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An informed voter is the best guardian of democracy.
Welcome to The Rhinebeck Demogram, an email newsletter bringing
you information and commentary about current issues, candidates,
and events. Published by the Rhinebeck Democratic Committee (RDC)
for all the people of our community.
Our email
address is <demogram@rhinebeckdemocrats.org>.
As always, we welcome comments, questions, suggestions and corrections.
IN THIS ISSUE
COMMENTARY: LAST
NIGHT I HAD THE STRANGEST DREAM
by Tess McKellen
Recently
my husband and I attended a concert at the People’s
Voice Cafe, simply a large room in the Workmen’s Circle
Building on 33rd Street in Manhattan.
The principal
performer was among the vanguard of the folk music writer-singers
of the early Sixties and is one of the very few
of this ilk still performing. Her husband-arranger is a jazz
pianist of distinction who now performs principally as his wife’s
accompanist. It was my husband’s former professional relationship
with him that brought us to this concert.
More than
one hundred people filled the room, most of us past 60 and
probably formerly labor activists, social activists, maybe
socialists. Both performers were in very good form. The strength
and precision of the singer’s voice belied her probable
age. And the few minutes her husband took to perform his own
improvizations on the synthesizer were notable.
But at some point I was struck by the blandness of the content.
Most of the material was written by the vocalist. Two or three
songs reflected a special interest -- Native American culture.
But, for the most part, the program was bereft of political commentary.
And there we were, an audience highly qualified to appreciate
a stinging musical critique of our times. The time and place
and people were right and God knows this administration has supplied
us with subject matter galore. Material for such a program might
have come from the Sixties or earlier or could have been written
very recently by these artists or by younger artists in the current
scene.
Responding
to a standing ovation, and, I believe, to an awareness of a
hunger in the audience, the vocalist chose to sing as encore "Last
Night I Had the Strangest Dream," by Ed McCurdy, one of
folk music’s strongest statements against war.
But it was an afterthought.
When and where will we start saving our Democracy? Where is
the protest?
YOU’RE RIGHT TO VOTE
OUR VILLAGE ELECTIONS, MARCH 15
We urge all residents of Rhinebeck Village who are registered
voters (at their village addresses) to participate in the village
elections on March 15. Many important decisions which affect
our daily lives are made at the village level. It behooves and
benefits all our residents to take an interest in local issues
and in the elected officials -- our neighbors -- who make the
decisions about governance and change in Rhinebeck Village.
This March the positions of two Trustees and of the Mayor will
be on the ballot. Trustees serve for two years at a current salary
of $3,150. The mayor serves for two years also, with a 2004/2005
salary of $4,000.
The Rhinebeck Democrat Committee (RDC) is supporting the candidacies
of Scott Cruikshank, for Trustee, Kevin Rheden for Trustee and
Carol Mielich for Mayor. All three are running on the Alliance
Party line.
Scott Cruikshank (Trustee) is Vice President of Kirchoff Construction
Management and has been serving on the Village Planning Board
for the past two years.
Kevin Rheden (Trustee) is a realtor with the Ponvert-Battistoni
agency and currently serves as Manager of PANDA (Public Access
Northern Dutchess Area, Inc.).
Carol Mielich
(Mayor) is an owner-operator of F & M Printing
in Red Hook. For the past three years she has served as a Village
Trustee and as the Village Board’s Liaison to the Zoning
and Planning Boards.
Remember, MARCH 15, TOWN HALL, NOON TO 9 PM.
Vote for Carol Mielich, Scott Cruikshank, and Kevin Rheden on
the ALLIANCE PARTY line!!
LOCAL NEWS AND VIEWS
THE
RHINEBECK DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE (RDC)
LOOKS
BACK
In
a post-election report to members and friends, RDC Co-Chairman
Warren Smith summarized our showing in November.
Rhinebeck certainly came through for the Democrats. Our candidates
did significantly better in our township than they did county-wide.
The Kerry-Edwards ticket carried Rhinebeck 2,244 to 1,580 whereas
in Dutchess as a whole Bush bested Kerry 63,396 to 58,272.
With respect to other candidates, Doris Kelly of Hyde Park
beat incumbent
U.S. Congressman John Sweeney handily (1,834 to 1,609) in Rhinebeck,
but lost to him 17,542 to 22,132 county- wide. And our own
(from nearby Clinton) Judy Malstrom put up a very good show
against
long-time incumbent State Senator Steve Saland (1,539 to 1,920
in Rhinebeck), but lost to him rather heavily county-wide (30,657
to 59,859). Of course Chuck Schumer was a run-away winner in
Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, and the state.
