Serving the Towns of Wawarsing, Crawford, Mamakating, Rochester and Shawangunk, and everything in between
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Editorial
Celebrating A Young Man Named Tyrique

We've noticed some bad things this week. But as usual, there's also been plenty of good.

Last week we noted our discomfort with the Orange County Sheriff's call for heightened vigilance and fear. Then two police in Middletown fatally shot a man. Yes, it was a loaded situation... but so were the sheriff's words equally loaded in an already tense situation. We stand by our original sentiments on the issue.

This past week we were reminded that the Town of Shawangunk was holding a referendum vote this past Tuesday, July 19, in all its usual polling sites. The issue at hand was their wish to shift the position of highway superintendent from one elected to something appointed by the town board. Needless to say, the measure failed — the tally was 196-136 defeating the measure. Now everything's expected to move on to the town's Republican Party caucus, which rarely involves more than 200 people and often half that many, to decide on a candidate in this one-party town for a special election come November.

Holding a vote on a July Tuesday? We're surprised a win didn't occur, but then the situation that's led to all this is so charged no one wants to talk about it other than those who can recall police blotter items tied to a fist fight in the highway department. You'd think our democracy could come up with better ways... but that takes real politicking, and at least parties to reach the sort of consensus communities need to move forward.

Also on our radar: the fact that the old Pledge of Allegiance is once again becoming a fighting point in political races across the country, as if its words, and how one said them, were a test for patriotism. Most egregiously, the issue's come up in state Senator George Amedore's reelection race, where he's up against Democrat Sara Niccoli, a former town supervisor and current director of the New York State Council of Churches, who doesn't say the pledge because her Quaker beliefs forbid her from any oaths or pledges.

Sure, it's not as bad as the calls for arrest and execution facing Hillary Clinton, or our president for that matter. But it still begs the question about just how nasty one nation's politics need become before everyone wakes up and realizes they may actually share more with others than they think, or are being told.

And that good news front? What's happening there?

We got a letter from a proud mother of a recent Ellenville High senior who we mentioned rather obliquely in these pages around the time of graduation last month, thinking there'd be more info coming in from school officials, or others in the community. Tyrique Wooten, it turns out, was able to maintain perfect attendance from his first day of kindergarten through to his last day of high school... all while earning an advanced regent's diploma and playing sports (soccer, basketball and track) three seasons out of every school year.

Easy work, simply attending? Not when you get bit by a dog, get rushed to the local emergency room, and all you can think about is how to get back to school by third period so you won't get marked absent... as Tyrique did with a shirt covered in blood.

Even better... it turns out that Wooten's mother, Deliciana Diaz, had also received an attendance award at her graduation, making this a family thing. Which, as time went on, included friends and fellow classmates, as well.

Now Tyrique Wooten is preparing to attend SUNY Delhi come September. His goal? To help others by becoming a counselor or social worker.

Sooo... even though Tyrique's accomplishment did not even receive an "honorable mention," let alone an award for the first student to accomplish perfect attendance as he did while at Ellenville schools, his achievement needs recognition. Which, as his mom pointed out to us, is as much a community newspaper's job as the reporting of hard and even bad news.

What this young man did took hard work, commitment and dedication (as well as remaining healthy). It was an accomplishment!

Hats off, from all of us here in the Journal orbit, to Tyrique Wooten... as well as his mom for reminding us how broad and deep all real news should be.



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