The ever-increasing challenges to our health and wellbeing — as individuals and as a community — and their cold-hearted rationale are causing a groundswell of frustration and anger.
The ending (and claw-back) of funding for vital programs is unconscionable. It serves only one purpose, and that’s the diverting of those needed monetary supports to the further enrichment of a small circle of the well-placed and powerful.
This is not deficit reduction. This is a coupling of ideology and greed.
I’m angry. And I, as much as you, feel powerless.
We will have more hungry families. More of our neighbors will be faced with impossible health care choices. More people will find themselves below the poverty line. And we will have few ways to provide support.
There have been so many cuts. So many programs ended. The effect will be felt, increasingly.
In these coming months we will face threats that we cannot allow.
Not here. Not in Oneonta. This is where we step up. This is where we channel the anger into action.
We will do what needs to be done to ensure that our neighbors’ struggles are made more bearable, and we will fight back against a dogma that we know is wrong.
Groceries are more expensive. But with food drive after food drive, our community is turning out in record numbers to keep our local pantries stocked, and increasingly, local gardeners are sharing their harvests.
The health of our economy is not only defined by cost to consumers, but also by the stress to shops and restaurants in maintaining their profitability. Its effect is easily seen when a community begins to lose those businesses, and a gap-toothed Main Street results. (While it’s true that we’ve had success filling empty spaces, that trend is not guaranteed.)
The tariff-driven economy hasn’t had its impact yet. But it will.
A concerted effort by our community to spend its money locally and to become evangelists for others to visit and do the same is an action we can take immediately. That starts with an appreciation and understanding of what Oneonta is and what it offers in this moment.
Our restaurants are amazing. While we don’t have a wide variety of retail options, what we have is kind of wonderful. With more feet on the street, downtown’s few remaining empty spaces may beckon a shoe store, or men’s and women’s clothing, or some other needed business.
Our rationale for bringing people to Main Street has been the introduction of the most affordable, the most abundant and the most destination-worthy assets we have — the performing and visual arts. We’re harnessing those to make Main Street a vibrant and interesting place.
In this exponentially challenging economy, we must continue to build that narrative — Oneonta is a nice place. A welcoming place. But we must be clear-eyed about the challenges to making downtown feel inviting, and we must address them.
This is Oneonta. Here, we care for our neighbors.
As more people face the terror of homelessness and the numbers in Oneonta swell, we are seeing a mobilization of volunteers and new, creative partnerships being formed to provide support and resources. We need more.
We must provide solutions even as our federal government introduces obstacles.
While our institutions find themselves increasingly in peril and dare not, we must celebrate our diversity, foster equity and seek the inclusion of all our neighbors in everything that makes us Oneontans.
And as the public guardian of our rights as well as our safety, we should be vocal in our appreciation of our Oneonta police. They are upholders of the rule of law and stand in stark contrast to the lack of due process in federal enforcement.
I am proud that in Oneonta we can exercise our right to peaceful protest with certainty that law enforcement is dedicated to the protection of our fundamental freedom to do so. How American.
So, channel your anger to action. Let Oneonta be a beacon.
In this darkness, we need to be the light.