Letters to the Editor Saturday, July 16 – The Daily Gazette

Mural vote sends appalling message

I am appalled by the recent vote of the Schenectady City Republican Committee to remove the painted message “Black Lives Matter” from in front of City Hall.
My first thought was does the Republican committee have no memory of the brutal murder of George Floyd?
In June 2020, Schenectady City Council unanimously approved a Black Lives Matter mural painted on Jay Street in front of City Hall. At a time of national grief, this was a message of unity and commitment to work for justice.
On June 20, the national holiday of Juneteenth commemorated the oldest national celebration of the end of slavery. The proclamation of Juneteenth states, “We recommit ourselves to the work of equity, equality and justice and we celebrate centuries of struggle, courage, and hope…”
Choosing this national/state holiday to vote unanimously to remove the message, “Black Lives Matter,” is an insult to anyone working for racial justice.
Our nation continues to struggle with violence, police brutality, and racism. In
In May, a racist attack on a supermarket in Buffalo left 10 casualties. On June 27, police shot another young man of color 60 times after a routine traffic stop in Akron, Ohio.
This is not a time to further divide our community with attacks, name calling, and false statements. Black lives do matter, and we need to come together to work for justice for all.
Mabel Leon
Schenectady

Don’t let the Church continue to hide sins

This mediation plan proposed by the Albany Diocese is sick.
It would be like paying off the victims of the Holocaust, by saying you’re sorry but the victims can never talk about the details of how 6 million people got murdered.
The main reason all these details should be made public is so that it doesn’t happen again. So people learn. So victims have a legal outlet to tell their story if they choose.
But what does the Church do? Give its problem to the farthest people possible from the word of Jesus to clean it up. They give it to the lawyers and insurance companies who want to thrust the details back into secrecy.
This started because of secrecy — silence, for the good of the Church. People then became empowered and said, no more, and the scandal broke. It is disgusting and sinful.
But what happened to leaders like Howard Hubbard? Nothing. The guy still lives on Church property. And now the Church wants us to trust them? I don’t think so. If they go into bankruptcy, so be it. Although something tells me if an organization has its own country, it should have enough assets squirreled away somewhere to pay off its victims.
If this happened in a local school district, everybody would demand transparency. Heads would roll. With the Church, let’s put it back into secrecy.
This proposal does nothing but benefit the Church… again!
It’s time society grows a backbone and resists the Church’s threats.
Aaron Hull
Niskayuna

City government to blame for rent crisis

Do not blame the Schenectady landlords for the shortage of affordable apartments in the city.
It is the city government that instituted several policies against landlords in the past 10 years or so that are causing the plight of tenants in finding affordable housing.
For years, Schenectady has been forcing investors that are buying houses from the city to reduce the number of rental units when renovating their properties. The city also favored selling tax-foreclosed properties to homeowners over landlords, and that decreased the number of rentals in the city.
In addition, the city granted permits to build unrestricted high-end and luxury apartments downtown and at Mohawk Harbor that are renting for more than twice the rent paid for older apartments, without considering low-income tenants.
Moreover, at the end of the covid eviction moratorium, many landlords have put up their properties for sale, after they’ve evicted their destructive and deadbeat tenants that they couldn’t evict during the moratorium.
It is the government-instituted policies that have led to the current shortage of affordable housing in Schenectady, and the City Council should reconsider each policy before passing new laws favoring tenants, which will make it even harder to find an apartment in the city.
Mohamed Hafez
Schenectady

Is so many guns good or bad for us?

What if the United States had no guns? Some would say, “Yes, finally!” others would say, “What a catastrophe.”
Several years ago, the emperor of Japan, Yamamoto, is quoted as saying, “We don’t dare to attack the United States mainland because there is a rifle behind every blade of grass.”
Think about it.
Daniel Jorgensen
Schoharie

America has endured past economic cycles

As a former Schenectady County resident, I continue to read the headlines and letters to the editor most days.
Much like Florida, your ying and yang daily fare as it is here in the letters to the editor.
Ms. Bacon posed several questions regarding President Biden in her July 13 letter (“Biden questions are still not answered.”) after watching the Jan. 6 committee present many facts previously unknown to the public, particularly leading up to and including Jan. 6, 2021.
Since the presentations began for me, I always end any criticism of President Biden I might have with the phrase “at least he’s not Trump.”
We have been through many of the economic cycles like we are now experiencing.
We will get through them as we have in the past when Republican and Democratic presidents were in charge.
Greg Way
Bradenton, Florida

