"Urge Senate passage of Build Back Better bill" Letter to the editor Linnea Masson

I am writing to express my pleasure that the Build Back Better bill (HR 5376) passed in the House of Representatives.

There is so much in this bill that will benefit Americans trying to be rebound from our recent difficult times. Briefly, these are some of its provisions:

• Children and families: Free Universal Pre-K for all 3 and 4 year olds, subsidized child care for children up to the age of 5, extended child tax credit, expanded paid family leave.

• Seniors: Greater Medicare negotiation of drug pricing (creates a safeguard against price gouging), coverage of hearing aid expenses, a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket medical expenses as well as vast improvements for those needing home care.

• Low-income Americans:  Healthcare premiums reduced to an average of $600 per year, dramatically helping the 3 million Americans who are uninsured.

• Affordable Housing:  Provides funds for construction and rehabilitation of more than 1 million affordably priced rentals and single family homes, financial assistance to first-time homeowners and major improvements to public housing.

• Climate Change:  Sweeping environmental changes which will benefit generations to come.

I think I am most pleased to see the provisions which benefit children.  Often other segments are heard much more so because they have a voice with which to voice their wants and needs.  In addition, they vote.  Children are at a disadvantage in this respect and thus their important needs are not always met.  That has got to change for their sake as well as our entire country for it is they who are the future of this country.

I would like to thank Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, for supporting this bill and helping with its passage. This historic bill has passed the House and is now on to the Senate, which may be a greater challenge as there are many Republican senators who are opposed to it.

If you are in support of HR 5376, you could call New York Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (202-224-6542) and Kirsten Gillibrand (202-224-4451) to express that support.

Publishing history:

December 11, 2021

" Chips" letter to the editor Tom Denton

Since my wife tells me my hearing is going south, a full-page ad in the online paper caught my eye:  it is promoting a miracle of a hearing aid that works from an implanted tiny micro-chip in the ear.  But I am concerned about how that chip might interact with the micro-chip that Bill Gates arranged to be inserted into my COVID vaccine.  (I didn’t find out about that until after I reluctantly [my wife again] got the damn shots!)  

I figure the ear chip will stay put, more or less, but I assume that Gates’ chip will circulate throughout my body…until its battery runs out, at least.  But what might happen if the two somehow meet in my ear, at some point? Might that foul up not only my hearing but also other

things? (The hearing aid costs almost $500!)

 

I especially wonder about this after I heard about Dr. Sherri Tenpenny’s revelation that the vaccine might have made me magnetized.  I mean, if—as she testified to the Ohio legislature—vaccinated people can make spoons stick to their foreheads  (https://wapo.st/3zi6G2j), could my hearing aid be pulled out of my ear by the magnetism and get stuck on my forehead? Or, could it go the other way and actually be pulled into my brain?

 

I’m considering using my stimulus check to buy the miraculous ear thing, but not until I get some more expert opinions.  I’ll bet Dr. Faker Fauci doesn’t have answers to my questions.  Or, he might say one thing today and something entirely different tomorrow.

publishing history

 

Hudson Valley One    6/17/21

Sullivan Democrat        6/15/21 

"Connecting with other people more important than ever" letter to the editor Amy Kletter

 I am the kind of person who says “Hi” to everyone, and one of the wonderful things I noticed as the weather got warmer and more people were out, was that so many more people said “Hi” back, smiled at me and were genuinely connecting on a more human level than I usually see around here. I felt like the people in our area had really learned how important human contact and kindness really are, that a shining light was coming out of darkness of the pandemic.
But a few days ago, I was riding on the rail trail and I noticed such a difference. Some people smiled, responded to my greetings, and made that connection but so many not only didn’t smile-they didn’t even respond, eyes straight ahead.

I have been hoping and praying that some good would come out of these many months of privation, isolation and such sadness for many. A real appreciation of life, of what is really important-of course time with our family and friends, being able to actually get out and do things, but also kindness because most of us had a chance to give and receive it during these many months. Let’s not forget. Let’s not have this trial we were given be for naught. Remember and honor what’s really important in these lives we’ve been given, please.

publishing history:
Daily Freeman: 6/7/21  

" Treason in the Halls of Congress" letter to the editor Tom Denton

Those who think alarms about deteriorating American democracy are hyperbolic should look squarely at the radical Congressional Republicans’ response to the proposed bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection:  do nothing.  Instead, bend to the command of “the Don” Trump, who wants no investigation of that attempt to subvert the US Constitution.  Why should he?  He organized it. 

 

It’s all of a piece that began in the campaign of 2016, when the now-disgraced former President claimed that he couldn’t lose unless the election were corrupt.  (Surprise!  He won!  Guess that means the election was fair.)  Fast forward to 2021 as the radical Republican agenda proceeds: the Big Lie about a stolen election (he lost), legislation to suppress the votes of targeted populations, even new state laws to move jurisdiction over elections from officials who try to run fair contests to partisan legislatures. 

