LETTER TO www.AllOTSEGO.com Community Garden Beat COVID-19 Blahs, Hartwick Clerk Writes To the Editor: As the recent pandemic settled in on our small little community, town officials sought out a healthy outlet for residents to endure while safely following social distancing guidelines and getting a breath of our fresh Upstate New York air! The Town of Hartwick brought back the Community Garden, located off of Hatchery Road in the hamlet! With help from many members of the community it came…
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Opinion - Page 164
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…
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…
EDITORIAL Extremism Threatens George Floyd’s Legacy In our nation and county, we have a moment of opportunity. George Floyd’s death – and, in particular, the graphic video, 8 minutes and 46 seconds of it – caused every American of good will, black, white, Hispanic, even, yes, Indians, to say, enough is enough. The mechanisms of reform are starting to turn on the question of the moment: How do we retool our police departments so it, finally, once and for all,…
LETTER from JAMES “CHIP” NORTHRUP Give Native Americans A Say In How Things Are Named To the Editor: My distant relative and friend, the late Jim Northrup, was a Native American, decorated Vietnam Marine vet, and very humorous author. My real name is James so Jim and I used to joke about how all the “Jim Northrups are strong, handsome and above average.” He’s gone now, but on his behalf, as his paleface relative, I’d like to suggest that when…
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…
LETTER from SAMANTHA DAVENPORT Mecca ‘Tone-Deaf’ Way To Refer to HoF To the Editor: I am a reader of www.AllOTSEGO.com as well as its weekly newsprint companion. Twice now I have seen reference made to the Baseball Hall of Fame as “Mecca” and/or “the Mecca.” Although I too place great value on the HoF and acknowledge it might be very old tradition to use the word, I think calling it “Mecca” is, frankly, tone-deaf. I am sorry to be so…
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…
LETTER from ROBIN MOTT Village Pretty: Now Make It Work To the Editor: I have been told that between 5 and 8 a.m. Wednesday, June 24, a crew would be coming in to, hopefully, fix a water main on Main Street that has broken. If it does not get fixed, I will not be able to do business that day. I am not the only one in this situation. This is the third time that a water main has broken…
