May 17, 2013 - Stonebridge Press and Villager Newspapers

8 • Friday, May 17, 2013
WOODSTOCK VILLAGER
OPINION
P.O. Box 196, Woodstock, CT 06281
TELEPHONE: (860) 928-1818
FAX: (860) 928-5946
WWW.VILLAGERNEWSPAPERS.COM
EDITORIAL
Endings and
beginnings
With the fall of the springtime
pollen and the warming of the
sunshine comes the inevitable
time of excitement and sentimentality
that comes with students graduating
from school.
At just about this time of
year, announcements,
photo spreads and other
newsworthy items surrounding
students’
achievements begin to
come to my desk.
This week, many major
colleges have either
already held their commencement
ceremonies or
THE MINOR
DETAILS
ADAM MINOR
FRANK G. CHILINSKI
PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
ADAM MINOR
EDITOR
will this weekend, and
many high schools have
only a couple weeks
remaining on their schedules.
But no matter where
you fall on the schedule,
the feelings associated
with graduation are universal. Relief ?
Sadness? Excitement? Uncontrollable urges
to fist bump everyone around you? We’ve all
been there.
I chose the title above because it’s a cliché:
“Graduation isn’t the end. It’s only the
beginning.” Most speakers whip out that
gem at some point during their speech. If
you go to a graduation this season, listen for
it. It’ll be there.
But it’s also true. I remember when I graduated
college, nearly eight years ago to the
day as you read this, with a
Communications degree from Eastern
Connecticut State University (Go ECSU!) in
my pocket, and no idea what I wanted to use
it for. It was an interesting time.
I spent the summer working odd jobs as a
stagehand at local music venues, and it was
fun work. The hours were weird, but the pay
was decent, and I got to be around some pretty
interesting people. Do you know anyone
else that can say they’ve been within arm’s
reach of Cher, Kenny Chesney, Usher, Green
Day and Toby Keith during the course of one
summer?
Anyway, the job was fun, but I knew it wasn’t
permanent. I was a writer. That’s what I
went to school for. That’s why I pursued a
degree in Communications and minored in
English. That’s what I wanted to do. So
when, five months later, in the fall of 2005, I
saw an advertisement for a freelance
reporter position open up at Villager
Newspapers, the Connecticut division of
Stonebridge Press, I knew I wanted to go for
it.
The trick was, I had no experience — but
that didn’t matter. I had a willingness to
learn, and a lot of times, I feel that’s more
important. Thankfully, the editor at that
time agreed, and I was brought on part-time,
reporting on stories in my hometown and
the surrounding area. I was so green, I
would have blended into my front lawn like a
chameleon, but with hard work, it only took
me about a month before I was brought on
full-time, and I haven’t looked back since.
Almost eight years later, and I have written
hundreds of thousands of words, read over
and edited even more, processed thousands
of pictures, and have had the opportunity to
share my life with all of my readers by way
of this column. It doesn’t get much better
than that.
But sitting there in that college classroom
years ago, did I know I would have a great
job at a local newspaper? No way. In fact, I
didn’t even know if there would be a job out
there for me at all. The economy was OK
then, as the recession of 2008 was s till a few
years out, but I was still uncertain, just as,
I’m sure, many of you are out there who are
graduating or are getting ready to graduate.
As I am nearing 30 though, I consider
myself to be a shade wiser than I once was.
I’m no counselor, but if I had to dish out any
advice for anyone out there who feels uncertain
about the future — especially in this
economy — it’s this: Working hard always
pays off. Work hard, be willing to learn and
bring a good attitude wherever you go. Will
that guarantee success? I don’t know, it’s
impossible to predict the future, but those
things I mentioned will certainly put you in
a good position if something comes up.
Sure, graduation is an end. It is (at least, at
the high school, and maybe even the college
level) the end of your childhood (parents
will be sad to read this). But it is, indeed, a
new beginning, the start of the legacy you
will create in this world.
Don’t waste it.
Adam Minor may be reached at (860) 928-
1818, ext. 109, or by e-mail at adam@villagernewspapers.com.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
Opinion and commentary from the Quiet Corner
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Misinformation given at recent QVCC forum
To the Editor:
Dear Sen. Donald Williams and the editor of the
Villager Newspapers — the business community
and other guests should appreciate the NECT
Chamber of Commerce for providing an event
where a few of your constituents could ask questions
of state legislators on Friday, May 10, at the
QVCC campus.
Thank you to all the legislators who participated,
as well. While the event is wisely designed to
prevent confrontation and conversations, it does
not allow any citizen objection to political grandstanding.
Unfortunately, that gives lawmakers an
ideal podium for spreading misinformation to
constituents.
