I am writing in response to the letter from The Jewish Federation of Ulster County in your last issue, which I strongly suspect was not written in Kingston. It reflects perfectly the Israeli position, crowing over its impunity in imagined "victory" over a helpless population, half-starved and deprived of clean water, sewage disposal, medicine, electricity, half of whose children are now anemic with signs of malnutrition, packed into a walled-in concentration camp - an absolutely unequal fight popular opinion here spontaneously calls "shooting fish in a barrel." But these are human beings, children, women, men, civilians, doctors, ambulance drivers, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, grandparents, attacked not just with armor and jets, but with white phosphorus, depleted uranium, and with Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME), with no place to run to shelter. The JDF communication reflects indifference to the suffering Israel caused.
The campaign against Gaza is now the subject of the greatest Israeli propaganda campaign in Israel's history. Certainly, in a large part of the American and world public who have hoped for better or have not previously been following the news, Israel has reaped a harvest of revulsion and loathing that no frantic propaganda campaign can erase.
So where is the victory? The feeble rockets continue, demonstrating that David has in fact survived Goliath, which reinforces Hamas's backing. Israel is likely to repeat the slaughter. And why is Israel doing this?
One of the world's leading political psychologists, the Israeli David Bar Tal, has done a study called "Is an Israeli Jewish sense of victimization perpetuating the conflict with the Palestinians?" Hebrew title: "What do Jews in Israel know about the conflict with the Palestinians?" He says that Israeli Jews' consciousness is characterized by a sense of victimization, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanization of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering. He and his partner say those with a "Zionist memory" see Israel and the Jews as the victims in the conflict, and don't support agreements or compromises with the Palestinians to obtain peace; they note that changes to eliminate bias and indoctrination in the teaching of the conflict would help.
The esteemed London professor, author and psychoanalyst Jacqueline Rose, who is Jewish, puts it this way: "(criticism) is in no way to diminish the traumatic impact of the Holocaust but to register it all the more powerfully. The effect of trauma is precisely to freeze people in time. There is a psychological dimension to this conflict that seems almost impossibly difficult to shift. In its own eyes, Israel is never the originator and agent of is own violence, and to that extent its violence is always justified. The Palestinians do not count. Even when the worst of what has been done to them is registered inside Israel, it is still the Israeli who suffers more."
Avraham Berg, former president of the World Zionist Organization and speaker of the Knesset, addresses this in his new book "The Holocaust is Over: We Must Rise From The Ashes."
So peace must come from strong outside intervention. George Mitchell is a good person for that. Even though Abraham Foxman told Obama "He is very fair, very even-handed. But that is not the kind of person we need in this situation." It is time for Americans to support a change in policy, and to strongly back a "fair, even-handed' person, to stop the siege of Gaza, and to insist all sides be listened to, including Hamas, in a wide dialogue, to achieve peace.
Sheila Finan
Accord
DIALOGUE AT A NEW LOW
"vulgar, odious, slaughterfest (Gaza), massacre (Gaza), slime (Israeli polititicians), racists, terrorist, bigotry, abhorrent, murder (Americans), 'Go to hell' (to the U.S.), Major Strasser (evil Nazi in Casablanca)..."
These are some of the terms and phrases CJ Mellor uses, referring to Israel and Israelis (and apparently most American Jews, certainly me), to bring the dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict to a new low, previously established by Tarak Kauff. Mr. Kauff, in an encounter at Upstate Cinema refused my hand and, even a piece of paper I had touched, when he learned my name. The looks he gave me were frightening. As CJ Mellor is a co-resident of Saugerties, I hope learning of this won't force him to move.
These behaviors do not warrant a response more than this calling attention to them.
Meyer Rothberg
Saugerties
OUT OF SCALE, DIVISIVE IN NATURE
The plan was to provide affordable housing for Woodstockers - to allow those who worked in the community to live here; to afford housing for those who grew up here to stay here; to give seniors who needed something smaller, something requiring less maintenance a way to continue to be a part of the community; to permit those of us so marginalized by high Woodstock taxes a way to remain. A noble purpose. One with which we could all agree.
But not this! Not this massive housing project in the middle of a wetland, a project whose admittance is by lottery and therefore open to all, guaranteeing not a single apartment to anyone whose needs it was originally intended to serve.
Not something so out of scale, so divisive in its nature, not something that will drive up everyone else's taxes thereby making their houses less affordable. Does anyone really believe Rupco's assertion that it will cost each homeowner only $57/yr. in increased taxes? That will happen at precisely the same moment that The Ulster County Law Enforcement Center starts paying for itself. (Remember that promise?)
Once the job of providing affordable housing was passed off to outsiders, its plan began to serve their interests, not ours. Let's gain control of this. Let's create our own housing authority and do it our way. It's never too late to say no to a bad idea.
