Editorial Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, January 6, 2011
2010: Byrd’s Eye Review
Like a rocket, 2010 went by in a blur. As we looked at large issues through a local lens, these were some of our favorite editorial illustrations by Forest Byrd:
— On Sept. 9, we supported a new law that makes it easier for New Yorkers to divorce; our state was the last to enact a no-fault provision;
— On July 1, we urged New York to join the ranks of the enlightened and allow its citizens when they are ailing access, legal access, to a useful drug — marijuana;
— On Nov. 4, after the nastiest election flier we’d every seen landed in mailboxes across the state, we called for a system where political discourse focuses on issues, not smears, and where civil disagreement — with candidates putting their names behind their views — leads to shared solutions. The fliers — which mimicked a police warning, falsely labeling the Libertarian candidate for governor, Warren Redlich, as a sex offender — had the same postal permit number as those sent out by rival candidate Kristin Davis. She claimed to be an ex-madam who supplied call girls for Governor Eliot Spitzer;
— On Dec. 2, we urged the village of Voorheesville to end its impasse with the Voorheesville Area Ambulance Service and allow the squad to answer solely to the town of New Scotland with which it has a good working relationship. The village and VAAS finally agreed on a contract last week;
— On July 15, we wrote about Navajo history — true American history now often forgotten — as it is intertwined with making of native blankets; and
— On March 18, we celebrated what the mother of a Lynnwood Elementary School student termed “a miracle.” Her son’s skull was crushed in an accident when he was 5 and his future looked bleak until a specialist and the school teamed up to create a system that helped him regain control of his life and helped other Lynnwood students, too. The teachers and staff at Lynnwood are the caretakers of a grand experiment in education.