Letter to the Editor

By now I imagine many of your readers have caught the stream of information relating to the WoodstockFreeSpeech.org campaign. The campaign is a response to Governor Cuomo's Executive Order 157 which penalizes, and intends to blacklist,  institutions which engage in first amendment protected activities. Not only is this act illegal, it breeches a trust that is established between elected officials and civil society: that elected officials uphold their oath to office and protect the citizens they've been elected to serve. Rather, what has taken place is some not-well understood subservience to a foreign government which undermines the Bill of Rights and usurps the US and NYS Constitutions.

This subservience is being investigated in a Freedom of Information Act request by a number of legal and justice groups. Perhaps this FOIA request will shed light on the motivation for the Governor putting a foreign nation's security above our right to speak freely and act according to our sense of justice by engaging in politically motivated academic, cultural and economic boycotts of a country which engages in systemic gross human rights violations. 

Aside from the sad human tragedy of a belligerent occupier unable to see their brothers as sisters in humanity and aside from the grotesque distortions about culture, identity, victim and perpetrator sewn via the military industrial media academic complex, the core issue here is self determination – the principles of which evolved as part of our human intellectual, philosophical and moral dialectic leading to the establishment of democratic institutions and the conventions on international human rights law. 

To know, to think, and to feel the injustices that our brothers and sisters under military occupation are suffering is both mind blowing and spirit shattering. To know that our government is the primary support of the violence and oppression is intolerable. To see the Governor of NY state acting apparently at the behest of a foreign nation to undermine our rights is egregious if not treasonous.

Such actions require a greater and opposing force to restore our most basic rights: that the Governor should rescind his executive order (in the very least). To that end, WoodstockFreeSpeech.org will continue with it's public events around the issue; the next event (see website ) will be a World Cafe style community dialog about the Free Speech Resolution this Friday at the Woodstock Town Hall. 

Adam Roufberg

Identities

Towns, like individuals, live in the sea of history and have identities that are defined over time. Towns, like individuals, are complex entities that function on many levels: physical, emotional, political, environmental, moral, spiritual, intellectual, to name just a few.

In fact, towns and individuals are not separate entities; rather they interact, intersect, and co-create as people come to identify with where they live, shape it, and are, in turn, shaped by their towns. Why do we feel we belong in some places and not in others? What are the attributes of towns and of ourselves that make us proud when we identify as inhabitants of a particular place?

When our family moved to Woodstock in the 1980s, we moved to a town defined by the 1969 Woodstock Concert and its symbol of a dove perched on a guitar. We were drawn to Woodstock from New York City by sentiments of peace and love, acceptance of diversity, and the anti-Vietnam War movement. Also, historically, Woodstock had been known as the Colony of the Arts. We were happy to say that those identities suited us well, and we were proud to say we were from Woodstock.

Today, we feel that those essential characteristics are not so apt, that they are mostly relics from the past and that we, as Woodstockers, need to invest ourselves in new or different identities of which we can be proud. One of those possible new identities is that of an engaged and well-informed citizenry, who are actively engaged in protecting their basic freedoms, as guaranteed by our Constitution.

When attempts are made to limit those freedoms, as Governor Cuomo did when he issued his June 5 Executive Order #157, it is up to us and our town to speak up and let our voices be heard. Let’s make Woodstock into a town where free speech is sacrosanct. Let’s make Woodstock into a town known for its love of free expression and its willingness to stand up against any and all government encroachments of our constitutional rights. This is an identity that we can be proud of and one that speaks of the very best in us.

Identities can’t be assumed as easily as putting on a new hat or coat; they aren’t mere masks, but are outward expressions of our beliefs. They must be earned over time by constant nourishment and reaffirmation. You can be part of fueling this new identity by getting involved with the Woodstock Free Speech movement. Please attend a meeting of the Woodstock Town Board (76 Comeau Drive), on Tuesday, July 19, when Jay Wenk will introduce a Free Speech Resolution. You can read the resolution and sign our petition at http://www.woodstockfreespeech.org/.

Nic Abramson

Helaine Meisler

Shady, NY

Then they came for me

Why Free Speech Now?

Normally I think about free speech about as often as I think about the air I breathe. It's in the background; I take it for granted. And it's only then, when I'm in the smog of Los Angeles or hiking at an altitude where the air is thinner do I become aware of the lack of oxygen. Sometimes, it is only when you are deprived of something that you remember how vital that thing is, that you once took for granted, to your well being...and sometimes to your very existence. And so it is with free speech.

My political sympathies generally align with the powerless, the less fortunate and oppressed members of human society, whose voices are less heard and less often represented. I am a supporter of justice for the Palestinian People, and I participate in their call for a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign against Israel. So, I was personally affected when Governor Cuomo issued an executive order that put limitations on the constitutionally protected right to boycott Israel. All of a sudden, I was faced with the fact that there wasn't as much oxygen in the atmosphere, that my right to non-violently express my opinions was being limited by my government, whose own Bill of Rights protects my right to freely express those opinions.

And then, as I thought about this, and realized that it's not just BDS that's at stake, but my freedom to exercise my First Amendment rights, did I remember the 1946 statement of Martin Niemoller, a German Lutheran pastor:

          First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -
          Because I was not a Socialist
          Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -
          Because I was not a Trade Unionists
          Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -
          Because I was not a Jew

          Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.
In this dangerous time, when our rights are under attack, when minorities are imperiled, when we live in constant fear and that fear is unnecessarily flamed by our "leaders," now is the time, this present moment, for citizens to speak up – to defend our rights and the rights of others. The Woodstock Free Speech (WFS) Campaign is a movement that encourages each of us to stand up against unconstitutional attacks on our First Amendment Right of Free Speech.