Peter Remler
Bearsville
CHILD SAFETY AND RUPCO
In all the seemingly endless conflicting commentary regarding the Woodstock Commons, I have not noticed any objections to RUPCO's plans insofar as child safety is concerned. If children of primary school age would be living there, as I assume they would be, then certainly they would be allowed to play outside in the buildings area. But what if a child, or several in a group, decides to explore the wetland area, as some are sure to do at some time, regardless of parental restriction? The only way to prevent that is to install a high, child-unclimbable fence around either the apartment area or the wetland area. If around the apartment area, then there must be a locked gate entry which can be opened only by insertion of an entry card into the locking mechanism (which will reclose and lock several seconds after person or car passes through). Persons not living there, but having a reason for entry, such as merchandise delivery, or political, religious, etc desire to solicit the inhabitants, would have to obtain an entry card from the police station. If instead, the wetland area is properly fenced in, then all the wildlife therein are trapped in the area, excepting birds, insects and perhaps snakes, and very small mammals. Deer inside the fence would be in captivity, and deer outside the fence would be unable to search the area for food or a bit of cooling shade and water on a hot summer's day. Maybe very hot (global warming, remember?) Failure to fence in one of the aforementioned areas will, given time, most surely result in the tragedy of a child's drowning.
Phil Sullivan
Woodstock
NEVER AGAIN
My grandmother fled the persecution of the Jews under the Russian Czar, my grandfather fled the growing isolation, beatings and hate for the Jews in Germany. I was born during World War II in New York City where Nazi rallies were held, when most colleges would not admit Jews, when communities and beach areas openly displayed signs that said "no colored or Jews allowed."
When I moved here in 1967, the principal of the Saugerties school where I was an art teacher informed me, on my first day of teaching, that "Jews were not welcomed" and that I "should not plan on a career here." I prevailed and spent the next 30 years teaching in Saugerties.
I believed that we had left that old Klan-like thinking behind us, until I read last weeks rant by CJ Mellor from Saugerties. I will not remain silent when such old and venomous hatred once again raises its ugly head. Not here, not now, never again!
If this kind of rhetoric goes unchallenged, then it will grow, just as it did in Nazi Germany. Freedom of speech is a two way street and if such spewing is not challenged or not recognized for the hate behind it, then it will escalate.
Obama's election was just the beginning of the changes our country has long struggled for. I hope that we will repudiate hate mongering of any kind. Let's hope for a day when religion, color or gender won't matter and we can finally fulfill the promise of America for everyone.
Terrie Rosenblum
Woodstock
MUSIC IN DESPERATE TIMES
It was great to see the story about Zoe Zak on the front page. I just wanted to add a few things about the concert she will be performing in, Music in Desperate Times: Remembering the Women"s Orchestra of Birkenau. The Ars Choralis concert at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine will be on Saturday, March 28 at 8 p.m. in Manhattan. Zoe's Woodstock neighbors and friends can reserve a seat on a bus leaving from Bradley Meadow (call 810-2747) and buy tickets at www.arschoralis.org or call 866-811-4111. A few might also still be available at the Golden Notebook bookstore. This is the concert that Leslie Gerber said was, "...one of the most moving musical events I have ever experienced." It is not to be missed.
And one correction. When Zoe plays her accordion with Ars Choralis in Germany she will be performing at a church in Berlin and at the liberation day ceremonies at Ravensbrück, a former concentration camp for women.
We are fortunate to have such a talented and committed person in our community.
Alice Radosh
Woodstock
THE PLAYHOUSE LANE WETLANDS
It was a beautiful spring day in May and I choose to watch the earth turn green instead of living a day in a cubicle. Choices had to be made; the most important was it going to be south or north. I choose south. Then were the batteries fully charged in the camera? Off I went south eventually to a road that said 212. How beautiful green is, in contrast to the preceding months of coats, sweaters, and today a pair of shorts.
It was an interesting building with a large sign, Woodstock Playhouse, and fun to photograph not just as an image but for reasons of something else that I still can't define. I turned unto that road named Playhouse Lane.
Then I saw what had attracted me like iron shavings to a magnet. It was quiet but I still felt sounds. It was a simple wetland, some may call a swamp. I watched some birds on this wetland on Playhouse Lane. Like me they waited till they didn't need a coat.
This was a moment frozen in time something that can never be repeated by me but shared by anyone that visits this place. This place the sign called "Playhouse Lane," with the untitled wetland must remain. Not just by me but for the birds and sounds of life I heard from the wetland.
As we mature as people we forget how to listen and look, instead looking for instant gratification, often by the construction of projects that will permanently destroy this beautiful wetland on Playhouse lane in the Town of Woodstock. Let those that want to change this small but beautiful wetland on Playhouse Lane not forget that they may be able to destroy it with something but can never replace what beauty they destroy nor can their replacement be as magnificent as what they end.
I don't reside in Woodstock, and urge those that can to maintain this beautiful wetland. As a former Congressional Aide for Jim Scheuer and former employee of the Majority Whip of the NEW YORK STATEAssembly, Gerdi Lipschutz, I urge that the wetland be preserved for all. It can never be owned but only shared. Certainly affordable housing is a noble goal but at the expense of a simple tract of wetland that can never be replicated can and must never be. Professor Louis Mumford, the American pioneer and personification of American urbanization, affordable housing and "Rebuilding America," would rally to preserve that wetland and what it represents
It is the responsibility of all that what I experienced in that wetland on Playhouse Lane in Woodstock on a Spring Day in May be afforded to all.