 

The radical Republicans’ vote against the commission keeps the wheels grinding for their plan to devour democracy.

Publishing history:

 Times Herald Record           5/28/2021

"Sen. Martucci falsely accuses Democrats" Letter to the editor Doris Chormy

 Dear Editor,

New York State Senator Mike Martucci, R-New Hampton, falsely claims that “Albany Democrats are sponsoring legislation that would add a new 55 cent-per gallon tax on New Yorkers at the gas pump."

Martucci doesn’t identify the bill, of course. The Democrats did author a bill called The Climate and Community Investment Act, S4264. It charges corporate polluters for their emissions, not drivers getting gas. It also protects workers in the fossil fuel industry as they transition to renewable energy jobs.

Better that the senator propose his own bill to benefit the environment rather than falsely accuse Democrats about bills they never wrote. In this he is true to his party, which is currently taking credit for the very popular pandemic rescue plan, a Biden plan that not a single Republican voted for!

Publishing history: Daily Freeman 5-10-21

" We, the Government" letter to the editor Tom Denton

In his speech to Congress on April 28, President Biden asserted that “we the people” are “the government.  You and I.”  With this proclamation he intends for the nation to turn away from the course it adopted when Ronald Reagan declared government the “problem” at our doorstep.  Biden reminds us that the people have power—that government can be good or bad, effective or ineffective, according to the choices the people make in their votes for representation. 

We the people—never united in our views, of course—allowed the Reaganite standards to dominate economic and political life until the hint of a course correction in Obama’s 2008 election, which produced the significant Tea Party backlash two years later.  Trump’s election and the unification of a radical Republican party generated a surge of counter activism that led the country to a different choice.  People power, ever stirring and always in tension with its differences, now pushes President Biden to think big.

 

Biden’s ambitious agenda—the passed COVID relief bill, the proposed American Jobs and Families Plans—aims to harness government to meet people’s essential needs, neglected far too long:  new jobs built on a response to climate change; economic equality that restores a thriving and broad-based middle class; racial justice that creates equal opportunities for building wealth and lives lived in safety and respect; subsidies for health care, child care, and education that give everyone a better chance to lead healthy, happy, productive lives.  If Biden’s proposed legislation passes, even in part, radical Republicans in Congress will find it difficult to convince Americans that government cannot work to serve the people’s needs.

 

We the people do have the power and the instrument—if we speak up, speak out, act.  Pressure our representatives, campaign, vote.  We can make our government work for us, the people. 

Publishing history:

Daily Freeman  5/3/21

Hudson Valley One, Shawangunk Journal  5/6/21

Sullivan Democrat 5/5/21

Columbia Register Star    5/4/21

  

" Bust the Filibuster" letter to the editor Tom Denton

The Senate filibuster, if it’s understood at all by most Americans, is likely associated with the fight by Southern segregationists to defeat civil rights legislation in the 1960s.  This disgraceful rebellion against equality resonates as Mitch McConnell’s side of the Senate currently threatens to block legislation--S1, the For the People Act--that would expand and protect Americans’ right to vote, especially  those whose votes have historically been suppressed.  No winking here.  Republicans have publicly acknowledged that they are at a “competitive disadvantage” when minority voters, especially, have unobstructed, equal access to the vote.

Democrats, if they are true to their commitments to civil rights, cannot allow a GOP filibuster to bury S1. Senators who oppose elimination of the filibuster, fearing it will be used against them in the future, know Senate rules permit alternatives:

• reinstate the speaking filibuster, when a senator must address the floor—for hours, and hours 
• flip the current rule that requires 60 votes to end debate; instead, require 41 “no” votes to block a measure, with all senators’ votes recorded.
• eliminate the ability to filibuster the “motion to proceed,” a tactic that stops legislation from ever reaching the floor for debate.  Make Republicans defend their obstruction on C-SPAN and all media.
• revoke the “two-track” system that permits the Senate to bury a bill threatened with filibuster and proceed with other business.  Again, force the GOP to tell Americans why they believe that curtailing early voting, removing drop boxes, and requiring photo IDs and notaries’ signatures for voting better support democracy than no excuse absentee ballots, lengthened early voting periods, and independent commissions for redistricting—the core of S1.

Let McConnell’s obstructionists explain why they want to return America to the 1960s.

publishing history:

Hudson Valley One, Sullivan Democrat 3/12/21

Shawangunk Journal  3/18/21 

"Career over Constituents" Letter to the editor Doris Chorny

 So, what’s our brand new, multi-millionaire senator, Mike Martucci, doing now that he’s been in the State Senate almost a month?  He’s holding an in-person fundraiser at a fancy club in Albany, pandemic or no, where he will be courted by lobbyists and in turn, court corporate donors.

Spending his time, using taxpayers’ money to churn up money for his next campaign, when he hasn’t even accomplished anything yet for his district doesn’t strike me as a good use of his time or our money.  Clearly, Senator Martucci is devoted to career over country and constituents.

Publishing history:

Hudson Valley One February 10, 2021