LOOKS
FORWARD
At the RDC meeting in late November, those present
identified the following goals for 2005:
----- Build the party;
----- Compete in and win local elections;
----- Identify issues, taking cues from the responses to the "Community
Values Survey" of the Rhinebeck Comprehensive Plan Committee;
----- Determine and articulate a position on affordable housing
in Rhinebeck;
----- Determine and articulate a position on the conservation
of open space in Rhinebeck.
DUTCHESS DEMOCRATIC WOMEN'S CAUCUS HOLDS ANNUAL MEETING AND
WORKSHOP
On January
9, 2005, over 50 members of the Dutchess Democratic Women’s
Caucus and other county Democratic officials and activists
gathered at the LaGrange Town Hall for DDWC's first
Annual Meeting.
Those present heard committee reports on DDWC's varied activities
and plans and elected a team of officers, headed by Clare Brandt
as President, for two-year terms.
After a short
break, the meeting reconvened as a Workshop entitled 'Recruiting
Female Candidates for the 2005 Local Elections.'
Joseph Ruggiero, Dutchess County Democratic Chair, and Fran Knapp,
Democratic Election Commissioner, spoke briefly about the good
work that DDWC was doing to encourage and support women who aspire
to run for public office. Those present were reminded by speaker
after speaker that women sometimes "don't know that they
know" and must often be persuaded that campaigning, winning
and serving are well within their competence. Fostering this
confidence is the essence of the DDWC's work.
To
contact DDWC, please go to its website www.ddwc.org. DDWC
welcomes as members registered Democrats from Dutchess County
and beyond, from every walk of life and every constituency.
SEARCH COMMITTEE 2005
Inspired
by the inaugural meeting of the Dutchess Democratic Women’s
Caucus this past September, a small group of Rhinebeck attendees
decided, on the spot, to invite others to discuss and
encourage candidacies in the 2005 village and town elections.
Since that time ten residents, with advisors Warren Smith (RDC)
and Clare Brandt (DDWC), have been meeting and exchanging information
and opinions.
One of the most interesting products of their discussions is
a list of local issues which the participants consider important.
Nothing is set in stone and the discussion of issues is expected
to continue after the village elections in March. At present,
the Search Committee feels that the following (in no particular
order) deserve high priority.
--- Active collaboration between governing entities (Town Council,
Village Board, Board of Education, planning bodies);
--- Gradual consolidation of village and town governments;
--- Long range planning, with time frames, for development in
the town, with particular attention to Route 9 between 9G and
the northern village limit;
--- Exploration and understanding of the impact of the Fairgrounds
on the town and village;
--- Alleviation of parking and traffic problems;
--- Promotion of diversity in resident population and in government;
--- Fairness in the distribution of the tax burden between town
and village residents;
--- Adoption into law of the final recommendations of The Rhinebeck
Comprehensive Plan.
SIGNIFICANT DISCUSSION AT THE COCOON THEATRE
A group of citizens has met three times to date at the Cocoon
Theatre, on Mill Street opposite the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck,
to discuss their political concerns and goals. The group is described
as follows by member Carl Parris (parris@us.ibm.com).
"We are a group of concerned citizens who come together
out of a desire to understand the lessons to be learned from
the recent national elections. We want to find a balance between
study/education/discussion and using what we learn to shape our
approach to the real political struggles in our region which
also have state and national significance. We have decided that
we are not just a Rhinebeck or Dutchess group, nor are we just
Democrats. All are welcome. Our next meeting will be on Sunday,
March 13 at 4 pm at the Cocoon Theatre. It will include a 45-60
minute discussion of the book, 'What’s the Matter with
Kansas.'"
FAIRGROUNDS FOLLOWUP
Pursuant to the considerable interest in our August Demogram
article on the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, we promised to keep
the subject, and the questions it prompts, on the table. Therefore
we are reprinting below a letter to the Editor which appeared
in the Poughkeepsie Journal in October 2004; it was brought to
our attention by Joel Tyner. As far as we know, the Dutchess
County Agricultural Society has not responded to the questions
raised by the writer.
The letter
was headed, "Fairgrounds' Tax-Exempt Status
is Questionable"
"Those
who attend the Dutchess County Fair should realize that the
fairgrounds' owner, the Dutchess County Agricultural
Society, pays no property or school taxes, even though it appears
to be involved in profitable activities.
Research indicates that, though it contributes to local charities,
these are small contributions compared to the taxes it would
pay were it not tax-exempt. Indeed, its 2003 tax bills would
have totaled almost $137,000, which would have helped to pay
for the considerable police, fire, emergency and other local
services benefiting it.
