Letters to the Editor August 11

Columnist Shanley gets it right in his assessment of the U.S. economy

Columnist Richard Shanley’s masterful and thought-provoking commentary dealing with the root causes behind this nation’s looming economic decline (Lakeville Journal, July 28) should be read by every member of Congress interested in coping with the gargantuan unfunded shortfalls in so-called “entitlement” programs.

Sadly, the fissures suddenly appearing in America’s credit standing have eloquently confirmed Mr. Shanley’s view.

John N. Carey
North Canaan

 

Great Railroad Days this year

I would like to thank all who took part in Railroad Days.

Thanks to John Lannen and the Chamber of Commerce and the businesses who sponsored the many events. Thanks to the Town Highway Crew for setups and pickups, Troop B and Resident Trooper Jim Promotico and the State Police Explorers along with the citizens who took part.

Thanks to the many clubs and organizations and especially the Canaan Fire Company and the North Canaan Ambulance and emergency teams from our neighboring towns who also took part. It was great to see the wonderful fireworks display.

Douglas E. Humes Jr.
First Selectman
North Canaan

 

SWSA thanks

The Salisbury Winter Sports Association would like to thank sponsors Ascendant Compliance Management, Best & Cavallaro Realtors, Black Rabbit Bar & Grille, Churchill Builders, Iron Ore Floors, Mizza’s Restaurant, Peter Becks Village Store, The Wake Robin Inn and everyone who attended and braved the rain to make our second annual SWSA Family Sun Ball Party a success Saturday, Aug. 6, at the Wake Robin Inn.

In monsoon-like rain, the event was moved indoors and under tents and everyone had a great time eating, dancing and even playing badminton in the rain.

We would also like to thank the many local businesses who donated raffle prizes as well as the Lakeville Hose Company and the ongoing generosity of NASCAR Dave and his Sunday in the Country crew for volunteering their evening to “cookin’ in the rain” to feed the hungry crowd.

Without all of this support, our event would not have been possible. From all of us at SWSA, we thank everyone very much.

John Sullivan
Salisbury Winter Sports Association
Salisbury

 

There’s a failure of leadership in D.C.

The recent letter, “Republicans have it in for us common folks,” is an example of the liberal human shield tactic denouncing Republicans for throwing “vulnerable citizens, the disabled, the poor and grandma” under the bus.

Fortunately, liberal ideology can no longer hide behind a complicit biased media nor sustain these accusations in the face of national fiscal reality.  

Under this presidency of incompetency, America went to the precipice of socialism to be soundly rebuked in 2010. Obama’s plan for the kind of change he and supporters like ACORN want for America has hit the wall.

It should come as no surprise that, once widely exposed, the corruption, voter fraud and intimidation and other unconstitutional acts perpetrated by Obama’s ACORN led to their filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. ACORN blames this on the “right-wing media and its proponents” and the “barrage of unmitigated accusations.”

For those who never read the ACORN manifesto, it says in part, “In our freedom, only the people shall rule … Corporations shall have their role; producing jobs, providing products, paying taxes. No more, no less … They shall obey our wishes.” Scary stuff.  

Today’s reality is unless the government drastically changes its ways, stops wasting our capital and addresses the social entitlement programs that are bleeding this country to death, America will become another debt-ridden insolvent country.

Talk about hypocrisy. The quote circulating the Internet is this: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.  Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.  America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better,” attributed to Sen. Barack H. Obama, March 2006.   

According to www.snopes.com, this “is a verbatim capture of the opening and closing paragraphs of his remarks.”  The damning two-faced hypocrisy of Obama’s complete statement in the congressional record can be read at www.snopes.com (search words “politics, Obama, debt limit”). Most Americans, sadly outside deep blue Connecticut, have had enough of Obama’s “Change for America.”

The resultant anger and anxiety of the left is showing in letters and even in a rude direct statement to me and another Republican associate in the Salisbury town clerk’s office by a Democratic Town Committee member that “You Republicans are [deleted] things up,” to which I say, quite to the contrary. Americans have woken up to the lies and falsehoods of Obama’s dream America.  

Winston Churchill said it best: “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”  

Chris P. Janelli
Salisbury

 

Good work on housing

Despite what other letter writers have said about the Salisbury Affordable Housing Commission (SAHC), we have been hearing a great deal of support and enthusiasm for the work of the commission and wanted readers to hear that perspective as well.

