Readers’ Column for the week of October 31, 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. Also, we will not be running comments regarding local contests due to the upcoming elections on Tuesday.

 

If, when you see on the news, school boards are afraid of the parents knowing what you are teaching their children; be concerned if they don’t want you in there. Your safety valve for these children is knowing what the school is doing. They are not a free enterprise. Beware of your school board. Know what they are doing and what they are teaching your children.

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The Newark Valley Food Pantry is taking requests for Thanksgiving and Christmas food boxes. The Thanksgiving give away will be Nov. 20 from 10 a.m. to noon and the Christmas food boxes will be given out on Dec. 18, from 10 a.m. to noon. Call 642-8176 or 642-3339 to receive your boxes. 

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I’m also computer illiterate. I’ve had computers and I’ve turned them off and threw them away because there is so much wrong with computer information. Even if you look something up on the computer, how do you know that it’s factual? Get out and talk to your neighbors. Get some human contact, maybe you’ll feel better. 

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You know, being uneducated is one thing. Sometimes we can’t help that because of circumstances, but being ignorant is a choice.  

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I just want to thank our neighbors on Erie Street for all the help they have given us over the past year when we’ve had sickness and surgeries. Thank you for helping with our yard, our garbage, and so many other things. Thank you for your kindness. 

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I live in Vestal and I am wondering if there is an Avon person in Apalachin or Vestal. They can call me at 748-2942.

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To the person who said they were 75 years old on social security and having difficulty buying food and can’t afford what Medicare is doing to them, they might want to try a Medicare Advantage Plan. It’s a lot cheaper for me and I am on Medicare as well. I get so many more benefits.

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I lost a walking cane. I put it in The Owego Pennysaver but only received one call. It was in front of Walgreens by the farmer’s market. If you find it, call 687-5575. I would appreciate it.

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I know someone who is retired and makes $15,000 a year. This person applied for Medicaid in Tioga County. Tioga County told this person that they made too much money to receive Medicaid. I believe Tioga County officials who run Medicaid were not being honest with this person. If a person makes $15,000 a year he should be able to receive every benefit the town and county has to offer. In today’s world $15,000 is peanuts. Give me a break.

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I live in downtown Owego and have great difficulty in getting digital TV signals. I tried the antennas you buy in stores or Amazon that mount inside to a window, etc., but they were worthless. Does anyone do rooftop digital antennas that actually pick up signals without costing a fortune?

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I just noticed a sign on Coburn Library’s door about a book sale they are having on Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Nov. 6 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. It turns out the books are free, and they will accept any monetary donation you choose to leave. Wow! I just had to pass this along!

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We have a black kitten with a red collar hanging around our backyard on State Line Road in Nichols. It has access to food and straw, but we can’t catch it yet. Send a text to (607) 768-3598 if the kitten belongs to you.

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Your help is needed for the Tioga County Historical Society, which is busy preparing for O Tannenbaum. If you have Christmas items you are willing to donate, please drop them off at the Museum located at 110 Front St. in Owego. The gift shop is being transformed on a weekly basis. If you have questions, please contact the Museum at 687-2460.

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A big thanks to everyone involved in the Village of Owego celebration last Friday. It was appreciated! Owego should be listed as “The Little Village That Could.” We have survived so much in over 200 years, bouncing back from every adversity. Thanks again for acknowledging that, to those who organized this thoughtful event.

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Open Meetings Law, Article 7, Part E of Chapter 417, Sec. 1 authorizing the OACSD Board of Education to ban your presence at BOE meetings will expire on Jan. 15, 2022. Since the onset of video meetings, our BOE requires more rigorous “guidelines” on what you can ask and how they will respond. This squelches diversity of opinion, the opinions of your elected BOE members, or multiple BOE member responses. In other words, there is a protocol of groupthink and an issue raised by a member of the public, regardless of urgency, will not interrupt the agenda. Deer in the headlights won’t be captured in video records. As a courtesy, you can provide a heads up notice of your concern prior to the meeting. “Business Only” meetings, scheduled at 9 a.m., are now in this year’s BOE meeting schedule. Shouldn’t these “Business Only” meetings be included in the “Regular Meeting” agenda, scheduled at 6:30 p.m.? The BOE cut the number of monthly Regular Meetings from two to one? This column serves as a great public forum. The BOE should participate in this forum. Public forums, not campfires, were the first social media. Greeks invented it 2,800 years ago.  Now in order to comment at a BOE meeting you must previously register, whether online or physically present. COVID or not, BOE requiring foreknowledge of your intention to attend physically or online is not a path to go down and should not be allowed. Will internal passports be required next?