Harvey Brody
Scotia
MESCAL'S MESSAGE
The majority believe that doors should be locked for safety and security. But think about the fact that one of the most important matters of security is having people get to us! Friends, neighbors, tradesmen and even strangers who see signs of trouble in our houses should be able to quickly check. Those of us who have been responsible for visiting people for delivering meals or making home visits as part of a job know how consternating it is to visit a home and get no response to knocks and be unable to enter to check and provide help if needed. And how horrible to see a house on fire, hear screams but can't get in because even the screen door is locked, as we just read about in the paper. Had not two strong men been on the scene and using heroic measures finally gotten in just in time to drag the two nonagenarians to safety as the fire engulfed the place. Really the vast majority of people are not only benign but helpful and can do us a great service by getting to us. Those with evil intent can get into a house in spite of locks anyway.
Woodstock Commons really should come to fruition. Woodstock needs the infusion of families. Some of the objections such as believing that the division would be "lit up" are conjectural. It has been promised that Woodstock residents will be favorably treated in the selection process. There wouldn't be 53 Woodstock families eligible for selection at this moment, would there? We aren't discouraging aging people from buying and building here because they would add to the traffic problem, are we? People who reside here aren't creating the traffic glut. Having a project like this is a real boon economically, let's have a boom instead of a bust.
Mescal Hornbeck
Woodstock
WOODSTOCK COMMONS WILL CAUSE FLOODING
I own the most modest, yet lovely, two bedroom, one bathroom house on Playhouse Lane. My home is the size of the two bedroom apartment in the proposed community. When I bought my house, I was told by the broker that because there were wetlands across the street, nothing could ever be built there. I never imagined that my lovely country lane would possibly be turned into a major thoroughfare, as the only entrance to a 53 unit apartment development.
I am a single parent and on SSD because of health issues. I fully qualify for residing in the proposed Woodstock Commons. I am one of those 700 families eligible to apply for occupancy. Although I will need affordable housing myself and am totally for creating affordable housing, Woodstock Commons is the wrong answer in the wrong location.
My home is fully mortgaged. As home values in this economy decline, my home will further decrease in value if Playhouse Lane is changed from a country lane with few cars into a heavily traveled road leading into Woodstock Commons. Woodstock Commons would ruin any small equity I may have left in my house.
Most people are not aware that the water table on Playhouse Lane is exceptionally high. If you dig down a few inches, you reach water. I, like my neighbors, need sump pumps to keep my basement dry. I have two pumps. One is running all day and night and the other is a backup. I also have two dehumidifiers running at all times to reduce the moisture in the house. I know for certain that the St. John's property has a direct effect on my property. This is obvious whenever there is a reasonable rain storm or when the snow and ice are melting. My property floods on the front lawn and the stream in my backyard overflows.
The leveling and paving of about seven acres for buildings, retention ponds, the road and the parking lots will leave much less forest to absorb the water, which will run down hill. If the bridge to the proposed development is built on pilings; the pilings have to be built in Ferguson Creek. Where will the displaced water go? Pilings are large for that size bridge. The water will go under and above the Playhouse Lane blacktopped road, crossing over to my side of the street where most of the houses are, as it usually does but in a much larger amount. It will flood my property and basement as well as my neighbors every time there is a significant rain.
What will the town planning board and RUPCO say then? Woops? Sorry? You were right?
It is an outrage that this proposed development be built to the detriment of those of us already living on Playhouse Lane. How dare the Planning Board consider ruining my property, my quality of life, the character and safety of my community, by imposing the wrong size development in this wrong location.
I guess I will need to hold the planning board and RUPCO responsible for damages to my land and home if you choose to approve this application on this site. I don't have the funds to fix damages that RUPCO will cause. How do I know? I live, observe and take care of my land and home and try to avoid potential problems 24/7.
How in good conscience can the Planning Board and RUPCO take this chance? It doesn't seem like the Town Board nor the Town Supervisor would.
I would like to know the procedure of recourse that I will have if this project is built and my home is flooded repeatedly. Who is responsible then? Who do I call? Who will fix the problem that RUPCO caused with your approval? Who will pay? I want the name and address of RUPCO'S property insurance carrier that will cover this property so I can contact them when problems occur if the board is foolish enough to pass this application.
I beg the Planning Board to be responsible and find a more appropriate way to make sure that our Woodstock residents that need affordable housing are taken care of, including me.
Phyllis Lane
Woodstock
THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE
One very strong concern about the Woodstock Commons housing project has not been addressed by the Planning Board or voiced by the Kingston sponsor, RUPCO.
It is the concern that since the Governor has ordered that all funding be approved individually by both the Governor's Office of Operations and also by the New York State Department of the Budget. This Gubernatorial action pre-empts any pre-approved or proposed State-funded or assisted projects specifically the proposed Woodstock Commons.
The State has already rejected financial assistance to other similar "affordable" housing projects else ware due to the horrific current and future State budget crisis. The sponsor has failed to advise the Town Planning Board of this potential of losing New York State financial support and provide alternative funding sources. Instead the sponsor fictitiously claims that two New York State agencies, The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and the Official of Children and Family Services will be funding it that is contrary to present and current state policy.
My concern is what happens when Woodstock Commons is halted before completion due to ended public financial assistance? What will happen to the protected wetlands destroyed by the Sponsor? Will it be returned to state it was prior to the RUPCO interference?
We need to have the Sponsor provide how this massive housing project is to funded, based upon the current problems with State and Federal financial support of similar projects. Must the Town and Country treble the real estate and sales tax to clean up this mess?
