Readers’ Column for the week of September 22, 2019

Readers’ Column

You may call the Owego Pennysaver Readers’ Column at (607) 687-2378 24-hours a day, or e-mail comments to readerscolumn@stny.rr.com. We reserve the right to revise or reject any message. 

In response to the writer in the Sept. 1 Pennysaver about the new landlord cutting down all the trees in Green Valley Trailer Park, we in Owego Heights have experienced the same action. Apparently he hates trees. The 16 big, full-grown trees we lost were not a threat in any way to tenants, utilities or anything else. The barren appearance now of our “community” replaces our once thriving tree-surrounded homes and streets. We lost three big trees ourselves. Now we have constant fear from storm and wind damage, especially our skirting. Our homeowners insurance helped cover our first loss, but not subsequent times. 

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I think restaurant week in Tioga County is a great idea but why have it the same week as Broome County? Also, I never saw one article in the Courier or the Pennysaver, not even what restaurants are involved. How can it be a success when no one knows what is going on?

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This is response to the person who wants to know when they are going to elect the next mayor in Owego. I see nothing wrong with the mayor they have right now. I’d like to know what your beef is with him. 

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I live in the Halstead Development and I noticed a junkyard going in nearby. I was wondering if the zoning is allowing for a junkyard in a residential area. 

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On Wilson Creek Road in Newark Valley there is a vulgar banner supporting a vulgar president. What a surprise! I guess vulgar is the now the new norm in campaigns. Please take it down. 

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This is in response to the person having problems with their water bills. We have the same problem with my water bills. I said something to them as to why it went from $18 to $26 a month. They said I must be using more water. I said no, we’re using the same. There are two of us. The last three months it’s been $26. I’m with you; I don’t understand this either. 

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Easiest buck I ever made; nobody called in with a legitimate reason banana man Cuomo went to Puerto Rico or Israel on the taxpayer’s dime. I’m going to call her up right now and make arrangements to get that buck. 

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Why doesn’t our wonderful governor ban high taxes as quickly as he banned some vaping? He’s a great pretender. He pretends he cares about New Yorkers and he’s nothing but a joke.

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I say the Owego Post Office should be called just that. That’s the easiest name and the name people will use. I hope those making the decision will not follow in the footsteps of the Broome County Airport which has been renamed at least three times and guess what, people are so confused that the majority of them don’t know what the name of it is and still identify it as the Broome County Airport, its original name. Do not get me going on the wasted taxpayer money to keep changing names, signs, logos and stationary. Schumer needs to bow out, go back to his office and work on more important issues. Somehow illegal immigration comes to mind, that’s what he should be working on, not worrying about the name of the revised post office in Owego. Owego Post Office; that is what it will always be to me. 

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Regardless of your politics, the postcard from the person claiming to be speaking for Father, God, shows some really bizarre thinking. No matter your political viewpoint, you will agree that it’s weird. 

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I just want to tell everybody life is great. Try to enjoy it even though we go through bad times. This is for the young adults who are graduating this year. The last two years I’ve spent a lot of love and time into getting gifts for last year’s and this year’s graduate and it would be nice to get a thank you. It’s just a thought. Young people need to learn to say thank you.

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I just received my school tax bill and my taxes went up 3.4 percent. What happened to the 2 percent tax cap? I don’t know what’s going down in Owego. Not good.

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Last week’s article about the historical markers was interesting but stopped short of telling us who was on the mystical Village of Owego Designation Committee. Please bring us up to date.

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Is there anything that can be done about these robo calls? I’m on a do not call list as my message says but I still get them. Sometimes I get robo calls that say your warrantee has expired and I also get credit card calls, which I do not want. Can anything be done about this? I’d like to know.

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I don’t know if this is true but I heard our fuel does not come from Saudi Arabia, so why are the gas prices going up now? Who’s making that extra buck if we’re not getting it from over there; why should it be going up all of a sudden? 

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I’ve lived in Owego for 70 years out of my 90-plus years. I think the United States Post Office in Owego, N.Y. is a perfect name for one of our premier buildings in the village.

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If somebody repeatedly knocks on my door after I’ve asked them numerous times to stop, I can have the sheriff come and remove the problem. Why can’t we stop these robo calls that disturb the tranquility of my home? Instead of childish humor and wanting to rename the Owego Post Office we should look into outlawing robo calls, which are bothering my family and disturbing my sleep. 

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I’m still going to call it the Tappan Zee Bridge. Andrew Cuomo shows his arrogance by trying to name it after his father. Mario Cuomo never lifted a hammer on that bridge. They should name it after an ironworker that did work on it; arrogance and elitist, which defines our governor – and incompetent, too.

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I can understand how rules and regulations have become more complex and the job of Newark Valley Highway Superintendent needs more skills. I believe the people of Newark Valley, not the board, should have the final say in who holds the position. Interviewing more than one person and putting it up for vote would be a good solution. Appointing someone by the board ends up to be a puppet situation and, at worst, favoritism. We don’t want any more political puppets. The Supervisor cannot spend money without the Board’s approval, so no more control is needed there. I heard that the board wants more control of the road supervisor and his work truck. The Supervisor needs that work truck with him since he is on call 24/7. If an ambulance needs a road cleared, the Supervisor needs to be available as soon as possible. What makes the board think that qualified people won’t run for the job? Vote no in November to a board appointed Newark Valley Highway Superintendent.

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I have never met anyone who likes his or her health insurance company. They like their doctors, their pharmacists, and their nurses. What people want is affordable health care. What we need to fight for is MedicareForAll.

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We are no longer allowing anyone to dump any debris of trees, wood, wood chips, blocks, or anything on Ott Road in Candor. The situation is way out of control. Please respect our property and our wishes!

