Editor:

After watching the debate the other night, I have been reading several letters to the editor saying Biden is the better candidate. My platform here is not to defend either candidate but to put forth the truth.

Biden’s cognitive decline has been obvious for awhile, and although the media has tried very hard  to camouflage this reality, there is no denying that the President’s missteps and paralyzed events are very alarming.

As we all know, Conservatives have said for months, Biden is unfit for the role of President.  However, after the debate debacle, many Democrats and independents are also seeing his fragility and incapacity. Panic is starting to set in.

It’s hard to imagine that behind closed doors, he emerges as a coherent and vibrant man. If that was the case, why would his son, Hunter, suddenly appear at his White House meetings? Only one answer: he wants to protect his father from more scrutiny and error.

I don’t see Biden getting out and aggressively winning over voters with enthusiasm and critical initiatives. Our border problems and economic instability are evident to most Americans.

The gut wrenching truth is he’s done.

Apparently Biden has been counseled by family and friends to continue his campaign. In fact Governor Gavin Newsom is heading East to meet with Biden. A governor whose failures in California include homelessness, early release of convicted felons, high gas prices, education failures (“According to statewide test scores released by the California Department of Education, two-thirds of students failed to meet the math standards, and more than half did not meet the English standards.”

Why would anyone engage with someone like that with a broken track record? They say “Birds of a feather flock together.”

It is never easy to steer a boat in a different direction, but to keep heading on the same path to disaster is nothing less than insanity.

Mary Mager

Fairport, and a former Albion resident

Editor:

Many Americans use the words “existential threat to democracy” when referring to former president Donald Trump’s actions on January 6th. Fine – for the sake of argument, let us accept that language.

Many Americans are using the words “existential threat to democracy” when referring to President Joe Biden’s incoherence during the June 27th debate. Shall we accept that language?

Perhaps there is a better question to be asked: Is President Biden able to fulfill his duties as commander-in-chief responsible for making truly existential decisions within 30 minutes to respond to a nuclear attack on America? I think not. With all due respect, let’s put it another way: Would you drive in a car with Joe Biden at the wheel?

Like Trump on January 6th, Biden is – at least for the moment – unwilling to do what is best for the country and resign.

Different circumstances between January 6th and June 27th? Sure. Granted.

Different outcomes resulting from January 6th and June 27th? Let’s hope not. For the good of our country, Donald Trump peacefully gave up the reins of power on January 20th, 2021. Will Joe Biden do the same?

President Biden should resign immediately, and Vice President Kamala Harris should be sworn in as president as soon as possible. Then let the November election chips fall where they may.

Jim Simon

Yates

Editor:

During the first presidential debate, President Biden enunciated numerous verifiable facts for those watching—and hopefully listening carefully to—the two candidates.  He may have been over-prepared.

Hardly any expert commentator has mentioned that—prior to the debate—Biden had been actively engaged in a grueling schedule carrying out the duties of the presidency.

As the analysts noted, however, Biden had an awfully weak debate performance. He lost his train of thought twice early on without successfully wrapping up two sentences. A bit later he said “Putin” when he meant to say “Trump.” That one got apologized for. Other gaffes were corrected.

But former president Trump had a horrible night as well. It was impressive that he adroitly avoided answering at least seven of the moderators’ questions. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash meekly tried—without success—to hold his feet to the fire. The former president’s success was amplified by dozens of misstatements dragged forth from the recesses of his mind.

What a shame that we get so caught up in the fault-finding that we miss the bigger picture.

Both parties have better candidates, but Biden is still the better choice in my view.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Kent

Albion

Editor:

During the debate, Donald Trump portrayed America as a nation terrorized by a wave of violent crimes committed by immigrants. Those statements are lies, period.

Official FBI data, which is collected from police departments all across the country, shows that we experienced a substantial rise in homicides in 2020, while Mr. Trump was President. Since Mr. Biden has been President, the homicide rate has leveled off and in the last two years has steeply decreased.

Furthermore, research from different institutions, has repeatedly shown that migrants commit far fewer crimes than U.S. born citizens. These are facts, they are public, and everyone can verify them.

Mr. Trump knows these facts and he outright lied to the American public. Granted, he lied with conviction and vigor, but he lied. I want to be totally clear, Mr. Trump did not just mis-state facts or statistics, he denied their existence; he lied.

It does not matter how often Mr. Trump, or his enablers repeat these lies they are still lies. Reality does not change because Mr. Trump and his enablers lie. Issues like crime, immigration, fair taxation, and economic policies are not going to be solved by lying.

Mr. Trump demonstrated he does not have command of fact-based reality. President Joe Biden, even with a cold and barely able to speak, demonstrated his command of fact-based reality. Mr. Biden has also demonstrated his dedication and resolve to making life better for the American people using fact-based reality, not fantasies.

