Our leaders are totally absent
One article you absolutely must read
The Front Page
Morning Update
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
By Ken Tingley
Emily Russell, a reporter for North Country Public Radio, compared the number of Covid-19 cases around the region this year to the number last year.
She reported six people were hospitalized with Covid-19 in November 2020. This year, Glens Falls Hospital admitted 186 people. The hospital said that 70 percent of its Covid patients are unvaccinated and 100 percent of the critically ill patients are unvaccinated.
She also noticed what I noticed. Our local leaders were saying nothing. People were dying and they didn’t care.
When Russell requested an interview with Rep. Elise Stefanik, there was no response. And Russell asked more than once. Perhaps Stefanik was too busy preparing for her $25,000 a plate fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago with the former president. Yes, she was actually in Florida. That’s where her attention is these days. It certainly isn’t here in the North Country.
Russell also reached out to state senators Dan Stec, Patty Ritchie and Joe Griffo and all declined to be interviewed for her story.
That makes them culpable, too.
The one exception was Assemblyman Matt Simpson who sent out a press release asking people to get vaccinated. He encouraged it on social media as well, then got his photo taken getting his booster shot.
Simpson hasn’t been an assemblyman long so he may not know how the game works. Perhaps, he will face a primary the next time he runs.
Russell said officials at Glens Falls Hospital applauded Simpson for going public.
“We would love for our regional elected officials to follow Assemblyman Matt Simpson’s lead and make a public statement in support of vaccination, and also support masking,” hospital officials told Russell.
Leadership can make a big difference. A year ago, we were all in this together, trying to weather the Covid storm as we waited for a vaccine. A year later, we have a vaccine and a third of local people are unvaccinated. Its putting businesses and jobs at risk and making life more difficult for the rest of us.
Over the weekend, I commented on some rather bizarre statements at a school board meeting in Cambridge.
After debating whether or not the district should sue the state education department to keep its Indian mascot, the lunatic fringe descended like an out-of-control open mic night.
They spouted their beliefs about critical race theory, the Black Lives Matter movement and one former teacher’s contention that Covid-19 is part of a bigger agenda to destroy democracy and America.
But the man who insisted that declining grades and behavioral problems at the school were caused by mask wearing would have fit nicely in any past episode of “The Twilight Zone.” He insisted the masks damage children’s brains by cutting off their oxygen and raising their carbon dioxide levels. I wondered if he will ask his surgeon to take off his mask the next time he finds himself in an operating room.
The fact the newspaper thought it necessary to point that out is a sad indictment of where we are as a community.
It would have been nice if Dan Stec or Elise Stefanik had refuted those ridiculous theories for the betterment of their constituents.
It would have been nice if they would have regularly urged people to get vaccinated and wear masks and take public safety seriously.
Instead, another Washington County resident died over the weekend.
It won’t be the last.
After writing what was said at the Cambridge meeting, one of my readers commented that the school needed to teach “critical thinking theory” in schools.
And elected leaders like Dan Stec and Elise Stefanik have to stop thinking about themselves and start acting responsibly.
https://poststar.com/clarification/article_509c4585-4a04-5f0d-aa40-939b80f3205a.html
One article to read
Tom Jones, the senior media writer for the Poynter Institute, wrote this about an article in The Atlantic magazine this past week: “If you only have time to read one story today, I suggest the latest cover story in The Atlantic from Barton Gellman: “Trump’s next coup has already begun.”
It is a frightening look at the political maneuvering happening across the country behind the scenes. Essentially, future elections could be decided not by who votes, but who counted the votes.
If laws aren’t made to safeguard an independent count of the vote, we may have seen our last democratic presidential election.
Dopesick
Much like real life, the concluding episode to the eight-part mini-series “Dopesick” was unsatisfying.
Based on a journalist’s book, “Dopesick” tells the story of how Purdue Pharma developed a drug called OxyContin, claimed it was non-addictive and unleashed it on rural communities around the country. This was the beginning of the opioid crisis and thousands of overdose deaths.
In the end, the bad guys at Purdue Pharma do not go to jail. Three of them plead guilty to a misdemeanor and huge fines are levied against the corporation, but none of the Sackler family - the owners - is any worse off.
The case has been meandering through bankruptcy court in recent months where it was agreed that no one could personally sue the Sackler family.
On the night I watched the last episode there was a news bulletin on my phone that said the Metropolitan Museum had decided to take down the Sackler name from several of its galleries after pressure from artists from all over the world.
Well, I guess that is something.
History won't be kind to politicians who placed politics before people's lives
Our local leaders should speak up a la Matt Simpson.