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Page 4 Gouverneur Tribune Press Thursday, November 20,2008 editorial page )—^ .tbflntnt $«** The Gouverneur Tribune Press (USPS) 640-300 is published every Thursday by Gouverneur Tribune Press, Inc., 74 Trinity Avenue Gouverneur, New York 13642 Subscription rate: $33 per year Periodicals: postage paid at Gouverneur, N.Y. Postmaster: send address changes to: Gouverneur Tribune Press, Inc., 74 Trinity Ave., Gouverneur, N.Y, M. Dan McClelland - Publisher Dick Sterling - Editor/GeneralManager fiobbi Jenne - Circulation/Billing Lisa LaVancha -Advertising Representative Sandy Wyman - Reporter Nancy McConnell - Reporter (315) 287-2100 Looking back at yesteryear.... Editorial... State leaders choose to ignore crisis New Yorkers were given proof early this week that those we elect to guide us can do little to actually help, even when a financial crisis on par with the Great Depression is lurking in the shadows. State lawmakers had an opportunity to make a difference on Tuesday. A handful of the most powerful and influential leaders in the state had an opportunity on Sunday to pave the way for a plan, proposed by Governor David Paterson, but, not surprisingly, the meetings, that were called to carve billions of dollars from the current state budget, and next year's budget too, were over before they started. Nothing got done. Now next year we who call the Empire State home can expect budget cuts in the neighborhood of $15 billion. Believe me, those cuts will be felt in every community in the state, even here in Gouverneur. We really shouldn't have been surprised when state leaders began arguing about every dime to be cut, and once the finger-pointing began, it was evident that little, if anything, would get done. Leaders were pressured over the weekend by special interest groups, who aired television commercials to get their point across. We all were, once more, witness to the strange fascination politics has with television advertising. One thing is very clear... it worked! For days we heard commercials stating that it was okay to cut up the state budget plan... \but whatever you do, don't take my piece!\ Tuesday's special session never really got off the ground. Of course, thousands and thousands of dollars were spent to get our leaders to Albany, bold statements were made prior to the historic session, but when push came to shove, it was the lobbyists and special interest groups who did most of the shoving. So after days of spoon-feeding the press about cuts from everything to education to hospitals, those we elect to take care of business in Albany got together, with plenty of fanfare, and did nothing. Now we get to wait until January, and witness the same broken system, with new leaders in place, stumble through New York's financial crisis. By then those special interest groups will have plenty of time to get their point across... at any expense. Governor Paterson has told us for weeks that the state is in a huge financial mess. He made bold proposals to begin fixing the problems right now. I understand that many of his cuts would have meant people's jobs. I recognize the fact that many of his proposals to trim about $2 billion from the current budget would have cost many of us taxpayers a great deal of money. But maybe a little negotiation should have been in order... after all, they were in Albany to do a little work that they are paid very well to do. So just what would these cuts have meant to the folks here in the North Country, or the taxpayer who lives in Gouverneur? What can we expect when Governor Paterson presents his 2009-10 budget sometime next month? Libraries will be looking at a state funding cut in the neighborhood of 20 percent. This year a two percent reduction meant the loss of 14 jobs in North Country libraries. Hospital funding cuts were planned for every hospital in Northern New York. EJ. Noble was expected to lost $33,000 in funding if the Governor's budget cuts had been approved. But the proposed cut for next year was put at $138,000. Expect that number to be larger now that the cuts never materialized. That much money for a hospital the size of E.J. Noble is hard to swallow. Certainly local jobs could fall victim to the state cuts. Clifton-Fine Hospital, in Star Lake, should expect the budget ax to trim at least $50,000 in state monies next year. The proposed cuts in education certainly would have made the job of being an administrator a difficult one. Gouverneur was projected to lose about $650,0Q0 in state aid. Edwards-Knox would have lost over $250,000, Hermon- DeKalb $ 160,000, Hammond $ 110,000 and Clifton-Fine about $147,000. Districts, especially those who do not have a large fund balance to fall back on, simply cannot handle such a large cut in the middle of a school year. If cuts are going to be made the state should give those who handle