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Letters To The Editor

A New Year Brings New Beginnings

To The Reader’s Forum: The New Year brings a new beginning to Chautauqua County in interesting ways. Jamestown and Dunkirk both have new mayors, as does Falconer and Lakewood. Our County Executive is new as well. It makes for an important time in our area’s history. The possibilities are many and include relationship building, the development of trust, and working together in a strategic way, and of course, consensus building. I’m not sure if this situation is unique to the year 2020, but hopefully it is seen as good luck and an advantage. The opportunities are ...

A Statement In Support Of Choosing Life

To The Reader’s Forum: How good it was to read Dr. James Faulk’s letter to the PJ (12-2) about his cousin who chose life for her unborn child. With every conceivable politically-correct justification to abort, her eventual decision through the timely and thoughtful intervention of her aunt not only preserved the child, but her life-affirming choice also turned out to be a blessing exceeding expectations. It reminded me of a clip from the 2019 Ohio State-Michigan football game announced by prolific play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson. After JK Dobbins scored four touchdowns and ...

America Seems To Have Forgotten Its History

To The Reader’s Forum: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently announced that Washington is not willing to bow to Iraqi demands to withdraw its troops and any future discussions with Baghdad will be purely confined to the future structure of our forces in their country. Earlier in the week, President Trump threatened to impose economic sanctions on Iraq if it refused to house US troops. I seem to recall a similar situation about 244 years ago. Americans have grown so arrogant that we have forgotten our history. We have forgotten that the self-evident and god given truths of ...

Caucus Is Not Place To Look For Leadership

To The Reader’s Forum: Interested to see the two articles recently in “Area News” regarding the Problem Solvers Caucus, of which our Congressman, Tom Reed, is co-chairman. I learned that the Problem Solvers Caucus is “building bipartisan consensus on policies,” and Mr. Reed suggests that these bills “will provide real help to real people.” Reading through the information in the article on the four bills the group has “endorsed,” you will see financial assistance proposed for the post office, restauranteurs, retailers, breweries, wineries, distilleries and ...

What Actually Makes Up Property Taxes

To The Reader’s Forum: It’s Property Tax time again, the bills are arriving in the mail. Grrrr. And just so we’ll know why those taxes are where they are, we get a little explanation of what makes up the tax levy. Sure enough, Medicaid, and county tax make up a whopping 92 percent of my property tax. Grrrr. So we will all hear the complaints about “welfare bums,” and “county taxes.”. Well, I am now going to tell you who the biggest welfare bum is. And who really takes almost all our county taxes. Really. And I know. I was commissioner of Social Services here from ...

Sending A Thank You To Public Servants

To The Reader’s Forum: TIME magazine, besides naming its “Person of the Year”, also named public servants, especially federal employees, as “Guardians of the Year”. TIME recognized the importance of the oath taken by federal employees to protect and preserve the US Constitution, and how certain federal employees, both career and appointed, stood by that oath as they testified before Congress in its formal inquiry into the eventual impeachment of president Trump. As a former federal employee, I understand the gravity of taking the same oath to protect government ...