I want to commend Senators Amedore, Bonacic and Seward for their leadership in getting a long overdue bill passed that would allow the Marbletown town offices to move into Rosendale.

Rosendale has already moved their town operations into the old elementary school, and for Marbletown to do so as well makes perfect sense. The building is energy efficient and handicapped accessible, and conveniently located for residents of both towns. The move will allow for shared services, more efficient operations, and reduced costs for taxpayers.

With the cost of living already so high, municipalities need to do everything they can to reduce the burden on taxpayers. I hope the Assembly joins the Senate and passes this bill as soon as possible so the relocation can finally take place. This is a great step for Marbletown and Rosendale!

Diane Valeggia-Fisk
High Falls

If you're reading this the week after April Fools Day, you probably think this is going to be a joke, but it is not.

Yes, our challenges are great. We have a number of nut cases running for President of the United States; Climate Change is still being denied by many of our "representatives," especially those that are funded by the BOOGI (Big Oil Or Gas Industry) men; and humans all over the earth are killing each other and themselves for reasons that are hard to follow, making Optimism a hard thing to find.

But the alternative is to follow the funders, along with our "representatives" even though we are the ones getting less out of it, because we believe their advertising campaigns and watch Fox News.

I'm suggesting that with the snow melt we dig down carefully and look to our roots for optimism and spring forward. Luckily, we have screenings at Mountain View (in Woodstock) by groups like Transition that we can join with to learn what is happening with our food, air and water and what we can do to help protect it.

This is no time to sit back and surrender, and to prove my point let's celebrate the fact that we've kept fracking out of our backyards, (at least for now), and successfully told Nestle to leave our Cooper Lake alone. We told them to go elsewhere for free water, which they put into plastic bottles, (and which are then disposed of into our oceans), so that they can profit by selling our water back to us.

When we realize that greedy corporations are simply stealing our natural resources and profiting from them, while destroying our Mother Earth, I am hopeful that more of us will stand up together and fight, to protect our precious planet and it's children — All of Us.

Jill Paperno
Glenford

The Pledge of Allegiance is almost always spoken in English, but it is refreshing to hear it spoken in other languages, a reminder of where we came from and who comprises our population.

And, after all, if we can say the Lord's Prayer in English instead of its original Aramaic, then we should be able to say the Pledge in Arabic. It would have made its author Francis Bellamy proud: one nation assembled from many nations, "indivisible" nonetheless.

Tolerance and respect for others is an important part of good citizenship, which is what the Pledge is all about.

K.J. Walters
Monroe

In reference to recent headlines about how "Pledging allegiance should unify, not divide," I'm sure the authors and editors were not suggesting that people that disagree with his position — like I do — are hypocritical.

I would have been very surprised had the Pledge been said in Yiddish; that was the spoken language when I was growing up in my home.

When I call companies' customer service, I'm asked do I want Spanish or English, press one or two. I press English. I had one year of Spanish in high school.

We are not the "great melting pot." We are a "tossed salad." Pine Bush is trying too hard. The high school students on both sides of this issue will figure it out ... or not.

Dave Fromson
Maybrook

Here at Christ's Lutheran Church, in Woodstock, we invited the entire state of Indiana to our Maundy Thursday service last week..

Maundy Thursday is the first of three services which commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. It focuses on the last evening Jesus shared with his disciples as narrated by the Gospel of John. The word "maundy" comes from the Latin, "mandatum," meaning "commandment," which refers to Jesus' words to the disciples on the night in which he was betrayed, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)

We heard this passage in the context of worship on Thursday evening. We also heard how Jesus washed his disciples feet and taught them, "if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." (John 13:14) Jesus makes no exclusions. He even washes the feet of Judas, the one who would betray him. In recognition of this, we washed each other's feet as a reminder of our Christian duty to serve one another.

To those who on the basis of "Religious Freedom" would seek to refuse service to certain people, I think this may be an eye-opening, perhaps even religiously transforming, experience. I highly recommend it.