the finances at local schools enough time to build their budgets with the new cuts in place. It will still be a very difficult process, but learning to get by with less will certainly become the norm if the financial mess in New York, and across the country, continues into the new year and beyond. \Police Dept. issue\ still a hot topic For the second month in a row the regular monthly meeting of the Gouverneur Village Board of Trustees was very well attended, in fact, the court room in the Municipal Building was filled to capacity. The main topic on conversation was, once again, the proposed cuts in the budget of the Gouverneur Police Department. Earlier this month the board asked Chief of Police David Whitton to present them with a list of possible cuts in his department that totaled $250,000. Chief Whitton has said many times that cuts of that magnitude would render his department dysfunctional. He echoed those words during Tuesday's meeting. The board said they were accumulating information and told everyone involved to \sit tight\ until they decide what direction they will take. Mayor Dorothy Vorce and Trustee Roger LaPierre, once again, answered the bulk of the questions from the public, Both insisted that there would continue to be a police department in Gouverneur. Mayor Vorce said that the budget for 2009-10 needs to be in place by the end of May, \but we'll have this issue resolved long before that,\ The board needs to continue to work towards building a fair budget, and not look for reductions exclusively in the police department. Other police agencies have stated publicly that they simply cannot offer services to the ' village... we can't be willing to compromise the safety of our citizens simply to present a trimmed budget for the coming year. Look to next week's Tribune Press for a report on Tuesday's meeting. -Vvch SterUMQ' By Sandy Wyman November 22,1956 Charles A. Jones, advisor of Explorer Post 22 received the Vanlderstyne award as the outstanding unit leader in the Boy Scout movement in St. Laurence County. Frank Vanlderstyne presents the award, bookends displaying Scout figures each year in memory of his father. The annual \Harvest Ball\ will be heldNovember 23 at the high school with music by Matt Matthews Quartet. The members of the quartet are Steve Murray, Elon Matthews, Dick Robinson and Chuck Stahl. Betsy Brown will make a guest appearance and Nancy Phelps is the regular combo vocalist. The Pee Wee league bal diamond was nearly completed this week with the dugouts set up for two teams, the playing field laid out and a four and one half foot board fence surrounding the park. Margaret McMillian of Belfast, Ireland arrived Saturday to be the guest of Mi, - and Mrs. Clifford S. Gamble. A secretary to a surgeon, she hopes to live in this county. Miss McMillian and Mrs. Gamble worked together in Ireland. Gervase Gates, a former member of the high school band will participate in the nationally televised Thanksgiving Day band show at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a member of the Cornell Big Red Marching Band. November 26,1941 Thomas Dolan, former sports editor of the Norwood Press has replaced Alfred E. Behelleras managing editor of the Tribune Press. Gordon J. McPherson, former associate of the Tribune now takes the post of advertising manager in which he will devote his full time. A Gouverneur horse, bred, raised and trained here has won his first race when he came in under the wire in a heat atDuffern Park in Toronto. His name is Peter Blair as is a pacer owned by Robert Hay of this place. Ten of the children who were guests of people of the Gouverneur area under the sponsorship of the Herald Tribune Fresh Air Fund will be guests of their summer hosts for Christmas. A taste of life in ravaged Europe was given people of Fowler last night when the Baptist Church staged, a refugee dinner where Dr. Ernest Adler discussed present day conditions in Germany. The first buck ever shot by Jesse Donaldson was an eight-point 170-pound buck bagged near the Pitcaim Forks area Saturday. Among those who attended the talk given by Margaret Bourke-White in Gunnison Memorial Chapel last Thursday night were Dr. and Mrs. Foster Drury, Mr. and Mrs. Mason R. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Riley, Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Nelson and Miss Geraldine Miller. The speaker, wife of Erskine Caldwell told of her long stay in Russia and the trials that she experienced. November 22,1916 Leon Murray, S. W. Corbin, J. S. Babcock, O. W. Baldwin and J. Frank Cole are in New York City this week attending the Old Glory horse sale at Madison Square Garden. Monday evening the girls of the high school served up a banquet in the school to the victorious football team and the event proved to be most enjoyable. The new clubhouse of the Gouverneur Rod and Gun Club on the Leahy farm, East Main Street will be completed today. The club has completed arrangements for its Thanksgiving Day shoot when 16 prizes will be offered and there will be no doubt be considerable strife among the amateurs of this section. The slight fall of snow that came last week has disappeared and we are having beautiful weather. There is a great need for rain as the water supoly is very short especially in the rural districts where farmers are having trouble securing enough water for their stock. November 18,1891 Our youthful citizens have taken to dancing in such numbers that the class has been divided into three classes. At the last regular business meeting of the WCTU a vote of thanks was tendered the St. Lawrence Marble Company and the Gouverneur Machine Company for their gift of material and labor in the erection of the public drinking fountain. Sleds were brought out this morning when a thin coating of snow on the wooden sidewalks afforded the children some pleasure. Watertown's new daily is expected to appear on Saturday. November 22,1868 A new doctor by the name of Birney Haynes recently of Ausable Forks has come to Gouverneur and opened an office for the practice of medicine and surgery. He is located in the Egert's Block. The doctor brings testimonials from those with whom he as treated in Clinton and Essex counties and we doubt not that those who employ Mm will find efficient service. W. A. Short has just returned from New York City with a large stock of clocks, jewelry and toys for the holiday's. Dateline...October 1966 Pictured are Donna Stone (left), head majorette and Sandra Foy, head twirler who appeared with the Gouverneur High School Band at all GHS home football games this fall. Miss Stone was responsible for maneuvering the band on the football filed and during parades. Miss Foy was responsible for developing routines used by the twirlers in halftime programs. Both girls according to band director Charles Palmatier have displayed excellent qualities of leadership and have devoted a great deal of time to their important duties. (Tribune Press photo) Sj^tu-% §H^. The Longest Night By Rev. Connie Seifert The Christmas music is already playing in a certain major department store, which shall remain nameless. I am appalled. Thanksgiving isn't even here! That's my personal timetable for Christmas music. Wlien Santa waves to me from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, then I'm ready to hear Christmas carols. Of course, we've been practicing Christmas music since the end of September for our annual ecumenical cantata in Pennellville on Sunday, December 7. Believe it or not, some folks have their shopping nearly done. Many have cards addressed, Christmas letters written and Christmas cookies in the freezer. Wise men and women got their outdoor decorations up before the first snow flew and the temperature dropped. We have a tree up at church already to collect hats and mittens for the Lion's Club who will distribute Christmas boxes later in the season. There is pristine white snow on the ground and the smowplow killed my mailbox on its first run for the season. There's nowhere near as much snow here as there is up north but enough to make the world look like Christmas even though it is only November 17th. Christmas preparations fill most people with joy and gladness. But not everyone is up and cheery for the holidays. Our current economic woes mean that many are facing the holidays with considerably less money, some without a steady job and others who have lost their homes. Most of us liave lost at least one friend or loved one over the last twelve months. Some are coping with a divorce. Others with cancer or some other debilitating physical ailment. Too many live with chronic pain. Anything that puts a question mark or a cloud of pain over our future also puts a damper on the high spirits Shared by most of the world at this time. Each year, we have Invited folks who are having a hard time with all the merriment and mayhem to attend\ a Blue Christmas Worship.\ This service is also called \The Longest Night Liturgy\ and focuses on quietly bringing light and hope into the dark and hopelessness many feel. Traditionally, it is held on the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice which would be December 21 st this year. The \Blue Christmas\ service can provide spiritual nourishment for anyone and everyone. It is open to people of all denominations. It is open to folks who don't attend any church at all. The Winter Solstice is also the traditional feast day of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Remember Thomas' struggle to believe that it was really a Risen Christ who stood before him? His struggle to believe is similar to the struggle many of us face when the hoopla and hype of Christmas drowns out the simple truth and beauty of this Holy Day. The unspoken demand to be \happy\ can intensify one's sadness. The crass commercialism can confirm and affirm a deep sense of cynicism. The hard knocks of life can leave us reeling with disappointment and disillusionment. The people and things we lose can leave us drowning in self-pity and pain. The difficult circumstances we face each day can leave us with little love and good cheer to share, especially at Christmas. The gift of love at the heart of Christmas is meant to bring hope even to the most hopeless; spiritual light even to the darkest places in our souls and our world; saving grace even to those whose hearts hurt the most intensely. The worship service is quiet - not boisterous. We light candles in memory of the loved ones we are missing. We talk about the sadness within ourselves, the contrast with the seasonal cheer of the world around us. We pray for peace - peace within our own souls and peace in the world - the peace God's gift of love was meant to bring. We imagine being at the manger watching God's child sleeping. We marvel at the quiet beauty of this moment and solemnly share a holy silence before returning - hopefully refreshed and renewed - to the hustle and bustle of a world joyously and noisily preparing for Christmas morning. I will be lighting a candle for Nancy McConnell at this year's service. For Phoenix readers, Nancy was a reporter for the Gouverneur Tribune who passed away last week. We often kept each other company at social events when I was the pastor in Edwards and South Edwards One of my favorite memories: We were cooking at the Fire Hall after the Ice Storm. Folks had brought coolers full of food from their freezers and they were arranged like a circle of covered wagons out behind the Fire Hall. Nancy and I would go out around 5 a.m., armed with flashlights in search of bacon and sausage to cook for breakfast. It is a good thing there are no existing videotapes of this, There were lots of laughs as we foraged for breakfast fare in the icy darkness. I miss her! Letters To A Home Town The treasures found in dusty boxes By Angel Thompson-Georges When the kids arrived from their dad's this week, they came bearing dusty boxes. Dredging out a dark corner of our once shared apartment, he'd come across them. Marked with my scrawling description of contents, they had become unintended time capsules; boxes of this and that never unpacked when we had moved back in 1990, one still packed with miscellany from when I came from Pennsylvania nearly 11 years ago. They say that if you do not use something within a year, then you don't need it. Having grown up with space enough to keep anything with any remotely potential use, this rule of thumb seemed outright silly. Moving an average of every 14 months for the first ten years of my adult life gradually changed my mind. With each move things were given away or left behind. Sometimes they were important things, but none I found that I could not live without. Each time I visit the farm I time travel. Bits and pieces of memory are triggered by objects unseen, sometimes for years. That picture of me sitting on the rock by the pollywog pond; I was defiantly wearing the new pants that Aunt Ruth had bought me for school out to play. The rusted remnants of the Gremlin; when the starter went we had to back it into the driveway facing downhill so we could roll start it easier with a pop of the clutch. An old black rotary dial phone; talking with a high school boyfriend, the code for when one of us heard the neighbor pick up on the party line was to start talking about vegetables. It was evening before I plopped down to rummage through the dusty boxes. Mostly they were filled with things that I would never miss, but even those things were time travel. A film canister containing a piece of popcorn with an uncanny resemblance to a skull; the giddy humor of a schedule that yields too little sleep. A self-portrait painted on an old car mirror; I used the same paints to make the 'when I grow up' picture panels with the face cut-aways for my son's kindergarten graduation. A Tupperware container filled with old pencils, pens, chalk, ink and brushes with the top that reads \Goodies\; Grandma filled it with Christmas cookies for me to take back to school, adding extra date coconut snowball cookies because she knew I liked them best. It is funny how incidental memorabilia triggers the mind. We intentionally save mementos, collect, hold onto things, in hopes of retaining a moment, but those things are not always the ones that bring back the waves of memory. It is often the incidental things, the things that we never meant to save, that feed the tides of recollection. How does the brain decide what memories to keep and which ones to let drift away? I tucked away the popcorn skull to find again another day. I hope this letter has found you and yours in good spirits and good health. Until I write again...