Lying will not make America great.

William Fine

Brockport

Editor:

It was a shame Biden had a cold which made him look much older and talk way softer than Trump. On the other hand the fact checkers are going to have a field day with Trump. For example, the repeat nonsense about Pelosi and the Jan 6th film documentary was crazy as all anyone has to do is not fact check but instead watch it.

Of interest to me:

1) Trump did not deny he wants to impose across the board 10% tariffs which will raise the prices of what you and I buy at least that much. Then add extra profit margins and inflation and he did not try to explain away the economic disaster.

2) He did not deny he intends to withdraw from NATO.

3) He did not deny or explain why very few of his appointees will endorse him.

5) He did not deny the he and the Republican House want to cut Social Security 20% – to start with.

5) He did not deny he killed the bipartisan immigration bill.

6) He eventually admitted he would use his position to seek retribution.

7) He ducked women’s health and did not deny the current fiasco is on him.

8) He kept evading a simple yes or no about  accepting election results after all court challenges have been exhausted.

All in all true MAGA do not care about any of this even though he had plenty of time to address them but pivoted away.

On the other hand people with a sense of the history of American Democracy and concern about their economic and personal well being will care.

All in all a bad debate unless the viewer was very well read.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

Let’s note before the debate that I hope you will fact check with a fact checker and not someone on an entertainment show

Revolutionary Leftist radicals wrote our founding documents – the Declaration of Independence (Ben Franklin was 70 then) and Constitution (Ben Franklin brokered major deals on that at age 81). The first few words are “When in the course of human events…” Franklin and others knew we always exist at the forefront of the continuum of history.

You can not rewrite history. For example, the South did not fight the Civil War so slaves could choose slavery. The founders wrote they intentionally ruled out a national religion or to allow for all types of religion or (Washington) no religion at all.

Trump bragged he installed the justices needed to over turn abortion. The decision was based on a writings by a 17th century English Judge who sentenced woman to be burned to death as witches. It was an intellectually dishonest decision with broad implications.

Similarly this year only 8 Republican House members voted to protect contraception. That’s nuts! Medical advances allow us to live longer and have contributed to pushing the average age of marriage from the mid to late teen years to a person’s late 20s. Meanwhile the age of puberty and sexual curiosity has moved years earlier.

What good is original intent if it does not account for medical progress and the continuum of history. Contraception is a fact of life, not law.

IVF for families is now being challenged. None of this is how our radical founders wanted what they did interpreted. They wanted government to serve man in the present day.

American tariffs helped throw the world into world-wide depression. Republican President Coolidge and Hoover listened to businessmen and  ignored liberal economists and tried to turn back to a long gone tariff-based economy to stimulate the economy when the truth was they only protected elite donors businesses. Sales through tariffs that really only help elite businesses and everyone else. It was an out-of-date solution serving only a few.

Trump contributed to our current inflation with tariffs. He has been campaigning for more tariffs to close his deficit (it was 2x Biden’s the first time around). A tariff-based economy such as Trump talks about would repeat the single greatest economic mistake in history.

Trump always says elections are fixed – even the one he won – but has never produced proof. Everything with him is always been or going to be someone else’s fault. Even News Max is running disclaimers across the bottom of the screen sometimes when he talks. It’s his ego talking to always blame others and not good judgement – six bankruptcies later.

Importantly, one of the reason’s Hitler was able to seize control of Germany was he threw out the civil service and stacked government with his followers. That is exactly what Trump wants to do now. He claims he has to deal with the Deep State.

The Deep State which convicted him (wrongly he claims) and Biden’s son (rightly he claims).  (He neglects we have a legal and jury system designed to bend over backwards to avoid to avoid wrongful convictions!)

Trump knows enough to know he needs to remove the safety checks standing in his (or any other politician ) way when he/they try to break the law. We hire these civil servants to execute as long as the law on the books.

They are both old like Ben Franklin. So I ask all to listen to see which debater is wiser and sharper, not louder.  Which honors our founders and a democracy from, by, and for the people.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion

Editor:

I would like to congratulate Orleans County Conservative Party Committee-endorsed candidate Susan Howard on her win for Orleans County District Attorney.

I know Susan worked very hard to earn the votes of Republicans in this Primary. We know Susan is ready to take over, make changes for the better and have the best, qualified people to administer justice in our county.

Susan is a firm believer that justice is blind. From a low-life poison peddler selling drugs to our children to a corrupt politician, judge or rouge member of law enforcement, no one gets favoritism and the law will get applied evenly to all criminals alike even and especially the shop lifter.

She is qualified, ready and capable to do the many facets of this office. She will keep our county safe and work with our hard-working law enforcement to bring criminals to justice. She will make us all proud and protect our second amendment rights.

