LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP Heroes Of The Plague To the Editor: The humorist, Will Rogers, once said: “When all the filing stations on all the street corners are out of gas, then we’ll see what kind of people we’ve become.” It takes a pandemic to see what kind of people we’ve become and who the heroes are. Here’s my short list: The staff of Bassett Fox – for getting ready in time, working tirelessly and telling the truth, particularly Drs.…
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Opinion - Page 279
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER The Question Of Out-Of-Towners By LARRY BENNETT • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com FOR: First is the idea that all have the right to remove their family from a place of apparent danger to a place seen to be safer. Second is the economic idea that second-home owners have the absolute right to relocate to those homes, which they own and pay taxes on. Presumably that is also true if a city resident can afford to rent…
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 Why Wasn’t More Done Sooner? By RICHARD STERNBERG • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Over the last several days I reviewed a great deal of material regarding COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus. I looked at videos. I read scientific and lay papers. I scanned media reports. All to determine what to write about. It was like drinking from a fire hose. But the Monday, March 30, announcement by Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White…
County Pastors Contemplate: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Editor’s Note: The coronavirus has closed churches, but via the Internet and other means, pastors continue to preach. Over the next few weeks, we will share their words here. Out Of Pain, Grief, Find Understanding Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Transcendentalist Unitarian, wrote, “There is a crack in every thing God has made.” In 1992, Leonard Cohen, singer, musician, and song writer, sang in his song “Anthem”, “There is a crack, a crack, in…
EDITORIAL County Avoids ‘Reactive, Emotional’ Measures Here Visitors Asked To Take Sensible Steps To Protect Themselves, Us By now you’ve heard about Rhode Island: Last Friday, it had state police stopping cars with New York license plates at the state line, and instructing passengers they must self-quarantine for 14 days if they planned to stay in Ocean State. The next day, National Guard troops went door to door in coastal areas, advising any Empire Staters who had gotten out of…
LETTER from CAROL LaCHANCE During This Crisis, Reach Out To Elderly. Elderly, Accept Help To the Editor: As social distancing becomes a new way of life, I am fearful. I don’t fear the coronavirus, but I fear the social isolation it is creating among us, especially the older population. We live in a village, with surrounding communities, whose median age is over 50 years old. Of this group, more than half are over the age of 65. There are many…
LETTER from PATSY SMITH Constitution Gives Us The Right To Do What Makes Sense To the Editor: I’m afraid that Mr. deBlieck (Letter to Editor, March 19-20) doesn’t understand what the U.S. Constitution actually says and does. Like the power to declare war and raise taxes, the power to organize and arm militias is explicitly reserved to the Congress of the United States. Don’t believe me? Read Article One. There are no provisions that allow the “entire population to form…
FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE If Not For A Buttonhook By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Some years ago, I had dinner at Great-Grandpa’s house down in tidewater Maryland. It’s a handsome brick house with dormers, and it used to face a clear view across the fields to broad West River. But realtors overran the area, and the fields filled up with houses for commuters to Washington. And Great-Grandpa’s house is now a restaurant – a high-toned French one, mind you,…
VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Did Anyone, Or Everyone Kill U.S. Pandemic Team? By MIKE ZAGATA • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com A friend of mine commented that he was upset with the president because he had eliminated the Pandemic Response Team (PRT). I didn’t know there was such a thing and I’m guessing that neither did the President. However, the fact that my friend was blaming the President for eliminating it, and then a year or so later having us face a…
LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR Cuomo’s Daily Updates Show Much Being Done Editor’s Note: Here’s an example of Governor Cuomo’s daily email updates, which underscore how much is being done to combat coronavirus. Do yourself a favor: sign up at: https://now.ny.gov/page/s/coronavirus-updates March 23, 2020 Dear New Yorker, Amid this pandemic, we can’t underestimate the emotional trauma people are facing or underestimate the pain of isolation. It is real. This is not the human condition — not to be comforted, not to…
