HOMETOWN Views
A-4 HOMETOWN ONEONTA
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2013
EDITORIAL
This Thanksgiving, Let’s Decide To Appreciate More
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ppreciation is under-appreciated. Malcolm Gladwell’s latest, “David & Goliath” – the author’s been all over the place lately, including “60 Minutes” the other night – shows how, while top students in the Ivy League, as you might expect, thrive beyond the norm, those students in the bottom third of their disciplines, all top performers through high school, develop such insecurities they often switch to less rigorous majors and even drop out. Gladwell compares STEM students at Harvard University with those at our Hartwick College, and finds the same proportion of those in science, technology, engineering and math drop out of their majors in each school, even though the bottom third of Harvard STEM students had higher SATs than even the top third of Hartwick STEM students. “The Harvard Dregs are Little Fish in a Very Big and Scary Pond,” the writer concludes. “The Hartwick All-Stars are Big Fish in a Very Welcoming Small Pond.” The results are measurable. The first five years out of school, the top Hartwick STEM students publish more in peer scientific journals – the way forward in that line of work – than Harvard’s bottom STEM students, “David & Goliath” reports.
• Of course, we know this. Martin Tillapaugh, the Cooperstown village attorney – and Hartwick grad – was, coincidentally, saying very much the same thing about his alma mater in a conversation at a Cooperstown Rotary Club luncheon the other day. At Hartwick, he flourished, fully part of, not only academic and student life, but even serving on a national “Strategies for Change” committee that took him to Washington D.C. in its deliberations. Francis Landrey, a high-powered New York City lawyer (and Colgate grad) now serving on Hartwick’s $32 million “It’s Personal” fundraising campaign committee, tells a similar story. His older son went to Bowdoin and daughter to Swarthmore (she is now a physician), but his younger son was less focused. At Hartwick, however, he embraced the many opportunities to study abroad, met his future wife in Ireland, found his vocation – teaching – and is now happily married and successfully situated at the Glen Falls BOCES. Gladwell, whose specialty is turning generally accepted wisdom on its head, plays it out: Some companies will only hire Ivy League students; they might be better off to target top students
from respectable institutions like Hartwick. Affirmative Action strives to push disadvantaged students into the Ivy League, where – the author concludes – they are more likely to be chewed up and spit out than if they pursued knowledge in a smaller, more nurturing environment. • Appreciation, of course, and thanksgiving – Thanksgiving, if you will – are joined at the hip. In reading “David,” some selfreflection was inevitable. Some of the editorials that appeared on this page in the past year, despite a conscious effort otherwise, may
have been critical to an unhelpful degree. For instance, the county’s alphabet economic-development agencies have been criticized as too instinctively “reactive” as opportunities to be more “proactive” are coming into focus. In the criticism, though, was enough credit given to the fruits of the IDA legacy to date? After all, just in the past few years, the bonding agency enabled Springbrook’s $15 million expansion, the renovation of St. Mary’s School and the $15 million, 350-student Hillside Commons housing project, the largest private investment in the City of Oneonta in a generation. Individuals associated with the IDA are exceptional. The chair, for instance, Sharon Oberriter, created Cooperstown Bat Co. with her husband, Don, and, in the process, a whole new Cooperstown mini-industry. She has a healthy countywide perspective, serving for years on the Otsego County Chamber board. Having sold Cooperstown Bat, the Oberriters created Obie’s Specialty Foods, seeking to develop value-added food products, a sector identified as very promising at the second “Seward Summit” Nov. 14. Joe Bernier, Carolyn Lewis, Doug Gulotty and others might feel embattled, but they’ve had sterling and productive local
‘For Three Dayes We Entertained And Feasted’ Editor’s Note: One of only two descriptions of the first Thanksgiving was by Edward Winslow in Mourt’s Relation, a diary of the Plymouth Plantation. Here is the citation.
‘O
ur harvest being gotten in, our governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labours ; they foure
in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming Winslow amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king
Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. And although it be not always so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie.”