Many of your comments were misleading on
Friday, Senator. Therefore, I am asking this be
placed in a local editorial column for some equal
time.
When Day Kimball Hospital administrators
objected to the state’s severe funding cuts to hospitals
and a local business man objected to the
state’s 9-percent increase in the state budget, you
launched into misinformation regarding the hospital’s
profits and the reality of budgets. You lectured
that DKH’s profits were over five times
higher than actual figures. That number had to be
corrected from the moderator’s seat. Your accusation
that the inquirer’s figures on the budget
increase was condescending and, again, misleading.
You argued that the budget will see only a 4-
percent increase. Later, you admitted that the
next year would see a 4.5-percent increase (it’s a
two-year budget, folks, not a one-year budget).
As you continued in your lecture to hospital
administration and the business person, you
managed to slip in that the state spending cap
needs to be raised in order to accommodate the
new spending.
It was not you who actually tried to convince
the audience that Connecticut has made many
national worst and highest lists due to its debt,
cost of living, and spending issues. That belonged
to Sen. Andrew Maynard on Friday, who launched
into a “hate the Yankee Institute” lecture, while
attempting to beef up some state-patriotism for
being number one for the smartest workforce.
To the Editor:
As Memorial Day nears, it is our solemn duty to
remember.
Being a veteran, I remember Armed Forces Day,
the third Saturday in May. Those not on duty were
able to attend the activities on base — air demonstrations
with the Air Force Thunderbirds, The
Navy Blue Angels and even the Canadian Snow
Birds, as well static displays on the ground, all
designed to reinforce and boost the troops’ morale.
I visited Washington last Memorial Day, as a
guardian for the “American Warrior Honor Flight”
escorting World War II veterans on a visit to the
War Memorial, built in their honor. So far, this
group has enabled 930 Connecticut veterans to visit
the war memorial, built in their honor.
In Europe, they buried more than 101,000
Americans who never came home after their service.
It won’t be long before our last living connection
or witness to this war will be gone forever.
Whenever I am in D.C., I always make it a point
to visit the Vietnam Wall, to pay my respect. It is
only 1,000 steps from the Korean Memorial. There
are 58,282 names on that black granite, who also
never came home.
A Putnam man I knew became a casualty in
August 1969 and is acknowledged on panel 19W,
Line 001. He was 20 years old.
The “Vietnam Conflict” took place in the late 50s,
early 60s, not long after the Korean Conflict in the
early 50s was over. “Conflict” became the new politically
correct word at the time, replacing the “war”
word.
Now we have “sequester” budget restraints.
Reminds me of school budget cuts, when we lost
our weekly reader and some sports programs, the
things we enjoyed the most. Now for our military,
the air shows have gone away, as well as the
absence of a Memorial Day ceremony at Meuse-
Courtesy photo
PUTNAM, Conn. — Rose (Oleszewski) Laskowski, 88, of Matulaitis Nursing Home, Putnam, was visited on Mother’s
Day by her daughter, Theresa Czernicki, and her two daughters, Amy Czernicki, and Julie Maliff and her son Liam
Beckett Maliff, who is 8 months old.
That was before he offered his whole support of
the $1.5 billion taxpayer contribution to UConn by
telling us there are many brilliant professors who
need to be paid. He should be receiving a factual
letter from his constituents on those matters. You
made it very clear you will support that spending
as well.
Above that was your over-the-top response to a
constituent who had the courage to challenge legislators
on the gun issue. He is a businessman and
a law-abiding gun owner who pays his personal
and business taxes to support your employment.
The rude and insensitive manner in which you
answered a yes or no question was full of the
usual emotional language relying on the accounts
of Newtown victims to make points. The tirade
went on unchallenged with no polite opportunity
to answer back.
Since we didn’t get any valuable answers to
some serious questions and, you admittedly will
not be holding any town hall meetings, here are a
few questions:
1) Bill 1160, an act concerning gun violence and
children safety, consists of 135 pages with gun
restrictions making up 66 percent of it. The
remainder contains a few certain safety and mental
health initiatives, with the majority establishing
unaccountable studies/commissions. If children
safety is the true goal, when will there be
any mandates and state funding applied to those
measures?
2) How will the state fund the legal costs of
fighting 2nd Amendment lawsuits?
3) Recent reports are signaling a call for more
than 6,000 new state employees simply for the
already overburdened registration process. Were
this, and other future needs, calculated before
passing the legislation?
Answers to these questions would be appreciated,
not just by me, but many of your constituents.
Personally, I have been encouraging WINY Radio
to schedule an on-air segment of the morning talk
show in which you accept call-in requests. Please
make every effort to do that soon.