There will be a bridge to nowhere across the protected wetlands constructed with massive buried support pilings to view the construction debris.
Who will then be financially responsible for cleaning up the mess and apologize to the community for the destruction?
Eric Lane
Woodstock
SUPPORT SADD
SADD's mission is to provide students with the best prevention tools possible to deal with the issues of underage drinking, other drug use, impaired driving and other destructive decisions.
On February 28 and March 1 the Onteora SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) will hold its Barnes and Noble Fundraising weekend to benefit the Belleayre Bash. The Belleayre Bash is a drug-free/alcohol-free all night graduation event that helps keep Onteora's graduates safe on one of the most dangerous nights of the year - graduation night. If you purchase something at a Barnes and Noble store during our fundraising weekend and you say that you are here to support OCS when you check out, we will receive 10 percent of the sale - it does not cost you any additional money - the 10 percent comes from Barnes and Noble.
It takes approximately $10,000 to support the Belleayre Bash and we are well on are way. SADD believes it is worth every effort to keep our friends and classmates safe. Please support the Bash and our Barnes and Noble Weekend. Hope to see your there.
Tara O'Connor,
President Onteora SADD
Boiceville
ON UNPOPULAR PROTEST Tragically, approximately 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, which has triggered massive protests against Israel, as evident by the numerous letters in Woodstock Times as well as most other media. Historically, it appears that only particular inhuman crimes incite popular protest while others do not. It's definitely a mystery given that all human life is equal.
For example, compare the protests of Israel to the world's (and Woodstock's) lack of mass protest to the following: Guatemala, 1960-1996 - 200 000 deaths; Rwandan genocide, 1994 - 800 000 deaths; Cambodia, 1975-1979 - four million deaths; Ethiopia, 1974-1991 - 400,000 deaths; Kurdistan, 1987-1989 - 150,000 deaths; Uganda, 1971-1979 - 400 000 deaths; Yugoslavia, 1991-2000 - 140,000 deaths; West Papua, 1961-present - 100,000 deaths; East Timor, 1975-1990 - 200,000 deaths; Afghan civil war - 1.5 million deaths; second Congo war, 1998-2003 - four million deaths; Darfur, 2003-present- 400,000 deaths.
All civilian slaughter, killings, and genocide are barbaric. Yet it appears that not all mass killings get equal attention. It is quite clear that the routine letters to the editor of this paper, for example, takes a different stance towards Israel vs. outright genocide in other parts of the world.
For instance, today the ratio of violent killings in Darfur vs. Gaza is 300 to 1 and 3000 to 1 in the Congo. The sharpened blade of a machete across the heads of children is an act of unimaginable horror. Thousands of women and young girls have been systematically raped. Malnutrition is a prevalent killer. Yet, there are very few (if any at all) protest letters to the editor expressing outrage against these daily acts of terror in Africa.
Aren't 400,000 violent killings of innocent people and prevalent rapes, which continue today, in Darfur worthy of some protest in letters to Woodstock Times, or will Israel remain the only prevalent target of such protest?
The point is that man's inhumanity to man warrants mass protest where ever it exists. As history confirms, even the territories of America itself are soaked in innocent blood from genocide that may have been stopped with enough protest.
In 1848, only 100 years before Israel was declared a State, a so called "treaty" resulting from the Mexican War gave the US control of Texas and ceded to the US present day states of California, Nevada, Utah and parts of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
This was Mexican territory and the US took it by deadly force. One congressman, Joshua Giddings, summed it up as follows: "In the murder of Mexicans upon their own soil, or in robbing them of their country, I can take no part either now or here-after. The guilt of these crimes must rest on others." That's you.
Today, the descendants of the thousands of displaced Mexican families are now being imprisoned by US border control, as "illegal immigrants," for attempting to enter their ancestor's land. This is not much different than Israel's border controls on the Gaza strip that also prevents Palestinians from entering their ancestor's territory.
Finally, it is noteworthy, that the most hideous genocide, with the greatest number of human deaths, in the western world was systematically conducted against the American Native Indian, who migrated to America over the Bearing Straits over 12,000 years ago. In total, from the late fifteenth century until the mid nineteenth century, the population of American Native Indians decreased from over 15 million to less than 3 million, mostly due to slaughter and disease by the white man. Much of the slaughter by the U.S. government is recorded in American history during the 1860s Plains War, only 80 years before Israel was declared a State; an interesting history lesson for a young State.
The Great Plains Territories were Native American Indian land that the U.S. seized by deadly force wiping out an entire culture. There was not enough protest to prevent it.
As we all know, those victims who survived have been displaced from their land by the U.S. Government and forced into reservations, where even today, lack of employment, health care, housing and alcoholism are rampant contributing to hopelessness. Sound familiar?
The US government attempts to compensate for its damage to the Native American Indian by offering tax-free gambling casinos to a few tribes. Imagine the outcry in letters to the editor if Israel offered similar treats to the Palestinians as a gesture of compensation.
Jay Cohen
Woodstock
WOODSTOCK STIMULUS PACKAGE
Last week's Chamber of Commerce gathering with expert community coach Paul Roth brought about conversation and agreement. Paul, an amazing workshop facilitator, encouraged us all to discover a new paradigm for these changing times. We are seeking short and long term solutions to serve the needs of the community and the global impact Woodstock emits as the worldwide phenomenon it is. "There are many visions of Woodstock," we say at the Woodstock Museum, "the town, the festival(s) and the notion."