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I agree with the folks that have been calling in about the unnecessary change for the name of the post office in Owego. Yes, Mrs. Lockwood had an impressive life and career, but so little time spent here in Owego that the idea of naming the post office after her seems absurd. Also it seems that Mr. Schumer and his colleagues have much, much better things to occupy their time, energy, and funds than this!

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I am a Flat-earth(er). Some people complain to me that they can see the curvature of the Earth when they are at the beach on the ocean. Stupid people! Don’t they know the ocean is deeper in the middle!

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I agree with Robert Clarke Bassett regarding celebrating and preserving the U.S. post office building as the national treasure it already is. I do not understand why there is any need to rename it. Let us not get confused that a new name is necessary to accomplish preservation of this 100-year-old facility.

National Political Viewpoints

I will never ever vote again for another democrat, and I pride myself as having half a brain and common sense.

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Well, I really enjoyed the democratic comedy show last night, not one idea on how they will keep us safe. All they did is bash Trump and say they are going to give you everything but the kitchen sink, just to win your vote. It’s all about power with the democrats; they do not care about the American people.

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I would like to know what’s wrong with these democrats’ heads. We already have background checks; you just don’t pay attention.

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This is my response to the person in the national / political comment column. The person stated thank goodness President Trump is our president; religion and patriotism must be brought back. Trump is the man to do this. It is my opinion that I would never prescribe to a religion that involves deception and disrespect of other human beings. Religion has no business in government; humanity, although, does. In my opinion he has no clue as far as patriotism. We now seem to have tribalism and we can’t seem to work together as a united front, yet our children of all races and beliefs are still involved in the war; we have our own people killing our own people. Again, the word humanity, not democratic, not republican, but humanity and human mean the most. Our president needs to lead us into humanity.

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Please help me understand something. Have the republicans gone deaf and blind? They don’t seem to know what Trump is doing to this country. Do they not care about the taxpayers? It costs $3 million to send Trump to Mar A Lago for his golfing each time, more than any other president? Like they say, the fish stinks from the head.

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Recently New York magazine reported over the last 30 years the net worth of the poorest 50 percent of American families dropped by $900 billion while the net worth of America’s top 1 percent increased by $21 trillion!

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I guess when it’s right it’s right. I called in hours ago and made a remark about Christine Ford, I didn’t mention her name, I just said she was a smart lawyer, that I did not believe a word out of her mouth and by God, in this short time if they aren’t proving I was right. No matter how smart they are you can always feel out a liar in the long run and Trump will get his too. 

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I believe the Democratic Party should be renamed the impeachment party; it fits them to a tee.

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The Democrats can’t be that stupid, can they? You have the “Blivit Squad” headed by that, still wet behind the ears, loud mouth, AOC. And you have the Democratic candidates calling the President a racist! That’s all you’ve got, besides a plan to destroy our economy? How can any rational person take you serious? ROAR!

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Ya gotta laugh. A small ship with 14 climate “scientists” on board went to Antarctica to measure how much the southern ice cap was melting. Their ship got caught in freezing water and a Coast Guard icebreaker had to go and rescue them. Don’t believe me, Google it yourself. Hear about it on the lame stream media? Of course not; it doesn’t fit the narrative.

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Mr. Trump has made it clear where he stands between the Saudis and Iran. He says the Saudis pay cash.

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This is for the half-baked person who was questioning as to who God would let into heaven. Republican? Spare me; God has it under control.

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Here’s an idea. If everyone believing this climate change threat is real voluntarily agrees to put their money where their mouth is and absolutely stops everything that generates a carbon output, we’d reduce our carbon footprint by at least half. Want to bet they won’t?

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Like getting your Social Security check? Medicare a good thing? Think the 40-hour workweek with 1-1/2 pay for overtime is nice? Is clean air and water a good thing? Have you benefitted from anti-discrimination laws? Safe air travel sound good? Thank the liberals. The conservatives voted against all of them. The Trump administration is undoing a number of EPA rules. Hope you enjoy more spills in your water supply. Your view at the beach might now include oilrigs. Allowing mining wherever miners want to mine sounds great – right? Yep – those darn liberals are a disaster.

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So there ‘s going to be a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians in January? Why wait? Betcha there isn’t one.

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This evening on “ABC World New Tonight with David Muir,” David proudly announced that 14 million Americans watched the debate. The population of America is approximately 325,000,000. Do the math: 325,000,000 – 14,000,000 = 311,000,000 who didn’t watch it. What does that tell you? Oh, and how does ABC know how many people watched anyway? Makes you wonder.

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To the person who wrote in to ask if God lets everyone into Heaven; good point, but you are preaching to the wrong crowd. A lot of your Democrats don’t believe in God. They like to take His place and rewrite the rules.

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If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people and their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties, someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal”, then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”- John F Kennedy. Every time I read this column, I find people who continually trash Democrats and Liberal’s as being bad for America. Somehow in this “Trumpain” world, right has become wrong, up is down and a lie is the truth. To all Republicans that support Trump, are you telling us, you are fine with them taking away Social Security and Medicare? Mitch McConnell has made it his mission to do just that. Are you telling us you have no problem with mass shootings, and just want to send “Thoughts and Prayers?” Are you telling us you don’t care that clean air and water regulations are being stripped so that in the name of the all mighty dollar business’ can rape this country without penalty? If that is what you are telling us, don’t tell me you are a Christian or a Patriot because every one of those things goes against the word of God and what this Country was founded on! Yes, I AM PROUD TO BE A DEMOCRAT AND A LIBERAL because I care about people and this Country!

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“The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.” — Plato

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“If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence, we could rise up rooted, like trees.” — Rainer Maria Rilke. From Book of Hours: Love Poems to God.