I worry about Oneonta's future
After reading Dick Miller's ideas for Bresee's, I have serious concerns for the future of our downtown. Miller has an extensive professional background; something that I felt was a positive for his campaign and for the community. However, after reading in Bloomberg News that 85 of Hartwick's endowments are under water, combined with his idea that there is somehow an "unmet demand for Oneonta T-shirts, sweatshirts and mugs" and that this type of store should go into Bresee's, I have lost confidence in his ability to improve our community.
If he was not able to secure Hartwick's financial future, how is he going to do this for our city? As for Oneonta's demand for shirts with the city's name on them, State University College at Oneonta's Red Dragon bookstore already carries and sells a large variety of items with "Oneonta" on them.
Why are we spending millions of dollars to redevelop Bresee's if we are only going to put low-quality stores in there? Is this clothing store going to create careers? Is it going to revitalize downtown? Is it going to motivate others to come to Oneonta? Is it going to increase our city's presence? These are all questions that we should be thinking about, asking, and getting answers for.
I worry about our downtown and our community's future when the person in charge of our downtown development and a mayoral candidate believes that we need to meet an unmet demand for clothing. I think we have an even larger unmet demand for economic stability and careers.
William Kuhn
Oneonta
American people played for fools
America is running out of time. We are quickly becoming the most powerful Third World nation on the planet as our standard of living continues to decline, except for the ultra-rich.
While most still believe the myth of a country run "by the people and for the people," the shocking truth is we have corrupt leaders who have sold us out to the highest bidders _ Wall Street and certain foreign governments. While the corporate news media closely followed the death of Michael Jackson in early August for the "infotainment" pleasure of the American people, former FBI interpreter Sibel Edmonds testified about corruption and treason in our government.
Because of a gag order imposed by the Ashcroft Justice Department, Ms. Edmonds has been prevented from telling what she learned about government corruption, bribery and blackmail by foreign interests, the selling of our nuclear secrets and 9/11, while translating FBI wiretaps.
The complete transcript of her deposition is available at
www.bradblog.com.
Because this deviant activity crosses party lines, there is little interest within the government to uncover the facts surrounding this tale of espionage and treachery and bring the guilty to justice.
The partisan "game" of "gotcha" politics played in Washington is really a smokescreen used to divide and conquer. While the national debate revolves around such idiocy as death panels and gay marriage, the real issues and problems affecting the lives of all Americans are swept under the rug and ignored.
The American people have been played for "fools" by BOTH parties, and unless and until we can rise above the national mindlessness perpetuated by the news media designed to keep us fighting each other, our petty partisan views will continue providing cover for the auctioning-off of our democracy.
It is time to stop yelling and start demanding accountability.
Richard Averett
Otego