A group of nearly 20 chamber members showed up on a frozen winter night at Mountain View Studio to participate in a lively discussion and to experience what a conversation piece "Woodstock" truly is. "What makes a community," says Roth, "is a conversation." How we can rise above the past is the key to our future! Out of the many Woodstock notions held in hearts, minds and spirits, a theme emerges. Woodstock is a very special place.
Although many tourists come in search of 1969, Woodstock is much more than that for those of us living here. Still, many visitors and locals alike share the values of the world wide social revolution of the 1960s, which was about inclusiveness, cooperation and even better, collaboration in a dream to make the world a better place to be. Why not start locally by mutually supporting our differences within the larger oneness? This actually turns out to be a pragmatic approach to the peace and love community we really are.
Woodstock Museum has experienced a tremendous surge in Woodstock interest, brought about by the 40th anniversary of '69 as well as last years' multi-million dollar opening in Bethel. This will increase as summer approaches and the release of the film Taking Woodstock is publicized. Like it or not, many people from everywhere are coming in search of "Woodstock," a powerful, cultural icon, representing peace, love, music, art, awesome beauty, freedom, creativity and, above all, respect for the environment dating back to the Indians, who savored Woodstock not as a place to live but to enact sacred ceremonies. Our job is to meet, greet and share in the Woodstock experience. Brooding about the influx of visiting baby boomers and new youth with all their baggage is not the Woodstock way.
Actually, we are meeting the next generation, who accompany their parents to the museum, and they are activated and empowered by the Obama phenomenon. They are dressing in tie-dyes and patchwork jeans but make no mistake about it. They are not hippies looking for a handout and smelling foul from days without a shower. The next generation has the will to thrive and a vision to make it work, even in this crumbling economy. Visitors agree when we say: "The hippies were right." And, the definition for "flower child" is "those of us who are more closely connected to the earth." That sounds like most of us.
Let's share our dreams of Woodstock. It's not going away. Woodstock Museum has a whole series of events for this summer, mostly free. Call 845 246-0600 or email hello@WoodstockMuseum.org or visit our website www.WoodstockMuseum.org to stay tuned in for summer fun. Please vounteer. What is good for the town is good for the world! And now for the drum roll. Let there be music and art!
Nathan Koenig, President;
Shelli Lipton, Director
Woodstock Museum
PLEASE RESPECT POLICY AND PROCESS
Given Woodstockers' jobs and interests and the time constraints of modern life, it's too much to expect that everyone be focused on public policy. But it's truly alarming when town officials feel free to set aside the regulations and processes that guide their duties, the bounds of their offices, and the work of their predecessors. When it comes to the Woodstock Commons project, this is precisely what some officials have done.
There's Planning Board chair Mark Peritz, who went on record in opposition to the project months before the DEIS - a detailed document that underpins Planning Board decisions in cases like Woodstock Commons - was completed. More recently, he opined that the project would significantly change the future of the town and said that "how the public feels" would play as big a role in the Planning Board's decision as scientific studies - although it is the latter that forms the basis for decisions by the Board, which is tasked with upholding policies and laws.
Then there's Town Councilperson Jay Wenk, who stated his opposition based on the siting of the project and its "large-scale" approach. Yet both location and size are in sync with the Town's Zoning Laws and the result of in-depth studies by the Town's former Affordable Housing Committee (as well as being reflected in the still-draft Comprehensive Plan).
Most impressive are statements by Town Councilperson Chris Collins, who asserted that the Town Board could ultimately determine the fate of the project, even if it had been approved by the Planning Board, by denying RUPCO hook ups to water and sewer. Doing so would require the Town Board to negate processes established under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) - including years of rigorous review by the lead agency (the Planning Board) and extensive on-record comment by the public. Such action would also potentially require the Town Board to take another Town agency, the Planning Board, to court.
It's not just supporters of Woodstock Commons and RUPCO who should be concerned about these statements and positions. Project opponents should also take note. The day may come when they want approval for a project - perhaps even involving an individual home or business - that is denied because of an official's bias and personal opinions.
When decision-makers are allowed to exert political influence on regulatory matters and take a "pick and choose" approach to process, policies, and precedent, the integrity of governance is placed at risk and pressing economic and environmental problems remain unresolved. At the national level, eight years of such a style of governance just ended-we should say no to it in Woodstock as well.
Nadia Steinzor
Willow
KEEPING OUR HERITAGE
As stated by the Ulster County Planning Board, "open space once lost to development is impossible to retrieve and the long term cost can be immense." They also state that, "we should treat the environment as a resource. It is our responsibility to wisely manage that resource, as well as our responsibility to further generations for the condition of that resource when we leave it." They go on to say, "Historical and archeological sites are often associated with significant open space and are a part of our common heritage."
The Judge Jonathan Hasbrouck stone house built in 1790 and the 19th century red barn both on Elwyn Lane and Elwyn Quarry Road will have the RUPCO proposed housing project literally in their backyards.
Alf Evers wrote in The Catskills - from Wilderness to Woodstock, that this house is a fine example of the use of the bluestone from the nearby quarry. It is the only example in town. Should we ignore this historic site? Or do we protect it as a treasure as other towns protect their heritage.
