Unlike past years, this Labor Day is more of an observance than a celebration for working families. Since last Labor Day, energy prices have escalated tremendously to the point of a domino-effect on the entire economy. With $4 a gallon for gasoline, families cannot afford to travel on vacation, inflicting further damage to the economy while depriving themselves of a well-deserved break from work.

There seems little to celebrate this year as these new problems are tacked onto the old ones of recent years. We still have no comprehensive energy policy for this country despite concerns that go as far back as the 1973 Arab-Oil Embargo. In the face of oil company profits, where is the leadership?

We still lack comprehensive healthcare reform with coverage for all. Such reform would save money in the long run and make our nation’s workers more competitive in the global economy. Nonetheless, health insurance executives and trial lawyers, for the sake of greed, block reform. Again, where is the leadership?

We are absolutely outraged and ashamed at The Post Standard’s Sunday, June 22, front page, above-the-fold advertisement for Army recruiters. Do we want our vulnerable, idealistic youth to kill and die in the illegal, unjust Iraq war? Are their lives the price we’re willing to pay for oil? Do we want them to come home and be one of the 120 veterans per week who commit suicide? Do we want them to come home and become one more of at least 300,000 Iraq/Afghanistan veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or depression? Do we want them to come home after realizing the war is a fraud and have to continue to fight to stop the war–as the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) have done–in the face of a complicit media and spineless Congress?  Do we want to destroy our youth’s love of fairness and democracy in this way? Do we want to have them come home with life-altering injuries and the need for decades of support and care from already stretched loving families? Do we want them to receive poor quality care–or be denied care at all–by an outrageously underfunded VA? Do we want them to be one of the 200,000 veterans who are homeless in America on any given night?

As Ron Kovic, US Marine Sergeant, Vietnam war veteran and author of Born On The 4th of July stated, “military recruiters must be confronted in every high school, every campus, every recruiting office, on every street corner, in every town and city across America. The days of deceiving, manipulating and victimizing our young people must end.”

—Signed by 14 members of the

Syracuse Cultural Workers

Syracuse

In light of recent discussions concerning the price of gas and who is to blame, I urge everyone to read the book The Energy Non-Crisis, written by Lindsey Williams in the late 1970s and updated in the 1980s. Williams served on the boards of several oil companies while working as a minister in Alaska in the 1970s. What he learned about them is absolutely disgusting.

The book is hard to find (wonder why?) but available on YouTube is an eight-part lecture given by Williams in 2005, which predicts the current gas prices. Williams also presents an interesting view of the deal made by the first President Bush with the Saudis as well as why the second Bush may be interested in attacking Iran again!

This lecture, which runs about 70 minutes and is viewed in segments on YouTube, will give everyone a new view of this issue and explain why Bush is eager to invade Iran again before he leaves office to protect his father’s “deal” as well as why we have our own oil, right in our own Alaska, which remains untouched and classified by the government!

—Robert Steingraber

Syracuse 

I was at City Hall on June 7 for the flag raising ceremony in observance of CNY Pride as a volunteer for the Pride Committee. As I was assisting the groups registering for the parade, the excitement and respect for one another being shared under the Rainbow Flag was very apparent. Mayor Driscoll, Common Council President Bea Gonzalez and others were speaking of the hope for everyone, no matter who we are or what we are, to share in seeking equality and respect that should be made available for all.

To Mrs. Joanie Mahoney: There is never a time in history when it is easy to be a leader. No matter your intent or hopes, leaders will almost always be faced with issues that will require thoughtful and difficult decisions.

Alexander Hamilton said, “The trouble with the leaders we have is they spend all their time surveying the public to find out what is popular with them, so they might be won over. We require leaders who investigate what is right and practical and invest their time in bringing forth change and investment that has significant benefit to those who are served by their office.”

It has been estimated that by the end of the decade the credit crisis/housing bubble and its impact on global markets could cost Americans up to 50 percent of their household wealth. That loss will no doubt compromise educational opportunities, retirement options, financial security and put many on the brink of financial disaster. Too many stand to lose it all to home foreclosure.

Who’s to blame for wiping out 50 percent of American’s household wealth? On July 14, the Federal Reserve Board amended Regulation Z of Truth in Lending. That amendment offers a clue to the practices that may have contributed to the decline in household wealth.

