Baseball at all levels is ever-changing
The "Tigers leaving Oneonta" headline is ruffling some feathers. Well, baseball's an emotional thing. You don't get to be America's pastime by subduing the soul of the fan. But neither can you subdue the business of baseball.
Teams are re-manned, re-routed, re-named, re-aligned all the time. Even in the majors, Ruth leaves Boston for the Bronx, Braves move from Milwaukee to Atlanta, Senators become Twins, Brewers go from AL to NL, and on and on. And the majors are the top of the pecking order. Single-A ball is the bottom.
This Oneonta Tigers relocation is no great shakes for Norwich, Conn., either. Their Double-A Defenders have been lost to businessmen in Richmond, Va., and now Norwich's Dodd Stadium will be home to a Single-A team with a short season.
Adding insult to injury, their beloved Defenders, named to honor the nearby U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Navy submarine base, have been renamed the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
Dodd Stadium, actually carved into the ground, is a $9.3 million state-of-the-art facility with great amenities and a panoply of skyboxes.
The ESPN drama "The Bronx Is Burning" was filmed there.
Your O-Tigers will faint when they arrive. No Single-A team ever had it so good! Plan a trip to Norwich this summer and root on your Tigers.
In the meantime, Oneonta's relationship with professional baseball remains to be seen. Since the Utica Utes arrived in 1924, the ride's been bumpy, but not catastrophic. History suggests that baseball will return to the City of the Hills, but a successful party needs a good host.
The city of Oneonta cannot compete with the deep pockets of communities like Norwich, Conn., but that's where other levels of commitment have to come into play. Things like civic involvement, desire, imagination, promotion, purpose, hospitality, vision, enthusiasm ...
Christine Lindberg
Edmeston
Reid never called Republicans racists
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never harm me." In a letter published on Dec. 31, Joel Canfield wrote: "Harry Reid, crazed with frustration, said that all Republicans who dared to question Obamacare had the mind-set of slaveowners."
Sen. Harry Reid never called Mr. Canfield or other Republicans racist. By using exact quotes, we demonstrate respect for a reader's comprehension skills.
Actually, Sen. Reid said to Republican senators: "Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, slow down, stop everything, let's start over. If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said slow down, it's too early, things aren't bad enough.
"When women spoke up for the right to speak up, they wanted to vote, some insisted they simply, slow down, there will be a better day to do that, today isn't quite right.
"When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today."
Some of us who submit controversial letters to editors recognize that we'll provoke anger by expressing our opinions. We should anticipate reading rude remarks in unsigned letters and receiving harassing anonymous telephone calls. Overly sensitive writers of letters to newspapers are advised: "If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen."
James O'Leary
Delhi
Abortion is not a 'new experiment'
Many people of faith _ Christians, Jews and others _ believe strongly in family planning, age-appropriate sexuality education, women's health and safety, and the right to choose abortion.
And with respect to abortion, pastoral leaders and spiritual advisers know from their practices that such choices are considered in the context of competing "goods."
No one, especially no man, is in a position to state unequivocally that when that decision is reached, it is done so cavalierly, or as a matter of expedience.
It is an untruth to state that abortion is a "new experiment." Margaret Kenyon misrepresents the issue in so stating in her Feb. 1 letter to The Daily Star. Roe v. Wade did not begin abortion in 1973. It simply brought abortion from the back alleys into the safety and privacy of a physician's office.
Before abortion was legal, women still had them. They suffered through illegal, dangerous methods, often bleeding to death. In those parts of the world where abortion is illegal or unavailable, women continue to have them, often with disastrous consequences. And, we should note, they bear unwanted pregnancies often with equally disastrous consequences!
It continues to amaze me that people who are against abortion are not the biggest supporters of affordable birth control and medically accurate sex education in public schools. Unfortunately, the hardliners behind so many of the letters that address this subject are not just opposed to abortion. They are opposed to every intelligent public policy that would enable women and their male partners to have access to basic reproductive health information. They oppose access to birth control. They oppose programs of education in the schools. Not only do women deserve better, the community at large deserves better.
The Rev. Thomas Clemow
Oneonta
Clemow is a former pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Oneonta.
We must all say 'no' to hydrofracking
The proposed Halliburton-devised horizontal gas drilling method, "fracking," uses the injection of carcinogenic, radioactive chemicals to force out natural gas.
With 80 percent remaining underground, the remaining poisonous surface sludge is open to runoff and wildlife, and transported to some yet undisclosed location. Comments made by powerful gas companies, that the amount of carcinogens is so small as not to be of concern, is wrong, arrogant and self-serving. By definition, any carcinogenic material can and will cause cancer. The unknowns are the cumulative effect of chemicals, who is most at risk, and the resulting compounds after heat and pressure are applied. They will interfere with our health at a cellular level and can cause cancer.
Everyone has someone they know whose lives were irreversibly changed by cancer. Gas companies know proving a causal link will be impossible, due to the sheer number of chemicals.
The costly pre/post testing won't help as you will be long exposed, damage done. If you think the gas companies, the government or DEC will take care of you, you are sadly mistaken. Gas companies will be long gone and litigation will not bring your loved one back. Say no and vote your position.
Maureen Culbert
East Springfield
