Difficult as it seems, 2011 is fast coming to an end. And it is always our hope that as a year draws to a close, the issues which have been in the forefront during the year will be resolved. Unfortunately, we suspect that will not be the case this year. Instead, we are fairly certain that many of the issues that plagued this year, will continue to plague next year. Thus we will find ourselves still musing about the same issues we have spent time with already. And while we have not come toany conclusions about many of the issues, we do think they would all likely benefit from both sides thinking critically about perspective, risk assessment and possible solutions.
There has been much debate this past year that leads us to think that putting issues into perspective may soon be a thing of the past. So often it seems that stances taken by one side or the other are viewed very narrowly withoutthought as to how any given issue might be part the greater scheme of things. It often seems that Otsego County has been presented as a self-sustaining entity separate from, and better than, the rest of New York State, the U.S.A. or the world for that matter.
As a result, it seems that there is an attitude that this area does not need to be part of energy solutions but rather is entitled to be part of the problem without any thought of being part of the solution. In fact there doesn’t seem to be an energy source proposed in this area that is acceptable.
Yet there still seems to be many people who are quite happy to use energy as long as they are not involved in it’s production.
Likewise, we don’t seem to see a great deal of perspective when it comes to addressing risks. At times it seems that all perceived risks are of equal value. The risk of hitting a pothole is the same as the risk of being hit by lightning which is evidently the same as the risk of being crushed by a boa constrictor. Almost everything undertaken in the world has a certain amount of risk associated with it. The trick is, of course, is to be able to assess that risk and decide which is greater, the risk or the benefit of any given undertaking.
Yet, all too often, any amount of risk seems to override any possible benefit as if everything is indeed black and white and no matter what, the risk will always win.
This, we suspect, explains the “No drill, No spill” signs that dot the landscape. Although we are not certain, we assume these signs suggest that as long as there is no drilling for any form of energy in the area, we will be free from any hazardous effects of energy sources.
We don’t understand exactly how this works as we have first-hand knowledge of energy spills in the area without there being any energy production here at all.
These spills run the gamut from tanker truck accidents to problems delivering oil to basement oil tanks.
And over the years, there have been many problems resulting from underground storage tanks. In fact, we have long thought such tanks present a hidden problem waiting to happen. Therefore we were somewhat relieved to learn that what we have long worried about, namely the containment from petroleum in an underground storage tank at a neighborhood gas station, is not nearly the concern that it once was.
In a piece written by Uni Blake, Environmental Toxicologist, we learned that “There are close to 600,000 underground storage tanks (UST) in the U.S. These tanks contain either petroleum or hazardous materials. A leak from a UST means certain groundwater contamination. Groundwater supplies must be protected since they supply a large majority of the drinking water for US residents. Regulations have been developed at the federal and state level to effectively minimize the incidents of leakage, rusting, and spillage of petroleum from UST. The UST program has successfully managed to protect water. Therefore, the concept of effective containment works...”
And thus we feel we have been able to reassess our concerns about underground tanks. And with proper regulation and enforcement, we suspect other concerns can likewise be mitigated.
Yet we are not at all certain that any credence is given by others to the fact that, given the development of new technology, assessment of risk can, and should change.
This country has always been innovative and creative, coming up with new solutions to problems which have limited possibilities in the past. And any judgment of issues does need to change as technology surrounding the issues moves forward. And while these changes may not seem to happen as quickly as we would like, to ignore them is to ignore progress.
We also think that we are at a point where many people are unable to articulate both sides of an issue. And for the life of us, we cannot understand how a decision on any issue can be made without understanding all sides of the issue. Without thinking critically about an issue it does not seem possible to be able to meaningfully weigh the issue’s pros and cons.
And without critical thinking, so often decisions are made based on what might well be termed mass hysteria. And the result is rarely, if ever, rational.
Unfortunately, it does at times seem that critical thinking is indeed the other national deficit. Too many times the steps necessary to make an informed decision are bypassed as it is easier to go along with the flow. At a time when researching issues is easier than ever before, and access to opposing points of view are readily available, it seems that fewer people are interested in learning about both the pros and the cons of any given issue.
As our sister wrote us recently in an email “Life is full of infinite possibilities with a corresponding range of probabilities. Every day there is some chance of being hit by an asteroid. Perhaps we should just stay in bed and wait for the arrival.” Or maybe we should continue to muse on the issues with which we are faced, making certain that we fully understand both the pros and the cons of any given issue before forming our opinions.
PLEASE NOTE: Comments regarding this column may be made by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.
Columns
In These Otsego Hills: Coming up ... 2012
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
Time to bring you up to date on Fly Creek’s happy clambering into Spring. First, the eatery scene. “Is Jerry’s open yet?” The answer is, “Oh, yes!” The porches are freshly stained; the lawns a uniform green, and the hop vines are already climbing the posts on the covered side deck. Blue and I went up there to lunch earlier this week, and I celebrated spring with my traditional bacon, onion and Swiss cheese hamburger. We two sat on the deck, enjoying the broad view and some spectacular clouds marching across, up toward Schuyler Lake.
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In These Otsego Hills: More from 1986 ...
This week we continue with the discussion of telephone service from the pre-dial days. On March 12 we noted that: “No one has yet produced a telephone directory from pre-dial days, but Doug Preston of New Hartford recalls that some business (which one?) in the village had the phone number 7.”
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Home Notes: Celebrations abound at the Thanksgiving Home
April was a month of celebrations and much to appreciate. We had a 90th birthday celebration for Wanda Noyes on April 4 including her family and friends. Personal care staff Dee Bouck worked with residents to hand paint Easter eggs for the tree in the activity room.