According to the Real Property Tax Law, Section 450, agricultural
society property is not tax-exempt if it is used for any non-
agricultural purpose. The fairgrounds hosts car shows, swap meets,
antique, crafts and machinery shows, and an Indian festival,
most with admission fees, yet it continues to enjoy a total exemption.
More surprisingly, according to the town assessor the society
hasn't even had to file a standard application for an exemption,
a 19-page document delving into activities and finances to determine
exemption eligibility. Rather, the fairgrounds' exemption is
based solely on a verbal opinion from the state Association of
Towns. So not only is the Agricultural Society tax-exempt, it
is apparently exempt from going through the standard procedures
for obtaining an exemption.
It is respectfully
requested that the society give the public the benefit of its
response to the questions raised through a
letter to the editor."
Signed by Greg Da Sylva, of Clinton and Rhinebeck
HELP DRIVE DOWN DRUG PRICES!
The
office of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is
seeking
the help of consumers in expanding the coverage of
its website www.nyagrx.org, which currently compares
prices of the 50 most commonly prescribed drugs at pharmacies
across the state. With additional support from volunteers, the
website plans to include all of the 150 drugs for which pharmacies
are required to report prices. To date it has been determined
that drug prices in our state can vary by more than $100, depending
on the issuing pharmacy.
With the
help of AARP’s RX Watchdog program, Spitzer’s
office hopes to engage you as a "secret shopper." To
participate, call the RX Volunteer Hotline at AARP New York (1-866-227-7442,
a toll-free voice mail bank). Once you have been added to the
data base you will be sent survey forms, instructions, and a
list of pharmacies within your zip code area which need to be
surveyed on a monthly basis.
The key piece
in this program is the "drug retail price
list," a dated printout of prescription drug prices for
the current week. TO BE IN FULL COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW, EACH
PHARMACY IN THE STATE MUST HAVE A CURRENTLY DATED HANDOUT TO
PROVIDE CONSUMERS. A single posted list or an expressed willingness
to "look it up on the computer" will not do. Even if
you are unable to participate actively in the NYS RX Volunteer
program, you will be contributing to drug affordability by requesting
this list every time you visit a pharmacy to fill a subscription.
For
more information about drug affordability in New York State,
visit www.nyagrx.org and AARP’s
RX Watchdog Report at www.aarp.org/ny
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"A little
patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over,
their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering
their true sight, restore their government to its true principles.
It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous
public debt...... If the game runs sometimes against us at home
we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have
an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for
this is a game where principles are at stake."
(Thomas Jefferson, from a letter he wrote in 1798 after the
passage of the Sedition Act, authored by John Adams)
NUMBERS THAT COUNT
$17 - 18 Million . . .
. . . is estimated to be the cost to Washington D.C. taxpayers
for the security measures laid on for the inauguration of George
W. Bush. In the past the federal government has reimbursed
the capitol city for its burden of inaugural expenses, but
this year the city government has been instructed to reimburse
itself from its share of the money allocated to localities
for terrorist attack defense. What does this say about the
Administration’s concept of homeland security?
24% . . .
. . . of people 65 years and over rely ENTIRELY on Social Security
payments in order to live. For as many as two- thirds of the
beneficiaries, Social Security is their principal source of
income. (AARP Bulletin, January 2005, p. 12).
Up to 70% . . .
. . . of New York’s maple forests are projected to die
by 2050 due to global warming, dramatically changing the character
of our state’s fall foliage. (U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Climate Change and New York, September 1997)
Less than 5% . . .
. . .of major bills passed by New York’s Assembly or Senate
are debated in the respective chambers before approval. Less
than 1% of them are discussed at committee hearings. And literally
thousands of bills are approved each year in one chamber, without
any chance of being approved in the other. These are some of
the statistics cited by New York University’s School of
Law in its 2004 report, which charges that our state legislature
is "measurably the most dysfunctional and least democratic
in the nation."
$1.3 trillion . . .
. . . in additional tax cuts, most of which would be extensions
of the administration’s first-term cuts, are proposed
in President Bush’s fiscal 2006 budget, according to
Capitol Spotlight at www.c-span.org/capitolspotlight/index.asp Is this any way to run a business, by deliberately shrinking
revenues,
as well as cutting product?
BRIEFS
OUR
NEIGHBORS IN RED HOOK
Democrats
in Red Hook are resuming their monthly meetings at The White
Rabbit Coffee House. A January meeting was convened
to discuss support for candidates in the mid-March village elections.