Please sign a petition at http://woodstockfreespeech.org/ and join in asking the Woodstock Town Board to adopt a Resolution that affirms our First Amendment Rights.

Nic Abramson   

The Woodstock Free Speech Campaign

The town of Woodstock office building on

the Comeau property, (Photo by Tony Adamis)

Dear Editor:

The Woodstock Free Speech Campaign seeks to have the Woodstock Town Board pass a resolution that states that the right to boycott, as a component of constitutionally protected free speech, is important enough to the town of Woodstock and its inhabitants that we are willing to take a stand against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s unilateral executive order that withholds state funding from organizations that promote boycotts against Israel for its human rights abuses of Palestinians.

Why should this campaign be important enough for Woodstockers and others to support? Why is it important for citizens to stop any and all encroachments on our First Amendment rights?

Free speech and the nonviolent expression of our views, whether popular or not, are the bedrock of our democracy. When the First Amendment rights of any one of us are limited or denied, can the denial of others be far behind? It’s the canary in the coal mine. It’s our early warning system. And if we ignore these first encroachments, then we are on a slippery slope.

In the next few months, there will be town educational and organizing events. Residents may sign a petition at www.woodstockfreespeech.org and share it with friends and neighbors.

end articleparagraph1.pbo start articleparagraph1.pbo

Nic Abramson

Shady, N.Y.

See her film!

I believe in looking past my own culture to “the other side of the story.” Not long ago, I attended Bard’s first Palestinian Film Festival.  A small group of students gathered first to listen to a Palestinian American poet, Suheir Hammad.   Suheir combined the parlance of Brooklyn (where she was born in 1973 and grew up) with the ardent cries of her grandparents, refugees from Palestine.  With hip-hop beat in her spoken-word pieces, she brought in her family, her community, Palestinian women. “I grew up with a sense of loss,” she says “that you can work generations to build something and suddenly lose it all.”  

Suheir’s passionate voice rises out of her Muslim tradition, her Palestinian heritage, her Brooklyn upbringing.  The title of one of her books “Born Palestinian, Born Black” says it all. The students were enthralled with Suheir’s voice. From her poetry “Drops of this Story,” to the film in which she stars “Salt of This Sea” (to be shown this Friday night at 7 as part of the Palestinian film series at Kingston’s UU), Suheir challenges over and over again the dominant history that attempts to erase her culture.  She brings home to us “Do not fear what has blown up.  If you must, fear the unexploded.”   Watch her TED talk!  Listen to her!  Read her poetry!  See her film!  

Jane Toby

Catskill

Part of the killing machine

We have to earn our living in this world. Some of us are reduced to drudgery, some make a reasonable living. What about those members of the population who feel unhappy or guilty about their work? I wonder how many Woodstockers fit into that category?

Our largest employer, Ametek-Rotron, manufactures war materials that are part of the killing machine that so much of this country’s endless war economy is based on. Has Ametek-Rotron ever considered conversion to peaceful production? Do any of the employees feel unhappy about the widespread murder of innocent children caused by the drones they help to construct? Do they rationalize those feelings with slogans, or do they ever imagine their finger on the trigger with the nearby Woodstock school blown to bits, with blood and fire and dust clouding the air over the golf course, or perhaps the restaurant there hosting a wedding party that has been attacked.

I can’t believe that any of them see themselves as happily maintaining that sort of life. So what do they think about in relation to their work? What do they feel? How do they resolve all this? Does conscience make cowards of us all?

Jay Wenk
Woodstock

Woodstock’s Bit Part In War Crimes In Yemen

Woodstock’s Bit Part In War Crimes In Yemen

This March, Amnesty International urged the US to halt all arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia, whose air force is leading an ongoing campaign of attacks on Yemen that have resulted in numerous civilian deaths (including hundreds of children). Hospitals and residential areas have been destroyed in what Human Rights Watch called “apparent war crimes”.

Amnesty added: “Saudi Arabia’s international partners have added fuel to the fire, flooding the region with arms despite the mounting evidence that such weaponry has facilitated appalling crimes and the clear risk that new supplies could be used for serious violations ... generating a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale.”

Two months later, the Royal Saudi Air Force needed spare parts for the F-15s that are its preferred vehicle for the bombs. On May 24, Woodstock’s largest employer, the weapons contractor Ametek Rotron, obliged by signing a contract for a rush order of components for delivery direct to the Saudi Defense Ministry in Jeddah.

If this makes you feel an uncomfortable dissonance with Woodstock’s worldwide association with peace and love, it’s worth considering the broader picture. We are a small, but iconic, community; we make correspondingly small, but crucial, parts of most major American weapons systems including warplanes, tanks, nuclear missiles, nuclear submarines, and the rocket launchers that Saudi Arabia has also used to deliver cluster bombs in Yemen.

It’s time to move from a war economy to a peace economy. With our outsize reputation, our small town can take a lead in a wider movement towards creating an industrial base that produces windmills not weapons. A peace economy is a green economy. Companies, local governments, employees and residents can get together to envision a local economy that benefits everyone. A peace economy is a jobs economy.

May Peace Prevail On Earth, our Peace Pole proclaims. To get there we need to stop the flow of arms ... and where better than Woodstock to show the way?

Laurie Kirby
Woodstock