To the Editor:
I was very upset when I read the Eastwick Press this week. (This letter was submitted on April 19.)
First of all, I respect the “freedom of speech” and the “freedom of press”.
What I don’t understand is the purpose of the reporters who go to school board meetings and town board meetings. I thought their job was to report what happens at the meetings. That appears to be what most of them do. I go to most of the school board meetings and Thadeus (sic) does a great job without putting his opinions down. I did not find that with what Kieron Kramer wrote on the town of Berlin meeting this month. It consisted of “his opinions”. He only needed to report on what the board discussed and voted on. All his remarks were very improper and not necessary.
I usually go to the town board meetings, too but missed them because of other commitments. I do know that the town board we have now is doing a great job and I support them 100%. I don’t have any personal opinions on the gun control laws since I don’t understand them that well, but we don’t need to hear an “outsiders” opinion.
Another issue is that Mr. Kramer should get other facts straight. There is no Commonwealth Avenue in Berlin. I believe the fire hydrant he wrote about would be located on Community Avenue. This is the hydrant that has been discussed at many board meetings.
JoAnn Kellar
Concerned resident of Berlin
Editor/Reporter’s response:
JoAnn is correct; there is no Commonwealth Avenue in Berlin. I must have had Boston on my mind when I wrote the story.
The hydrant referred to in the Berlin Town Board story of April 19 is, of course, on Community Avenue across from the firehouse. Even though I am an “outsider” – I wasn’t born on the Plank nor do I live in a hollow log on Bly Hollow Road – I have a visa that allowed me to visit the firehouse on Community Avenue several times – most notably for the hearings on the cell tower in Cherry Plain and the proposed purchase of the Berlin Lumber property and an overflow Town meeting on the same subject.
Seriously, JoAnn’s letter is instructive. In it she says, “I don’t have any personal opinions on the gun control laws since I don’t understand them that well…” Apparently, JoAnn, you are opposed to the NY Safe Act and the expanded background checks it calls for – the Town Board said so in a resolution at the April meeting.
Too often these days “freedom of the press,” which JoAnn and most everybody else says they support, really means freedom to tell them what they already know, what they already believe, what they want to hear. To tell a reporter that he or she must only repeat facts without putting them in context is just as much an “infringement” of Constitutional rights as gun control might be.
I’ve been covering Berlin Town Board meetings regularly since 1996 – I have only missed four, I think. During that time the Town Boards never passed a resolution on such a political issue.
However, the main purpose of JoAnn’s letter is to defend the Town Board. It’s not necessary. This is one of the most efficient and congenial Town Boards, and Supervisor Jaeger is perhaps the most far sighted, influential Supervisor in recent memory. What he has accomplished for his community will probably be considered historic – that’s just my opinion, of course – but it doesn’t mean he can’t make a mistake.