Readers’ Column for the week of March 6, 2022

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.

 

Please stop throwing your empty cans, bottles, and other garbage on the side of the road.

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With the spring weather coming on and COVID restrictions being lessened, enjoy the public programs being held at the Waterman Center in Apalachin starting with the “Three Wise Woodsmen” on March 12, and followed by Rick Marsi on April 16. Ritchie Lettis, expert birder and naturalist, is the keynote speaker for several free programs on April 23, April 30 and May 28. There is a charge for “The Raptor Project” with Jonathan Wood on May 7. Visit www.watermancenter.org for further details.

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The Strawberry Festival is back! Celebrate ‘Strawberry Jubilee’ – the Festival’s 40th Anniversary. Come one come all on June 17 to the Friday Night Block Party with a finale of fireworks. On Saturday, June 18, spend the day and enjoy this popular community celebration with a parade in the morning followed by bands, music, dancing, entertainers, superheroes, craft and food venders, lots of strawberries, and more! Save the date. To participate, visit Owego.org and click on the Strawberry! 

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“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” — Desmond Tutu

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My heart hurts, cries and bleeds for the people of Ukraine. Americans are stepping up in support of them and their country, but what about the pets and animals that are being left behind? What is happening to them? Imagine being left behind with no food, water or no one to care for and love them. They must be terrified too. How can we help them also? Are there organizations that are helping? Who and how to help them?

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Does anyone know what Newark Valley’s Code is on having too many unlicensed vehicles? Because there is a place on Route 38 going towards Berkshire that looks like it is becoming a junkyard.

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Last week a reader attributed an increased population of migratory birds to climate change. All four mentioned, the Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, and Red-bellied woodpecker are NOT migratory. Variability of bird populations is due to a myriad of factors unrelated to the self-contradictory term, “Climate Change”. Insight into the species variability can be found in materials available at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Library (www.allaboutbirds.org/news) in Ithaca. Visit and consider donating to legitimate research and science. Year to year variability of moisture and temperature can affect food supplies, predation and parasite cycles in very complex ways. Follow honest science, not propaganda. Species population variations are primarily changing due to recovery of forests over the past 100 years, and agriculture.

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I would like to thank the individual who plowed all of the East Main Street sidewalks after our last snowfall. I think I know who did it, and will thank you in person on our next walk.

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The state owns the Court Street Bridge. The roads and streets with state numbers (434, 96, 17, 17C, etc.) are owned and maintained by the state. 

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Congratulations to the OFA Varsity Boys Bowling team for capturing the 2022 STAC Championship, and the Class B Sectional title. 

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To whom it may concern. The one way sign and the do not enter sign at the end of Parker Lane and Front Street needs to be fixed before somebody gets hurt coming up the wrong way, and I mean everyone, including the authorities. Get ‘er done!

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The Newark Valley Food Pantry is accepting requests for Easter Baskets. The pickup will be April 9 from 10 a.m. to noon. To reserve your box, call 642-8176 or 642-3339 by April 5.

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I’m interested in purchasing military fatigues, whether they are olive, drab or camouflage. Please leave your number.

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What’s wrong with this picture? When good money is paid to have a new roof put on and new windows put in a home and one of the windows gets cracked big time for no reason, and the roof leaks worse than it did before, they never call you back. You call them and call them, and they won’t call back. What do you do? I don’t know where they live. Anyone know what I can do? 

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New York, what a nasty place. Pay, pay, pay! That’s all you do here. Pay your town and county tax right after January, pay, pay, pay, ridiculous sewer bills and water bills, and then comes September and then pay, pay, pay, school taxes so people who can’t afford to have kids can get their $1,500 a month and send their kids to school for free lunches that I have to pay for. And then, pay, pay, pay, when it’s time to do the taxes and you’ve got to still pay in order to keep the government satisfied that is coming to collect your assets.

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I don’t understand why you’d waste our tax money going after these marijuana shops. Open your eyes! America is being destroyed by crystal meth. It is everywhere. It is like ordering a pizza. Go after the big fish, marijuana’s nothing!

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I have a book entitled Garbage Land. Everything we buy, use, or whatever, ends up in the garbage – and that’s worldwide! Garbage is a problem worldwide. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. Everything ends up in the garbage!

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We are becoming a very fearful and intimidated society by not cornering thieves in stores or stopping people if they don’t pay subway tolls for fear of getting hurt. Are we going to become a lawless society and allow crime to go on? What a world! No consequences!

 

National Political Viewpoints

How can the Republican Party be so supportive of Putin and his invasion of Ukraine? Please pull away from the fake Fox News and their praise of Putin. If you are not comfortable with one of the three major networks, then try PBS. Facts do matter!

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In his State of the Union, President Biden promised, as usual, everything to everybody. He even promised to bring back American manufacturing. Talk is cheap, but what has he done? First, he killed our energy independence and abundance by eliminating drilling on government land. Shut off pipelines. Started to enable Russians to make billions off us by encouraging oil imports. But until the election we assume he will be on the Made in USA slogan, despite the fact that a Maine manufacturer of home Covid tests was forced to shut down a manufacturing line because the Biden regime told them there would not be any orders. Instead, the Biden regime bought home tests made in China. I ordered from the Biden regime the COVID home tests that they had bought with my tax money. They were made in China.

