Letters to the Editor 8-21-15

Elect new selectmen to represent us

The present Winsted Board of Selectmen, both Democrats and Republicans who presently serve, should not be re-elected.

The history of unaccountable actions or non-action continues in Winsted under their lack of leadership. One prime example of no leadership has been their unaccountable lack of properly evaluating the town manager, Dale L. Martin. Martin failed his last evaluation as he has in the previous two towns in which he was employed and was subsequently fired. 

Winsted’s previously good Mayor Marsha Sterling was accountable and was getting things done, when she was replaced by a slim margin in a special election with a tax and spend unaccountable Democrat Steve Sedlack as selectman. Selectman Sedlack this past month has just been cited, for not following the law in a state elections Enforcement consent decree he signed, saying he will now follow the law. From the same unaccountable political party was former convicted finance director Henry Centrella, another Democrat.

Myself being a former Democrat, who left the Socialist/Democratic party for the Independent party, finds it shocking that the present Republicans on the Board of Selectmen have lost their way in joining the Democrats in not evaluating the town manager properly as required by contract and law. 

Also, they both continue to spend $36,000 in state grant money for Lambert Kay cleanup, when a local business (John Lovetere Cleanup) has for the past five years said he would do it for free. Just pay the dump fees of up to $1,000 for the RFD No. 1. Mr. Lovetere’s offer was either ignored and forgotten about by Winsted’s Director of Purchasing Mark Douglas and Town Manager Martin, as well as the present sitting selectmen.

So now it will cost us taxpayers more thanks to a lack of leadership and accountability in Winsted. Hopefully this will change with the new Nov. 5 election this year. I hope people vote for accountable leaders to lead.

David G. LaPointe

Winchester Taxpayer
Advocate, Winchester
Taxpayers Association

Winsted Independent Party, Treasurer

Winsted

Don’t look for conspiracies

If letter writer Mari-Ellen Valyo believes that the administration of The Gilbert School is advocating for appropriate services for students with special needs, she is absolutely correct. If she believes, as well, that the Commission on Persons with Disabilities is doing the same thing, she is correct again. That is what these people should be doing! And as a member of both the Winchester Board of Education and the W.L. Gilbert School Corp., that is what she should be doing as well.

She should be focused on things that she has responsibility for instead of looking for conspiracies or favoritism. For decades the Winchester Board of Education has out-placed far more students with special needs than is necessary and financially feasible. Only recently has it begun to work with The Gilbert School to address the situation at the grades seven to 12 level. The school has provided classroom space for new programs, but there has been unstable leadership (seven directors of special education in one year) from the WBOE. Appropriate programming should be in place at the school, but the WBOE has not provided it.

I have known and worked with Mari-Ellen Valyo for many years and know that her heart is in the right place, but on this issue she is blinded to the realities of how the WBOE has failed the students of Winchester. I hope that the receiver appointed by the state will help them to face those realities and begin to turn things around for Winchester and its children.

Steven A. Sedlack

Chairman

W.L. Gilbert School Corp.

Winsted

More need to hear this story

This is in response to the letter to the editor by Barbara D. Lemmen. To Ms. Lemmen:

I hope that everyone will read your heartbreaking Aug. 14 letter to the editor in this newspaper, and will take the time now to tell it to friends and relatives, put it on Facebook, tell our radio station, etc. Only time can ease your pain. Talk to friends on the phone, online or wherever you can. Your sad story will remind us that nothing is permanent.

My 13-year-old “Colorado kid” granddaughter is active in every sport, including rock climbing, skiing and skateboarding. I worry, but know this is what she enjoys. Your tragedy could happen to any family at any moment, so thank you for reminding us. Your letter is truly heartbreaking, but reminds us to live in the moment.

Heather Kahler

Lakeville

Trophy hunting

Although I find much of Peter Riva’s argument in his Aug. 7 column on hunting compelling, and a lot of it is spot on, I don’t agree with all of the assertions. 

Cleve Backster was able to measure the connection between living things, though he shows only stress-induced galvanic response (www.nytimes.com/news/the-lives-they-lived/2013/12/21/cleve-backster). 

Consciousness has value in the terms addressed in the column ...  A bivalve is not self-aware in the same way a cow is. Yes, all life is alive, but so may be planet Earth — as the biggest living organism we ever encounter. So one should argue that a vegan who drinks bottled water is hurting both small and huge sentient beings directly and indirectly. 

If one takes anything away from the Backster Effect, it must be that intent matters. In his experiments, threatening a plant with intent in your heart to harm it as you are about to burn it with a lighter creates a “scream” in a measurable galvanic skin response. This effect will travel distance and if one measured a house plant or even yogurt in a fridge in the next room, a simultaneous galvanic reaction occurs. This thread that connects all life, from mammals to bacteria, does exist. If you threaten the plant without real intent nothing happens.

The next thing one takes away is the pre-action. The plant screams before you burn it. This implies the stress of “psychic” link pre-knowledge caused by intent is as bad as, or worse than, the action of killing or harming.

The effect is nullified by lack of intent, but also if one “speaks” to the thing and warns it. One example Backster cites is Native American ritualistic prayer. They need the deer and explain why before they hunt it or kill it. This intent, arguing the validity of the need, removed the stress of the harm caused, if for the greater good. The plant or the deer seems to volunteer its life as the Backster Effect is nullified, at least the scream anyway.

So my problem with the column isn’t that I don’t agree with much of it, it’s that it doesn’t address this underlying spiritual wholeness of being connected. All life is precious, but conscious awareness matters in this equation.

If we were to follow Native American tradition, all of the suffering caused by death would be averted to some degree, according to Backster’s experiments. That being said, the farming industry has created the most abhorrent and inhumane system of death and torture ever devised. The suffering of a cow or a chicken from a modern factory farming frame-of-reference is beyond calculation. However, the hunter shooting a deer has intent in his or her heart to respect that animal. We hate trophy hunters as a society at this point — but we also lump in the word “hunt” with that negative connotation for trophy hunting and the two are not comparable. 

J. Matthew Riva

New York City