{"DS | Head | Brief"/}Stop blaming Bush for Obama's problems
{"DS | Body text"/}You're right, Barbara Nolan. Tom Sears didn't mention all the things you spoke of. He also didn't mention Mr. Obama's spring breaks, winter breaks, flying all over the globe, sometimes with the whole family on Air Force One, or the trillions of dollars given to people who need it the least.
Let's stop blaming the Bush administration for every extra raindrop that falls. Every president inherits some hardship from the last. If Mr. Obama didn't think he could handle the problems in front of him, he shouldn't have run for president.
He can drop his golf clubs for a friend who is rushed to the hospital, but not for a terrorist on a plane with explosives in his underwear. You need to watch more FoxNews.
{"DS | Letters name/town"/}Janet Whelan
Mount Vision
{"DS | Head | Brief"/}Foothills board has much to answer for
{"DS | Body text"/}As both a visual and performing artist, one of the genuine appeals to living in Oneonta is the area's disproportionately large and abundant talent pool. Oneonta rivals many larger communities in this respect. This is why it is particularly disheartening to see an organization whose stated mission is the promotion of the arts collapse due to petty bureaucracy, shortsightedness and incompetence.
I was initially delighted when I heard that a new state-of-the-art performing arts facility would be built here. My enthusiasm has regrettably proven unfounded. So far the only usable space in the new building is the unfurnished and barren lobby. The main "house" remains empty and half-completed. Excellent performances have been brought in, but these have become increasingly rare. To my knowledge, the board of directors has made no serious attempts to reach out to the creative community, and seems more interested in hosting bridal expos and dance parties.
The recent mass firing mystifies and frustrates me more than anything else. I cannot fathom what the board of directors of Foothills Performing Arts Center was thinking when it decided to "clean house." I have, in the course of various projects, had the pleasure of working with each staff member mentioned. They are universally pleasant, professional and capable individuals who compare favorably with the crew of any established theater I've worked with. If given a venue to staff, I would happily hire them all without the slightest reservation. To see such a dedicated, creative and hardworking group of men and women callously fired speaks volumes about the board's mismanagement and clear lack of understanding of how a theater ought to be run.
For the good of the organization and the community, the board members themselves ought to resign before doing any further damage.
{"DS | Letters name/town"/}John A. Ryan
Oneonta
{"DS | Head | Brief"/}DOT workers are doing their best
{"DS | Body text"/}This is in reply to a Jan. 8 letter written by Mr. William Schermerhorn.
Let me be the first to say that when there is no school, the state workers are out doing their jobs even harder. I am a wife of a state worker, and my husband this past pay period put in 45 hours overtime. State workers drive in circles plowing (which is very tiring) the roads that you drive on to make it to work. Some are called in as early as 1 a.m. to go to work and others work as long as 1 a.m. to plow your roads when you are tucked in your beds sleeping.
Our state workers are plowing the roads trying to make them safe to drive on. For you to say "The state DOT takes its time getting to our roads," they have already been out working on the roads far longer than you have been awake so you can get to work.
When you were home for Thanksgiving eating your dinner or watching your family open presents at Christmas, where do you think our husbands and wives were? That's right, they were out plowing your roads so that you and everyone else would be able to visit their families.
{"DS | Letters name/town"/}Alicia Keator
Roseboom
{"DS | Head | Brief"/}Christian' ideals aren't the answer
{"DS | Body text"/}In response to a letter on Jan. 11 by Donna Sell, I have some questions for her.
When the Bush administration took from the poor to give more to the rich (wealth redistribution), was that anti-socialism?
Also, why does the right want to outlaw abortion as murder while at the same time refusing to fund medical care and the social programs that might help these unwanted babies have a chance at a decent life? That doesn't seem very Christian to me.
Speaking of Christianity, our nation was founded on freedom of religion (that's any religion, or no religion, not your specific type of Christianity).
Does a role model for the world torture its enemies, spy on its own people, or start wars based on lies that so far have cost more than 4,000 American lives and at least a half million Iraqi lives? If that's Christianity to you, I'll take atheism any day!
One last question, how can people who tout Christianity as such a loving and charitable thing spew so much hatred at people who disagree with them? Do you attend Rev. Mitch Wright's church?
I was taught a simple, important lesson by my mother when I was just a little boy: Treat people as you would like to be treated. If the whole world lived that way, there would be no more wars, and no need for the religion from which all wars emanate.
{"DS | Letters name/town"/}Neil Monzeglio
West Oneonta
{"DS | Head | Brief"/}U.S. needs to get out of Afghanistan
{"DS | Body text"/}The U.S. should negotiate with the Taliban the condition of women and school children in Afghanistan and then get out.
Afghanistan is a society and a culture; it is not a nation. It functions as a conglomeration of regional warlords. The U.S. cannot make it a nation. All the talk of training an army and police force, holding more elections and building up the infrastructure and economy, which is supposedly Obama's policy, following on from Bush, will not work. The warlords and traditional Afghans will outlast whatever changes the U.S. attempts to make.
The first mistake the U.S. made was invading the place. The second was putting forward Karzai as head of state. The person to fill that post should have been the son or grandson of the last king, now living in Rome. The king, as the warlord of all warlords, had legitimacy; Karzai, formerly an agent of U.S. corporations, does not and has failed miserably. It will be the same with whoever is the next elected president.
War remains the most expensive of all human endeavors, and in the past has destroyed the economy and hegemony of many superpowers. Also, our generals, like all generals, like war; it is the path to rapid promotion. We must get out of Afghanistan.
{"DS | Letters name/town"/}Martin Wank
Oneonta
