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…
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Columns - Page 81
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…
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Briefing ‘From Worst To First’ Editor’s Note: Here are three excerpts from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 111th and last of “daily briefings” that became part of New Yorkers’ lives since the day of his emergency declaration Friday, March 13, as the coronavirus epidemic loomed, until Friday, June 19. He will continue briefings on an as-needed basis. Today, we have done a full 180, from worst to first. We are controlling the virus better than any state in the…
LETTER FROM GEORGETOWN What I Didn’t Know About Racism By CONOR YOUNGS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Over the last two weeks, Americans have voiced their anger, frustration and shock over the murder of George Floyd through large-scale protests across the county, including in our very own Oneonta and Cooperstown. These events reminded me of something I wrote in one of our local newspapers right after the 2016 election as a college senior interning with Otsego County Judge Brian Burns. The…
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 If Numbers Keep Rising In Mohawk Valley Region, County May Be Re-Closed By RICHARD STERNBERG • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com At his news conference today, Governor Cuomo made public the result of the latest antibody testing story for all of New York State. The numbers don’t look good for the Mohawk Valley region (which includes Otsego County), and the governor made a brief comment to that effect. The antibody testing indicates that somebody’s had the…
FROM PROTESTS’ FRONT LINES Where Is God? In Otsego County By Rev. LaDANA CLARK • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Where is GOD? The whole world goes down in a plague and comes up in a peaceful protest! Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I can’t make a man love me, only GOD can do that.” Where is GOD? GOD is in the heart of every person who is rising up right now, on one accord, all over the country, and…
FROM PHILANTHROPY’S FRONT LINES Needs Met, But Much Left To Do By HARRY LEVINE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com We first announced the creation of the COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Fund in this newspaper on April 21. We had not intended to start our public life this way, but the need for such a fund was obvious to us and we felt a deep responsibility to join those already fighting the pandemic. What we can now report is that the community,…
