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To The Editor ; Jan. 23, 2008 I
received an E-mail from the M-ARK Project today inviting me to sign a
petition to our Governor in favor of the purposed Belleayre Project. I have
been against this development for some time now to the extent that I had
added my signature to the Save the Mountain petition. In the spirit of
fairness I went to the address of the touted web site to view the list of
Signatures appended to the Petition and to no surprise I saw many that were
from Ulster County. Well I can not fault them for that it is only right and
proper for they are the ones to profit. Attached to some signatures were
remarks. One remarked "We love Belleayre Mountain. I feel it is one of
the best values around. The problem is finding someplace to stay as we live
over 3 hours away. It seems like it would be a great asset to the area"
Now we know that there are many B&Bs as well as motels and places,
Hannah comes to mind, to stay here in our county. In point of fact they are
all feeling the pinch. You see I bring this up because what?---I am a
business man in Margaretville, Delaware County and selfish to the extent that
I wish to enhance local merchants. I plead guilty to this show of greed but I
do not relish the hurting of others. As some one who has spent half a lifetime
in the restaurant business I am concerned with the knowledge that the
proposed resort would feature up to five restaurants and wonder what will
become of the local ones. Accommodations are said to number upwards of over
600 units, if as planed they would place the local motels etc. as
supernumeraries in the scheme of accommodations. In addition there are plans
for ten retail stores. There are hardly that many in Margaretville with most
starving. I repeat that for Ulster County this might be a good thing, let's
leave it to them to decide' but for eastern Delaware county it is the death
knoll. We, the local merchants, should ask "Who Profits" and in my
parochial view I answer "not us". And yes it can be pointed out
that some of our local contractor and day worker may see some opportunity,
and I emphasize may, for if this proposed development mimics like
developments in other places the labor force will be from out of the area.
Addressing the nostalgia voiced in the remark "I remember when our local
economy was driven by the 50 or more hotels within a 10 mile radius of the
Belleayre Ski Center" it is wise to remember, that was a different age,
and that generation has past away. The current generation does not go to the
mountain resorts, they go on cruises and such. It is discouraging to see some
of our "leading citizens" supporting a project out of our county
with so much gusto that one wonders what their motive is. Stuart E
Buswell |
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Letter sent to Editor
Catskill Mountain New on MondayMay18,2008 & Published in May 21 issue.
with the portions in red type edited
out. The Editor of the newspaper has the right to do so for space or content
or for mater what ever reason he deems applicable to his standards. To ask me why is to
question the wrong person. SEB To The Editor In the May 14 2008 Letters section we
were offered a delightful nostalgic
trip by a sincere traveler down memory lane, who, as it turns out, is a stout
supporter of the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, I applaud his remembrances of things
past but realize that at our age (here
I assume that we are peers) memory is not always correct. The Catskills were
buzzing in summer activity, when we were young, catering to the escapees from the cities sweltering
heat (with no help from Belleayre Mountain Ski Center). In
fact the opposite was so as the Ski Center workers were , to a large extent, absorbed by the
lodging industry when seasonally laid off. This
went on until attrition took It’s toll on that generation. Belleayre Mountain Ski Center had little or
no effect either way, on the change in summer
vacation habits. It was all orchestrated by Father Time. I confess that I am neither rich nor wealthy, or do I ski, but
I believe I can still spot an injustice when I see it. The mountain was
shared by the Belleayre and Highmount Ski Centers. One was created with
private money and the other with tax payers money. Now tell me, which one had
the business advantage? Belleayre
Mountain Ski Center has had a reputation for predatory business practices
from day one. The off handed
dismissal of complaints made by
privately owned ski centers is caviler in the minimizing of the their real
problem. When we examine the differences of the Belleayre operating tax
sported budget and a private enterprise budget we see a glaring disparity.