LETTERS
No-Fracking Conclusion Based On Range Of Perspectives To the Editor: Thanks for the notice on the forum on New York’s Shale Gas Potential planned Tuesday, Dec. 17, at Foothills. The presentations represent a truly multi-disciplinary and synergistic analysis of the state’s prospects for shale gas production – addressing the geology, the industry’s views on the subject, the regulatory and economic factors that would impact such production, and a model that extrapolates productivity data from Pennsylvania. Similar presentations by the same panelists were made at the Cornell geology department last month,
sponsored by the Tompkins County Council of Government, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the League of Women Voters. The industry view will be presented by Lou Allstadt, retired executive vice president of Mobil Oil in charge of exploration and production in the Western Hemisphere. Needless to say, thousands of wells were fracked under Mr. Allstadt’s watch. He understands what drives industry decisions and he understands why most major players came to New York, took a hard look and left prior to the state moratorium on shale gas wells. Brian Brock will ad-
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dress the geological drivers of shale gas productivity. The production model will be presented by a retired Lockheed Martin systems analyst, Jerry Acton. I will address the regulatory and economic factors that impact productivity. I was a private investor in oil and gas and drilling rigs for almost 30 years. I owned
working interests in over a dozen offshore drilling rigs for 22 years up until 2006 – rigs that fracked thousands of wells on land at a sea. We take an industrialcaliber look at New York’s shale gas prospects from all perspectives. Hope to see you there. JAMES L. NORTHRUP Cooperstown
Commitment To Serve Intact To the Editor: I started the new year in 2013 asking myself how I could best serve my community. I thought that question was quickly answered when my new friend Rich Murphy asked if I might consider running for his seat as county representative for the Town of Oneonta. What an opportunity! I was honored that a person of Rich’s reputation would trust me with such a job, but, of course, I still needed to introduce myself to the voters. I just moved to the area in 2011, so there were many introductions to make. I also met with interested groups like Citizens Voices, Sustainable Otsego and GO-EDC, and was motivated by their collective goal to see our region grow and prosper for generations to come, albeit with different strategies to do so. My best stories and ex-
periences have been preceded by some failure, often disguised blessings that led to amazing things, such as meeting my wife Ana Laura and moving to Oneonta Although I did not win this election, my goal was not to merely win, but to serve my community. I am proud to call Oneonta home, and will keep steady in my commitment to serving it. I am also proud of Janet Hurley Quackenbush’s years of service to our town, and wish her the very best in her new role. To my 701 voters - thank you. It is humbling and encouraging to have your support. To the town and county Democratic Committees, Sustainable Otsego, and to all that helped in my campaign - thank you, thank you, thank you. DAN BUTTERMANN Town of Oneonta
careers, too. Certainly, the county must be proactive, but the reactive piece also needs to maintained and, if anything, strengthened. On the same line, does Dan Buttermann, who took the gutsy step of running for county board after living here only a year, feel sufficiently affirmed? Do the other county board candidates who didn’t make it this time: Bill Glockler in Town of Middlefield, Teresa Winchester in the Butternut Valley, Amy Hornburg Heilveil in Oneonta’s Wards 4 and 5? Do the incumbents who are now stepping down, in particular Fly Creek’s John Kosmer, who brought a lively voice and inquiring mind to his two-year county board term, know that, too? These people need to be celebrated as much as the folks who, this time around, happened to win. • You get the point. Gladwell found, in effect, that affirmation, appreciation and a sense of belonging help good students excel. Likewise, can appreciation help businesses flourish, citizens contribute, families thrive, communities adhere and grow for the benefit of all? Surely, the answer is yes. Let’s contemplate that this Thanksgiving season, and apply the lesson in the year ahead.
NICOLE DILLINGHAM OTHER VIEWS
Fracking Dead. Really?
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ust in time for the holidays we have been delivered the promise of a gift: the end of fracking in our neighborhood. Let’s be cautious of what we find under the tree. The hype that fracking is dead may be no more real than the hype that it would make us all shaleionaires. Though I have tremendous respect for our colleagues who have presented data about the lack of gas in New York State, I worry that a state government handin-hand with industry may permit drilling and fracking anyway. When has our government ever acted in a truly rational way? The data strongly supports the lack of a viable natural gas resource in New York. However, this data is based on the current price of gas, the current cost of drilling, and whether the drillers are industry giants or small fry looking for a quick profit. However uneconomical fracking may appear to some, I would not assume that the battle has been won until Ed Cox, the leader of the Republican Party and potential gubernatorial candidate, stops extolling its virtues and demanding it proceed. Where are the political leaders willing to speak out for a ban based on the theory that there is no gas? Until Albany so speaks, from both sides of the aisle, we are not protected. Further, what about the risks to our region caused by fracking infrastructure now being surreptitiously deployed all around us? There are current plans to transport hazardous and radioactive frack waste on all navigable waters on barges to “disposal” sites in Ohio and Louisiana. Do we really want to
see trucks hauling millions of gallons of hazardous frack waste on our roads to and from barges on the Erie Canal or the Hudson River? What about the plans to build pipelines and compressor stations across private land taken by eminent domain? What about plans to expand Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) facilities to support truck refueling, on-pipeline and on-gas well pad liquefaction, and export of LNG? What about disposal of radioactive frack waste in our landfills and on our roads for ice and dust suppression? What about the lawsuits brought by the industry against Middlefield and Dryden seeking to end Home Rule? Until our water, air, and land is protected from all of these threats, how is it we are now safe from fracking? We do not live in isolation. We have a moral decision to make. Do we want to celebrate an end to fracking here while our neighbors are being fracked in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to supply us with cheaper gas? Will we accept their dangerous wastes as we do the gift of gas? Like blood diamonds and child labor, don’t we have an obligation to fight exploitation of others for our benefit by means we know to be unconscionable? Instead of retreating behind false hopes our leaders should in a bi-partisan manner collaborate to stop fracking and its related infrastructure for the good of all in our state and our nation. Until then, I am going to keep working. Nicole Dillingham is president of the Otsego 2000 Board of Directors.
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