Readers’ Column for the week of October 3, 2021

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

 

I find it incredible that people who cannot write a coherent sentence know that the COVID vaccine hasn’t been properly tested.

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Thank you to the person or persons cleaning up the Owego Riverwalk. It has not looked this good since it was built. Our family now enjoys taking a stroll and enjoying the view. If we could only get the shop owners to clean up the back of their buildings it would be even better. Thank you for all your hard work and for caring about our community landscape. Terrific work!

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I’m in need of some clothing to be altered. I would appreciate it if somebody could leave me the name and number of someone that does alterations for women’s clothing. 

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I don’t know if New York’s governor is any better than Cuomo, although it’s hard to believe it could be any worse. But it sure is nice not to see his egomaniac face on TV every day bragging and touting about how great he is and what a great job is doing. Amen to that!

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Can’t make the dump during the week so you rely on Saturday morning? Now they’ve closed it for the first time in years on Saturday. They certainly aren’t for the working people. We are gone from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday; they stopped us from taking our recyclables, now the garbage. 

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What is the big deal right now in selling legal cannabis and stuff like that in New York State? It’s been down on the market right on Broad Street; you can go in and buy it! What happened to all that tax money they would have received? I’ve got to know. It just doesn’t seem right.

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Just a little bit of advice, if you don’t get your vaccine, the coronavirus will find you. You are vulnerable.

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Did you ever realize that the people who are eagerly getting their COVID vaccine grew up in a time and often experienced horrible illnesses that are now basically never seen because of vaccines? It’s no different than getting your baby shots. It’s all to keep us happy, healthy and safe from other complications from those diseases. We don’t even have polio vaccines anymore because it’s basically not visible here in this country. You don’t hear about polio cases. 

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Cuomo made marijuana legal in New York State. So why is it we are not seeing places selling this? 

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Regarding people getting fired for not getting the COVID shot; last year they were heroes, they worked through the pandemic and they didn’t take the extra money from being laid off. Now they are going to fire them? It makes sense if you don’t think about it.

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To Tina, our mail lady, thank you for many years of service through heat and cold. We will all miss you. 

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What is going on in Tioga County? I see all these road improvements, cutting trees and the brush back along the road in Tompkins County, Chemung County, and all of the surrounding counties. It seems like Tioga County is still asleep from the long winter, and winter is right around the corner. Wake up Tioga County! Things are looking rough down there. 

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This is for the older person in Candor that doesn’t want to pay for ambulance service. Please take some time to reconsider. My husband and I are both retired and also on a fixed income, but we try to donate to the Candor EMS a couple of times a year because we ARE older and are more likely to need their services in the future. If they can’t provide adequate services, equipment and drivers with donations and fundraisers, then I can’t think of a better use of our tax dollars than paying for emergency services to our town. If you have an accident, or fall in your home, or have a cardiac incident, or someone you know or love gets hurt – the Candor EMS is your best hope for a quick response and a better outcome.

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How many of you think reckless driving should be ticketed because it has the potential to cause harm to people? Shouldn’t reckless breathing of harmful organisms be considered a crime too?

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A new teacher’s contract is due for the School Year of 2022. It will be as damaging as all those of the past 20 years. Over the course of the past decade we have seen the number of teacher assistants and teachers’ aides cut on the altar of the most bloated pay in the Southern Tier. This prioritization of the unions has hurt the neediest of students. Some were left behind. Of the seven members of the Owego Apalachin Central School District Board of Education, not one has the wherewithal to stand and say that teacher salaries, pensions, and benefits are too high? Nor is there any BOE member who has the strength of conviction to stand in the public forum and make the cast for the highest and most expensive compensation in the Southern Tier? IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. With a BOE so predisposed to the entitlement mentally of OACSD unions, such decisions will never see the light of day. As since 2008 the pros and cons of wasteful union spending will be wrongfully hidden from public view, in violation of NYS Open Meetings Law. Read the Law it does not provide for concealment of this chicanery.

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Is there anyone in the Owego area that does reupholstering? I have a wicker rocking chair that I would like to have reupholstered. Could you please leave your phone number in this column?

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I am disgusted that so many people think they have no responsibility to society. Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. It’s not just about you.

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The comment last week about the “Berkshire explosion” definitely caught my interest. I live at the Newark Valley end of Brown Road. It happened at about 5 p.m. on Sept. 18. I thought someone had fired off a cannon of some type. My neighbor said that it shook their house. A friend of mine on Jewett Hill Road heard it. I have spoken with numerous people who just scratch their heads. Any clues out there?

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To whom do we who drive down North Avenue submit our tire, alignment and shock absorber bills?