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In These Otsego Hills: 1986 continues ...
This week we continue our journey through the columns of 1986 with the answer to the question “for whom, according to tradition, was Hannah’s Hill named?”
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Book Notes: Baseball book features local contributors
Baseball is part of the nation’s fabric. Most kids have a memory of the game either from playing Little League, attending a major league contest or meeting a favorite player. In Cooperstown that feeling is magnified since we are the official home of baseball. We get to see firsthand what has made the sport the national pastime.
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From Fly Creek: Ya really wanna know?
SETTING: Fly Creek General Store. CAST: Assorted seated geezers, drinking coffee. [Door opens, enter heavy-set geezer; walking slowly with wide stance, maybe prostatitis.]
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In These Otsego Hills: Returning to 1986 ...
For the past several years now we have undertaken sharing some of the area’s oral history we have collected over the years that we have written this column. Therefore, this year, we would like to go back to 1986 to share that rather unusual year. Those who were here then no doubt remember that it was that year that the village celebrated the bicentennial of its founding.
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From Fly Creek: For reasons unknowable
[Jim’s reached back to 2002 to share one of his favorite columns.] My father was born as the last century began into a river village in tidewater Maryland. He told me once of a man there in his boyhood who, like so many, made a thin living tonging for oysters in the cold months and, in the hot and humid ones, crabbing and raising vegetables.
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In These Otsego Hills: CCS balancing act ... side two
Last week we shared a number of activities in which students at CCS can participate. We thought it was an impressive, if not overwhelming, list. And we are indeed pleased that the young people of our area have these opportunities. However, we think it is also important to keep in mind that these undertakings do have a cost associated with them. They are not free. In fact there are, no doubt, those who would say they do not come cheap.
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From Fly Creek: A graceful crowd
Make of this what you will, friends. I feel I’m really meant to share it with you. Despite good medication for my Parkinsonism, every four or five weeks I can sensethe symptoms building up on me, giving me more than ordinary trouble. Lately it’s been falls, and last week brought a typical one. I’d gone out to get the paper, moving along with penguin steps on the snowcoved ice patches, and usingmy spike-tipped cane the waya climber uses an ice axe. But circumstances overcame me. Parkinson’s wipes out the possibility of multi-tasking.
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In These Otsego Hills: This and that and the other side ...
We note that the CCS Class of 2012 is presenting its senior class play, “Snow White” by Tim Kelly, this week with performances 7:30 p.m Thursday and Friday, March 29 and 30, and at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31. All performances will be at the Nicolas J. Sterling Auditorium at the Middle/High School.
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In These Otsego Hills: That green thing ...
Of late we have noticed that our email inbox has been much busier than usual. In fact, we find ourselves hard pressed to keep up with all the various messages we receive. As a result we suspect we have not answered some in as timely a fashion as might be thought appropriate.
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From Fly Creek: What you need to know
In their last Sunday’s bulletins, all 84 churches of Otsego County were to have carried announcements of an important meeting; most of them did. But because the announcement is so important, and not just to the churched, here it is again.
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Book Notes: Living the magic of ‘Hoosier’
A lot of people consider “Hoosiers” the best sports film of all time. The 1986 classic follows the exploits of a fictional small town Indiana high school basketball team in 1952 as it attempts to achieve the impossible dream of a state championship. The story is inspired by the true life achievement of the 1954 Milan team, who with an enrollment of only 161 students shocked big city power Muncie Central on a last second shot to win the state title. It’s the kind of sports story that represents something that is hard to grasp unless you live in a small town.
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In These Otsego Hills: The most perfect village... home to heavy industry?
We suspect we would get a whole lot more accomplished if we spent less time thinking, pondering and musing about things. In fact, there is a good possibility we might actually have completed our goal of cleaning the basement if we only focused on the task at hand, instead of trying to figure out the world around us. It almost makes us wonder if it is possible to think too much about things. We certainly hope not because should that be the case, we are in deep trouble.
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Up On Hawthorn Hill: The past in the present
Clichés abound about the value of photographs. Most are probably true at least to a certain extent. What I do know about an image is that it represents something of the past that is not the pastitself. But that is the power of any image. It represents something that once was. The beauty of an image, revisited, is that it functions as a catalystfor reliving in the present a past experience. My own view, one that I thank the Spanish writer Jorge Luis Borges for, is that all we ever can experience is the present.
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Home Notes: Workshops held for Thanksgiving Home residents
We welcomed Linda Keller, Ph.D. of the Bassett Research Institute and Ida Baker of NYCAMH who presented a six-week workshop for residents and staff.
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From Fly Creek: Late-winter hamlet news
Well, at least I’m “guessing” it’s late winter now — in the winter that wasn’t. But, if not snow, I can provide a flurry of Fly Creek news to share with you, scooping Associated Press, Reuter’s, and United Press International, not to mention all local news services except our General Store.
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In These Otsego Hills: Waiting for spring to have sprung ...
Difficult as it to believe, both January and February seem to have flown by and we find ourselves turning the calendar over to the month of March, which we have long thought is one of the more dreary months of the year. Of course, as in the pastthere are signs of spring as reflected by the tapping of the maple trees. For many years, the trees sprouted buckets to capture their all important sap. However, we now know to look for the sap collection lines that are strung from tree to tree.
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Book Notes: Kennedy: a unique individual
It’s been almost 50 years since the Kennedy assassination shocked the nation. Since then much has been written about President John F. Kennedy and whether he would have achieved his destiny (whatever that may have been) if he had lived. It is said he inspired young people in a way that has never been equaled. And there is the notion of Camelot, espoused by his widow Jackie, that there will never be a time of hope and promise like that again.
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
