Mary’s Team would like to thank you for your kind contribution in the first annual Fairway to Life Golf Tournament held Sunday, May 27, 2007. Whether due to the generosity of the merchants of Cooperstown, the tremendous response for those who sponsored a golf hole, making an 18th hole dedication, donating prizes, playing in the golf tournament, or joining us for dinner, the committee sincerely thanks you for your involvement.

Your overwhelming participation enabled us to raise $8,000 for this vital cause, which will be proudly presented to the American Cancer Society at the Relay for Life in Cooperstown on June 8, 2007.

Mary’s Team

Cooperstown

Thanks for auction help

I am writing to send a letter of thanks to all that helped to make the Chinese Dinner/Chinese Auction last Saturday, June 2, a successful fund raiser for my AFS year abroad in China.

Thanks to everyone who came to the event and added to the fun! I give my sincere appreciation to the Cooperstown Firehouse and volunteers there for making the main hall, and kitchen available for the event. The personnel at the firehouse were accommodating in every way! Thank you to Master Chef Matt Grady for coming up with the menu, and with the help of Tom Smullens and Don Gialanella making such a delicious assortment of Chinese foods. Thank you to Rich McCaffery for his assistance selling tickets. And thank you to my mother, Phyllis Orlowski for organizing the event. Thank you to all of the town merchants, friends and family that donated items, many handmade, for the Chinese auction, or to support the Chinese Dinner. They are: Spurbeck’s, Box Office Video, Little Bo Tique, Don Wild Canine, Metro Fashions, Tin & Bins, Sal’s Pizzaria, Ladybug, Riverwood, Straw’s & Sweets, Foo Kin John, The Copy Shop Plus, Stage Coach Coffee, The Upper Cut, Don Gialanella, Hope Hadley, Julie & Tony Costanza, Chris Grady, Rich McCaffery, Phyllis Orlowski, Angela Orlowski, & Eugene Orlowski.

AFS, American Field Service, is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. The organization began in 1914 as a volunteer ambulance corps. It now has programs in over 50 countries, and with over 30,000 volunteers. If anyone is interested in learning more about being an exchange student or hosting, you can find information at www.afs.org.

Our next fundraiser will be at the Lakefront Concert Series on July 10 as the local student band, "Why We Fight" performs. If you are interested in making a donation, you can do so by contacting me at 547-9228.

Julian Gialanella

Cooperstown

Proposed power line unsafe

Open letter to all New York State residents re: Proposed Power Line

Project by New York Regional Interconnect

The JFK terror plot uncovered this past week is another grim reminder that terrorists are living on American soil. And, even more sobering for residents of New York State, we remain in the terrorists’ bulls-eye.

Anyone who lives in New York State (or the great Northeast for that matter) should know this now: There is an investment group trying like hell to construct a 200-mile long mega-volt power line from Upstate New York to Orange County to service New York City and Long Island.

I have taken an active role in opposing this move. In a post-9/11 world, why would ANYONE expose what is supposed to become a major energy-artery for New York City to the world’s terrorists?

Would you ever again construct a high-rise commercial structure with the same engineering design as the Twin Towers? Would you ever again design an airport or railroad terminal without equipping it with the most up to date terror detection devices available?

Why are we planning future power-grid structures with inefficient, costly and vulnerable 1950s engineering and power distribution strategies?

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has agreed, in concept, with the New York Regional Interconnect, and gone along with its "vision" for a monstrous Northeastern energy "corridor"; just the kind of energy transmission structure al Qaeda have been attacking with great success in Iraq since 2003.

Representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will be available in Rochester, New York on Tuesday, June 12th to receive public commentary with regard to this issue. Please make it your business to be there to oppose this plan if you possibly can.

Steve Shrey

Sauquoit, N.Y.

Military might not the answer

A peace vigil initiated by Quakers, and joined by others like me who are troubled by our government’s invasions in the Near East, continues in front of the Cooperstown Post Office. We are challenged at times for not being patriotic or not supporting our troops. These challenges are hard to respond to when what we see going on is a tragically ill-advised response to 9/11 and another thrust in our long-term effort to control and exploit the Near East.

