Readers’ Column for the week of Aug. 13, 2017

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.

I live in a sleepy little town; well, it was sleepy until Nichols became host to every truck, trailer, car, camper, and bus that travels Rt. 17/86 due to the flash flooding detour. This, in turn, has brought rudeness and inconsideration. Is it so hard to obey the 30mph speed limit when there are houses, pedestrians, cats, dogs, kids on bikes, and an ice cream shop along the detour? Is it so hard to wait for a local to pull out from a side street? Is 10 seconds too long to wait for a pedestrian to cross the street? Small town America is just as important as whatever you are racing to get to. We’re not just a road, we are a small town. Please treat us with respect.

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It is tragic to see a father carefully belt his infant son into an auto safety seat and then, 15 years later, allow that same child to enroll in high school football, thereby putting him at a near 100 percent risk of future physical and mental illness.

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Isn’t it wonderful that Taylor Swift came right out with these allegations against this man instead of waiting 50 years and putting an old man through hell? You’ve got to admit the girl’s smart. 

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The Broome Developmental Center closes and all the disabled and special needs people have to be shuffled around and rearranged to other counties. Now Broome Developmental Center may be reopening as a drug and alcohol rehab center. Wow! Are our priorities mixed up or what? I think it’s a disgrace.

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I have a bunch of Handy magazines like new if anyone is interested.

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Do you think Mick Jagger clips coupons? Or returns his deposit bottles?

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Why do people walk in the road? I just had some guys walking three abreast squarely in my lane oblivious to any danger. Is it a territorial thing or is it just plain ignorance?

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That man who raped and murdered that 11-year-old girl in Norwich should be given life. He’ll pay for what he did. Believe me!

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This is a serious comment, so please print it. I wish when you are transcribing comments you would get them word for word. Many of my comments have made no sense because you changed the wording. Please take down everybody’s comments word for word so they make sense.

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I wholeheartedly agree with last week’s caller who took umbrage at a ridiculously long comment in the previous Pennysaver. It went on and on and on and said nothing. Please limit the length of your printable comments. As Shakespeare wrote in Henry the 5th, “Men of few words are the best men”.

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Two recliners to give away. Yours for the taking. Call 659-3871.

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I am very disappointed that Watkins Glen got the $10 million revitalization award from Cuomo. I though revitalization meant to give life to cities that needed it like Endicott and Ithaca. Watkins Glen didn’t need it because of state parks, wine trails and the racetrack. That street there is very busy all the time with souvenir stores and restaurants and so on.

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The Old Coot is spot on about the new turning lanes. There is no longer a lane to get into when you are slowing to make your turn. As a result I was almost rear-ended the other day and the driver behind me gave me the horn. 

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In response, the end of the day is when you close your eyes and fall asleep for the night – providing you sleep all night, because then tomorrow is a new day and then creates a new end of the day.

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I found a ring of keys at the intersection of 38 and 96 last week. I turned them into the Sheriff’s office on Route 38. The car key had a big H on it.

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Well Todd, my friend, next week will be the 17th, it will be three years since you left. I think about you often. You were one of my very best friends. It’s still hard to get over that you are no longer around to talk to, have a beer, sit on the front porch and laugh at people that go by or walk by. I will never forget you as long as I live. Your friend, Dan.

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I just wanted to say good luck to Patti Reichert as I see she will be running in the primaries for the Town of Candor Councilman position.

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In the past week I’ve seen many comments about the Owego Highway Department. I would like to add my comment and my experience with them. Each year an ad is placed in the Owego Pennysaver for a spring brush pick up. Every year my husband and I are the first ones to call and put our name on the list. For the last three years brush was not picked up, even though we called repeatedly. At times they said they have to fill in potholes, this is from May to end of June pick up. This year we did it again along with our neighbors. Nothing has been picked up; we’ve called repeatedly, left messages with Mark Clark’s secretary. Never returns our phone calls and the secretary told us due the flood they are not going to be picking anything up. The flood happened in July, the pick up was supposed to be in the months of May and June. If they picked it up when they were supposed to then we wouldn’t have had an issue. We asked if there could be a fall pick up and we were told no. 

National Political Viewpoints

I appreciate the response about Hillary Clinton’s supposed crimes. The caller made my point; she did nothing illegal. If she deleted her email, how does anyone know what they contained? I’ll admit I wouldn’t buy a used car from her, but the idea that she could have been prosecuted just isn’t true. Trump continues to harp on the subject as he skates closer and closer to an indictment himself.