Dolores Lynch
Woodstock
TAKE CARE OF WOODSTOCKERS
An unmentioned, glaring contradiction in the Woodstock Commons debate: on one hand, RUPCO says most of the housing will go to Woodstockers, on the other hand, they speak of an estimated 36 new children for Woodstock's school, and new (low income) customers for (upscale) Woodstock shops. If the tenants were Woodstockers in need, wouldn't their children already be in our school, wouldn't they already be shopping here?
Then RUPCO's Guy Kempe's most recent letter here says it would be "exclusionary" to favor Woodstockers for the housing, suggesting what some people fear, that this is not a solution to our existing community's need, but rather a project that will bring in people eligible for affordable housing from elsewhere.
Which brings up "those people" and elitist, racist implications. I could be wrong, but I don't think the immediate neighbors are NIMBY to keep people of other races and economic classes out of Woodstock, but rather want to preserve the little bit of nature they chose to live next door to. Others, including me, think it's insane to destroy more land and habitat in light of what we're learning about the importance of the environment and our interdependence physically and spiritually with all life. Here I agree with Gordon Wemp - why didn't we make "a peep" when wealthy people built 200 new homes in recent years?
For some of us, "those people" aren't poor families wanting the chance to live in wonderful Woodstock, but wealthy people who speculated on real estate or bought second homes they rarely use, driving up values, making it difficult for many of us to continue to live here as renters or home-owners. I moved here in 1980 after losing a rent-controlled apartment in Greenwich Village, and saw how "those people" come in, gentrify the neighborhood and drive the neighbors out.
It's laudable that presumably financially secure letter writers like Lisa Phillips Mead, while acknowledging that "struggling locals" are forced to leave Woodstock in search of affordable housing, want to welcome a more diverse population. But Woodstock needs to take care of those in our own community who can barely afford to stay.
I'd qualify to enter the RUPCO lottery under three categories - I'm in the arts, low income, over 55. Someone asked me why I spoke against the project when I need affordable housing. I see better "Woodstock solutions" - follow the example of Martha's Vineyard, find money to renovate - even make green - existing, sub-standard housing; subsidize landlords to rent, first of all, to local people who need affordable housing. When our community is taken care of, let's welcome the teeming masses. (Maybe, without destroying more natural habitat, they can live in "those people's" houses.)
People with power and expertise, like Don Gregorius, who is also against this project - please help us find and fund some real Woodstock solutions.
Cassia Berman
Woodstock
RUDE RUPCO
Guy Kempe of RUPCO never ceases to amaze me with his "tactics" in promoting Woodstock commons. His letters to the editors are so out of touch with the topic at hand and often resort to labeling those who have a different point of view. I often wonder given his rudeness how he still has a position with RUPCO.
From the beginning of this Woodstock commons project (by the way Kempe wasn't there in the beginning) we have had a good rapport with Kevin O'Connor and his associates (architects, engineers, etc.). Neither side (Sage nor RUPCO) resorted to name calling or labeling. Since Kempe came on board, he has never made any attempt to communicate with us, rather he has spewed his opinions in print.
A couple of weeks ago another employee of RUPCO (Buskey) called us racists. Kempe saw it fit to follow that with an accusation that we are discriminating against people of color or with children. I would surely like to have this conversation with these two face to face. To resort to such crude profiling and villifying name calling is simply a "loser's" tactic. We of SAGE have conducted ourselves in an adult and civil manner and try to stick to the issue at hand. We have not attacked RUPCO's employees or associates and we certainly do not or will not condone such behavior.
When the idea of Woodstock Commons was first introduced to us by RUPCO, it was presented to us in such a way that we were led to believe that this affordable housing project was to be for needy Woodstockers. The whole idea or premise in the beginning as told, to us by RUPCO, was to begin to resolve Woodstock's lack of affordable housing for those 600-700 residents who meet the necessary income criteria for this project. They stressed that people who worked in Woodstock, those in the stores, town workers, elderly etc. These were not our words but those of RUPCO. In fact we (SAGE) were the first to bring up that we did not buy into that "just Woodstockers" in that the NYS Fair Housing Act prohibited such. Many of the initial "sales ptiches" have since changed.
We questioned if in time a family's income surpassed the ceiling income limit what would happen and were told that their rent would be raised accordingly. This would mean that it would no longer be an affordable housing situation. We questioned the "55" years of age a senior residence qualified. We felt this could potentially leave older seniors (65+) on fixed incomes in jeopardy of being placed on a waiting list. I think these are legitimate concerns but yet we are labeled as uncaring and biased.
Kempe suggests that Woodstock is not a racially diverse community. So the insinuation is now that Woodstock is racially biased. When someone not at all familiar with Woodstock and its culture makes these kind of comments to get support for their case, it can only make one wonder (or sick). I have lived in Woodstock most of my life and I have seen people of all walks of life come and go. Woodstock has been an extemely diverse community for years. We have been a cast of characters which has made us such an attraction. If Kempe would like a Woodstock history lesson so he doesn't have to go fishing for negative information all he has to do is ask.
