THE VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Oil Embargo’s Lesson Forgotten In 1973, the Organization for the Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) from the Middle East imposed an oil embargo on the United States. It had a crippling impact on our economy and on our way of life because we didn’t produce enough energy in this country to meet the demand. People waited in line for hours to buy a few gallons of gasoline and tempers flared. The same impact was felt on…
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Opinion - Page 172
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 The Elephant In The Room To me, there is no more important concept in The War Against COVID-19 than triage. Merriam-Webster.com defines this as “the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients, and especially battle and disaster victims, according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors.” So far, triage is being used to determine who is taken to, or just allowed to go to, hospital emergency rooms. EMTs…
LETTER from SAM WILCOX 2nd Amendment Relic Of Early Republic To the Editor: Otsego County is facing a proposal to declare this county a “gun sanctuary.” This would mean that our county board would ban compliance with the Safe Act passed by the state Legislature in 2013. That act promoted, among other things, background checks, banning assault weapons, and limiting ammunition. It was not anti-gun, rather it was pro-gun safety. However, the Safe Act has been perceived as a violation…
LETTER from NICOLE DILLINGHAM Fold Fracking Ban Into Governor’s Budget Editor’s Note: Since the print edition went to press, the Governor’s Budget, agreed to Wednesday, April 1, included a fracking ban. To the Editor: The emergency now unfolding due to the coronavirus is not the only global crisis we are facing. The threat of global warming also requires state-wide, indeed global, response. The damage climate change is causing should not be ignored in the hope that it will magically disappear.…
LETTER from CHIP NORTHRUP Heroes Of The Plague To the Editor: The humorist, Will Rogers, once said: “When all the filing stations on all the street corners are out of gas, then we’ll see what kind of people we’ve become.” It takes a pandemic to see what kind of people we’ve become and who the heroes are. Here’s my short list: The staff of Bassett Fox – for getting ready in time, working tirelessly and telling the truth, particularly Drs.…
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER The Question Of Out-Of-Towners By LARRY BENNETT • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com FOR: First is the idea that all have the right to remove their family from a place of apparent danger to a place seen to be safer. Second is the economic idea that second-home owners have the absolute right to relocate to those homes, which they own and pay taxes on. Presumably that is also true if a city resident can afford to rent…
LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 Why Wasn’t More Done Sooner? By RICHARD STERNBERG • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Over the last several days I reviewed a great deal of material regarding COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus. I looked at videos. I read scientific and lay papers. I scanned media reports. All to determine what to write about. It was like drinking from a fire hose. But the Monday, March 30, announcement by Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White…
County Pastors Contemplate: WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Editor’s Note: The coronavirus has closed churches, but via the Internet and other means, pastors continue to preach. Over the next few weeks, we will share their words here. Out Of Pain, Grief, Find Understanding Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Transcendentalist Unitarian, wrote, “There is a crack in every thing God has made.” In 1992, Leonard Cohen, singer, musician, and song writer, sang in his song “Anthem”, “There is a crack, a crack, in…
EDITORIAL County Avoids ‘Reactive, Emotional’ Measures Here Visitors Asked To Take Sensible Steps To Protect Themselves, Us By now you’ve heard about Rhode Island: Last Friday, it had state police stopping cars with New York license plates at the state line, and instructing passengers they must self-quarantine for 14 days if they planned to stay in Ocean State. The next day, National Guard troops went door to door in coastal areas, advising any Empire Staters who had gotten out of…
LETTER from CAROL LaCHANCE During This Crisis, Reach Out To Elderly. Elderly, Accept Help To the Editor: As social distancing becomes a new way of life, I am fearful. I don’t fear the coronavirus, but I fear the social isolation it is creating among us, especially the older population. We live in a village, with surrounding communities, whose median age is over 50 years old. Of this group, more than half are over the age of 65. There are many…
