Nothing like politicians making promises they can't keep to an big, angry crowd

Women's club endorses civility for Trump boat parade on Lake George

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It was nearly a century ago that the state of New York abolished the Office of Superintendent of State Prisons in favor of the Department of Corrections.

It may be just subtle semantics, but the message was clear that doing time needed to be a productive attempt to reduce recidivism and allow convicted criminals a second chance after serving their time.

We were reminded of this repeatedly at the newspaper every time we used the term "prison guard." We were told employees should be called "corrections officers."

It's never been clear exactly how much correcting goes on inside those walls.

Hundreds turned out Sunday at the Fort Ann Super Stop off Route 149 to protest the impending closing of the nearby Great Meadow Correctional Facility.

The state announced it was closing the century-old facility last month because it was only 30 percent full with less than 500 inmates maintained. by a staff of more than 500. The governor said employees would be eligible to retain their positions at other facilities around the state.

Local politicians such as Rep. Elise Stefanik, Sen. Dan Stec, Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner and Assemblyman Matt Simpson provided more fuel to an already angry crowd.

The Times Union reported Simpson saying he spoke with a relative of a Bronx native who completed their associate’s degree while at Great Meadow.

Simpson said it was “one of thousands of stories” of success at the prison.

Yet Great Meadow has been described repeatedly by the online investigative news site New York Focus as the "worst prison in the state" for its high suicide rate and alleged violence.

State Sen. Dan Stec seemed to concede the terrible conditions in the state prison system with his remarks at the rally as reported by the Times Union.

Stec angrily derided the state's plan to move employees hours away from their current homes so they could have “excrement thrown at them while watching the animals of society.”

Apparently, that was not one of the "stories of success" Simpson had heard. During his remarks, Stec twice referred to inmates as "animals."

TeAna Taylor, a policy director with the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, told the Times Union in a statement: “Throughout history, politicians have sought to dehumanize groups of people as a distraction from their own failures of leadership. It’s as pathetic as it is dangerous and wrong.”

What is happening to the families and employees at Great Meadow is a tragedy, but that does not change the numbers. There are fewer inmates so fewer prisons are needed and that means fewer taxpayer dollars will go toward the prison system.

Then Taylor told the Times Union what none of the people at the Super Stop wanted to hear: “We are well aware that many prison-adjacent communities across the state shamelessly depend on mass incarceration for jobs and related economic activity. These are our loved ones — our parents, uncles, aunts, and elders. Their bodies are not your cash crop.” 

Tough talk, but there is some truth to that.

Prisons around upstate New York have been closing for years. It is not a growth industry.

Maybe the worst idea of the afternoon came from Sen. Jim Tedisco, who said he supported bills that would require majority votes in both chambers to close a state prison. The trouble is you can't count on politicians to do the right thing if it affects their district.

Congress has the same problem when it comes to closing obsolete military bases. Everybody is for saving taxpayer money unless it cost you jobs in your district.

Rep. Elise Stefanik said the closing of the prison would be the largest loss of jobs in the North Country in the past 10 years and urged Gov. Hochul to not close the prison, but she did not offer any alternatives.

Our politicians love a crowd where they can share their anger.

That played out Sunday where the our esteemed representatives showed their disdain for the current governor and her audacity for wanting to save taxpayers money.

What was not acknowledged was the reality this is a done deal.

What was lacking were the ideas for making lemonade out of a lemon for local prison employees.

Maybe there aren't any, but if our elected officials don’t have any new ideas on how to help Washington Count and the local community, then maybe they should just be quiet.

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Trump boat parade

Trump boat parade

The Adirondack Republican Women's Club of Warren County is holding a boat parade on Lake George to support presidential candidate Donald Trump at noon on Aug. 17.

Apparently, there were some problems at the 2020 parade.

“We’re trying to be proactive and we’re trying to be respectful," ARWC President Linda Clark told The Post-Star. "I’m hoping it will go smoothly and people will be positive and have a good time, and it will be a happy day."