Upon reading “War Without End,” Ed Griffin-Nolan’s most sensitive May 28 cover story about returning veterans and the policies of veterans centers, I am struck by one sentence: “Counseling at the {Syracuse} Vet Center is free and is open to all combat veterans with an honorable discharge.”

In my opinion, all vets should be treated. The way one is discharged can have so many preconceived ramifications that is so totally not fair to classify vets into those two categories: honorable and dishonorable. There are no dishonorable vets! 

When someone serves in combat, they are doing a most honorable deed. {Syracuse Veterans Center director} Pat Chase and all those who manage other vet centers miss the point. If their focus were more expansive, a lot more real truths would come out. Then these vet centers would have the ultimate reality show!

—Howard Bragman Syracuse

Upon first viewing “Kinane Targets Gitmo,” Ed Griffin-Nolan’s May 21 What’s Shakin’ article glorifying activist Ed Kinane, as well as the overused large photo of Kinane, displayed in similar articles about Kinane, “Two of a Kind” (April 4, 2007) and “Starving for Peace” (April 12, 2006), created a sort of “Darth Vader” moment.

Shaken, but not undaunted, a perusal of the May 21 article revealed that Kinane’s observations on the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were as faulty as and anti-American, not to mention absurd, as his views on United States-Iran relations (April 2007) and the Iraq War (April 2006).

I enjoyed Diamond Dave, the Syracuse New Times’ May 14 cover story on Dave Frisina and Syracuse radio back in the days of real in-studio deejays. For that ongoing series about the “Old Guard of Syracuse Radio,” it’s a shame Jimmy “O.B.” O’Brien isn’t with us to share the colorful stories of his era while working at radio station WNDR-AM 1260 in Syracuse. Jim was a local gentleman, raised on the South Side of Syracuse in the 1950s and 1960s, and was well respected by his many loyal fans and radio listeners.

–Niles Bell

Minoa

Sour Milk the May 21 Syracuse New Times cover article, not only was a misrepresentation of the dairy industry, but a personal attack on local dairy farms. Those that make their living with the land take very good care of it. Farmers have a vested interest and strong commitment to protect the environment where they live and work. We support these dairy farmers who work to preserve the land for future generations.

New York dairy farmers were among the first to develop a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) program to protect water quality and the environment. New York has some of the strongest water quality regulations in the United States. In fact, a recent Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling indicated that New York’s CAFO program even exceeds the Clean Water Act requirements. The dairies referenced in this article are held to these standards and farmers that have a CAFO permit are required to document the careful and complex methods they use to limit the environmental impact of the farm. These farms complied with local, state and federal regulations and have a right to operate their business, like every other local business, as long as they abide by the law.

As a local community newspaper, it would have seemed appropriate to provide a balanced look at the diagnosis received from an out-of-state doctor that the people referenced in the article. As stated in the article, the doctor is president and director of a company that evaluates exposure for lawsuits. If we were to draw a conclusion, it would seem logical that there would be a correlation between the doctor’s salary and that of the number of cases he can “confirm” for potential lawsuits. 

In fact, this “expert,” who has been precluded from testifying in more than one court because judges found him unqualified to offer an expert opinion, has never been to the farm in question, never been to the homes of those citing the poisoning nor conducted any testing whatsoever. Willet Dairy, the dairy in question, hired its own expert to conduct scientific tests in the areas near its neighbors’ homes. The results refute the neighbors’ claims and show that they have not been exposed to hydrogen sulfide.

The article also assesses the local dairy operations as “behemoths.” It is important to note that multi-family farms actually preserve farms and they contribute to the rural farm landscape we know in rural New York state today. To describe them as something other than environmental stewards and good caretakers of our natural resources is simply wrong.

The state’s dairy farms are under an increasing amount of public scrutiny fueled by rhetoric coming from well-funded activist groups looking to confuse consumers and create questions in your mind when you drive by these farms. If we continue to treat dairy farms this way, we will someday be forced to buy milk that is in powder form and produced in other countries. This powder would require water to get a fluid state and would soon replace fresh locally produced milk that is taken for granted by many.

Do you really want your children or grandchildren drinking milk in a powdered form that is produced overseas? Would you like to see sprawling housing developments where rich, thriving open green spaces, known as farms, are today? Welcome to upstate New York, folks: Reality is, we live in this area of the country and we should appreciate all it offers.

–Greg Wickham

CEO, Dairylea Cooperative Inc. 

COO, Dairy Farmers of America Northeast Council