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Things are continuing at a good pace in upstate New York's southern tier. On Monday night, my daughter and I attended a program at a local school, featuring guest speaker James Northrup. He is a former oil executive, primarily as a planning manager for ARCO. Mr. Northrup provided the audience with a large amount of “insider” information on the environmental threats posed by hydro-fracking for gas. His web site is:

http://my.brainshark.com

There were some “shadows” attending the meeting. There were also a cluster of pro-fracking Tea Party gassers, who attempted – without success – to disrupt the meeting.

Last night, along with my wife and son, I attended the local Democratic Caucus, to select candidates for our next Town Board elections. My son was nominated and selected to run. He will also be listed on two “third party” tickets, as in our heavily republican area, some folks feel better voting that way, than for a Democrat.

This afternoon, I am expecting an out-of-state visitor, who I have known and been close friends with for many years on this forum. Damn!!!! I'm so looking forward to this! Buffalo, pasta salad, and watermelon will be the evening meal. Then, we will attend an area Town Board meeting, to express opposition to hydro-fracking.

Yesterday, I had a few phone calls, from people in other parts of the state, who are interested in having me present on Onondaga Chief Paul Waterman's message on the environment. I'm happy to do so, though I do not consider myself an adequate substitute for Paul. But, Cortland and Syracuse audiences will have to suffer through my babbling.

Also, last night, a doctor who recently moved into our area contacted me. Both he and his wife, also a doctor, are interested in joining the effort to prevent hydro-fracking in New York State.

Small stuff, but it adds up when combined with many others.

Back to the top.

I appreciate and admire your activism. Good luck to your son!!

ticket.

You've mentioned both in your posts. Will there be a campaign?

The younger son ran my school board campaign, and will run his brother's town board campaign. He has more of an edge to him, and that is a good quality for a campaign manager.

In the fall.

In the mean while, a group of us are re-constructing the local Democratic Party. For example, at the caucus, we selected a new chairperson. The fellow who has been in that position is a decent guy, dedicated to his work, but who had not brought about a single victory in far, far too long.

We replaced him with a retired university professor (math) who moved here from NYC. The guy has the type of mental organization needed to help restructure our efforts. While he is a loyal Democrat, he also fully understands and appreciates that -- in our town/county -- we have to coordinate with independents, Greens, socialists, etc, and even win over a segment of the republican population, in order to win.

My older has a personality that most people like. (He met with a leadership group from NYC last week, and one lady said, "We've found a future state senator.") He's pretty well-known in our town, and I think that while it's an uphill fight, he stands a fair chance of winning.