Tedisco is a legend for good reasons

Sen. Jim Tedisco is a native son of Schenectady and a legend in local politics.
He has given this community over 40 years of dedicated service, starting as a special education teacher and school counselor, then as a Schenectady city councilman and assemblyman and right up to the present, where he serves with distinction as our state senator.
There is no one who works harder for the people than Jim Tedisco and no one who does a better job of connecting with their constituents and being a tenacious voice for them as he does.
That’s why he is consistently voted as the most popular politician in The Daily Gazette’s annual poll.
Jim is going to win the Aug. 23 Republican primary for the 44th state Senate District, and then he will easily defeat the radical Democrat in the race in November.
How do I know that? He’s defeated this Democrat once before and he will do it again.
We are working hard to save our city and in order for us to be successful we need Jim Tedisco on our team. The city of Schenectady Republican Committee is proud to endorse Jim Tedisco for Senate!
Matt Nelligan
Schenectady
The writer is chairman of the City of Schenectady Republican Committee.

Time for Church to pay out on St. Clare’s

I feel that the St. Clare’s Hospital retirees are really having a hard time due to all the troubling times they have had to struggle through.
People think that because the St. Clare’s Hospital retirees keep going, they don’t hurt. Let me be very clear, they hurt, and they keep going.
Each day is a real challenge for all the retirees.
Their lives have been very stressful to say the least. Now with the state attorney general filing a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese Of Albany, I am confident the money will come to the retirees.
I want the Roman Catholic Diocese Of Albany to remember what you did to the retirees will come back to you in the future.
Life has a funny way of making you deal with what you make others go through.
The Roman Catholic Diocese Of Albany should have never had the nerve to give an exemption to the St. Clare’s Hospital which in return has caused all this unneeded suffering for the retirees.
We must always remember it is never the wrong time to do the right thing.
Now would be an excellent time for the Roman Catholic Diocese Of Albany to pay for all of your sins.
Walter “Neal” Brazell
Rotterdam

Don’t need senator who favors criminals

Indicator after indicator shows a rising crime surge in New York State, which has only gotten worse since the Cuomo/Hochul Administration and their allies in the radical, far-left Democratic Senate and Assembly majorities passed their outrageous catch and release bail reform law in 2020.
At the time, Sen. Jim Tedisco warned of how ill-conceived and dangerous this new law was and how it would lead to a revolving door of criminals being released to commit further crimes in our communities. That’s why Sen. Tedisco took a two-pronged approach to restore common sense and balance to our criminal justice system.
Tedisco introduced legislation to fully repeal the cash bail law and start over with real input from all stakeholders including law enforcement, the judiciary and victims.
He also authored bi-partisan legislation to give judges greater discretion to determine risk factors of releasing someone back into the community, thereby reducing crime.
The last thing we need is to elect another radical, far-left representative who will support the Senate majority’s “Criminal’s First” agenda.
We need to keep Sen. Tedisco who champions a “Crime Victims First” agenda as our strong voice for public safety in the 44th Senate District.
Anna Stanko
Ballston Spa

Where is outcry for imprisoned doctor?

I understand the outcry over this female basketball player being held in a Russian prison.
But where is the outcry for the doctor that helped us locate and kill the leader of Al-Qaeda?
He has been languishing in a Pakistani prison for over 10 years.
Robert Mangino
Schenectady/Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Looking forward to Tedisco’s next term

Saratoga County residents have a great state senator and champion with Sen. Jim Tedisco. I’ve known Sen. Tedisco for many years and worked closely with him when I was chairman of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors.
Jim is a caring and compassionate public official who fights tenaciously for his constituents and for Saratoga County.
He listens and is responsive to the needs of residents and our local governments and works collaboratively to help solve problems.
In an era of extreme partisanship, Jim Tedisco works across party lines to get things done for his constituents.
From authoring and passing a law to expand the number of people who can use lifesaving EpiPens to repealing the disastrous bail reform law and giving judges more discretion. He also called for a bi-partisan, independent investigation of former Gov. Cuomo’s handling of the deaths of 15,000 New Yorkers in nursing homes. Jim always stands up to do the right thing.
Along with representing the city of Schenectady and Niskayuna, Jim Tedisco has represented most of Saratoga County at some point or another in his career and I am looking forward to him being Stillwater’s and all of Saratoga County’s state senator moving forward.
Ed Kinowski
Stillwater
The writer is the Stillwater  town supervisor.

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Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion