 10, public hearing. By MARC KINGSLEY • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com The proposed mask law. I don’t understand why the village is pursuing this. As I understand it New York State already passed a law requiring almost everyone to…
LETTER FROM THE CHIEF Officers’ Dedication, Professionalism Have Earned City’s Support Editor’s Note: In this July 19 letter, Oneonta Police Chief Douglas W. Brenner expressed his concern about the“Say Their Names” photo display at the Westcott Lot. Nonetheless, Common Council unanimously approved the display Tuesday, July 21, and it was installed this past Sunday. The Oneonta Police Department has always placed the needs and concerns of the residents and visitors to the City of Oneonta as its first priority. While…
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 Ask Your Local Governments: Take Care Of Us By RICHARD STERNBERG • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com On Sunday, a friend of mine was talking to a family from South Carolina. They told him how bad it was down there now and how great it was up here and how we had beaten the virus. They talked for a while, then walked away down Main Street. None of them were wearing masks, nor knew if they…
WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER Slavery America’s Original Sin Eighty million native people of color lived in the Americas in 1492; 65 million primarily white people lived in Europe; 46 million people of color lived in Africa. In December of that year, Christopher Columbus landed on the Caribbean island of Haiti, which he then named Hispaniola, or Little Spain. It was the first recorded contact between Europeans and the indigenous Americans who called themselves the Taino. The Taino were divided into…
MONEY MATTERS Slavery Was Most Everywhere Hating America is in fashion these days. As if you did not know. Fuel for the hatred comes in the form of sins. Sins the early Americans committed. They belittled women. They savaged the natives. And they owned slaves. As early as 1619. That was when an English shipowner unloaded African slaves into Virginia. Aboard his vessel, flying a Dutch flag. The haters claim this proves that racism is in this country’s DNA. It…
From Our Comments Section Is Word ‘Indian’ Even Offensive? Editor’s Note: Here are reactions that appeared on www.AllOTSEGO.com’s comment section regarding an aritcle, “Village Board Concludes: It’s Time To Revisit Use Of Word ‘Indian’ On Plaques, Statues,” posted Monday evening, June 22. ►JOE BRANT – If you really want to be sensitive to Native Americans we should return to them the lands that were taken in Cooperstown. I am sure Trustee Sternberg’s house with a view of Otsego Lake was…
COLUMN from PETER FEINMAN If Philip Schuyler Statue Toppled, What Else? Editor’s Note: FYI, William Cooper, founder of Cooperstown (and The Freeman’s Journal), also owned slaves. ‘Reconsidering the Past, One Statue at a Time,” was the front-page above-the-fold headline in The New York Times on June 17. The article begins by noting the “boiling anger” that exploded after the murder of George Floyd. It has gone national. In religious terms, we are witnessing the attempt to purify America by cleansing…
