Citizens Watch
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!
Background & Solutions for America, Land I love
My American progenitor ancestor was named Thomas Cornell. As feuding began in England between Anglican Catholic followers of Queen Elizabeth and King James, Catholics subservient to the archbishop (?) of Rome (known as pope), and Puritans like Oliver Cromwell. Before Charles I was beheaded and the English civil war was fought.
Thomas Cornell’s family escaped the tribulations of civil war by moving to Massachusetts Bay Colony and what is now downtown Boston.
Thomas opened tavern in Boston. By the time Cromwell’s son relinquished position of Lord Protector and Charles II re-took throne, many Puritans fled and moved to Boston.
As a result, these Puritans were creeps and control freaks with a desire to control other people’s lives by forcing others to do as they want.
People like Roger Williams and Baptists, with Anne Hutchinson. Were banished from Boston.
Because Thomas Cornell refused to follow orders of anti-alcohol prohibitionists and close his tavern when they ordered it to be closed, Thomas and his family were banished from Boston, so they joined Williams and Hutchinson in the area known today as Rhode Island.
Cornell built a home on a waterway where there was ease of access to transport commerce. Thomas died in late 1600s. His wife, Hannah Briggs Cornell inherited home. The oldest son was Thomas Cornell, Jr.
Thomas, Jr’s line of descent is the line for Ezra Cornell of Cornell University.
My line of descent is by way of Thomas Cornell’s (Sr) son named Richard. Richard had moved to Flushing on Long Island. Rose were the years of the Dutch colony. Richard Cornell’s name was pronounced in Dutch way as Corne-velle. Thus, our branch became Cornwell. Those who remained many years in Rhode Island continued with name of Cornell, even after moving to New York and central New York following American Revolution.
In Rhode Island, in order to confiscate the Cornell property, puritanical ones were likely behind death of widow Rebecca Cornell and setting up an honest man as murderer of Rebecca. They had Thomas, Jr, wrongly executed with lies based on ghosts or apparitions.
It is known that puritanical creeps pushed such actions and accusations about witchcraft so as to confiscate property, as puritanical Fidel Castro did in Cuba. Dictators. Pushing authoritarianism based on selfishness and greed, just as Hiitler also did in Germany in the 1930s. Just as Trump, DeSantis, with Republican goons attempt to do by firing up puritanical creepy control freaks today.
Puritans don’t truly believe in love as taught by Jesus Christ, but believe the world only works well if everyone denounces alcohol, drugs. LGBTQ, abortions, drag shows, true history about people of color and Jews, and immigrants; all who don’t believe as authoritarian Puritans believe.
MAGA and Trump, with others, maintain and endorse thoughts just like puritanical dictators of the 20th Century did. As Putin (pu(ri)tin) with puritanical Russian Orthodox church does.
This “new world order” was pushed by Anti-Christ GHW Bush with his false thousand lights. Too many stupid people, pushed by multi-million dollar evangelists and TV evangelists have grabbed hold of the BS of this “new world order.”
Their method is divide and conquer. They perpetrate the destruction of true Christians, many who endorse progressive Christian ideas, while these true Christians, due to loud voices of puritanical ones, are stereotyped as being evil and chase people away because they are confused about who God is and such people become atheists who even attack progressive Christians. Divide and conquer, in the name of the puritanical Anti-Christ.
These puritanical control freaks, with divide and conquer attitudes, are destroying America by dividing America. Their methods involve sabotaging good people like President Biden and Democrats in their goals to solve America’s problems by learning from history and applying what is learned in order to help America progress through the 21st Century in a humanitarian way. All for the sake of generations to come.
If I point out how history teaches us that 18th and 19th Century wealthy Americans endorsed paying taxes and contributed their wealth for the sake of America, am I going to be squelched by puritanical ones who defend the wealthy greedy brats today and call my analysis politics and don’t allow my teaching of history?
Perhaps such puritanical brats won’t allow me to explain how a wealthy person named Royal W. Clinton gave his money to build a PUBLIC high school after taxpayers voted it down? Because wealthy ones today don’t follow words of assassinated President JFK who said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, ” so therefore I am censored because, as puritanical creeps cast aspersions on me as “talking politics?” It is to learn from history, not talking politics, so go shove those thoughts where the sun don’t shine.
Or maybe learning from history is about considering that America was wrongly sent to Vietnam by the influence of greedy Texas oil men, so we need to consider whether we still fight over oil and pipelines for oil? I am squelched, censored in saying this because of finding evidence in history from which America can learn from this history. It is called censorship based on, “we don’t talk about politics.” In other words, destroy democracy by not allowing people to learn from history because it is “politics” and being part of a democracy.
Politics is democracy so I don’t accept killing politics because it destroys democracy.
It is better to return the Fairness Doctrine which was unilaterally destroyed by fascist loving puritanical control freak and creep GHW Bush who was like the Manchurian candidate. For the Fairness Doctrine was designed to endorse freedom of speech, but to stop lies, hatred, slander from being told by making certain any of that shit had to have a counterpoint with truth or else could not be aired or printed.
Eliminate gerrymandering by creating congressional district based on geographic jurisdiction in which boundaries remain static, but dynamic changes made each decade by changing the weighted ratio of each representative when voting. No more gerrymandering, which is NOT a provision of the U.S. Constitution.
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Commentary, democracy, Economics, Regulated Capitalism, Commerce, freedom of religion, Gun Safety, History & Genealogy, human-rights, If it's broke let's fix it TOGETHER
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