Letter to Editor
Unite Our District: It's OK to VOTE NO
A good friend reminded me recently that No is probably one of the
hardest words to say. It doesn’t make you popular to say it; there
are no parades for the ones who say no, no monuments erected in their
honor, no praise lavished upon them or re-elections assured for them.
Everyone would much rather hear yes.
Yes is how our country got into the situation it’s in. Yes encouraged
us to buy things we didn’t need, just wanted. Yes brought us loans we
couldn’t afford…as individuals, as banks, as a country. Yes is used
all the time in government and education as a way of putting off the
No, keeping the No at bay until it becomes someone else’s problem.
Until one day when that someone else is you.
Gov. Patterson is saying No, and I applaud him for it. It’s not
making him popular, but it needs to be said. He could have tried to
pass off New York State’s multi-BILLION dollar deficit to the next
guy, just by saying Yes. Plenty of people want him to say it.
Instead, he’s saying No, and even though that No could cost us almost
1 Million in State Aid to New Paltz schools this year, I think he’s
saving us from a worse fate.
The State-funded portion (if indeed they choose to fund it) of the
Middle School Renovation project is still our money. It seems as
though that isn’t clearly understood. We are talking about money
coming from the same state we live in, the same state we pay taxes to
in all sorts of ways, the same state that has this huge deficit, part
of the same country with deficits everywhere, rampant unemployment
everywhere, and people suffering everywhere as a result. Referring to
this money as though it comes from outside, from someone or somewhere
else, is wrong. Thinking that it’s ok to spend this money because if
we don’t, someone else surely will, is wrong. Believing that even if
the State honors this particular type of aid they can’t choose to make
cuts to our funding elsewhere, is wrong.
I understand the desire to say Yes. I wish that we always could. But
when you can’t afford it, saying Yes is wrong.
Please say No on February 9th.
Benjamin Miller
New Paltz