Friday April 26, 2024 
Memoirs of an Amnesiac: Small Miracles
My first car was a 1972 MG Midget, which I bought when it was five years old. I should have known there was something wrong with it, because it cost me only $1200. I thought its low price was due to its tiny size. It seated two people, and when one got a headache, both had to take an aspirin.
Still, that little car was all mine, and I loved it. It had a stick-shift and rode low to the ground, so I had the sense of being one with the road. On a warm Summer evening, when I cruised around with the top down, that was freedom. Too bad my car spent so much time in the repair shop! It was a lemon, and most people would have admitted that long before I did.
In those days CVS Pharmacy sponsored a “Samaritan Van” which cruised busy roads to help with auto break-downs. Cell phones were unknown, so unless a good Samaritan stopped for you, you’d have to walk somewhere to get help.
One day I was driving home on I-90, when my car stalled on the Exit 7 off-ramp. As you may know, that ramp slopes uphill. To save my life, I couldn’t get the engine started again. All I managed to do was drain the battery and roll backward with every attempt. The many cars lined up behind me had to scramble around to get clear. I might have started the engine by popping the clutch (shift from neutral into first ear while rolling). But for that, I needed to face downhill. I was well and truly stuck!
Suddenly the impossible happened, and I felt my car moving forward. What are the odds that the CVS Samaritan Van would appear right behind me? The driver sized up my predicament and–without saying anything–nudged me along, bumper to bumper. I was able to pop my clutch and get the engine started.
All I could do was wave Thanks to the driver as we turned our separate ways. But since then, I try to stop for people who appear stuck, and not just on the road.
That was not the only miracle which has happened to me. I’ve learned to watch for them.
Ron McKee, Averill Park
Light The Fuse For A Booming Economy
I’ve been thinking about how this pandemic might play out with regard to our small businesses and I see an opportunity for President Trump to once again make lemonade out of the lemons he’s been blessed with. Not that I’ve ever had an idea that he hasn’t thought of first but what I was thinking was applying the left’s student loan forgiveness to businesses. Not complete forgiveness but a compromise on principal and interest. We already have law firms and creditors doing it now for a fee on a voluntarily negotiated basis.
Maybe we could take all the extra IRS people that Obama hired and retrain them to act as agents on behalf of the taxpayers to renegotiate debt at 0% or even negative interest depending on the situation.
We cannot simply give money to businesses and individuals without considering where that money will be coming from. We cannot burden future generations with more debt. We don’t need handouts. Just get out of our way …laissez fairre!
Get the Fed to work for the people instead of the banks. Turn the World Bank around to collect payments/investments from all the world’s economies that we contributed to the development of over the last half century. It would also be a good idea to collect rent from countries that rely on our military for their defense.
Knowing that our citizenry’s economic hardships have been an amalgamation of regressive tax policies and profligate government spending, we very simply need to reverse each and every liberal/socialist/collectivist economic policy of the past century. You know, end all the “failed policies of the past” as Obama used to say.
Eliminate taxes on real estate for American citizens or at least give property owners tax credits for homeschooling or sending their children to schools of their choice …make all mortgages assumable …and end all foreign aid while we’re at it. Create more tariffs. Tax foreign investors …I’m on a roll here, LOL.
David Crawmer, Wynantskill
Barnes Road Area Neighborhood Association Hearing
Town of Sand Lake – The Barnes Road Area Neighborhood Association is opposing the proposal by Mr. Bailey for a special use permit to run a commercial catering operation in an AG district. A number of area residents have asked about the proposal.One way to get more information is to watch the Planning Board hearing held on March 4, 2020. The meetings are available for streaming on the Town website. Eighteen residents spoke in opposition. The applicant admitted his commercial operation , throwing parties for 200 strangers on every warm weather weekend, would be “disruptive”. He further stated that he knew his neighbors would have legitimate concerns. So far, over 18 letters have been submitted opposing the scheme, and over 17 households have donated money to retain a lawyer to fight this proposal. It is not known when the Planning Board will meet again to take up the matter.
Cynthia Brocks, West Sand Lake
Mrs. Sabo Ducks Responsibility Slashing Town Clerk’s Salary
I read Councilwoman Sabo’s response to the Chairman of the town Democratic Party’s letter asking her to take corrective action to restore the $20,000 she voted to slash from the salary of our newly elected Town Clerk. She completely avoids answering the thrust of his letter and like President Trump, tries to divert to another topic, the failure of the Chairman (or anyone else for that matter), to publicly praise her accomplishments.
Was it disloyalty to sign the designating petitions of the Republican Town Clerk candidate instead of your party’s designee, perhaps. But the point of his letter and the great disappointment within the Democratic Committee is not with disloyalty, but rather bad judgement. That lack of judgement now extends to replacing the successful leadership of her party whose committee won 5 of 6 town offices they contributed to in last year’s election, which did not include Mrs. Sabo’s unsuccessful run for Supervisor.
Month after month, including the April Advertiser, Mrs. Sabo has written reports about town government which include things she praises as her accomplishments. At no time has she mentioned or taken responsibility for her vote to cut the Town Clerk’s salary by $20,000 or even trying to explain it away. Her response to Chairman Ashley also failed to explain or take responsibility for her action. Ironically, her report to the town in the same issue of the Advertiser praises the work ethic of the new Town Clerk during this pandemic.
Instead, Mrs. Sabo offers criticism for, paraphrasing, “never praising her publicly for her accomplishments”. I would hope this need for praise can be overcome and Mrs. Sabo can explain why she cut the salary of the Town Clerk who like all of us, has a family to support and to take the advice of her party leadership and act to restore that salary, correcting the bad judgement she demonstrated.
Jann Liberty, Wynantskill
The Hand of God
The human mind can often sense
The Hand of God when it presents
itself for all who dare to see
the bond between the flower and bee
and all that it portents.
The eye can grasp the delicate stroke
the artist chooses to invoke
the presence of both shadow and light
in hopes an ember to ignite
the heart it would provoke.
Musical notes can stimulate
the ears and often predicates
what’s to come and counterpoint
to then resolve and so anoint
the outcome it dictates.
The poet paints with colorful words
a world where love and life accords
Nancy, Sylvia, Lloyd and me,
each and all the chance to be,
touched by The Hand of God (our Lord).
Michael Cramer, Castleton
Free To Be Me
A courageous man once said “I’m free at last”
Words of wisdom from the distant past
The politician on the television tells me
I have to stay at home
But he can’t tell me where my thoughts can roam
I’m thankful to be in America where there is
Still freedom of the press
The liberty that I value above all the rest
I practice my right to vote every year
It’s my way of showing that I still care
The sign says I have to wear a mask
To enter this place
Yet, beneath that there’s still a smile upon my face
The church doors are closed for today
But God is here to stay
I pray every day for this country,
God knows that’s true
Because forever I’ll bleed Red White and Blue
Donn