If I were in RUPCO's management, I think I would instruct these two name callers to offer a public apology. We may not be as eloquent as some would have us but we are always up front and keep as well informed as we can. We have brought well thought out opposition to this project and its location and if you have been paying attention - not just in a "nimby" state of mind. So to RUPCO's employees (and a certain board member) I invite you to sit down to a discussion anytime, but make sure you bring your manners. This name calling and profiling has gone far enough and this type of disrespect cannot (won't) be tolerated. Besides Mr. Kempe, I have heard you speak, I've seen you at meetings and if both sides become involved in this profiling - you sir would be an easy target.
Terry Breitenstein
Woodstock
WRONG SIZE, WRONG PLACE
I believe the Woodstock Commons project is wrong for Woodstock.
I've been a proud Woodstocker for 36 years. I've walked the beautiful, quiet streets of the neighborhood behind the Playhouse for even longer than that, since my brother and sister-in-law's family, the Kramers, moved there in the early seventies.
As a volunteer mediator in Woodstock Town Court, I was distressed by the tone taken by some of the pro-Woodstock Commons speakers at the Planning Board meetings. Why are we being subjected to ad hominem attacks? Why are those of us against the project being characterized as classist or racist? Why was there so much anger? Can't we at least listen to each other? Let's remember that we're all members of this great community.
I'm not opposed to development. I lived at Woodstock Estates when the hotel and convention center was under consideration and I supported that project and later the Woodstock Meadows project. Many have insisted that there has been no low-income housing built in Woodstock for the last 30 years. That's clearly not the case when Woodstock Meadows was built much more recently than that. Let's at least get our facts straight.
We all agree that Woodstock needs affordable housing for our artists, seniors and working families. But Woodstock Commons is the wrong size in the wrong place and may very well wind up not housing Woodstockers. No matter how green the project is, I can't see how chopping down hundreds of trees surrounded by a flood zone (remember pave Paradise and put up a parking lot?) could be better for the environment than solutions like replacing windows and insulation on our existing housing stock, subsidizing rents, or allowing more accessory apartments. Believe me, I'd be just as opposed to Woodstock Commons if it were high-income housing in that location. Let's use all the energy generated by this to find a Woodstock solution to Woodstock's housing problems.
Loretta Klein Akers
Woodstock
NIMBY - A GOOD THING RUPCO and their supporters continually emphasize the evils of NIMBYism. They do this to redirect focus from the real issues because those issues prove that their housing project is in the wrong location. By continuing to talk up NIMBYism, they pretend that no one except the neighbors are against this project. Of course, the Public Hearings disproved that emphatically. Why do they continue to do it? Because again, if they acknowledged how many people are opposed to it throughout Woodstock, it would become apparent to all that this housing project is a bad idea. NIMBYism is a last-ditch defense.
But NIMBYism is actually a good thing - a defense against changes for profit, thoughtless tearing down and destruction, displacement by corporations. Paving paradise to put up a parking lot. Without human beings standing up for themselves and their families, their homes and their life savings, there would be few controls in this business-run world. Corporations would steamroll neighborhoods, taking over, no matter who got hurt or displaced or bankrupted. Historically, it's how people got involved, got to know each other as they banded together to protect their homes, their towns, their ideals, their beliefs. It's true that neighbors usually speak the loudest when threatened by a bad project but does that make them wrong? Not at all - in fact the first use of the term NIMBY was in reference to neighbors fighting a nuclear power plant, which proved to be a fortunate move for all.
NIMBY is not just our backyard. Our backyard is considerably bigger than Playhouse and Elwyn Lanes. It's caring for our neighbors. It's caring for our town and its future. It's caring about how we see development 20 years from now and what we want to leave as our legacy. It's caring about our last open space in the hamlet and wanting to protect it. It's caring about the impacts of clear-cutting 11 acres of forest. It's caring about not letting this project be the tipping point in taxes for people who are already taxed to the breaking point. It's caring about the original objective to provide affordable housing for Woodstockers, not a chance at a lottery.
I am proud to speak up for what I believe in, to protect my home, to protect my environment, to protect my neighborhood and to protect my town.
At an NPR interview with Pete Seeger, he was asked what the best way was to save the environment. He replied, "You can move and go someplace else but what will really change things are people protecting their homes."
If you believe in the right to stand up for yourself, please support SAGE. Voice your concerns to the Planning Board and Town Board. Send whatever tax-deductible contribution you can to SAGE at P.O. Box 33, Bearsville, NY 12409. For more information, please visit www.woodstocksage.com.
Iris York
Woodstock
THE DISEASE OF ANTI-SEMITISM
While I sympathize with the outrage and passion about Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people, in CJ Mellor's recent letter, 'Disgraceful Silence,' I have to strongly take exception to the concluding statement. Mellor says, "Much of the blame for this sorry state of affairs rests squarely on the shoulders of U.S. Jews, whose silence over Israel's conduct, with far too few exceptions, has been nothing but disgraceful, and absolutely raises the issue of dual loyalty."
In the first place, the statement is simply not accurate. Yes, certainly there are many Jews, who out of a misguided sense of loyalty to Israel, cannot face the truth of Israeli apartheid and the disgraceful and brutal history of the Occupation.
That said, there are also many, many Jewish activists, artists, writers and scholars who have spoken out forcefully in defense of the Palestinian people and against the Occupation and who have vigorously opposed the continuing American monetary and military aid to Israel. Many of these same American Jews have traveled to the West Bank and Gaza to stand in solidarity with the oppressed. Many have put themselves on the line, both with nonviolent protests and acts of civil disobedience in the cause of justice. There are probably millions of American Jews who oppose the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. But you won't see, hear or read much of this in the corporate controlled mass media.
