To the Editor:
As our annual campaign for 2007-2008 comes to a close, I am writing to extend a sincere thank you for the tremendous outpouring of support our community has demonstrated.
The loving support shown to the Children’s Home made it possible to achieve a very successful campaign for 2007-2008. We exceeded our goal, taking in over $262,000 in gifts and grants for the year. We are extremely grateful to each and every one of you for your generosity through your contribution via United Way, payroll deductions or directly to the home.
Our mission is to improve the lives of at risk children and provide the highest level of support for our children who are in our care. With your financial assistance, we are able to maintain and continue this mission.
On behalf of the Board of Managers, the executive director, the staff and residents of the Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie, we would like to express our thanks to our many benefactors who contributed so generously to our 2007-2008 campaign request.
Lorraine Mendel
Children’s Home of Poughkeepsie
To the Editor:
Long suffering liberal Democrats are faced with an interesting dilemma. Their presidential candidate, Obama, has waffled on so many progressive issues that there is nothing left to cave in about once elected. He has already sold out to Big Oil and the Israeli lobby (favors attack on Iran), to the insurance lobby (won’t consider single-payer healthcare), to the weapons industry (won’t withdraw all troops from Iraq), and to so many, many others.
So you might think that liberals would be in despair. Not so at all! Why they believe that Obama is simply lying about all these issues during the campaign in order to get elected. “That’s just the way politics are played,” they assure us.
Obama’s ability to lie seems to be the only thing that gets liberal Democrats excited about this race. And the odds of him being reborn as FDR once in the Oval Office are about the same as any other second coming.
That’s where “hope” comes in, of course. Obama’s candidacy is nothing but hope, packaged for another generation of eager believers.
In America, we are reduced to wishing that some leader will emerge from the cesspool of wealthy and powerful corporate interests to save us all. It is certainly a far cry from a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Elections in our sham democracy have the sole purpose of limiting political activism to staged presidential elections every four years. That way, corporate elites never get challenged.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
To the Editor:
This letter is in reply to the “Outside The Box” column by Marc K. Dion in the July 4 edition of The Beat. Marc wrote that the No. 1 item on his top 10 list of things he hates was insurance. He continued that it is “the most corrupt institution on the face of the earth,” amounting to an “obscenely morbid form of legalized gambling.”
As president of Kallman Insurance, I can cite countless examples over my nearly 30 years of experience where insurance has provided liability coverage or paid medical bills following an accident for insured’s who pay very small premiums in relation to the hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions of dollars in coverage. Without insurance, those individuals or businesses would lose everything. I’ve also seen homes and businesses destroyed by fire and rebuilt with insurance proceeds. Some may resent that they pay premiums and never have claims, but we must keep in mind that by spreading the risk, insurance is an affordable way to protect ones assets.
Robert A. Kallman
President, Kallman Insurance Agency, Inc.
To the Editor:
Today we are in the midst of a modern-day tax revolt.
The fight against unfair taxation without representation continues to be waged. Property taxes are levied without any correlation to our ability to pay. In Fairview, as in the rest of our county, real property taxes (including fire district taxes) are crushing the spirit of our working families and our seniors.
It is for this reason that I chose to honor the spirit of the 4th of July by marching in the Hyde Park parade with the Fairness for Fairview Committee, a group dedicated to the issue of tax fairness.
While many of us may have to decide between food and heat in the coming winter, the solution being advanced in Albany is to cap the growth of school budgets at 4 percent per year. Residents of the Hudson Valley cannot afford their taxes now. We need a tax cut, not a tax cap. Capping school budgets is just a back-door effort to accomplish what legislators seemingly lack the intestinal fortitude to face head-on: the issues of health care and pensions. Legislators have no right attacking our teachers and public employees through innuendo or otherwise unless they themselves relinquish these benefits.
The way to increase revenues and achieve tax fairness is to move from a real property tax regime to a state-wide income tax-based system with greater numbers of tax brackets and graduated percentage increases.
Now, more than ever, it’s time for average New Yorkers to get a fair deal.
Gary Levine
Democratic candidate,
102nd Assembly district
To the Editor:
I attended a Board of Education meeting on June 11 and arrived in time to hear about the new textbooks for a geometry class that will be added next year. Although I am a senior and will not be returning to the high school for the 2008-2009 school year, I am excited and pleased with the new layout of the math books.
I feel that there are many new tools added that will help both teachers and students successfully get through what could be considered a tough course. It also will help prep students fro in-class tests and Regents exams. I think the layout of the student textbooks and workbooks will help help students learn topics more easily. The extra tools provided will also help teachers save time with lesson plans. I hope the new books that were presented get approved because I feel they will be beneficial.
Alisha Mosley
Poughkeepsie High School