Like the Rhinebeck Democratic Committee, the Red Hook activists
are also turning their attention to their 2005 town elections,
focussing on local offices and issues the considerable expertise
they developed during the presidential campaign. The group is
also seeking to formalize its existence by becoming the Red Hook
Democratic Committee. Meetings are generally held at the White
Rabbit at 7 p.m. on the last Thursday of the month. For more
information, email demzip125gmail.com
WWW.FACTCHECK.ORG
During
the presidential campaign of 2004 the Annenberg Public Policy
Center
of the University of Pennsylvania established a
website designed to investigate and expose misleading statements
and images perpetrated by both parties and by other entities
taking political positions. The Center has announced that this
effort will continue into 2005 and beyond. Visit the site www.FactCheck.org.
You are invited to help the effort by forwarding "any dubious
political mail" you receive and also to sign up to receive
each new issue of the 'FactCheck and Special Report.'
MULTIPLYING LIKE DEMOCRATS IN NORTHERN DUTCHESS
With
Demogram #9 (this issue), our subscriber list is 285 and growing.
If
you have family or friends who might like to receive
The Rhinebeck Demogram, ask them to 'subscribe' at demogram@rhinebeckdemocrats.org
CALENDAR
All meetings and events listed are open to the public. Dates,
times and places are subject to change, so call ahead to confirm.
FEBRUARY
February 14, Monday --- DUTCHESS COUNTY LEGISLATURE meets, 4:00
pm, 22 Market Street, 6th floor, Poughkeepsie (845-486-2100)
February 14, Monday --- RHINEBECK TOWN BOARD meets, 7:30 pm,
Town Hall (876- 3409)
February
25, Friday --- INTERACTIVE FORUM: "THREE WAYS
TO SAVE DUTCHESS COUNTY TAXPAYERS MONEY" will be held at
6 pm, Town Hall. Hosted by County Legislator Joel Tyner (876-2488)
February 28, Monday --- RHINEBECK DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE (RDC)
meets, 7:30, Town Hall (876-0885)
MARCH
March 8, Tuesday --- VILLAGE BOARD meets, 7:00 pm, Village Hall
(876-7015)
March 13, Sunday --- DISCUSSION GROUP AT THE COCOON THEATRE,
meets 4:00 pm, 6384 Mill St., opposite the Beekman Arms (parris@us.ibm.com)
March 14, Monday --- DUTCHESS COUNTY LEGISLATURE meets, 4:00
pm, 22 Market Street, 6th floor, Poughkeepsie (845-486-2100)
March 14, Monday --- RHINEBECK TOWN BOARD meets, 7:30 p.m.,
Town Hall (876- 3409)
March 15, Tuesday --- VILLAGE ELECTIONS, noon to 9 pm, Town
Hall (876-7015)
March 28, Monday --- RHINEBECK DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE (RDC) meets,
7:30 pm, Town Hall (876-0885)
APRIL
First Monday or Tuesday (to be determined) --- RHINEBECK VILLAGE
BOARD meets, 7:00 pm, Village Hall (876-7015) --- The newly elected
Mayor and Trustees will be sworn in and Commissioner appointments
announced.
April 9, Saturday --- FORUM: IS THE PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL
SECURITY A FALSE PROMISE? will be held from1:00 to 4:00 pm, Henry
A. Wallace Center (at the FDR Library and Home in Hyde Park).
Call 845-454-9685 for reservations.
April 11, Monday --- DUTCHESS COUNTY LEGISLATURE meets, 4:00
pm, 22 Market Street, 6th floor, Poughkeepsie (845-486-2100)
April 11, Monday --- RHINEBECK TOWN BOARD meets, 7:30 pm, Rhinecliff
Fire House (876-3409)
April
17, Sunday --- BRUNCH, WITH TALK BY MARIE WILSON at Time
and Space
Limited (434 Columbia St., Hudson), 11:00 am to 2:00
pm, $20 per person (reservations at fyi@timeandspace.org or 518-822-8448) --- Marie Wilson is a long-time advocate
of women’s
issues and an active promoter of women’s leadership potential.
April 25, Monday --- RHINEBECK DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE (RDC) meets,
7:30 pm, Town Hall (876-0885)
Contact
us at demogram@rhinebeckdemocrats.org in
order to
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Our
snail mail address is The Rhinebeck Demogram, c/o McKellen,
22 Violet Place, Rhinebeck 12572.
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distribute The Rhinebeck Demogram.
EDITOR: Tess McKellen
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: David Hoffman
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