LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Consider meat-free diet inspired by Mother’s Day

As I consider Mother’s Day and how it honors the cherished bond between mother and child, my mind wanders to dairy cows, worldwide symbols of motherhood who never get to see or nurture their own babies.

Newborn calves are torn from their mothers at birth and turned into veal cutlets so we can drink the milk designed for them. The grief-stricken mothers bellow for days, hoping in vain for their return.

Most dairy cows spend their lives chained on a concrete floor, with no access to the outdoors. Each year, they are impregnated artificially, to maintain production, and milked by machines twice a day.

When production drops, around 4 years of age, they are ground into hamburgers.

Dairy products are laden with cholesterol, saturated fats, hormones, pathogens and antibiotics, leading to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Most adults even lack the enzyme for digesting dairy products. Humans are the only creatures drinking milk of another species.

This Mother’s Day week, let’s honor motherhood and our natural compassion for animals by rejecting dairy industry’s cruelty and disease. Let’s replace cow’s milk and its products with delicious, healthful, cruelty-free plant-based milk, cheese and ice cream products offered by our supermarket. Mike Moniz, Middletown

Ceremony this fall for honored MHS teachers

The Middletown City Council overwhelmingly approved two proposals to name two city buildings after two former and legendary educators from Middletown High School: Jim Bransfield and Santo Fragilio. Both were popular and well-respected teachers.

Bransfield taught history at both Middletown high and Woodrow Wilson Middle School for 30 years, was a sports writer for The Middletown Press for 50 plus years, as well as a publicist and public address sports announcer. Fragilio was the MHS band director and arts consultant for the city schools since 1948.

The Palmer Field site will be known as the Jim & Dana Bransfield Baseball Field Press Box. Public Works Director William Russo said they are working on a plaque and there will be a dedication ceremony for it.

The Performing Arts Center at MHS will be renamed the Santo Fragilio Performing Arts Center.

After council members voted on the Fragilio resolution, Councilman Eugene Nocera presented a plaque to his niece and nephew, Janice and Tim Palmer, with the resolution he made at the March 5 meeting.

Nocera shared his thoughts about Fragilio: “He was an exceptional man; a mentor personally to myself serving on committees with him, and he would always say ‘That’s great. Yes, it was a wonderful program but how can we do this better?’ He would always have that position on performing that it had to be better.”

Tim Palmer thanked the council for naming the arts center after his uncle. “He grew up in Middletown and he loved the school system — the more he could do, the better it was. I wish he were here today to see this.”

The city schools will begin the work of transforming the PAC after him, according to Marco Gaylord, chairman of the Ad Hoc Naming Committee. In the fall, a dedication ceremony will be held. Frank LoGiudice, Middletown