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During the Vietnam War my interaction with the Federal government involved a requirement to abandon my home, job, and local affiliations for a period of two years of involuntary servitude in the U.S. military. During the initial two months of that period I was subjected to physical and mental indignities, including the injection of many unidentified vaccines. Today we have a large number of individuals refusing one vaccination that takes a few minutes of their time because they object to ‘governmental interference’ in their lives. If only they understood how much ‘interference’ many of us have endured, they might have a different perspective on this situation.

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Apparently a goodly number of people think a guy with a BA in history knows more about infectious diseases than the medical community. My advice to them is this, next time you fall ill, go see your history teacher instead of a doctor.

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Who is the person that thinks the delta variant vaccine is different? I want to make sure they aren’t on my jury should I ever be faced with one.

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Should the Town of Spencer allow the sale of Marijuana? If the vote is no, will it stop the use and sale in the Town? No! Will it be a safer place to live? No! Will the Town share in the revenue that will be generated by the sales? No! Will marijuana use still be legal in Spencer? Yes! Will the local growers prosper? Yes! Will there be more open use of marijuana? Yes! Will the Town pass a local law to control where marijuana is used? No. Who will prosper from not allowing the sale of marijuana? Everyone but the Town of Spencer! I guess the bottom line is, “Who cares.” The Town government is at full speed going backwards!

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Humans release about two pounds of carbon dioxide a day, depending on size and activity level. Inhaled natural air contains .04 percent carbon dioxide. Exhaled air contains 4 percent carbon dioxide. As the content of carbon dioxide in the blood increases, heart rate and breathing rates increase. Further increases may lead to emotional upset, fatigue and nausea. What happens if a portion of inhaled air comes from within the mask on the face of a child? 

 

National Political Viewpoints

I want democrats to call into this column and tell me why Biden is such a good president. He lied about Americans getting out of Afghanistan and he took unconstitutional steps in states about mandated vaccines. He destroyed $8 billion in military equipment; he gave guns to the Taliban. He fought COVID desperately with vaccines and left migrants to come in sick at the border and will not address the worst humanitarian crisis in history, the highest crime ever, and inflation that is out of sight. Judges let criminals out on bail. Biden is not even getting along with some of the democrats now and he’s got a very low approval rating.

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So now Biden is inviting everybody from Haiti here. Enough is enough! This isn’t funny anymore. It’s time to bring back a president who is going to put his foot down, enforce our laws, and kick the freeloaders out of our country. I’m sorry; it’s pathetic!

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For the person that wrote that PBS was honest news, you couldn’t be further from the truth. They’re no better than CNN and the rest of them. They’re the right hand man of the left wing mob. 

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We hear a lot about the billions or trillions of dollars the government wants to spend for something. Where did all that money really go; payoffs, legislative pockets, etc. How much is left over for what they thought they were buying or what you thought they were buying? It’s all a fake way to get our money.

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Joe Biden is in danger from Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, who would love to be president and vice president. 

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If we really look at how much pork is in government spending, we wouldn’t have to raise taxes. The legislators are not our friends; they are our enemies. That’s our money they are spending and wasting. 

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To the person that thinks Biden is ten times better president than Trump, you obviously must be partaking in the legalization of marijuana. You probably also think that Obama was a good president. Wow! You people sure live in a fantasyland. Joe Biden is a joke and an embarrassment to the country. If you can’t see that, light up another joint sweetie.

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I wish all you people that are praising Biden would wake up and stop because he is a bad person and he doesn’t care about us. He left all those people to get slaughtered. He is a crook, so please wake up before the country is gone! 

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Everyone that thinks that Biden is better than Trump is blind, crazy and foolish, in my opinion.

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If Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida were a physician he would get his license revoked. He is not a doctor and he has to stop spreading lies about COVID. He’s hurting people because they believe him.

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To the Biden supporter that answered the question, “What has he done since his time in office” by saying, “He hasn’t told 33,853 lies” – not doing something is not doing something. Understand that? Not doing something is not doing something. 

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Biden is great, isn’t he? He’s breaking records every week! Fun to watch as his disapproval rating hits rock bottom. Just how low can he and Harris and the rest of the administration go? Vote for a democrat, you vote for crime. 

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Biden and the Democratic Party are hypocrites. If you don’t get the shot you might lose your job, yet the government is illegally letting immigrants into our country that have not been vaccinated for COVID. The democrats are doing this because they want the votes. They don’t care about the American people.

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Follow the news. Five times draft dodger, Donald Trump, attacking General Milley. Give me a break! And republicans don’t want you to get your social security checks this year. For the following months they don’t want the debt ceiling to be raised. What a joke those bums in congress are. Republicans, thinking of themselves all the way, nose in the trough, you bet. 

