Serving the Towns of Wawarsing, Crawford, Mamakating, Rochester and Shawangunk, and everything in between
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Editorial
The State Of It All

What a big week it's been for speechifying, or bloviating as some pundits like to call the art of political rhetoric these days. First, last Thursday, came Michael Hein's State of Ulster County speech at Ulster County Community College, followed by Governor Andrew Cuomo's ambitious doubling up of a "2015 Opportunity Agenda" speech and budget presentation and, to top it all, President Barack Obama's combative but savvy State of the Union speech in our nation's Capitol building.

One element characterized all three speeches by centrist, practical-minded Democrats. They spoke of an economy that's finally started to turn upwards after the world's greatest downturn since the Great Depression, They were optimistic AND idealistic. And they were each countered by naysayers in the GOP who painted a picture of a still down U.S.A., and opportunity meaning something different than a fairer playing field.

Of course, there were also differences. The further up the ladder of government one went this week, the loftier the ambitions and idealism, and less pinpointed the policy proposals. Also, the closer one got to the District of Columbia, the more harsh the criticisms and less common ground found among commentators.

What were the big take-aways for all of us? First off, there were no big moments this year on a par with the governor's slamming of Pine Bush twelve months ago. Yet Hein DID take several minutes to outline a plan to help the Ellenville/Wawarsing area while still holding out the last glimmer of hope for a casino at the Nevele.

"To be quite frank with you, if others will not help us, then we must find a way to help ourselves. I will step in and I will act," he said, announcing an Ellenville Million project utilizing "funds due to the County and collected by the State to offset any casino impact from neighboring counties... a million dollars to simply make a difference" to be used for projects to be determined by a task force to be made up of president of the Rondout Valley Business Association Richard Travers, former Ellenville Village Manager Mary Sheeley, community leader Reverend Julius Collins of the Shiloh Baptist Church, Ellenville Hospital CEO Steven Kelley, attorney Julie Lonstein, insurance man Philip Coombs, and business owner Candido Perez of Optimum Windows.

Do we wish that task force could be expanded to include others in the greater community? Yes... but we also trust that will happen, and this gesture is a good start.

On a state level we were enthused by the governor's robust plans for infrastructure projects, more investments in education, various tax cuts, and funding incentives for minority-led businesses, poverty work, broadband expansion, the use of our faith-based institutions to provide some local leadership, and yet another big pile of money for Upstate economic development.

Sure, we remain troubled by Cuomo's penchant for reality television-like competitiveness to get to his funding streams, as well as some real questions about whether any of this money is really new or available (as witnessed in the continuing convolutions of his long-pending NY Rising program). But combined with Hein's push, and the sort of attention our area got in its drive for a casino, we may be finally ready to compete with some big new ideas around here. Extreme pogo festivals, anyone? A competition of food trucks? Even more big music and theater events drawing young folks from the metro area here on a regular basis?

Finally, there was our President's performance, which did dare to ask the big questions about what it means to be American in today's changing world, and did so with both humility and bravado. Was it too much to ask what's so bad about offering healthcare to those who haven't had it, or free college or sick days, like other countries? Are we really proud of those who sit on their hands when such ideals, or other grand programs like Social Security and Medicare, get mentioned?

Our take was that the man was speaking to areas like ours and noting how, beaten to a casino, we can still bound back and keep working to succeed. But need some help getting there, given the nature of the playing field these days.

Altogether, then, I'd have to say it was a pretty good week of speechifying, with some substance as well as good rhetoric.



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