Letters to the Editor - July 10, 2025

Call to stand against the ‘demise of democracy’

In the last several years, the demise of hundreds of millions of ash trees because of the invasive species, the Emerald ash borer, went virtually unchecked. Scientists warned that the insect was headed in our direction and would hollow out our trees which would ultimately die, and yet, we were nearly powerless to stop the invasion.

Not so now with the abject cruelty, devastation, and destruction of our current administration. We can stand up against the hatred, divisiveness, greed, and lying that are their trademarks. The social safety nets, Medicaid, SNAP, and Medicare are being gutted. Seventeen million people will lose Medicaid. Twelve million will lose health coverage. The benefits we should be receiving are instead being redirected to benefit the top 1% of the population and corporations with extended tax breaks that they, most certainly, do not need. Innocent people are being rounded up and sent to detention centers with no due process by masked government agents. The majority of theSupreme Court Justices are a party to all of this.

Get involved. Write letters, make phone calls, work to elect representatives who represent our best interests. Join us on theSalisbury Green every Saturday from 11 to noon, rain or shine, with your signs, your family, and your friends to stand together and protest the demise of our democracy.

Sophia deBoer

Salisbury

What could some senators be praying for?

Last week I saw a picture of some senators huddled together in prayer. What were they praying for?

The passage of the Budget Bill. Really? Assuming most of these men were Christians, they clearly have forgotten Jesus’s admonition to honor the least among us.

Some facts about this bill: “The Budget Lab at Yale University found that the top 10% of Americans will save about $30,000 annually under the bill’s tax cuts, while the top 1% will save nearly $100,000. To fund these tax cuts, the bottom percentage of Americans will become poorer even with small tax cuts, owing to changes in Medicaid and food assistance.”

To be specific, more than a million people in CT have Medicaid. Based on the Congressional Budget Office analysis, an estimated people 120,335 people in our state will lose Medicaid coverage and 53,091 will lose Affordable Care Act coverage in the coming years. Nationally, up to 17 million people could lose their health insurance.

Loss of Medicaid funding also means that more nursing homes, rural hospitals and community healthcare facilities may have to close.

In addition, these men were actually praying for the passage of a bill that would cut a vital food and nutritional program. Children, the disabled, etc., will go hungry here in Connecticut. Nationally, 41.7 million people would be affected by the deep cuts to the SNAP program.

Republicans have cagily scheduled the benefit cuts to start on Dec. 31, 2026, after the 2026 election, hoping that people will forget to hold Republican representatives responsible for what is coming. Where the money will go: to those tax cuts, of course, and also to building that wall, so touted in Trump’s first administration, as well as to detention centers and increasing ICE —Trump’s black-clad, masked personal force.

ICE is already moving stealthily through our streets, grabbing, not criminals but our neighbors, our fellow workers; taking away parents in front of their children, anyone without the right documentation.

Why? To meet Trump’s arbitrary numbers to deport.

This is what these men were praying for…the mind boggles.

Barbara Maltby

Lakeville

P&Z rejects in-person meeting on Wake Robin

The fact that Lakeville/Salisbury residents have had no opportunity to attend an in-person meeting regarding such an important issue as the Wake Robin project is very upsetting.Although P&Z apparently followed protocol in approving a major zoning change in a residential area, we think that that a project with such an impact on our town would have led to P&Z voluntarily calling for an in-person meeting. The failure to do so has led to anger, confusion and a lawsuit.

Michael Klemens, the head of P&Z, in discussing whether or not to hold to an in-person meeting to discuss the Wake Robin project, at the last P&Z Zoom meeting, cited reasons of fairness and accessibility as the rationale for continuing to hold meetings remotely.” It keeps us all on a level playing field,” he said. What field and who’s playing?

Also at that June 16th meeting Mr. Klemens, in a response to Roger Rawlings, a local real estate appraiser, said, “the Commission is legally bound to uphold rights of the property owner and the public, and such cannot be legally influenced by crowd behavior.”Does that mean P&Z should make such a major ruling without a full airing of the townspeople’s concerns? So far, that airing has not happened.

We say let’s have an in-person meeting and let the community express their opinions. That approach was workable before Covid and surely can be now. There is nothing like an in-person session to get to the heart of the matter! So what if it’s a long meeting. It’s worth it. We’re not saying all P&Z meetings have to be in-person, but this particular matter deserves an in-person airing.

We strongly believe we are not the only residents who feel this way. Let voices be heard and faces seen!

Jane Pinckney & Rich Shanley

Lakeville

An appreciation of a decades-old softball game in Lakeville

Editor’s Note: Andrew Schwartz of Salisbury wrote this for the players — about 20 or so who show up on Sunday mornings in Lakeville from Memorial Day to Labor Day. They range in age from 10 to 80.

The outlook wasn’t brilliant since those dark, cold, Covid days. The ball field was nearly empty where old guys once came to play. Sometimes six guys showed up and maybe there were eightand on occasion there may have been nine, if someone came in late.

And then things turned around one day. And players began to show. But they were crippled, old, and blind, And man, were they ever so slow.But then dads came with their kids in tow. Though small and weak, they stood.At this point on Sunday mornings, we played whoever could.

Many times, he’d get there late, but Joe could pitch that ball and Doug was out in center field and nearly caught them all.Barton and Bauman both played short and whipped that ball to first.And by the bench was Barton’s cooler. With drinks to quench your thirst. Riiska played 3rd. As did Bill, whose leg broke beneath his knee.But any ball that came to them would turn a 5-4-3.

At first sat Dave and Eric too, just get the ball to them plus Ed at first to add some depth when his legs are on the mend with Bayer at 2nd and C1 squared — lefties stood no chance with hitters like Chris who can place the ball and Rylee who sends them to France.

Millerton Mike who pitches them in and hits the front of the plate,Brady, Tyler, C2 and Josh have gone from good to great. When Murray shows up his strike calls are - heard from far and near.And Jim who pitches, he’s the big OG, we really miss him here. With part timers like Steve — and when Adrian shows up.There are some games in which they playedWe have two Jacks — that have played in the pastAnd Girl — Jane — who has skipped a grade.

This group of guys are odd at best with special needs for sure. Some can’t run and some can’t field. Not sure how they endure.

Since 1983 this club managed to take the field.We’ve seen a lot of guys come and go but through time we will not yield. We have our fans, all three of them, whose chairs are set in shade. They don’t cheer loud or at all — not even at the best plays made.

Oh somewhere beyond Community Field, there are many parks ignored, no games are played, no rain delays while kids at home are bored. There are many reasons not to play too much phone time at the core.But that’s no longer true in Lakeville because the game has life once more.