Private ski centers have pointed out that they can not afford three to five million dollar Lifts or yearly
replacement of grooming equipment. They, the private owned ski centers, can’t sell $15 tickets and stay in business
carrying the burden of expensive capital updating costs. Belleayre Ski Center
can however in that they can operate in the red as the States tax payers foot
the negative balance. It was said that “If Hunter and Windham are suffering,
it isn’t because of what Belleayre is,
it is because what they are not.” I
could not agree more. It certainly is because of what they are not. They are
not using tax payers money to operate their Ski Centers. I have no
problem with seeing Belleayre Ski Center remain to serve the public but do
recognize It’s favored position in the Ski business. What I do not favor is
turning it into a State sponsored Real Estate development. I am not a confidant of
Mr. Tony Lanza although we met once, and I have no grounds to question his
management skills, but I am aware that in the past it has been said that he is a supporter of the
Resort proposal, and the attaching of it to the Ski Center. So if now Belleayre Mountain Ski Center is flirting
with Belleayre Resort at Catskill Park, an enterprise that is guilty of the
same “sin”, as was chastised in the
above referenced letter, what are we
to think? Are the tax payers expected to support real estate development and the turning of
Belleayre Mountain into a home away from home for the wealth and the want to
be wealth? Should we be part of such a scheme, a
scheme that is being played out across
our country by developers and banks to the
detriment of the Nations economy. Has the current real estate bust not taught anything? Have the
investors not learned anything? Stuart E Buswell |
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Letter sent to Catskill Mountain News, the
week of June 17,2009 but not published. Why? I am not the one to asked. It is within the right of the Editor to do so , at his discretion ,
for what ever reason, he deems appropriate., space, content etc. I do not question
it. SEB To The Editor: In last weeks Mailbag a
writer stated that “Its important to separate the growth of the state-owned
Belleayre Mt. Ski Center facilities from the private development of the
resort.” and then listed a litany of examples of the good works the Ski
Center gifts to our community. I do not believe any of us have a problem with
this. The rub comes when a criticism is leveled at the private developing
consortium that is trying to obtain public funds and favors for their
business venture, such as the privately owned Belleayre Resort that is riding
on their, the Ski Centers coattail, and this is taken as depriving funds to
the Ski center. If the Belleayre Mt. Ski Center wishes to maintain it's
independence and refrain from giving the appearance of collusion with that
private business it should enter it's plea for funds in it's own name and not
allow a private outfit the appearance of being part and parcel of the State
owned and tax payer supported Ski Center. On the other hand, if the
management of Belleayre Mt. Ski Center is aware and consents to this
piggyback it should be out in the open so that the public can deal with it.
The dichotomy here is blatant we are faced with a public owned and supported
tax payers entity that deserves to be funded and a private business desire
for public funds. Have we not learned anything in the past months? With
bailout after bailout laying it's tax burden on our grandchildren. Because of
foolish spending we are producing a bleak future for them. and those yet to
be born. In our own back yard we
have an institution much more worthy of our support. Margaretville Memorial
Hospital is in need of this support so that it can upgrade their facility in
anticipation of, their soon to be heavy burden, that the Presidents “Health Plan”
will place on them. MMM is the largest employer in our area and the biggest
contributor to our economy. They will be facing new challenges in medical
delivery and it behooves us to prepare for this near future need. To throw
stimulus money away on some fanciful private consortium's plan to bring back
the “good old summer days in the Mountain dream” is to challenge reality and
a gamble that we can not afford to take. If funds are limited, as most agree
that they are, then they should be used in a way that is consistent with “the
most good for the most people” Stuart E Buswell
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December 31, 2008 To the Editor: Generation Gap I was born before radio, television,
penicillin, flue shots, or the pill.
There was no radar, credit cards, laser beams, ball-point pens,
computers, TV, dishwashers, clothes dryers,
frozen foods, or air conditioners and man hadn't walked on the moon.
My wife and I got married first -- and then lived together. Every family had
a father and a mother, and there was no need for daycare centers and group
therapy. Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments and the “Golden
Rule’ good judgment, and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up
and take responsibility for our actions. When compared to the present
generation It is not hard to understand why many see us as "old and
confused" and blame the generation gap. Technology has changed. Morals
have changed. Education has changed. Crime rates have changed. Drug use has
changed. Personal responsibility has changed. Even personal liberty has
changed. To a person, such as I, whose lifetime spans those enormous changes,
those changes have not been for the better. I do not view the increasing rate
of irresponsibility, licentious, disease, broken homes, blatant greed,
corruption, and acceptance (tolerance) of all which destroys the community
fabric of a society, as "progress."