Both the U.S. and England for decades have been colonial powers in the Near East. Since the vast oil resources there are vital to both economies, the U.S. and U.K. have intervened in the Near East for political control that will assure access to oil. In fact, it has been the undercover policy of both countries that either we get oil on our contractual terms or we go to war. While officially the U.S. looks disapprovingly on colonialism, we have become the most mighty colonial power of modern times. Our wealth, industrial power, and military might entitle us, we feel, to control as much of the globe as we can. Thus we have 737 bases placed all around the world and are establishing more in Iraq and Afghanistan which we have no intention of abandoning whether a show of bringing troops home occurs or not.

With our hegemony widely recognized, we threaten countries that do not line up to promote our "national interest." We decide which countries can have nuclear weapons, and we try to control any international organization that might diminish our power or interests such as the UN and World Bank, whose dysfunctions are in part our doing.

The U.S. and U.K. are not Johnny-come-latelys in the Near East. Since early in the 20th century, we have been intervening in the Near East, changing governments, provoking coups, changing borders, exacting unfair oil contracts and supporting leaders no matter how corrupt so long as they co-operate with our interests. If you doubt this, even a cursory search will reveal that nobility and goodness has not been our agenda in the Near East. In 1944, President Roosevelt declared to the British ambassador, "Persian (Iranian) oil is yours. We share the oil of Iraq and Kuwait. As for Saudi Arabian oil, it’s ours." This led to the Anglo-American Petroleum Agreement, which split the oil of the Near East between the U.S. and U.K. In 1953, our CIA instigated a coup in Iran to oust the democratically elected Mossadeq. Why? Because he was nationalizing the oil industry which the U.K. controlled. The U.K. pressed us into this outrageous defiance of a new Iranian democracy because if Iran was allowed to nationalize its oil industry, so could the other countries of the Near East. President Eisenhower initially opposed provoking a coup in Iran as unjust, but he was forced by his own cabinet and the U.K. to back down.

Our history in the Near East has caused the terrorism that has erupted in recent years. While I do not condone terrorism any more than I condone our wars in the Near East, terrorism if looked at objectively is a strategy of the weak against a controlling force it cannot otherwise overcome. Our government has officially not allowed anyone to ask what drove terrorists to such a horrendous act as 9/11. Instead, Bush has encouraged us to think that terrorists are just free-floating evil _ people who envy our freedom and material wealth and hate us for no reason at all. This is far from the truth. Bush’s declarations about terrorism were an attempt to deceive the U.S. to the point that he could get our people to jump on the bandwagon of war, which before 9/11 he and his cabinet had intentions to initiate in order to strengthen our political control in the Near East.

Bush has made more visible our long-term colonial intentions in the Near East. Our entire government, as well as past presidents of both parties, has been complicit in this assumption of the prerogatives of power. Too, we presume that military might will subdue terrorism. It only strengthens it. The terrorism that threatens us will cease only when we develop a Near Eastern policy of justice, equity, and respect for cultural difference.

Samuel E. Wilcox

Cooperstown

Elect Coccoma to Supreme Court

The Committee to Elect Judge Coccoma wishes to acknowledge Mayor Carol Waller, Dr. William F. Streck, Paul Lambert, David Adsit, and Martin H. Tillapaugh for hosting the campaign’s first public event which was held on Thursday, May 24, 2007 at Templeton Hall in Cooperstown. We also thank the community members who attended this reception and offered their support of Judge Coccoma’s bid for State Supreme Court Justice in New York’s Sixth Judicial District.

This November, the voters of New York State’s Sixth Judicial District will elect three Supreme Court Justices to serve 14-year terms. With their votes, the electorate decides who will go on to hear thousands of cases involving family problems, business disputes, personal injury, estate issues, medical malpractice, and many other matters which impact the lives of those living in the region which includes Otsego and nine nearby counties. Cooperstown’s own Michael V. Coccoma clearly possesses the qualities essential for this position _ integrity, fairness, dedication and diverse judicial experience.

Area residents who were unable to attend, but are interested in volunteering or wish to support the campaign though other means, may contact the Committee to Elect Judge Coccoma by email at votejudgecoccoma@yahoo.com.

The community’s enthusiastic endorsement of this campaign provided a successful launch to Judge Coccoma’s campaign. We hope we can count on your continued support to elect Judge Coccoma to the State Supreme Court!

Sincerely,

Honorable Carol B. Waller

Anthony J. Casale

Meg Kiernan

Martin H. Tillapaugh

Michael Stein

William Waller, Treasurer

Julie Tirrell, Deputy Treasurer

Earth Festival a success

Earth Festival 2007, held on Saturday, May 5 at Milford Central School, was a day-long celebration of our planet. Festival attendees enjoyed exhibits, presentations, live music and contests, all geared to educate and motivate those in attendance to "think green."