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YOUR taxes fund the NYC Subway. NYC is unique in that it has the highest ridership into and out of town of all U.S. cities; therefore it is the most important and critical asset. Both Democratic Governors and NYC Mayors have managed it into the ground and point at each other in blame. What is the de Blasio / Coumo fix? Not accountability. Tax the NYC rich, wrap it with half price fares for 800,000 low-income folks, improve air quality, and add a “congestion pricing” tax. Of course there is no specific plan to fix the subway and no sunset on the taxes. Paraphrasing, Mayor de Blasio the rich are already blowing their money on fancy food and cars. The division by politicians of America by class is sickening. Worse, we elect them. 

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Instead of blaming President Trump for not repealing and replacing Obamacare, follow the money. Is it possible that those Congress people have their hand in someone else’s pocket instead of their own? Is it possible that pharmaceutical companies and healthcare insurance companies have an incentive to keep Nobamacare in place as it exists, and are greasing the palms of Congress people to maintain the current status quo? I’m betting that’s exactly what’s happening. Think about it.

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Personally I think it’s about time we had a President that actually DOES something, accomplishes something, unlike his predecessor. I think it’s also neat that this President works, instead of vacationing in expensive places, taking aunts, uncles, all kinds of relatives, at taxpayer expense, of course! I think it’s great that this President gave his salary back to the government, doesn’t play golf constantly at taxpayer expense, of course. In short, President Trump has accomplished more in six months in office than the previous “president” did in eight much too long years!

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252 million years ago, the greatest mass extinction (97 percent of all life on earth) occurred. It resulted from the release of green house gas in the form of methane into the atmosphere. Global warming has been identified as the cause for four of the major five mass extinctions in history. Today, we have all the signs of a sixth mass extinction; sea level rise, melting glaciers, melting permafrost, recent 72-degree days at the North Pole, earth’s highest average temperatures in recent three of last five years. In light of such overwhelming evidence, it is difficult to understand our government opting out of the 2015 Paris accord. Instead of calling it a hoax, it would seem like anything to curb the release of methane into the atmosphere would be preferable to an ostrich like posture.

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This is a story that didn’t get much publicity. A soldier in a helicopter was shot down, and in the process he lost portions of his face. He ended up in a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Shortly thereafter he died. His family wanted to know why he died so they went through hoops to demand an autopsy. The autopsy report revealed that he died of suffocation. He died because he was swallowing his own vomit and suffocated. Now this is a veteran’s administration and it’s a single payer situation. If the government cannot adequately handle a percentage of the population, which is veterans, what do you think is going to happen when the whole population is put on single payer? Think about this. 

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I absolutely love Mr. Trump’s immigration reform. The man is brilliant. I agree with everything the man does and recommends. Finally, a president that is putting the American people first. So many Americans are struggling, but not our immigrants due in large part to the last eight years. We Americans have a right to say who should be allowed into our country. After all, do you let just anybody into your home? People in our country need to pull their own weight. America did not become great by being lazy and living on handouts. Again, I say love having Mr. Trump in the White House. He is so in tuned with the American people it is unbelievable. Let’s hope he is successful in reigning in Medicaid skyrocketing costs. That would be the icing on the cake!

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I usually don’t read the national political viewpoints, but something caught my eye and I read a couple. This is to the person complaining about President Trump not letting immigrants in. He doesn’t seem to understand illegal immigrants is what he is talking about. This person is insulting his beautiful intelligent wife who happens to speak five languages, which is like four and a half more than this person calling in complaining about her. She’s a beautiful intelligent person compared to the last one we had and he’s doing a wonderful job. Nobody reads this here in the high political places so I don’t understand we even have this column, but that’s the way it goes. 

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Unemployment is at a 16 year low. The stock market is at an all time high. Just think where the U.S. economy would be if the Trump tax cuts were in affect. Instead, the Marxist Democrats acting like Chicken Little keep crying “the Russians are coming, the Russians are coming”. Give me a break! These nobama leftover Democrat traitors in league with the lame stream media keep leaking private presidential discussions with foreign leaders to undermine U.S. Foreign policy and embarrass President Trump. Mandatory lie detector tests associated with voice/stress analyzers should be able to ferret out these Democrat felons in short order. The Department of Justice needs to wake up real quick and find these culprits.

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Mainstream media is more interested in speculation and conjecture in what’s really happening every day. Why aren’t they reporting the low unemployment rates, the job creation that’s happening and the soaring stock market?