The so called single parent family is a misnomer for every girl and
boy needs a two parent home. No class
room is a better environment then the home. At home we are surrounded by our
family our kind. This then is the best place to absorb the values of a
people. There you learned the work ethic where each one was expected to pull
their own weight. Where honesty was the norm. Where you were proud of your
family no matter the current economic state. You went to school and learned
reading, writing and arithmetic. You learned respect for those older then you
and you met and mixed with others that were like you and shared the same
values. Women were treated with deference and manners were expected by all.
No one thought that it was his neighbors duty to support him or that the
country owed you a living. "It's not whether you win or lose but how you
play the game" is a concept uniquely fitted to my generation. The spectacle of the winners in a sports competition and even minor
“wins” mimicking monkeys and giving “high fives”, as in simian behavior,
is distasteful and immature to ones sense of fair play. The popular adoration and God like homage accorded to
sports mercenary, who have no loyalty
but to the dollar, is an indication of the shallowness of ones beliefs. We
know not what lies beyond the next bend in the road but one thing is certain:
if we choose not to believe that the present rot is a signal for our demise,
then we indeed are our own worst enemy. These days the word Freedom is a
thing of very dubious interpretation. The Founding Fathers thought and spoke
in terms of Liberty, not Freedom. They defined Liberty as freedom to do
things for themselves without much intervention by government. In the long
run, short-sighted greed is no different than stupidity. The above sentence in red
was edited out of the letter, Why? I do not know but it is within the right
of the Editor to do so , at his
discretion , for what ever reason he deems appropriate. Stuart E Buswell |
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To The Editor
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UPDATED 03-06-2010 |
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To the Editor: In last weeks Mailbag Mark Zilberman,
LCSW took me to task for what he perceived as my dismissal of the human race
as being the culprit in global warming.” A careful reading would show that
the opposite is true. The problem of reading statements from an other person
is that we tend to view them in our own personal frame of reference. I did
not “distance current human behavior” as charged, but on the contrary
indicted them as the main source of our problem. Some one once remarked that nobody
ever woke up in 476 A.D. (the date historians define as the fall of the Roman
Empire) and said, “Gosh, I'm in the Dark Ages.” The point is plain enough,
transitions happens gradually, and the people who live through them, hardy
ever realize what is unfolding. Reality is a hard bone and it's better to
dream about things which are not real as one does have complete control over
his wishful thinking. Thus we can rest easily in our delusions.. . To solve one problem we are causing
another. Nature does not supply the resources to sustain Americas lifestyles
across the globe. Worse still, maintaining our relatively wealthy,
comfortable and unsustainable lifestyles is now dependant on maintaining this
imbalance. The world simply does not have the resources, renewable or
otherwise, to sustain our lifestyles for the worlds masses Most of today's
problems are the fact that the available resources in terms of food, water,
urban space, arable land, oil, forests and jobs are inadequate to the needs
of a growing populations. Every day another of 15000 acres of rainforest is
destroyed and another 150m tons of CO2 is released into the atmosphere.
Turning over crop land from food growth, to plants for making bio fuels,
removes farm land from the food chain. We have been unable to halt or reverse
the fact of this global pollution, that in it’s turn contributes to global
warming, Are people capable of extrapolating anymore? Will we be left with
only maggot piles of humans coughing in each other's faces? Are we so silly
as to believe that all of this makes no difference, and if it did, a
benevolent god will straighten it all out for us? The choice is
unconditional: we cannot have a good environment and a rapidly rising
population. The world needs to reduce it’s numbers to enjoy a equal life
style or we are going to be dragged down to third world levels and to
eventual extinction There are no shortages just to many people. If we do not
comply with nature Nature will, by default, supply the remedy. These are
unpleasant facts but the point raised is that they are facts--- we can act on
them or not, the option is up to us. This is not a charge of arrogance but
rather a plea for a reality check. Stuart E Buswell |
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To The Editor: We, as a Society, are wallowing in a
ocean of Political Correctness. It has become fashionable with a few self
rightist individuals but as it grows in status it becomes unwritten law
within our society, with those who are declared as being not politically
correct treated as ignorant and undesirable. PC is a declaration that
particular ideas, expressions and behavior, which once was legal, are now
frowned upon and those that do not embrace it are to be treated as vulgar
bigots. Plain speaking, freedom of choice and freedom of speech; were the
societies safe-guard against the imposition of tyranny, currently the reason
given for this imposition is to prevent people being offended and to compel
everyone to avoid using words or behavior that may upset “sensitive souls”.
