To the editor:
I have two gripes:
Nothing is truer than the statement that Black Lives Matter — but what does it really mean and what are we doing about it as a community?
All of the town boards are white; all of the county supervisors are white (except for Abdus Miah of Hudson ). All the County Department Heads (on the county payroll) are white. I personally have seen no employee (or volunteers) of color in my local library or the local newspaper.
Will Black Lives Matter result in actual employment and representation in our county government, or does the sentiment only provide context for a poster? How does our white majority plan on activating change?
The world has raised the siren call on climate change. We all know we need to find solutions; we need to find other sources of energy. We have an opportunity to make a difference. There is a company — Hecate — who wants to build a solar farm in our county. Since the 1950s there has been a a decline in actual farming activity in our county. The notion that Columbia County will return to an agricultural economy is pie-in-the-sky.
The objections that the solar farm will destroy the Historic Nature of the Hamlet of Copake has resulted in endless meetings with recommendations that range from boycotting and/or picketing the owner who leased the land, writing to Governor Cuomo protesting the promotion of alternative energy and rejecting and returning the $6,500 donation to the local food panty from Hecate (the solar panel company).
There is no outcry when poor or minority neighborhoods are saddled with trucks, boats and trains that transport the oil we all need.
Black Lives Matter/Not In My Backyard — Is this just talk or is positive action possible?
Geeta Cheddie
Hillsdale