We applaud the town of Salisbury for taking a proactive approach by creating the new commission. Quantifying the town’s diverse housing needs, laying out strategies to address these needs and forming the SAHC to implement these strategies have been critical first steps in the process.  

All of these steps take time and ongoing community support and engagement is critical. As we know through our work with local housing organizations throughout the Berkshire/Taconic region, local groups often request and need guidance and support to facilitate the creation of housing options that those who work, volunteer and grew up in our towns can afford.

SAHC’s intention is to support and complement, not to compete with the heroic efforts of the Salisbury Housing Trust, The Salisbury Housing Committee and Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut and to provide them with strategic, financial and, most importantly, community support.

SAHC was created and funded with a majority of votes at a special town meeting; we all need to support its mission and efforts if we are to maintain this vibrant and remarkable community of Salisbury.

David Rich, Chairman
HousingUs
Lakeville

 

A very worthy mission

American Legion Post 178 would like to thank all who participated in Operation Thank You Wounded Warrior II.

A special thanks goes to Patty “O,” Linda Hogan, Bob Boyles, Russell Boyles and Legionnaire Larry Sands, who cooked in temperatures pushing 115 degrees in front of the grills for three hours.

To Charlene Mayville, president of American Legion Auxiliary Unit 178 and her officers in attendance, Molly Jenks, Linda Eckler and Marie Barnum, thanks for your selfless service to our servicemen and women. The event would not have gone off as well as it did without you all.

     To Junior Auxiliary members  Katie Eckler, Sarah Eckler, Emma Jenks and Kelsey Jenks, along with Stone Scasso and Jake and Daniel Wolfe, who entertained all the children who are at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with their wounded mothers or fathers, thank you.

     Thank you to members of the Pine Plains VFW and the Marine Corps League in North Canaan for your participation.

     I’d like to thank John Wolfe for again donating his services as bus driver and delivering us safely to and from Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

     There are more than 45 volunteers we would like to give our heartfelt thanks to as well. I, along with Legion officers in attendance Lee Garay, Don Barnum, Stan Chase, Sean Klay and Larry Sands, would like recognize you for your motivation and caring contribution to the team and were humbled by your outstanding service to our nation’s Wounded Warriors.

      A special thanks goes to Larry Sands, who worked tirelessly for months procuring donations for the trip, and to Sid Byron, who secured significant financial assistance.

This entire trip would not haven been possible without the help of the Tri-State Community. To the numerous citizens and businesses who recognized the need and gave generously without hesitation, we say thank you.

May God bless you and the United States of America.

Robert D. Jenks,
Commander
American Legion Post 178
Millerton

 

The rich pay their share

The rich pay their share

In his column of July 28, Anthony Piel makes a claim seen often in the debate over budget deficits:  It’s all about asking the wealthy to “pay their fair share” of taxes, so the implication is clear that rich people are not carrying a proper load.

Piel supports this assertion with a statistic that America’s “super wealthy” pay taxes at an effective rate of .7 percent.  That number looks like an indictment of the rich but the website of the Internal Revenue Service offers data altering the “spin.”  The top 5 percent of income earners paid 59 percent of all personal income tax. Sounds to me like more than a “fair share.”  

I have learned, however, never to accept a single statistic in casting judgment; one must place numbers into a context.

How much of all earned income did this wealthy group grab for themselves? The answer, according to the IRS, is 34 percent. If fair share at minimum suggests the tax payment should be proportionate to the share of income, these rich guys pay 73 percent more than their fair share already.

Checking out the bottom half of income earners, we see their earnings are 12.5 percent of the total, yet they pay a piddling 2.7 percent of all taxes. The danger is that we appear to be getting closer to an unhealthy situation where a relatively poorer majority can order the wealthy minority to hand over all their money.

Ted Spickler
Taconic

 

Whose road is it, anyway?

In reading Asher Pavel’s article on proposed speed humps (what, no posted speed signs?) for our soon-to-be reopened Mitchelltown Road (issue of Aug. 4), one might be excused for believing the town of Sharon, within living memory, had roughly cut a road through James Metz’ property in a pique of eminent domain.

Without even referring to historic maps, it is obvious this road has been in existence long before the great-grandparents of anyone in Sharon was born. Yet Mr. Metz has consistently tried to treat Mitchelltown Road as merely an extension of his own driveway.

Over the past decades, I have had to brake numerous times for his free-running dogs, who are let out unaccompanied. On the first occasion, one winter morning, I followed those dogs back to their home. When I beeped in the driveway to get anyone’s attention, a woman came to the door and responded to my concern for the safety of her dogs with an imperious demand to know my name.