We quite naturally expect anyone who uses the same words as we do, to
understand us and we them. This is all too frequently not the case. This
generation wallows in PC. Some of this perversion of the language is
conspiratorial but probably most of it is a part of the "feel good"
atmosphere where all must happily exist without having to deal with the
problems of reality. The values that were expressed by their parents
generation have become heresy. On one level it becomes the expression of
infantile rebellion, the resentment of spoiled children, directed against
their parent's values. But on a much higher level it is the instrument of
control for those, who define, control. We are slowly but firmly being herded
into a society that is forced to embraces a single value. A nation that
jettisons the values that were established in the past by custom, and beliefs
, that wisdom had endorsed, is a nation heading for disaster. The need to be
politically correct dominates all public and most private exchanges because
of a fear of hurting “feelings”. The spirit of the First Amendment has
already been corroded to great degree by this acid called political
correctness. You are free to praise, as long as it is directed to the right
things. The not so subtle effect of PC is the erosion of our liberties. What
disturbs our masters the most is ideas. "Bad mouthing" is
permissible as long as no idea is connected to it -- an idea which might get
people to think and thereby possibly motivate them to act. That's a no-no and
it must not be allowed to happen. Thus, the First Amendment has to go. That's
the objective, but I suspect that it will be retained in skeletal form so
that a few will be allowed to dissent as was true in the other controlled
society-- the former Soviet Union. It will be interesting to see how the
American people will be sold on the idea of accepting another shackle in the
name of freedom. Stuart E Buswell |
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Letters to The Editor |
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Submitted Jan. 25, 2010
but not published. To The Editor: In a recent letter in the Mailbag
section we were gifted with a letter instructing us on the correct way to write a concise, to
the point, no nonsense letter. Oh! Oh! I am afraid that I have broken one of those rules
already. I apologize and will try to shorten my sentences. We have learned
that we must be tolerant to those with short attention spans. I, for one, am
”dutifully” thankful for the well presented lesson that only took a little
over 800 words to deliver. Some may see me as to old to learn but, I assure
you, not so old as not able to learn. I, personally, have taken this lesson
to heart and resolve to use it as a guideline in all future correspondence. By the By, if I dare make a suggestion
to “the teacher;” your point of taken
exception to a problem, posed but not balanced with a solution, could be
solved by simply not reading the offending letter. You might take a lesson
from the guy who pounded his head with a hammer only to discovered that it felt so good when he
stopped. If One is standing on the
railroad tracks with a train bearing down, and is warned of the coming
danger, is it incumbent on the Warner to also supply a safe place to stand? This lesson puts me in mind of a learning experience
from my youth. It was the seventh or eighth grade and we were in midst of an
English lesson. The teacher was explaining some of the idiosyncrasy of the
English language. From her position of authority she pontificated “as an example, the only word in the
English language that has the
pronouncement of SU as if it
were SH is sugar” and beamed, pleased that she had passed on some great knowledge. Some wise guy in the class shouted “are you
sure teacher?” And so, despite the myth of the infallibility of the teaching
establishment, I did learn an important lesson that day. Stuart E Buswell |
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To The Editor: Stuart E Buswell, |
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To The Editor;’ Mar. 24, 2010 Recently
one of the “Progressive” pundits, on TV, declared that the American public is
“not bright enough to really understand the issues" and are just plain stupid. My knee jerk reaction was to take exception
to this characterization. After a bit
of reflection it dawned on me that maybe he had in mind those voters that put
the present government in power. Time
has shown that this was a bad move on their part, as the majority of
Americans now believe. The American
people are not stupid and if given the facts they are able to think their way
out of the present quagmire. Americans will have to make hard choices and
evaluate the current belief that a collapsing system can be saved by
using the same process which brought about the problem in the first place. Independent thinking is
very rare and one must not confuse obstinacy with independence. Rare is the
person who accepts anything which contradicts that which is already in his
mind labeled "fact". Government
does not have one penny of it's own. Every penny It spends comes from the pockets of the tax
payers. When you hear “government
funded” this means you, the taxpayer. I am not opposed to anyone doing what
they think best. I do get dismayed when some feel that they need to listen to
“experts” as the “Holy Grail” of
truth. Why is it that so many will
completely disregard their God-given ability to reason and have it supplanted
with the nonsense of "experts"? Book learning, unleavened by
practical experience and common sense, is worthless. This country was settled
by and build by people that in the main were illiterate, perhaps if they had
all been Harvard graduates they would never have accomplished it. We gain, what we loosely call knowledge, by
one of two paths; experience and study. It has been repeated that experience
is the best teacher. I find no argument with that. You can't fool all the
people all of the time, there by lies our strength. Without the support of
the majority, no political scheme can take place. Remember that there will be
no accounting until the voters want
it. I
prefer to call myself a realist who believes that survival depends upon
paying more attention to experience.
