This week’s Letters to the Editor

Liberty wept

Based on Alito’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, any personal right that was not enumerated in 1866 when the 14th Amendment was written is not protected. Alito implied

his reasoning applied only to abortion. But in his concurrence, Justice Thomas pointed out that the Dobbs precedent would apply to other practices, including same-sex marriage and contraception, birth control pills.

In Dobbs, reactionary Catholics on the Supreme Court applied Catholic theology to American law, effectively breaching the separation of church and state. Justice Sotomayor, also raised Catholic, wrote in her dissent that the practical result of Dobbs was that the state could force women to bear children against their will, like livestock, depriving them of their bodily autonomy. And if the state could do that, it could, under Alito’s reasoning, deprive them of any personal right that was not recognized in 1866, including the right to marry someone of another race, which was illegal in 1866 in 18 states and was not overturned until 1967, 20 years before Clarence Thomas married his wife Ginni.

There is a rather straightforward solution to this: Congress should increase the number of justices on the court to 13 and overturn Dobbs for the misogynistic assault on women that it is. 

Chip Northrup, Cooperstown

We’re going to need more prisons

The Gilbane Company, Turner Construction, and Correction Corporation of America may not be on your personal radar, but they will be after June 2022. How come, you ask? I’ll tell you. With the Supreme Court denial of the right to abortion procedures, many states will immediately activate criminal charges against any persons engaging in any activity that contributes to an abortion. Federal protection will no longer exist for a person’s right to choose. The states will control the criminal proceedings.

Thousands of women, spouses, family members, friends, physicians, and staff will be at risk of criminal prosecution, prison sentences as well as fines.

The Gilbane, Turner, and Correction Corporation are three of the major prison construction companies. They have earned billions of dollars constructing prisons, detention centers, and criminal justice centers, for example, Bergen County, New Jersey’s jail extension. The prison construction industry has been handed a financial bonanza by the folks in black robes.

Tom Golden, Ph.D, New Berlin, NY

Here’s one for Castelli

While the Cooperstown area has lost a responsive and responsible Member of Congress in Antonio Delgado, now running for Lieutenant Governor, there is a very reasonable antidote to the toxicity of Elise Stefanik, forced on us by recent redistricting.

Just to refresh your memory, Rep. Stefanik is a true believer in Trumpism and, perhaps, Trump’s greatest defender. She stepped forward out of the shadows during Trump’s first impeachment trial and fiercely defended him with the reward of being elevated from an Upstate NY back-bencher to the third leading Republican in the House of Representatives. Since then, she has become a strong voice for the gun lobby.

While educated at Harvard and starting out as a moderate Republican, her rhetoric has swung completely to the right, becoming ultra-MAGA and a purveyor of the Great Race Replacement Theory as well as conspiracy theories like the Democrats being “pedo-grifters,” her anti-gun control stance after Uvalde and Buffalo, and her anti-immigration positions (I gather she’s not aware of the renaissance of Utica thanks to the many immigrants who are settling there). Worst of all is her support of the Big Lie. Enough said about her.

The citizens of this congressional district have a reasonable alternative in Matt Castelli. Mr. Castelli is a former CIA officer and Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council who served in both the Obama and Trump administrations. He comes from a bipartisan family, his mom being a lifelong Republican and his dad a lifelong Democrat from whom he learned the importance of putting one’s differences aside and working together for the betterment of our society.

His path toward national service was spurred on by the events of 9/11, but his decision to run for Congress came as he watched domestic terrorists attack the U.S. Capitol and police officers, putting our democracy at risk.

He saw Elise Stefanik violate her oath to defend and protect the Constitution by supporting the Big Lie and the perpetrator-in-chief.

A native of upstate New York and a graduate of Siena College, he holds graduate degrees from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  While Stefanik is an opportunist, riding the coat tails of a failed leader, twice-impeached and unhinged as testified to by witnesses in the Jan. 6th congressional hearings,  Matt Castelli is a rational and reasonable choice at this time when our democracy and our national unity is on the brink of being destroyed.

Sanford Mayer, Cherry Valley

And here’s one for Stefanik

One of the many duties the nation’s top executive is tasked with handling is ensuring ample nutrition for our country’s most vulnerable; babies. While it would seem obvious, President Biden has been shockingly incompetent, even for his standards.

At the end of May, the out-of-stock shelf rate for baby formula was 73%. There is no greater “kitchen table issue” that is more pressing in today’s climate than parents’ ability to feed their newborn babies. Despite the many warnings and internal signs that a potential shortage would hit the nation, President Biden did nothing to alter its course and as a result, has left many families in a state of desperation and panic.

Rep. Elise Stefanik addressed the crisis and detailed a Republican-led strategy to combat the supply chain problems, restock shelves, and provide necessary oversight into the administration’s mishandling of shortage to ensure it does not repeat itself.

Families deserve certainty, especially when it comes to their children, and no family should be forced to struggle to feed their babies. This issue is a metaphor for the incompetence and deterioration of the Biden administration and the solutions Rep. Stefanik is working every day to provide for the American people.

Maxim Verenich, Frankfort