Right-hand turns can be dangerous

I commute by bicycle to and from work every day that weather permits. From my house in Otego to my workplace in Oneonta is about seven miles one way. During my daily trek, I have seen my share of dangerous bicycling situations.

The most dangerous situation that I have encountered may surprise you: a motorist making a right-hand turn. That’s correct. A right-hand turn. Let me put you in my shoes. I’m on a straightaway, approaching a road or driveway on the right. A car is overtaking me. My intention is to go straight. What I don’t know (because the car is behind me or just now overtaking me) is that the car is planning to turn right. I cannot know this, because I cannot see the turn signal on the car.

What the driver of the car is thinking, I don’t know. I suppose the driver assumes that I somehow know that the car is going to turn right. I suppose the driver also assumes that the car has the right of way. In any case, the driver executes the turn, and I nearly collide with the car that is suddenly in my path.

This has happened to me more than once. I have also seen it happen to other bicyclists.

Motorists, when you are making a right-hand turn and a bicyclist is approaching the place where you plan to turn, slow down and let the bicyclist go ahead. The alternative could be tragic.

Michael Haehnel
Otego

Almost daily, we receive new revelations of criminal incompetency in this administration _ the latest involving Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card. Under pressure from the president, these two went to a hospital to confront a very sick John Ashcroft in a bid to get him to sign off on the administration’s domestic-spying agenda. Ashcroft, of course, refused and admonished them regarding the legality of their agenda. In response, Bush bypassed the Justice Department and signed the authorization himself. This action on his part was not legal. Just another example of this administration’s abuse of power.

Playing on our fear of domestic terrorism, this administration has worked overtime to abridge that sacred document that defines who we are _ the Constitution. This documents is what sets us apart from the rest of the world.

Many of us have written editorials condemning Bush’s war. We’ve called for and signed petitions calling for impeachment. If we, the American people, allow this president and his cronies to escape accountability, we will suffer collective shame. In the 1990s, the right moved to impeach Bill Clinton for a sexcapade. Before us is an administration that, at the minimum, has continually and illegally abused its power, but in the most definitive terms, has committed treason against the United States and its citizens.

Alan Kirby
Delhi

There are numerous health-care proposals floating around and politicians are putting themselves through extreme gyrations to come up with ideas that will appeal to the general public and gain them votes at election time. Personally, I haven’t heard any lately that meet the standard of plain, old common sense. On the other hand, Ross Perot, in his run for the presidency, had a recommendation that made absolute sense.

Numerous countries around the world have better health-care systems than we do. The proof is in the data: healthier people, better longevity, lower infant mortality and lower cost. I think we would all like those things. Here’s what Mr. Perot said: Take five or six of the best of these foreign health-care programs and set up pilot programs based on each of them in different parts of the country. Run them for an amount of time sufficient to make a complete evaluation of each and the select the one that works best here and go with it. There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel.

As Ross used to say, "It’s that simple, folks."

Ken Empey
Richfield Springs

Your reporter Tom Grace is a great asset in this county. Kudos for him for taking the county reps and the state Comptroller’s Office to task for closing a meeting that plainly should have been open to the public.

Robert J. Poulson Jr.
Cooperstown

As I read the column by Cary Brunswick on May 19, I was struck by the thought that he had now gone too far, actually recommending that our troops lay down their arms and walk away.

If I remember correctly, the oath I took when I entered military service more than 50 years ago, I could only disobey a direct order of my superiors if it were illegal.

Congress gave the president the authority, as commander in chief, to invade Iraq. Since Congress has never repealed that order, then the column is publicly advocating that each soldier commit an illegal act and be subject to the laws governing such action.

You may not like this war or any war, but I don’t believe you should advocate an action that will turn soldier against soldier, demoralize the country and weaken our nation’s standing and commitments throughout the world.

Robert Moyer
Oneonta

It’s disheartening and baffling to read commentary comparing abortion to the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, as if there is some moral equality between the two. One has nothing to do with the other. How can one compare the conscious decision of a woman and her doctor to brutally murder her unborn child to the brave sacrifices our men and women overseas make every day?

I realize, of course, that the real issue is the utter hatred and contempt for George Bush, and the failure to understand that our involvement in Iraq is vital in order to tame and hopefully eradicate the philosophy known as al-Qaida that exists throughout in the Middle East.

People with a one-dimensional view of the world will never understand this, any more than they understand that abortion has nothing to do with deaths in Iraq.

Marion M. Cronin
Grand Gorge