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I can’t believe the number of people that still have Trump derangement syndrome. Get off it people, he’s not the President. Instead we have a hair sniffing, ice cream licking president that is driving us deeper into the hole. Gas is now 3.95 a gallon, illegals and criminals and drugs still pour into the country, store shelves have less and less product available, and this President is telling us things are good. The Russians and Chinese governments are laughing at us as we still purchase oil and products from them. Where is the leadership we need?

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If you are one of the people that think the government can control prices to stop inflation, ask yourself why it hasn’t done so to bolster its image and political standing. Do you really think they would miss the opportunity to score points in a contentious year?

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Someone commented last week that they were glad that Trump wasn’t president because he would have given Putin the green light to invade Ukraine. That is one of the most ignorant posts yet. Don’t you think if Trump was okay for the invasion it would have occurred during his presidency? The reason we are in the mess we are in is because we have a feeble president that cheated his way into office. There is no way that 80 million people voted for this catastrophe.

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In Switzerland almost every adult male has a rifle. Switzerland has never been invaded. Ukraine has made it legal for every citizen to own a gun and distributed guns to its citizens. Every American should have the choice of owning a gun and without unconstitutional restrictions and having their name on a government list. Such is the last line of defense against enemies, foreign and domestic.

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There have been many Benghazi investigations, some by Hillary’s sworn enemies. ALL of them determined that nothing could have been done. And, by the way, the Defense Department dispatches troops, not the State Department. Hillary had no ability to dispatch troops for a rescue mission. You might also want to research who it was that cut the State Department security budget request.

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Our Commander in Chief, who originally used the term “a small incursion into Ukraine,” now calls it a full blow invasion. Biden’s plan is to use this invasion as an excuse for huge increases in fuel, food, and heating costs. That will not fly. We are in for a world of hurt. When Biden can just go back to President Trump’s oil and gas policies and become independent once again, however, Biden is hostage to new green deal buffoons like AOC and that would require courage and intelligence on his part, which he sorely lacks.

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I hope all who voted for Biden are keeping up on current events. This issue with Russia and Ukraine is terrible. This would not have happened under Trump. It did not happen under President Trump. Putin saw weakness in Biden. He has been wrong on every foreign policy decision he’s made. He didn’t want to go after Osama Bin Laden; he gave Putin the green light. So again, Biden voters, I hope you are happy with the world right now. We no longer have peace.

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Ain’t that a hoot. Tucker Carlson, Mike Pompeo, and our dear departed president, Donald Trump, are all singing Putin’s praises. Must be if you are a republican, you are also a Russian. How can they call themselves Americans?

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If Tucker Carlson loves Russia so much, why doesn’t he just pack up and leave? Oh, that’s right. He’s making a decent dollar here in America. What a hypocrite!

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If the democrats would spend less time investigating Trump for the hundredth time, maybe they could do a little better job of running the country because right now we are in lots of trouble. Thank you Joe Biden.

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Some of the posts by the ultra-right Trump loving Neo-Nazis lead a real American to remember that the ponytail is really just the part of a horse’s ass.

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Whenever you feel stupid, remember that someone voted for Joe Biden. — Mama Gump

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Attention taxpayers and parents, it’s time to take a stand for academics and education to fight against a progressive agenda. Get informed, get to your school board meetings and find out what’s happening in your schools.

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Given current events, the question could be raised. What is the difference between a Russian and a republican? From what I see, there is no difference. Way too many republicans are singing Putin’s praises. If they love Russia and Putin so much they should move there because they certainly are not Americans, nor are they worthy to be calling themselves Americans. They are traitors.

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Everybody was saying there was no problem with Russia when Trump was in office. That was because Putin wants Trump in office because he’s easy to manipulate.

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I saw in this column that Hillary is running again. Why would anybody want to vote for that Jessabelle? Jessabelle, as you know, was a wicked woman in the bible. Look at all the shenanigans Hillary has pulled. Examples include Benghazi, and pouring bleach on her laptop to get rid of her emails. Instead of running for president she ought to go slither under the rock she came from. 

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I do feel sorry for the Biden voters who do not see or believe now that his administration is the biggest failure in U.S. history. What’s happening in Ukraine would have never happened under President Trump.

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All I can say is thank God for the Internet and the worldwide web, because now people know the atrocities that go on in third world countries and Russia.

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Newsflash! Maybe it’s a good thing Biden runs and hides in Delaware every chance he gets to duck really forceful news conferences. To have him as commander in chief during the Ukrainian Russian war is like having a child driving an ambulance to a serious condition. No one in this administration can handle such a tragic situation. You can thank the Europeans like the Germans, Finns, and even the Swedes for providing real weapons to the Ukrainians. We should all support the Ukrainians and their true heroism in the face of Putin’s aggression.