Letters to the Editor Wednesday, Feb. 24 - The Daily Gazette

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Sch’dy is electric! Keep the nickname

Schenectady is not a “Metro.” Atlanta has a “metro” area, but “The Electric City,” with a population of 65,000 people, has a lot more going for it than its size. It’s where Edison made electricity viable, where television first broadcast in 1928, and where Georgie Jessel showed me around the vaudevillian Proctor’s Theatre in the 1970s. It is part of the Capital District that had until the pandemic a vibrant – and more eclectic – music scene than most in this country.
Schenectady is a place where I can indulge my musical muse as a journalist writing for publications worldwide, but also live here because I can be part of a “community,” and not a “metropolis.”
Last week Neil Golub, the Price Chopper patriarch, suggested Schenectady drop its moniker as “The Electric City” and replace it with “Schenectady Metro.” The consensus among more than 60 entries on a Scotia-Glenville Facebook page is that “metro” connotes big and nothing else, while “The Electric City” denotes all the nuances of the word electric. I couldn’t agree more.
Society is rushing to wipe out the memory of people and events that make us all uncomfortable about racism, the subjugation of women, and on and on. We are denying a younger generation an unvarnished look at the reminders of our past including our mistakes and how we can make good on them. My hometown is not a mistake. It’s also not a metro. But it is electric! And I’m proud of where I was born.
Don Wilcock
Scotia
The writer is an internationally recognized author, editor and writer and a former employee of GE’s Advertising and Sales Promotion Operation.

Texas lawmakers hypocritical with plea

As a lifelong New York state resident, with the exception of spending four years in Texas for a career move, I find it ironic that the politicians are seeking federal government assistance for the power debacle they helped create. When the Blue States requested federal money to alleviate some of the pain caused by COVID-19, which was a foreign creation, Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted “Cancun” Cruz vehemently opposed, asking why the feds should assist for past fiscal policies which contributed to those states overall budget deficits. While most of us can agree that politicians, in the interest of re-election, always approve labor contracts for state and municipal employees including extremely generous contributions for pensions and health insurance. By the way, the only way to abrogate those onerous contracts is for the states/municipalities to declare bankruptcy, which might not be a bad idea.
Jim Brodie
Schenectady

Mars rover landing conjures images of 1900s odyssey

The perilous arrival of the Mars rover Perseverance at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18 inspires me to place two of its technologies in a larger perspective. On approach, Perseverance used instruments to plot its course to the surface, much as a shark detects odors and vibrations to plot its course to potential prey. On approach, a shark may switch to visual instrumentation to attack.
On approach, Perseverance likewise switched to visual, using photographs of potential landing sites transmitted from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. As Perseverance descended, it compared real-time terrain views with its photographs of acceptable landing sites. When a high-quality site match was established, computers controlled eight thrusters to approach, decelerate and land.
An antecedent to this technology was highlighted in the 1995 iMax film “Across the Sea of Time.” It dramatizes the arrival of Russian stowaway Thomas Minton, jumping from a ship as it passed Ellis Island. He swam wearing a backpack with his possessions including a Holmes stereoscope and photographs of the New York City home of his great uncle, who arrived in 1904. Minton climbed to numerous rooftops. Like Perseverance, he compared real-time views with his photographs. Eventually he established a high-quality skyline match and found his American family.
Robert A. Michaels
Niskayuna

Republicans need to get rid of traitors

Well how much must taxpayers have to pay for the stupidity of the Democrats, mainly Pelosi and Schumer? I would love to have seen their faces when Trump was acquitted. Now they want to legalize all illegal immigrants. Why not legalize the ones that came here legally first? All the Democrats want is the votes.
Pelosi and Schumer will not give up. I hope the Republicans who helped get Trump acquitted get rid of the traitors. I hope the Republicans get their things together and work for the people.
James Maxfield
Scotia

Cuomo is showing his true colors

Some people are finally seeing King Andy’s true colors.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Kevin Sherry
Schenectady

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