Lyme disease needs our attention, research

Ulster sheriff should reconsider his comments

Dear Editor, I trust that Ulster County Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum is a good man, who wants to do a good job, and who wants the best for the community he serves. But he has recently made some public statements that it would be in everyone’s best interests for him to reconsider.

As far as the safety of undocumented people in Ulster County is concerned, the sheriff has said that he has followed the same protocol for 40 years and, so, people should feel as safe now as before. But Ulster County does not exist in a bubble. Given the rhetoric and actions of the current presidential administration, the heat has been turned up. The federal agents, with whom the sheriff may have a history of amicable and courteous cooperation, have been energized and emboldened to be more aggressive than ever before. The fact is that more and more undocumented people, who have no history of criminality, are being deported. Recently, a “dreamer” who was riding his bicycle to work in Southern California was detained and summarily deported. Would it not be timely that the sheriff reconsider his trusted protocol in the face of a new reality? Might it not take discretion exercised in another direction to keep innocent, undocumented people safe in 2017?

Secondly, the sheriff has said that he does not understand why officers of the law are being targeted and fired upon. They are just good people trying to do their jobs protecting the community. I agree, most certainly are and their service needs to be appreciated and honored. But, is not the sheriff aware that hundreds of innocent, unarmed young black men have been murdered and continue to be murdered by rogue law enforcement agents and that convictions have been few and far between? The Blue Wall is very real. It continues to protect its own and does so at the expense of justice. A genuine concern for law, order and justice needs to be informed by these realities and not selfserving legal platitudes.

Lastly, the sheriff has trivialized the sanctuary movement and the memorializing resolution passed by Kingston’s Common Council. He has declared sanctuary meaningless. Well, the fact that sanctuary is so highly controversial and is being so rigorously opposed by the administration would clearly indicate otherwise.

When cities and states lay claim to sanctuary status, the fear in the undocumented community is greatly reduced; legitimate law enforcement possibilities are enhanced and cities are thereby made safer for all; and the questionable aggressive actions and outreach of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are greatly curtailed. I would hardly categorize any of this as meaningless. The Rev. Frank J. Alagna,

Ph.D. Holy Cross/Santa Cruz

Episcopal Church Kingston Interfaith Council,

Kingston Area Council of Churches, Black Ministers Alliance of Ulster County

Kingston, N.Y. Dear Editor, As former chairman of the Ulster County Health Department Committee and the Lyme Disease Advisory Committee, which I created and served as chairman, I know that Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by the bite of a infected deer tick. Lyme has become a highly charged medical debate in terms of manifestation, types and term of treatment, and primary and secondary modes of transmission, but to date no human studies have been conducted to challenge or debate these important medical questions.

As in any or most diseases, the primary and underlining mode of prevention is through education of the public. What is beginning to take shape is the same need to have physicians unite to evaluate the feasibility of creating a national uniform reporting system including required reporting by laboratories in each state.

Such activities would include the provision and promotion of access to a comprehensive up to date clearinghouse of peer-reviewed information about Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. My vision is to develop community-based education programs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to include expansion of information access points to the public. Importantly as such, the creation of a physician education program that includes the full spectrum of scientific research, as well as additional alternative treatments related to Lyme.

I would also like to see the development of sensitive and more accurate diagnostic tools and tests, including a direct detection test for Lyme disease capable of distinguishing active infection from past infection. Robert Aiello Saugerties, N.Y.

Who needs parking? No one at City Hall, obviously

Dear Editor, Twenty-one thousand cars per day per the consultants and, instead of putting a bike lane on the “new” greenway / old railroad tracks to Kingston Plaza or on parallel to Broadway, Clinton Avenue to Academy Green Park, we send the bicyclists into the Chandler Drive intersection which the Department of Transportation will replace in a few years?

Who needs parking? Not anybody working at City Hall, obviously. William F. Berardi Kingston, N.Y.