Tioga Herald

My commentary to the Editors of the Press & Sun-Bulletin:

After 40 years away from Northern Tioga County and the Southern Tier (of NY), I am noting how much this area suffers from defunding of police forces here.  I recall when there was village police in Newark Valley and a NY State Troopers barracks in Berkshire.  No more for either of them.  Where is the closest troopers barracks to Northern Tioga County? I don’t even know.  Oh, that’s right, don’t find out from the newspaper, just do a dumb thing called “Google it.”  Or use your thumb on Facebook.  As a member of my own “Citizens Watch,” I wish to make a complaint about how Facebook and social media, Google, and condensing of local investigative reporting and information in news PRINT has destroyed America.  With such ideas for “Citizens Watch,” I can also provide evidence which supports what I say.

But without proper policing of the roads here, people go all kinds of speeds and tailgate.  They think they can use the shoulder of the roads for speeding (as I have observed) so much that four pedestrians in Northern Tioga have died, just over the past year or so. 

Tailgating on NY State Route 38-B is the worst.  Going up and down hills and with signs about deer crossings, it is a very dangerous thing for those who want to BREAK THE LAW and speed to do just what they want to do.  The only winter accidents I have seen with cars in the ditch were on Route 38-B.  They go so damn fast, they sometimes pass on the shoulder of the road.  They think, going up a hill, “slower vehicles i right lane” means all those going the speed limit, move aside so the jerks speeding at speed probably approaching 70 MPH or so can plow through – and kill someone.  Yes, and one pedestrian has been killed on
route 38-B.

Then, in one area of 38-B in Broome County, there is a hill where they put dotted lines going down the hill.  WHAT?  So someone who wants to break going down the hill, to maintain the speed limit, has to put up with jerks who pass going down the hill.  Maintain the speed limit and these jerks are allowed to pass going down the hill at 70 MPH.  Who the hell in the DOT put that damn dotted line there?  So, if we simply let it go down the hill and gain a fast momentum, it makes the illegal driver keep having to speed up to pass.  Makes so much sense. 

Then there is the thought that we should get on the shoulder should there be a tail-gating ass behind us.  No.  There are so many of them, I would have to travel on the shoulder of the road and give in to so many jerks who are doing this.  I refuse to give in and drive on the shoulder, so someone can speed.  Thus, the idea of “Citizens Watch.”

There is more.  Who in Broome County came up with the idea of 30 MPH in an area heading down to Oakdale Road (on a hill) where the population is less dense than where I live on a 55 MPH state route south of Newark Valley?  The area where I live is almost as densely populated as a long stretch of NY State 79 heading west into Ithaca where the speed limits are 40 to 45 MPH.  But drivers in front of my home are going  such a fast clip that when we pull out of our driveway, we don’t see a vehicle around the bend down the road from us and those jerks are going so fast, they come upon us and then tailgate when we are going the speed limit.

So, “Citizens Watch” and I am likely to be hated.  You know what.  I don’t give a damn.  Because I speak for community, not self and “me, me, me.”  I speak for being humane to one another and considering the CONSEQUENCES of behavior.  Now there is something which seems weird to many.  CONSEQUENCES?  As a college professor at the Associates degree level, we often gave students some action and asked them to do library, DATABASES, and INTERNET research (not just the stupid Google alone) to determine cause, effect, consequences.  Seems many people ;in the younger generations here have missed to boat in something Thomas J. Watson called, THINK – and THINK about the cause, effect, and consequences.  If you teach the kids this, they WILL learn it. 

I have more solutions to this problem than just Citizens Watch.  But no one wants to hear them, do they?  After all, “don’t talk to me about politics.”  OH?  Politics?  Solutions?  Politics is MEANT to DISCUSS, not ARGUE solutions and figure out cause, effect, and consequences. 

Besides Citizens Watch:

1. Bring back more police protection on the roads.  If oncoming traffic thinks it is so BRIGHT to flash lights as a warning to the speeders, then use helicopters AND SPEND THE MONEY ON THEM because it is far more justified than the stupid 60-year war on drugs which has yielded nothing (and rehab costs the government far less than a war on drugs, especially when considering marijuana is non-addictive! THINK about that before you shoot holes in what I say).

2.  Bring back more public summer school for students to learn some of the non-academic things in life.  Not only swimming and recreation, but also STUDENT DRIVER EDUCATION & SAFETY CLASSES.  I recall such classes.  I recall seeing the consequences of bad actions on the videos shown in the classes.  Really might make our stomach turn, but boy did it teach something about consequences – such as the truck drive who was not able to maneuver a road, ended up in an accident in which the big huge pipes in his load, came crashing into the cab of the truck and squashed the man against the steering wheel.  A very gruesome sight to see, but sure did teach something.  And maybe while we are at it, teach hunting safety with guns and bows and arrows.  We get the vehicular license for automobiles which recently killed four pedestrians here, how about teaching safety about guns and rifles?  Teaching that they could be used to hunt, but not on people.  It costs, right?  Well how much has the money for public schools, like police, been cut in this nation?  It is about time for us to take from the military-industrial complex and give to our kids, for the sake of future communities. 

3.  Officials in government use a little common sense regarding the roads and speed limits.  Why is there 30 MPH in such a low density population, but in a higher density population, people can go 70 MPH and never get caught BREAKING THE LAW?  Why is there no signal light and only a flashing light at the corner of NY-26 and NY-38B?  Why is it the same at the corner of NY-38 and NY-79? STUPIDITY and no one does anything about it.  Then there is the corner of NY-38 and NY-38B – NO LIGHT AT ALL.  Two times, I have come close to getting struck there by those running the STOP sign.  TWO TIMES – not only are people going to damn fast and have never learned the consequences of their actions, but no one seems to realize, as we learned in STUDENT DRIVER EDUCATION, that one comes to a COMPLETE STOP at a stop sign and TAKES THE TIME TO LOOK CAREFULLY IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.  With all the stupidity out there, all the more reason to put a signal light at NY-38 and NY-38B. 

Perhaps this all explains why there is so much pessimism here in the valley of Northern Tioga County?  And with the downgrading of business in this valley, we are FORCED to drive over that NY-38B hill and face the damn tailgaters, because so little can be found here in this area anymore, unlike more than 40 years ago.  And who is doing something about this for Northern Tioga County?  The Central Southern Tier Foundation? Who?  Who is helping to develop this area so it can become more self-sufficient and people don’t have to climb that hill into the next county?  Had Amazon built a warehouse on the site of the old factory here in this village, would it have helped?  Maybe some.  But alas, Amazon chose elsewhere. 

I am not a ranter.  I am not a bloviator.  I am a responsible member of the community who believes in humanity and coming together as community and concerned citizens.  We need citizen concern about the things I discuss (plus more).  So hate me as a ranter and a bloviator.  Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.  Gee!  So many are acting like Scarlett O’Hara!