Letters to the Editor - The Millerton News - 4-8-21

Will avoid towns where hate signs are flaunted

I was recently ambushed in the same day by two ugly messages that are a sad indicator of the southward direction our collective moral compass seems to be taking. Motoring through Dover last week, I drove by a gentleman holding a home-made placard which he flashed at me just as I was passing. It read, in large hand-written block letters, JEWS WANT YOUR GUNS. (This was, mind you, only a day after 10 people were murdered in cold blood in a Boulder supermarket.) Later that day, as I was entering Millerton, I passed a house with a large banner affixed to it that loudly proclaimed “[Expletive] Biden.”

While several miles separate Dover from Millerton, there is little distance between the intent and ill heart of the people wielding these signs. One trafficks in hate speech (anti-Semitism, to be specific), the other in contempt speech: contempt for the president, contempt for the neighbors and visitors who elected him to office, and contempt for the social contract that enables us all to live side by side in peace. 

For all the words of tolerance and good will that are presumably being dispensed at the many houses of worship that list each week in The Millerton News, it would appear that at least two of our neighbors have not gotten the memo.

Hate speech and contempt speech are different sides of the same coin, minted in fear and ignorance. However abhorrent to the eye and ear, they are both protected by the First Amendment. So I guess we are stuck with them.

Or not.

If some residents of certain communities wish to exercise their right to free speech in such hostile and uncivil terms, those of us who take offense can choose to give those communities a wide berth. Once we are blissfully over this pandemic, there will be many other restaurants to dine in, many other movie theaters to attend, many other shops where we can get our goods and services, all in towns that don’t throw out the You-Are-Not-Welcome mat as soon as you arrive. Simple as that. 

So, in the spirit of peaceful counterprotest, I choose to take an extended time out from Dover and Millerton, leaving open the possibility of returning some day in the distant future when its local warriors have hopefully had enough time to work through their repellent hate and anger management issues.

Jan Stuart

Millbrook

 

Carla Terrace resident unhappy with Willow Roots articles

In response to Millerton News articles regarding Willow Roots (WR) food pantry: Your articles, in some form, stated that residents of Carla Terrace (CT) are complainers. Your articles have belittled our concerns by simply labeling them “Quality of Life Issues.” Pantry co-founders Lisa and Nelson Zayas have used your paper to foster half-truths and lies by omission, too numerous to mention here. Our character is being portrayed as uncaring, cold-hearted and in doing so, you have fueled the flames vilifying us. 

You have not interviewed us to provide information and context as to the root of our complaints. Had you interviewed me you would have found that I will oppose any business that would demand a special Planning Board approval to enter Carla Terrace from North Main Street. You could have reported that this is really about zoning, property rights, retaining assets and values, traffic patterns on our dead-end cul-de-sac, staving off the aggression of the Zayases as they again try to acquire a pass thru “asset” utilizing CT, adding immense value to their property at our expense.

You failed to report that CT is a 1960s residential sub-division within which are seven taxed, deeded lots on a dead-end road specifically to serve those seven owners, not properties outside it. In the subdivision’s 60-year existence, no adjacent owners have claimed a personal or commercial access to it, except during the Zayases’ 15 years of ownership when they tried, and were denied, well before the creation of WR.

Utilizing a town issued, 2004 permit allowing their winter RV to be parked in their back yard, the Zayases called the Pine Plains Highway Department in 2006 and parlayed that permit into a parking space for a rental apartment over their garage. This was done informally, without a permit. Zayas gave that apartment an address. As recently as June 2014, the rental was advertised on the website www.hotpads.com (Google it). The listing describes 10 Carla Terrace as a “private entry with separate driveway on a cul-de-sac.”  

You reported two driveways: one at 23 North Main (NM) for usage by the residents and one at the back of the property for usage by tenants. The public should know that WR car traffic enters at 23 NM and drives thru, off the front pavement, over a back lawn area (now barren), onto the back of the tenant driveway onto the CT dead-end cul-de-sac. 

Mr. Zayas mentions the approval of his tax-prep business. In the Pine Plains Planning BoardMay 2014 minutes, the business was approved; access into CT was denied.

The Zayases knew they needed a permit for WR from the town, but, in my opinion, they weren’t willing to risk denial for a third time so they just did it. Pre-COVID, the Zayases were banking on the Pine Plains Planning Board not stopping them. No room here, to share a disturbing September conversation with Mrs. Zayas and her stated personal influence within the Planning Board.

Sheila Jamieson

Pine Plains

 

Latest News

Welcome!

Special Subscription Offer

We’re delighted to offer you the special 50% off discount rate to The Millerton News.

Simply press the “Special Subscription Offer” button below and you will be directed to our Subscription Page.

Keep ReadingShow less
Stephen S. Myers

LAKEVILLE — Stephen S. Myers, 82, of Lakeville, (formerly of New York City, Almond, New York, Kane’ohe, Hawaii, and Fair Oaks, California) passed away peacefully at his home on Nov. 30, 2024. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth “Betsy” (Phelan), his two sons Matthew and Shepherd, two nephews and three nieces.

Stephen was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, on Oct. 29, 1942, the son of the late Elwood Mosman and Donnie Marguerite Myers. Growing up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Stephen struggled with dyslexia in multiple high schools, ultimately graduating from Avon Old Farms High School in Avon, Connecticut.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ella L. Clark

WEST CORNWALL — Ella L. Clark, 83, a social worker, writer, and lover of nature and the Post Office, died Nov. 7, 2024 at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie, after an acute stroke. Her family was with her in her last week.

Ella was predeceased by her parents, Benjamin S. and Charlotte L. Clark, her brother, Benjamin Clark, and her sister Tib Clark. Ella is survived by her daughter, Cristina Mathews of Fort Bragg, California, and her husband Jason and son Milo, her son Alexander Mathews, of Newton, Massachusetts, and his wife Olivia and children Ariana, Damian, and Torey, her daughter Jessica Meyer, of Pacific Palisades, California, and her husband Tim and children Ione and Nikos; and her sister Charlotte de Bresson of Paris.

Keep ReadingShow less
David Graeme Townsend

SALISBURY — David Graeme Townsend was born July 23, 1930, in Mineola, New York, to Rachel Townsend (Maxtone-Graham) and Greenough Townsend. David and his older brother Antone grew up in New York City and Long Island. Some of his early life was spent in Scotland in his mother’s family home, Cultoquhey, which is near Perth in the Highlands. Here he enjoyed summers with all his Maxtone-Graham cousins. Many of these cousins would remain close with David for his entire life. One cousin, Charles Smythe, even came to America to live with David and his family during the war where Charles became like a brother to David and Antone. David went to St. George’s in Newport, Rhode Island for a while and then on to Lawrenceville in New Jersey. He finished high school at the Basil Patterson School in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Immediately after high school, David enrolled in the US Marine Corps and served two tours in the Korean War. He was always very proud of his military service. After his service David attended the Sorbonne University in Paris for two years and then the University of Madrid for one year. Even though David never finished his formal education, he always remained an avid student of history and language. In his travels his skill with foreign languages was sometimes a problem because he spoke with such a good accent that it was sometimes falsely assumed that he was fluent.

Keep ReadingShow less