America, as the nation I knew, died in 1936 and commenced it's decay Now we
are living in the ruins of a once-great Republic and are about to leave the dregs to our grand and great
grand children to cope with. Stuart E Buswell |
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To the Editor: 481 In last weeks mailbag Ed Kirstein,
took exception to my use of the adjective fanatic to characterize those who
promote global warming as an unchallenged scientific fact.. I stated I
thought, quite plainly, that I make no judgment of their thesis as to whether
it was right or wrong. One definition of “fanatic” is --”Marked by --
excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea and it is
not necessarily a pejorative. There the matter should rest but then he
proceeds to state the demonstrable false “most respected scientists agree
that the planet is warming and the evidence proves it”. Most scientists do
not agree. Hundreds have challenged the myth that there is a consensus in the
scientific community. They site for example, over 60 glacial advances
and retreats have occurred during the last 2 million years. During each of
these intervals, many glacial advances and retreats occurred Our modern
climate represents a very short, warm period between glacial advances. If
this is true then there must also have been 60 globel warmings in that same
period of time with out gas guzzling motor vehicles or belching smoke stacks
polluting the atmosphere. But for those who subscribe to the “Co2 is the
culprit” scenario there is this, China and India with their over three
billion people put into the air more Co2 daily, then all our gasoline
vehicles , simply by breathing. Be that as it may the point I raise is world
population and the effect it has on stabilizing this planet is a greater
threat then “global warming”. To date food supply has kept up to population
growth but there is real trouble down the line. With all the growth in
population the agriculture community has had to increase their production to
meet the need of the worlds people. Food is life and life provides food.
That's the equilibrium. There is no way around it. Starvation, of one form or
the other, is the natural governing mechanism. If Nature is left to solve the
problem, an equilibrium will be established on this planet, whether we like
it or not, or whether humans are still around or not. We humans are the
problem. More people than before means that the energy and food supply is no
longer sufficient. Starvation is Nature's way of letting a form of life know
that they reproduced beyond a certain degree. It is a control mechanism, like
disease, and is a part of life itself. Nature will relegate us to the dust
bin of history -- where, if we do not change we justly belong Stuart E Buswell |
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To The Editor: May 12, 2010 Ed Kirstein in last weeks Letter
section makes some serious charges. I have never met him but I believe him to
be a decent fellow despite his proclivity to make wild charges. He is fond of
cautioning us to ”Get away from the radio and TV and try thinking for
yourselves.:” Well I took part of his advice, the part that states we should
try thinking for ourselves, and after deep mental probing I came to the
conclusion that his charges have no validity. Plainly' most of us have opinions, and
they are just that opinion..Opinions are nether right or wrong. Most peoples
beliefs are other peoples opinions that, in turn, are absorbed and retained
as truth. But bald face charges require proof. When we say some one lies we
need the support of evidence. That is the component that is missing from Mr.
Kirstein letter. The charges that are made ”The Mailbag lately has become a
sounding board for the unhappy conservative, right wingers.”and further: that
the News Paper is ”being used as a tool for corporate America” can be
disproved by the simple fact that the accused printed his letter.. Fiery rhetoric, as used in Mr.
Kirstein letter, may serves to rally the faithful but in the long term it
remains only as an exercise in “preaching to the choir”. Those who reject his
thesis will hopefully forgive his trespass on the “truth” recognizing it for
what it is ---a thinly disguised partisan press release. Stuart E Buswell |