I don't know Linda Clark and I'm not really familiar with the Adirondack Republican Women's Club, but it's hard to take Clark's plea for restraint seriously when the candidate she supports has not only advocated violence in the past, but did nothing when it actually occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Actually, I'm shocked that a women's club can support a candidate who just paid out some $83 million after being found liable for a sexual assault. A couple dozen other women have accused Trump of similar behavior over the years.

The fact that 134 people liked the Adirondack Republican Women's Club of Warren County on Facebooks is also disturbing.

Clark is a retired high school English teacher at Schuylerville High School. She  previously ran for a seat on the Lake George Board of Education in 2022 - she actually lives on Glen Lake in Queensbury which is in the Lake George School District - where she indicated in news articles she opposed to diversity and compared DEI with critical race theory. She was also opposed to changing the Lake George Warriors' mascot.

“Instead of this anger, this terrible anger… we need to be positive, no matter what we just need to stay positive,” Clark said. “That’s where I’m at. Let’s have a boat parade.”

Clark was also the head of the teacher's union for the Schuylerville teachers which makes her support of Trump even more confusing since Trump supported anti-union policies during his first term as president.

Maybe during the boat parade, she can review what the AFL-CIO thinks about Trump's union views. The headline is: "Donald Trump’s Catastrophic and Devastating Anti-Labor Track Record."

The Adirondack Republican Women's Club needs to find a better use of its time. Perhaps volunteering some of its time at a shelter for women who have been sexually assaulted would open their eyes.

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Stefanik motives

Seemingly out of nowhere, Rep. Elise Stefanik became an unwavering supporter of Israel. After all, the North Country does not have a huge population of Jewish residents.

Stefanik received lots of attention for holding college presidents accountable for anti-Israel protests on their campus and took pride when several of them resigned.

In a Guardian article about the possible motivation by Stefanik and other Republican Congress it reported the following which seems to make a lot of sense.

David Halperin, an attorney with Republic Report, a higher education watchdog group, said this:

“I personally would guess that it is a relatively separate issue, and that they’re beating up on schools that had campus protests as a way to drum up rightwing and rightwing Jewish support for Republican politics,” he said.

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Chapman tours

Summer is slipping away so if you've missed any of the downtown Glens Falls walking tours, there is another coming this Friday.

The Warren Street tour will begin at 11 a.m.

From St. Mary’s Church to the Hyde Collection, this tour runs up and down Warren Street with a look at the important figures who lived here and their many contributions to the success of the greater Glens Falls region.

Participants can park behind St. Mary’s Church in the designated church parking lot. Please meet in front of St. Mary’s Church where the tour will begin.

Tours are $15/person or $10 for Chapman members. Payment is required at the time of registration. A minimum of four participants are required for tours to run and no more than 15 participants per tour. To register, please call (518) 793-2826.

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Another Thomas trip

The Supreme Court continues to be an embarrassment.

The Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that Clarence Thomas and his wife received another luxury vacation free of charge courtesy of billionaire Harlan Crow in 2011.

This time the trip was from Hawaii to New Zealand aboard Crow's private jet.

The inability of members of the court to follow even simple ethics is astounding.

Clarence Thomas should immediately resign.

John Roberts should immediately call for Congress to pass stringent ethical guidelines that includes removal from office if violated. If he can't do that, he should resign as well.

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Stay back

They are called "police buffer laws" and Louisiana became the fourth state to pass one this week.

The new law makes it a misdemeanor to be within 25 feet of a law enforcement officer if you are ordered back. That includes journalists.

In response to a police killing of a black man in 2016, hundreds marched in Baton Rouge in protest. Police responded with force and arrested some 200 people including some reporters. The photographs and videos taken by the protesters, witnesses and journalist contradicted officers' claims the force was warranted.

Thirteen protesters and two journalists filed suit that their constitutional rights were violated. The city later agreed to settle the case for $1.17 million. The new law is the response to that lawsuit.

More than a dozen Louisiana news outlets are alleging the law violates the First Amendment, and have filed suit. The two journalists arrested that day said they would not have been able to get the images they did if the law was on the books.

This is another infringement, not only on freedom of the press, but our own personal rights.

Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.