For however just one recent example in NYC, take the time to copy this web address into your browser: http://vodpod.com/watch/1358336-jewish-activists-protest-world-zionist-organization?pod=dandelionsalad
As far as blame, all Americans share in that. It is our collective tax dollars that go at the rate of $10,000,000 per day - yes, that's ten million per day, to support the Israeli military machine. Recently, Amnesty International found evidence of U.S.-made weapons in Gaza, including the misuse of white phosphorus munitions, a breach of our own US stated policy and international law.
I don't like the idea of singling out U.S. Jews per se as responsible for what Israel has done. AIPAC, and other pro-Zionist lobbyists, the huge block of fundamentalist right wing Christians and the vast majority of American politicians, white, black, Christian and Jewish who unconditionally support Israel's actions, are all a part of this mashuga mess.
I don't think CJ Mellor meant it to be so, but that last statement, more or less placing collective blame on "the shoulders of U.S. Jews" is exactly what anti-Semitism feeds upon.
The Israeli Prime Minster recently referred to the rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout the world. Olmert suggested that a good part of the reason for it was the blockade of the Gaza Strip. "We need to remember that the Occupation is a problem for us", he explained. He further argued: "As long as we are presented as Occupiers, we will continue suffer from anti-Semitic incidents."
Like any other racial or ethnic prejudice, anti-Semitism is a disease, not a solution or an answer for anything.
The specter of anti-Semitism hangs over our heads ominously enough - thanks to the unfortunate tendency towards prejudice in many, which has been exacerbated by the horrific and cruel actions of Israeli Zionists and it's supporters over the last 60 years - we don't need to add to it.
Tarak Kauff
Woodstock
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
I'm writing to comment on a wonderful new event in town - Music at the Movies. Last Sunday night, while the snow came down and the wind howled outside, the Tinker St. Cinema was transformed into a warm, welcoming space hosting the amazing band Ida. Ida's music was spectacularly beautiful and mesmerizing (you could hear a pin drop in the room). I'm grateful to Judy Whitfield, Julie Last, Nancy Adler and anyone else who helped in putting this new series together. The sound was terrific and it is a great room for live music - intimate and comfortable. I feel so lucky to live in Woodstock where events like this happen - and this was another of those Woodstock nights to remember!
Augusta Ogden
Bearsville
NO NAZI COULD HAVE SAID IT BETTER
First, I am surprised at you, the Editor, for publishing this vile, thinly disguised letter of anti-Semitism. For shame at you, and for shame at CJ Mellor's viciousness. While I am not asking you to censor letters, you obviously have the opportunity to decide which ones to publish on certain topics. You had two other letters in that issue, which while I disagree with regarding their position on Israel, are not so blatant and in your face with their anti-Semitism wrapped in an anti-Israel disguise. For you to have published the hate-filled venomous letter by Mellor, does not speak well of either your editing or your vision of "polite" discourse. Would you have given a megaphone to Goebbels, Nazism's chief propagandist? The only thing that gives me solace about your decision is that maybe you published it to allow the community a look at anti-Semitism in the raw - and it was quite a shocking view.
With regard to CJ Mellor's vicious racism and blatant anti-Semitism, I think it is instructive for the community to see this person's beliefs. No Nazi could have said it better. I have no doubt that if this was Germany in the 40's that CJ Mellor would be an active, happy, willing participant in all of the many anti-Jewish activities perpetrated by Adolph Hitler.
Susan Puretz
Saugerties
THE VALUE OF A GOOD BOOKSTORE
I don't want to see one more empty storefront in town.
What makes for an exceptional quality of life in a small town? Beyond the people, I mean. For me, it's having hardware stores, art galleries, a library, a drop-in help center, open public spaces and trails, theatre, music, delicious food, reliable services, and unique shops. I could go on.
The Golden Notebook is an important part of what distinguishes our town. With its shelves crammed with old and new titles, its discount cards and other services, and that personal touch, it's easy to see why it has been so beloved to so many readers for over thirty years.
In these financially dismal times, we need to shop locally to keep Woodstock thriving. Ellen and Barry tell me that although independent bookstore numbers around the country have dwindled alarmingly, they are determined to fight the big box stores' incursions into their tiny market. That's great, but they can't fight this fight without us.
We can continue to distinguish our town from so many small, dreary burgs that don't have a treasured bookstore. We have to use it if we don't want to lose it.
Gayle Jamison
Woodstock
PRO-NAZI PROPAGANDA
This is in response to the anti-Semitic screed written by a C.J. Mellor in the February 19 edition of Woodstock Times. An opinion about Israel is one thing, but to accuse American Jewry of dual loyalty is to hark back to Nazism. We haven't heard stuff like this since the heyday of pro-Nazi propaganda.
I would suggest that Mellor would have been very happy in Nazi Germany. This person is in desperate need of psychiatric help. Mellor is obviously an anti-Semitic. We have seen these types before and most reasonable people disregard them.
However, Mellor should know that American Jews and their Christian allies will prevail despite prejudiced bigots like Mellor.
Joan and Sanford Krotenberg
Woodstock
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