 

National Political Viewpoints

Insurrection Traitors: Vicious play. Donald Trump: So yesterday. 

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Biden is a joke and he’s always joking. What are they going to do about his jokes?

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President Trump! Are you kidding me? Follow the news; every day there is a new lawsuit against this fraudster. What a gang he has surrounding him. It took a presidential pardon to keep Bannon out of jail. In 2024 Trump himself may be behind bars. Wake up, look at the record; the people he stiffed.

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Newsflash. Defund the police advocates are paying millions of your taxpayer dollars for private security forces and telling you to “suck it up.” Thieves in California are using calculators to steal about $950 at various stores because they want to stay under the $1,000 threshold so they will not be stopped or prosecuted. Attorney General Garland is another Joe Biden buffoon who wants moms prosecuted for confronting Marxist propaganda school board lackeys. The idiocracy is truly here.

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The Supreme Court has ruled there cannot be a nativity scene on Capitol Hill this Christmas season. This isn’t for any religious reason. They simply have not been able to find three wise men in the nation’s capital. There was no problem, however, finding enough jackasses to fill the stable. 

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I recently watched a documentary about New York Democratic Robert Kennedy, and how he truly cared about his constituents and the direction of our country. He would actually go out, visit, and talk with the people of New York to find out what their issues were. So what happened to the Democratic Party that now all they want is power? They only care about themselves. This is exactly why I switched from being a democrat to a republican, and I’m very proud of it. Kennedy was intelligent, he spoke well, and he brought hope and change for New York and the country. Now what we are experiencing with Joe and Harris doesn’t even come close. 

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I can’t believe how people keep complaining about the current president for all he’s trying to do. The former president caused a lot of problems that the current president has to deal with. So why don’t you get behind the president who is working for all Americans and not just the filthy rich and the arrogant.

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On the news it was stated that Trump made $150 million from his hotel in Washington while president and in the White House. Why are the republicans complaining about Hunter Biden’s paintings trying to make money? He was never in office. I hope Hunter makes millions like Trump did. 

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I have just one comment. I am a disabled veteran in the U.S. Navy and right now I am struggling to try to pay my heat and electric bill. I can’t get any help from any of the government agencies to help me pay for my medicine every month, but Joe Biden is busing thousands of illegals into this country and they will be well taken care of and get anything they want; Biden won’t even take care of his own. How sad is that, and there are thousands of other veterans out there just like me who need help. He should be impeached right now!

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Newsflash! Biden never takes responsibility for anything. He has no solutions to any problem because he is incapable, as is evidenced every time he speaks. He left Americans behind in Afghanistan, and he destroyed Trump’s engineered energy independence. Biden imposes tyrannical restrictions on liberty, is destroying our education and health systems by letting in over one million illegal alien freeloaders, while he gives free rides by plane and bus to strategic voting areas at 6 a.m. in the morning. He supported defunding our police and encouraged attacks by Attorney General Garland on parents who object to Biden’s Marxist teachings.

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I’d like to know why a bunch of citizens couldn’t get together and donate a dollar each and start a class action suit against CBS for throwing the elections in the favor of the democrats. I think it’s a breach of the citizens’ trust and they should have a class action lawsuit brought against them, and it can be done. 

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Biden did it again, collaborating with the national association of school boards to force the FBI into investigating parents who are concerned about their children’s safety and the curriculum in the schools. Seems like anyone that questions what the Democrats are doing is labeled a domestic terrorist. Coming to a town near you, thousands of illegals who have come across the border without being tested or vetted, yet thousands of public safety people and medical personnel will be fired for not taking the shot. Store shelves resemble a third world country and the prices are going up. Gas is over a dollar and a half from this time last year.

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As of this past week we now have the numbers for illegals allowed into our country without oversight or vaccinations as a result of Biden’s bone-headed moves to abolish Trump border policies and agreements at the very beginning of his term in office, with emphasis on his attempt to end the Remain in Mexico agreement. Not even to our year end count for 2021, the fiscal year 2021 is at 1,734,686. Total year end count in 2020 was 458,088. Numbers do tell a story, just as they tell it when you go to the store or to the gas station. How’s that working out for getting exactly what you voted for?

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The U.S. Constitution says a census is to count the total number of persons, not just citizens. That census is used to set election districts. The conservative rant about counting illegals is meaningless, and shows a complete disregard for the same constitution they hold dear when quoting other parts.