My response to her was, “Lady, I’m just someone who didn’t want to turn your dogs into road pizza.”

James Metz’s actions ever since the temporary closing of Mitchelltown Road for necessary repairs have, at every turn, telegraphed his acquisitive mindset. The town of Sharon resoundingly voted down his earlier proposal to buy what has always been our road.

I found it astounding for this paper to use a turn of phrase reflecting Mr. Metz’s own viewpoint that Mitchelltown Road “runs through his property” when in fact, he only happens to own property on either side of what has always been our public town road.

Bonnie A. Sears
Sharon

 

Thanks for a great book signing for Sharon’s Hotchkiss Library

Thanks to many people’s generosity, the 15th annual Sharon Summer Book Signing was a festive and successful fundraiser for our town library. Hundreds of book lovers came to talk with dozens of authors and buy their books under large white tents off the village Green.

Nearly a hundred people, businesses and organizations made it happen. Volunteers, young and old, donated their time and talents in innumerable ways. Members of the book selection committee spent months inviting authors; others underwrote and publicized the benefit, created signs, and, on the day of the event, filled the tents with books and flowers, greeted guests, passed hors d’oeuvres, tended bar and rang up book sales. Sue Norris, assisted by Emily Bartram, did a great job organizing and selling rare and used books over the weekend.

Afterward, five Sharon families graciously hosted author dinners: Vicky and Dennis Ross, Jennifer and Derek Dillon, Lee and Fritz Link, Lynn Nesbit and Dotty and Lionel Goldfrank.

My co-chairs and many others were immensely helpful: Janet Accardo and Laurie Dunham; Harding Bancroft and Karen Kellogg; Peter Anderson and Bill Chatfield; Barclay Collins and Louise Brown; Bob Maxwell and Jim DiMartino; Nancy Bird, Susan Hassler, Lyn Mattoon, and Gretchen Hachmeister; Charles Tomlinson, Liz Gall and Carol Couch; Nina Kaletsch and Meg Szalewicz; Susan Edholm and Kim Hohlfelt; Divya Symmers, Kris King, and Heide Hendricks; Lynne Humeston, Jeanne Xanthos, Linda Amerighi, and Beth Rybczyk; Cynthia Conklin and Judy Albright; and others too numerous to name here.

The local newspapers as well as Marshall Miles, Brian Wilcox and the Sadlons of The Moviehouse in Millerton gave us invaluable publicity.  

And then there were the 32 authors, who discussed and signed their latest books.

Thanks to the entire library board and library staff, who did so much in so many ways. On behalf of the board of directors of the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon, my heartfelt thanks to everyone.

Laurie Lisle, Chair
15th Annual Sharon Summer Book Signing
Sharon

 

Thanks from Lloyd Fund

Radiant blue skies were outmatched only by the radiant spirits emanating from the hundreds of guests who gathered on SWSA’s Satre Hill for the sixth annual Jane Lloyd Fund Clambake.  

Whether a lobster lover — thank you, Ray, Mike and Christopher — a music fan — thank you, Jane Gang — an ice cream enthusiast — thank you, Sharon Fire Department —  a barbecue aficionado —thank you, volunteers — an admirer of natural beauty — thank you, SWSA — or moved by the power to make a difference — thank you, everyone — the clambake exuded infectious joy and community camaraderie.

It also, thanks to the many very generous sponsors and donors, especially our local businesses, generated essential funds for the Jane Lloyd Fund’s mission of helping cancer patients cope with the financial strains of this terrible disease.

Supporters of the clambake revel in the exceptional spirit of the event, but do so in the full knowledge that they are contributing toward the vital work of the Jane Lloyd Fund.

The scourge of cancer is insidious and heartbreaking, but with so many devoted community members fighting back on behalf of their neighbors and friends, the clambake provides an inspiring snapshot of what this community is capable of.  

Jane Lloyd, the beautiful young woman whose life was so tragically cut short by cancer, infused the celebration with her joy and passion for life. We celebrated and honored her spirit with the scores of volunteers, donors and clambake guests who make the work of the Jane Lloyd Fund possible.

The Jane Lloyd Fund humbly and gratefully thanks the community for its extraordinary support and for its commitment to easing the burdens of cancer patients living among us.

Tanya Tedder
Donna Lloyd
Salisbury

 

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