In Christian Love,

The Rev. Sonja Tillberg Maclary, Pastor,
Christ's Lutheran Church
Woodstock

Our children are spending much more time preparing and taking standardized tests than ever before, and these high-stakes tests are resulting in substantial negative educational and fiscal impacts. Unproven accountability systems, coupled with state and federal disinvestment, are creating unprecedented changes in how we educate and fund public education. These tests hurt students, schools, and education, take resources away from other educational programs our communities value, and have significant adverse fiscal consequences for school budgets and property taxpayers.

As districts strive to educate students to be 21st-century citizens for 21st-century employment, the state is mandating systems that have not been scientifically proven to improve learning. In fact, they utilize methods that are harming and hindering student and teacher achievement. School districts are diverting money to pay for state-mandated testing systems while large cost drivers — such as insurance, pensions, and energy — are annually increasing well above the two percent cap threshold. When coupled with historically low state aid rates, we have the nightmare scenario of an increased burden for local taxpayers in tandem with reduction in educational programming.

The state is clearly mandating risky educational and fiscal policy.

KT Tobin
New Paltz

While I haven't been directly involved in the issue, it is disturbing to me as a retired educator and counselor, to read about the adversarial battles stirring between Saugerties parents, teachers, school administrators and the Board of Education over federal testing regulations coming down from Albany. This is not unlike the blame cast upon local elected officials for tax increases due to unfunded mandates from state government. I believe that it is counterproductive to continue to "eat our own" when a unified message of concern from Saugerties must be sent to the governor. There is weakness in remaining divided. Zephyr Teachout, a recent candidate for governor, echoed my feelings when she stated:

"The fight about public education in New York is on the one hand a debate between the ideology of hedge funders and middle class values. It is a fight about whether the state truly has an obligation to provide a free and public education to every child. But it is also a fight about who we are as people, what children are, what teachers are. I believe people are complex and motivated by passion, curiosity, community and a desire to bring others along. Ambition, creativity, a desire to know and understand, a desire for small masteries. The Cuomo-hedge fund-Pearson-privatizing camp appears to believe that teachers will be best motivated by fear, and children by teachers under threat, under-resourced. So this is a fight for democracy, but also for the dignity of all the people that make it up."

Mike Harkavy
Saugerties

Public education in New York state is under assault. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dismissed the concerns and guidance of teachers, school administrators, and school boards in favor of for-profit educational corporations and charter school backers. Parents and taxpayers are the last line of defense.

Consider the governor's beliefs:

The governor believes, through the preservation of the Gap Elimination Adjustment and frozen Foundation Aid, that we should continue to shift the financial burden of our educational system to local taxpayers;

The governor believes that teachers should be judged on their students' test scores regardless of any context for learning disabilities or community environment;

The governor believes, through his report, "The State of New York's Failing Schools," that poverty is an issue that should be solved by local school districts and teachers; and

The governor believes that our children should be used as evaluative tools, even at the expense of students' education (and to the benefit of the Pearson Corp.).

What does this mean to you and your community? Higher taxes, less instructional time, and increased student stress.

Michael O'Donnell
Gardiner

That 47 Republican senators would take the unprecedented action of undermining President Barack Obama in his official duty of saving the lives of our military by preventing another disastrous, pre-emptive strike to further their own political ambition is an affront to our nation, our allies and billions of innocent people worldwide.

We "solved" the atomic issue in the Cold War with Russia some time ago. Yet, Iran, a close Russian ally, could have sufficient atomic bombs from them should they be attacked with a foolish pre-emptive strike or feel threatened and make their own pre-emptive strike.

Well more than 90 percent of the world's people are passionately in favor of peace. Relatively few political leaders are driven by fear or power, or both, and care for little else beside their own personal welfare.

Our pre-emptive strike in Iraq opened a can of worms that has led to atomic hysteria. Remember that pre-emptive strike was passionately advised by the same source kindling the fear for this one; and, for the record, the Iraq strike was to destroy weapons that we found out didn't exist.

It appears our president is almost standing alone to prevent another world war where millions would be sacrificed. We know our political leaders cannot be held accountable for bad judgment but does that include treason? Shouldn't our U.S. Department of Justice do something?

Eugene Whitney
Schenectady