It is time for a new era of justice in Orleans County. Congratulations to Susan Howard, our new DA.

Paul Lauricella

Orleans County Conservative Party Chairman

Editor:

First, I want to thank God for the opportunity to run for office in this district and for all of the people I was able to meet along the way.

Second, I want to thank my family, friends, supporters, and staff. Everyone sacrificed something for this effort and I am forever grateful for that.

The truth isn’t always pretty but here it is:

Claudia Tenney attempted to blackmail me in 2022 when I was congratulating her on our concession call. She threatened to use a dirty, dishonest campaign against me if I ran again. And not being one to back down, I made the decision to run again that very night.

Claudia Tenney and the New York State Republican Party ran one of the most disgraceful, dishonest campaigns I have ever seen. It was full of shameful lies, photoshopped images, deceptively edited video clips, and even Claudia personally messaging voters with slanderous personal attacks against me, my wife, and my family. To say I was appalled is an understatement.

We took the high road and never resorted to horrible things I knew about Claudia that were actually true, and probably could have won us the race. We chose to hold on to our integrity and have some class. To do anything less would not only be wrong, but most importantly it would be disrespectful to the voters.

We have serious issues facing our nation and the failed establishment politicians like Claudia Tenney have helped to create them. That is why she has refused to debate me for over two years. Her record is indefensible and she would be exposed.

We had President Trump endorse against us, Speaker Johnson, Jim Jordan, every single Republican Chair, every State Senator and Assemblyman in the district, and millions spent against us. In spite of that and the smear campaign, we still got about 40% of the vote again. I couldn’t be more proud.

The Uniparty establishment knows that our America First message of shrinking government, securing our borders, keeping our money at home, staying out of endless wars, restoring traditional Christian values and fighting political corruption was a threat to their globalist plan to impoverish us, strip away our rights, destroy our families, make us more dependent on China, and put America Last.

We cannot give up or lose hope. Not now, not ever. Our race helped to expose the failed NY state GOP and the Uniparty politicians, which needed to happen. Now it is up to us to keep fighting them. We can win, and we will win.

What they did to me was an attempt to deter other real Americans from going up against the machine. It won’t work. We are proud people with huge hearts. And we will always fight to preserve our republic and protect our families.

I have a beautiful family that I have truly missed, and I am sure have missed me too, my son especially. My wife and I have another child on the way and we’re so excited to grow our family.

I look forward to getting back in the fight soon, but for now I am going to get some rest and reflect on this battle. The war goes on.

Thank you all for your votes, donations, time, effort and support. But most of all thank you for letting me speak for you and fight the establishment. It was the honor of my lifetime.

God has a plan for all of us, and this journey proved that to me. Stay tuned!

Your fighter and friend,

Mario Fratto

Geneva

Fratto, a candidate for the NY-24 Congressional District, lost a Republican Primary to Claudia Tenney.

Editor:

On May 29, Heritage Wind LLC submitted a modification request to the state Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) asking for a 27percent megawatt reduction (173.6 MW to 126 MW) from the current Barre project.

The suggested changes would lessen the total turbine height from 656 to 640, a negligible difference of only 16 feet. All other aspects of the project: number of turbines, access road, lines and so forth would remain unchanged.

The Town of Barre entered into a zero dollar Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) contract. Instead Barre solely contracted a Host Community Agreement (HCA) on the basis of dollars per MW when the nameplate capacity was 184.8 MW. The Town, in doing this, would receive funding that should have directly corresponded with the adverse impact the turbines would place on the community.

However given the new modification request, the adverse impact remains unchanged but the community benefit is significantly reduced. The below chart indicates the $8 million loss to the community if the proposed changes are accepted without the developer being required to provide additional compensation.

This number is a $12.5 million loss from what the Town was led to believe when signing the HCA.

The chart shows the difference between the current modification and past requests for the Town of Barre, which includes $6,750 per MW as agreed HCA and a $0 PILOT.

Barbara Verburg

President of Clear Skies Above Barre

Editor:

Last night was a big loss for the 24th congressional district. With a Republican like Claudia Tenney in charge of our district for another two years, I see nothing but further decline for not only us but the entire country.

I found it very disrespectful the comments she made in the email she sent out announcing her victory, but that’s the Claudia way.

Paul Lauricella

Lyndonville

Orleans County Conservative Party Chairman

Editor:

Thank You to all the voters in Orleans County who took the time out of their busy schedules to vote in yesterday’s Republican Primary. With time being such a rare commodity in today’s world, you achieved a feat that was noteworthy in itself.

Observing the big picture of all candidates running for office I saw an enormous effort put in by each and everyone of you and your supporters. The hard work that was put forth was significant for those participating, either as a candidate or supporter, yet I see the hardest work still ahead. That would be the ability to accept the results of the voters and work together now, in a bipartisan manner.