RITA CONRAD
POMFRET CENTER
Memorial Day ‘a time to remember and never forget’
Argonne Cemetery in Europe, the site of one of the
Army’s deadliest battles. This will be the first year
with no U.S. observances. Are our politicians saying
to us those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for
our freedom are no longer important?
While in D.C., I did see that the long forgotten
World War I memorial was being refurbished …
brush being cut, grass mowed and cleaned up. That
generation is gone now but it is a good sign that
they too will never be forgotten.
Back in 1863, a three-day battle at Stones River,
known now as the “Battle of Murfreesboro,
Tennessee” in the Civil War, sadly, had the highest
percentage of casualties on both sides, brothers
against brothers — 13,249 Union and 10,266
Confederate soldiers died. In total, 23,515
Americans dead in only three days, half of what
we lost in a 10-year war in Vietnam! Are we learning
anything from this yet?
In 2003, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was trying to
keep Iran at bay with his threat of “weapons of
mass destruction” as his country was going bankrupt.
He went after and tried to corner the world’s
oil market. A volatile mistake. Then for us, it was
Afghanistan! What’s next?
The window to get smarter is getting smaller
with every “knee jerk reaction” our leaders make.
As veterans, we receive no pay or any additional
benefits — our only benefit is the ability to stand
up once again for our flag and feel the pride of having
served our country in a time of need.
Memorial Day is a time to remember and never
forget, those sacrifices that made this day so important!
For without our military, there would be no
United States of America today. God bless our protectors.
G. TOD STEVENSON, U.S.A.F.
WOODSTOCK
Culinary
arts
Our family spends a
great deal of time
purchasing food, putting
it away, cooking,
eating and cleaning up.
For Mother’s Day, I received
a copy of Michael Pollan’s
new book, “Cooked, A Natural
History of Transformation,”
which looks at the connection
between cooking for ourselves
and better health.
Pollan
wrote a few
years ago in
“ T h e
Omnivore’s
Dilemma”
NANCY WEISS
that we
should: “Eat
Food. Not too
m u c h .
M o s t l y
plants.” This
is sound
advice, especially
if one
is willing to spend a great deal
of time chopping. A diet based
more on vegetables than meat
means dicing and slicing
instead of tossing a slab of
meat on the grill or turning
the microwave to high to heat
up a lean cuisine. Perhaps this
is what explains the amazing
profusion of knives in the
kitchens I visit. From huge
blocks of wood holding a
lethal array of carbon steel to
exquisite sets of paring
knives, we could probably
butcher a steer, but instead
dice scallions.
When I shop in area supermarkets,
I can’t help but
notice what customers place
in their carts. I try hard not to
judge what people buy
because it is their own business,
but I can’t help but see
who is really cooking food for
their families and who is
merely heating up a variety of
packages that must contain
something edible inside.
The most interesting grocery
carts are piloted through
the aisles by people who must
either be shopping for group
homes or who buy everything
they need for an entire month.
I admire the organizational
skills of a person who can figure
out three meals a day for
more than a week at a time.
When I was growing up and
there were more large families,
local grocery stores sold
50 pound bags of potatoes and
25 pound bags of flour. I see
large sacks of rice in some
markets, but not flour and
spuds.
The completely microwavable
meals remind me of the
old-fashioned TV dinners, that
I once longed to eat. The meals
were packaged on silver trays
so one didn’t even need a plate
and every one had a salty,
gravy covered meat product
with a squishy vegetable and
something sweet in one partition
for dessert. It must have
been a complete revelation for
home cooks to know that they
all they needed to do was heat
up the oven, tear off the shiny
paper and serve dinner. TV
dinners have been deemed
unhealthy with all the salt and
additives, but the first taste of
one was to me, sublime.
Pollan cites a food market
researcher, Harry Balzer,
whose research suggests that
once we had packaged food
and now we will have packaged
meals. He notes that “80
percent of the cost of food
eaten in the home goes to
someone other than the
farmer, which is to say to
industrial cooking, packaging
and marketing.” He predicts
that the next American cook
will be the supermarket, even
wondering if they might add
drive-throughs. Whenever I
visit a Whole Foods market
and sample the pre-made
meals, I wonder if I would
ever cook if one were nearby.
Pollan believes that cooking
is our best defense against
obesity. A 2003 study that
showed obesity when up as
home cooking went down.
Beyond issues of health, cost
and politics, the smell of
something cooking in our own
kitchens or the pleasure of
eating a meal with family and
friends is what grounds us.
Besides, no one will know if
the stuffed pepper came from
a market on Federal Hill if we
serve it on a pretty plate.