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Okay you guys, this one is really going to get you if you get to read it. The democrats want banking institutions to report $600 deposits made to bank institutions to be reported to the IRS. I think everybody should put in $602 when they get their social security or any income whatsoever just to drive them nuts.

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I’m so tired of reading about Biden being such a bad president. Even if he doesn’t do a damn thing he’s 100 times better than that clown we had before! 

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At every administration turnover there seems to be a few unfinished problems left. This time the administration left behind more than a half a dozen major crises, all that needed to be addressed immediately and the refusal of that prior administration to give speedy and final accounting to the new one delayed even further their tackling each. Now certain politicians are doing all they can to make sure that Biden fails, not realizing that if he fails it is ‘we the people’ who will be harmed, and our allies due to their actions. So, people and politicians, stop being part of the crises. Start being part of the solution before it is too late.

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To the person who wrote in about the Delta variant – there is no specific vaccine for this. The COVID-19 vaccine is readily available, thanks to the Biden Administration, and is highly effective against the Delta variant. So the only thing that is obscured is your knowledge. My guess is you heard about this on the Fox Cartoon Network.

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Can anyone explain why the people that are always bragging about how quickly Trump developed the COVID vaccines are the ones least likely to get it?

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I have tried on three different occasions to reach out to the Town of Owego Highway Superintendent to find out what criteria is used to determine when a road should be repaved or patched, or if there is a rotation schedule based on years. On each occasion, I was told I would get a call back. I have never received a call back. The top of Waits Road is in desperate need of repaving. Yet, every year we wait and hope our turn will come, only to be passed by again, while roads surrounding Waits are being repaved for a second time! Robinson Road was repaved for a second time. Robinson Road has four houses on it and Central New York Oil and Gas. The condition of Robinson Road, prior to this second repaving, had a fraction of road damage compared to the top of Waits Road. The top of Waits Road has 14 houses. One can’t help but wonder if the decision to repave Robinson was politically motivated and not in the best interest of the town, as a whole. It is sad when a taxpayer can’t get the courtesy of a response to a valid question from someone they elected. I hope the next Town of Owego Highway Superintendent is invested in the people who elect him.

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I am sick and tired of hearing about proposals to forgive student loans and reading letters from people who are saying how hard it is to repay their loans. For those people who think the government should forgive your loan, may I remind you it was your choice to take out these loans – so live with your decision. Many parents, including me, sacrificed tremendously to put our children through college including things such as driving old vehicles, no vacations, and many other similar budget constraints. So should I get reimbursed for all the sacrifices my family made to put my child through college? So if these people complain about how the government should pay off their loan, why don’t they decide to take out a loan on a BMW so they can drive themselves to class, then complain they can’t afford the monthly payment so we can bail them out. Not much different than your decision to take out a student loan you couldn’t afford. You decided, so live and deal with it.

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The recount in Arizona found that Donald Trump DID NOT win the election in that state. Now he is trying to get Texas to recount. It is just an ego thing with Trump. He just wants to have the position; he is not interested in improving our country. While he was in office he spent more time watching television and telling thousands of lies than he did trying to make things better for the citizens of the United States. It’s a sad state of affairs that in all the rallies he has, all he does is mock people instead of telling them what positive changes he has in mind for the U.S. The bottom line is that Trump is only concerned about himself and we cannot allow him to return to office.

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In response to the person who is concerned with President Biden riding his bike, I guess you weren’t concerned when Trump was golfing.

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To the person that said that Biden is 10 times better than Trump. That is ridiculous. He has screwed up everything he has touched. He was given three vaccines on a silver platter, and because of confusing and contradicting messages he can’t get people to vaccinate. Inflation is through the roof. The Afghanistan evacuation is a disaster, leaving thousands of Americans and those that helped us behind. Billions of dollars of our military equipment are now in the hands of our enemies. The open border with Mexico, where he lets in hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters in, untested and unvaccinated. Shipping them to swing states to change the next election in his favor and spread disease. Lying about the border patrol whipping the illegal aliens. Threatening them that they will “pay” (for something they didn’t do). And speaking of paying, pay your taxes Biden, he is a crook! He set up an illegal corporation to dodge taxes on influence money he and his son have been paid by China and other nations. Are you an American Biden? Yeah, he is 10 times better than Trump! That was sarcasm, in case you didn’t recognize it.

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The military officers leaving Afghanistan said the helicopters would never fly again. The Taliban publicly decried this fact. A Tioga County resident that can’t find Afghanistan on a map knows they are lying.