Presented by the Environmental Education Network of Otsego County (EENOC), Earth Festival is sponsored annually by Wildlife Learning Company in cooperation with Otsego County Conservation Association and Otsego 2000.

Earth Festival 2007 was made possible through financial contributions from organizations, businesses, and individuals throughout Otsego County, on a number of sponsorship levels: Sustainable Forest ($500-$999) _ Otsego 2000, Otsego County Conservation Association, Renewable Energies, and Wildlife Learning Company; Pole Timber ($250-$499) _ Otsego Land Trust; Saplings ($100-$249) _ ADK Susquehanna Chapter, Bassett Healthcare, Martha and Paul Clarvoe, Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, Cooperstown Natural Foods, Cornell Cooperative Extension Otsego County, Daylily Dreams Bed & Breakfast, Dorothy Scott Fielder on behalf of United Methodist Women’s Green Team, Sally Goddard, Haggerty Hardware, Holly Hren, Carol Malz, Attorney-at-Law, and Vet’s Disposal/Casella Waste Systems; Seedlings ($50-$99) _ Gerianne Carillo & Marion Mossman, Cooperstown.com, Inc., John S. Davis on behalf of Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society (DOAS), Gilson’s Native American Crafts, and Lee Welles, Gaia Girls Book Series, Grass Roots ($25-$49) Bluestone Farm, Pamela Brown, Wolf Teacher, Dr. William Harman on behalf of Biological Field Station of SUNY-Oneonta, Hawk Circle Wilderness Education, Lions Club of Cooperstown, Rich McCaffery, Paul Mendelsohn and Ilse Funk, Natural Resources Conservation Services and Otsego County Soil and Water Conservation District, New York State Historical Association (Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers’ Museum), Oneonta Federated Garden Club, Otsego Electric Cooperative, Oneonta Susquehanna Greenway and the City of Oneonta, and Project Recovery.

Donations of items, time and participation from the following also helped make Earth Festival 2007 _ and Earth Festival Movie Night possible: Milford Central School, Greater Milford Historical Association, Milford Corner Store, and Cooperstown School students Megan Haggerty, Georgia Hren, and Robbie Katz.

Silent Auction donors included: Amazable Science Adventures, C. Crane Company, Richard S. Duncan, Electro Automotive, Sally Goddard, GreenDimes, Haggerty Hardware, Sarah James, Otsego County Conservation Association, Otsego Lake Association, Rich McCaffery, Wendy Reich, Reusablebags.com , Elizabeth Rogers, Simply Brilliant, The Freeman’s Journal, United Methodist Church Women’s Green Team, Vet’s Disposal, Melissa Volpi, Lee Welles, Gaia Girls Book Series, and Wildlife Learning Company.

Earth Festival’s Trendy Trash Contest was made possible in part through public funds from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts. In Otsego County, the Decentralization Program and the Otsego County Initiative Program are administered by the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts. Trendy Trash contestants were: Kayleen Campbell, Louise Corsover, Helen Fuschetto, Breath Hand, Hallee Hohensee, Dorothy Hudson, Karen Katz, Danielle Kiser, Katelynn Kiuber, Jen Millea, Mary Peterson, Wendy Reich, Elizabeth Rogers, Melissa Volpi, and Julianna Weiss.

Special workshop presenters and musicians were: Claire Beetlestone, Douglas Kabat, Jim Keyes, Sy Lloyd, Master Gardeners of Cooperative Extension Otsego County, Cheryl Nechamen, Jeff O’Handley, Mary Peterson, Kristin Sullivan, and Roland Vinyard.

Hats off to the Earth Festival 2007 Work Committee, without whom Earth Festival 2007 would not have been possible: Martha Clarvoe, co-chair, Otsego County Conservation Association; John Davis, Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society; Sally Goddard, Adirondack Mountain Club; Rich McCaffery, community member; Paul Mendelsohn, community member; Susan O’Handley, co-chair, Wildlife Learning Company; and Darla M. Youngs, publicity, Otsego 2000. Also Rae Consigli, Daylily Dreams Bed &Breakfast; Darlene Crowe, Cornell Cooperative Extension; and Holly Hren, community member.

Many, many thanks again to all who collaborated to make Earth Festival 2007 a truly fun and family-oriented, as well as educational and informative, event!

Environmental Education Network of Otsego County