The grassy, rather triangular-shaped space at the junction of Route 80 and the Pierstown Road has always been used as a place for various signs – the TANNER HILL HERB FARM. GRANGE BARBEQUE! BOOK SALE! And, in political seasons, postings for various candidates.
On Sunday, June 30, a sign in patriotic colors promoting the election of ANY FUNCTIONAL ADULT IN 2020 was up; on Wednesday, July 3, between 12:30 and 4:15 pm, someone got rid of it.
I hadn’t put it there, but was glad to see it. It was both amusing, which most political signage is not, and message-bearing.
Over the years there have been signs for political candidates that I liked, and others that I didn’t, placed there. But as far as I know they were always left alone until removed by their owners. That is, or was, a tribute to the expression of free thought in a civilized and democratic society.
Our Editor Jim Kevlin publishes letters ranging from the sane and opinionated to the virtually insane but also opinionated, because he sees it as the right thing to do. Just destroying an expression of opinion which you don’t like is thuggish and profoundly saddening.
It violates values that as Americans I believe we hold dear. Go put up your own sign if you want, but leave the others alone.
Last week’s article about school bullying recounts a serious incident in Cooperstown High School (by no means the first), but it begins – and exists – at much earlier levels, as parents and administrators of the lower grades will verify.
This is a problem that needs to be addressed prophylactically and at multiple levels, by parents talking to their own children, by teachers and administrators, and by health care providers.
They need to talk to each other, and to the kids, on an ongoing basis, and not just once. The students are right to ask: What are they doing? All of them? All of us?
Mary Anne Whelan of Cooperstown has gotten permission to place a “Cooperstown Welcomes People” post in the Village Library hallway, and is seeking to distribute 50 community-wide. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
COOPERSTOWN – The posters began appearing around Cooperstown about a week ago: “Cooperstown Welcomes People of All Faiths from All Nations,” with red, white and blue stripe across the middle.
There’s one on the Village Library bulletin board at 22 Main, another in The Cooperstown Farmers’ Market. Alex’s Bistro has one in the front window, Bruce Hall in the side window.
Mary Anne Whelan, the retired Bassett physician, said in an interview today the posters were her idea. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” she added.
She had 50 printed, and she and Sam Wilcox have been placing them where they can. “Sam took the left side” of Main Street, “I took the right side,” she said.
