A vote for Pramilla Malick

Why am I voting for Pramilla Malick in the September 13 Democratic Primary for the NY State Senate seat, 42nd District? Because I want someone representing me and my community who is committed, hardworking, loyal, passionate, progressive and an activist, who is not afraid to speak truth to power.

Pramilla has been relentless in fighting corruption (Joe Percoco conviction) and the multi-billion dollar fracked-gas infrastructure industry, notably, the CPV Power Plant. She has been the brains, energy and stamina (starting with the segmented Minisink Compressor Station, seven years ago) behind the grassroots organization Protect Orange County.

While this life-and-health matter has been Pramilla’s signature issue, I am confident she will work with equal zest, vigor, perseverance and fortitude on all matters that affect the 42nd! Pramilla has proven who she is and what she stands for. She cannot be bought, bullied, silenced, or corrupted.

Send strength, leadership and purpose to Albany. Vote Malick on September 13. Please do not sit this one out. Please vote for the only Democratic candidate for the 42nd who has demonstrated through her actions, over the last seven years, that she is worthy of your vote.

Mary Ann McDonough

Otisville, NY

Private property and the role of government

When a forest fire ravages the land (like those raging in the West), the notion of private property ownership goes out the window. The damage that such fires wreak on the environment and lives of entire communities far transcends the artificial boundaries of ownership. In fact, private owners need—and obtain—massive public help to mitigate the personal disasters that such events create. It is in all our interests that such responses, publicly mandated as well as voluntary, are made. Now think about fracking for natural gas.

The imminent health and safety risks that fracking brings to the air, water and land are even admitted by the industry. But when the public tries to protect itself by choosing to control or even ban this dangerous method of gas extraction, there is an outcry by the shale-gas industry and certain landowners that their rights are being abused. Thus we have the spurious and opportunistic argument trumpeted by PA Sen. Lisa Baker (R-20) and the Upper Delaware River Basin Citizens that compensation is due to private land owners of Wayne County because they have lost an income opportunity (S1189). 

But this “income” is only imagined. It has no current material existence. What exactly has been lost? 

And how is this merely a private matter?

For a moment, suppose fracking were to go forward; would these private owners be held personally responsible for air, water and road and infrastructure damage? Would they reimburse us all? From their supposed windfall, would they compensate their immediate neighbors for the plummeting real estate valuations that fracking brings?

More likely, unless regulations forced compliance, they and the shale-gas industry would continue their historical response of abscond and evade, leaving it to the public to heal environmental and community wounds. Preach private gain, but evade public responsibility. Baker’s bill is a naked appeal to greed: free (actually imaginary) money for reelection votes. There always seems to be another man (woman) who wants to sell us a bridge.

John Pace

Honesdale, PA

The fine print on short-term medical plans

After the GOP’s failure to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with something magically better, Trump has systematically tried to sabotage the ACA with administrative actions. Most recently, he announced a change in rules that permits insurance companies to sell cheaper “short-term” plans that do not provide coverage that regular ACA policies must offer, e.g., coverage for pre-existing conditions and maternity care.

In an August 16 op-ed piece in The Washington Post, Alex Azar, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, outlined the administration’s arguments for expanding short-term policies’ current limit to up to three years (https://wapo.st/2nT6NOi). His argument contains a single sentence that hints consumers might be buying a short-term product with dubious benefits: “In fact, we require more robust warnings about the limits of these plans than did... Obama’s administration.” He doesn’t specifically elaborate on why customers should be warned.

Here’s why: these “cheaper” plans are cheap in the double sense: they cost less and they are shoddy, unreliable  products that will not deliver the promised value. Like the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have lost their homes in increasingly common flooding disasters and found that their home insurance didn’t cover their losses, buyers of short-term plans will learn what was behind Azar’s proclaimed “robust warnings.”

We now know all too well what our president and Republican politicians like John Faso meant when they promised “universal access to quality health care”—access, in this sense: You have the opportunity to enroll in Trump University. Oops, it no longer exists. Sorry. No money back guarantee. When the Democratic Party advocates universal coverage and care, it promises that your quality health care is your right.

Tom Denton

Highland, NY