Words were spoken, letters written and feelings hurt, to say the least.

In a true democracy everyone should now be able to move forward, work together and do their job to the best of their ability. The past is the past and tomorrow is a new beginning. Acceptance of the results and the ability to move forward is difficult but necessary.

For those who won, you are now indebted to those voters who believed in you.

Thank You

Jim Pratt

Albion

Editor:

Since 1961, Arc GLOW has been serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in our region.

It started with the Arc of Livingston Wyoming in 1961, followed by the Genesee Arc in 1966 and Arc of Orleans County in 1970. In 2016, Genesee Arc and the Arc of Orleans County merged to form Arc of Genesee Orleans. In 2021, the Arcs of Livingston Wyoming and Genesee Orleans merged to create Arc GLOW, which we are known as today.

Yet across all iterations, our mission has been the same; empowering and support people of all ages with a broad spectrum of emotional, intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Today we serve over 2,000 individuals with IDD across the GLOW region and employ over 1,100 staff dedicated to our mission to help our individuals in realizing their full potential and finding happiness and meaning in life through programs such as vocational, educational, residential, clinical, recreational, and day habilitation.

Yet in order to help individuals with IDD, we need you, the community’s support.

The best way you can do that is through membership, which is open to everyone over the age of 18. While any amount of donation for membership is welcome, the base cost is as little as $1 per person. And this $1 goes a long way.

The higher membership we have, the more power we have in our advocacy at state and national levels, giving Arc GLOW and the families and individuals we serve a more influential voice in legislative matters. Your membership has a direct impact on our federal and state funding. Membership contributions also help to fund programs that government funding does not provide.

Investments in services over the past 10 years have increased only 10.5 percent in comparison to 30 percent inflation. This has caused a critical staffing shortage, especially considering that the Arc Direct Support Professional (DSP) staff receives a fraction of the salary of staff working in facilities operated by the state for the same work.

Finally, membership is a statement that you believe in the importance of what Arc GLOW does and you support our mission.

I am writing to you as a parent of a son who has lived in an Arc GLOW group home since 2006.  I can honestly say how happy he is in his home as well as with the day program he attends.

We as parents are so very thankful for this as well as the sense of security it brings to us.  I have also been a member of various Arc GLOW committees and then the Board of Directors for about 15 years now. I know how deeply members care about our individuals and spend a great deal of time to guarantee what is the best possible life for them in all respects.

Arc GLOW is truly a family to join, and you can do so by visiting our website at ArcGLOW.org and clicking our membership button. While you are there, please check everything we are doing between programs and events.

Diane Armbruster

Geneseo

Editor:

The time to vote on our Shelby Republican Committee Representatives is upon us. The voters of the Town of Shelby in Districts 3 and 4 will have a choice to vote on their new representatives on the Republican Committee. They must decide whether they want to stay with the old system or bring about change that would benefit all the people.

I decided to seek a position on the Republican Committee as I am retired and have the time to attend all meetings and all functions which I feel is your responsibility when elected to any committee.

I believe that anybody that receives any wage from the Town of Shelby should not be on any political committee as it is a conflict of interest and brings up the question of the ethics of these members.

Government for the people has to start at the town level and that is why a change is needed.

So on Primary Day, voters living in District 3 and 4 will have a choice to move the committee credibility forward by voting for Alana Koneski and Bruce Schmidt in District 3; and John Pratt in District 4.

Your vote would be greatly appreciated.

John Pratt

Medina

Editor:

To be a coroner takes a special person. Scott Schmidt is that person and has been for the past 33 years. He has many years of dedication and loyalty, but most of all he has the experience!

Orleans County residents are very fortunate to have someone like Scott, therefore I am asking you to join me and vote for Scott Schmidt and keep him as our Orleans County Coroner.

Sincerely,

Sharlene Pratt

Medina

Editor:

I have known Sue Howard for many years, from when our kids were in 4-H riding horses, to boarding our horse at her barn. Sue is thoughtful, trustworthy and knowledgeable.

I have worked with Sue in many different areas. She helped me with the first Orleans County Drug Treatment Court, which I helped establish.

As the years passed, I knew I could rely on Sue for sound advice. At one time I needed information on how to handle a criminal complaint, and I called ADA Sue Howard and she advised me how to handle the situation. Her advice was right on the mark concerning everything that the court could do for me.

She made a difficult situation much easier to handle. With all the interactions I have had with Sue Howard, I have found her to be very direct and right to the point. I would and will trust her, because of her knowledge and her integrity to do the right thing. Sue Howard has my vote and deserves your vote.

Sincerely,

Ruth Ann Bane

Lyndonville