I have been doing what I can to help Pat Courtney-Strong in her effort to become the Democratic nominee to replace Mike Hein as the chief executive of the Ulster County Government. I have been bringing up issues and I asked her about the County’s legislature having a global warming/climate change committee, and she being on top of the situation, told me that the county already had one. I had asked the town supervisors of Lloyd (Paul Hansut) and Marlboro (Al Lanzetta) if their town boards could have one?

I did not ask, but hope they have a solar committee.

It turns out that nationwide the states are preparing for the next hurricane, wild fire, drought, tornado, heat wave or flood.

Three additional states, Michigan, Illinois, and New Mexico have joined the United States Climate Alliance, which ten years ago was founded by Nobel Prize winner Al Gore. Now there are 19 states and Puerto Rico in the Alliance.

Some of the states have a goal of getting 50 percent of their electricity from renewables, and California and Hawaii want to get 100 percent from renewables by 2045. The renewables, solar, turbines or hydro are all emission free, and hopefully would succeed in reducing the nation’s carbon footprint. An active member of the alliance is New York State. It has both a solar and a turbine plan.

While 31 states are not members, more than 19 are actively going to renewables. Number one in this category is Texas, which is first in renewables as it is harvesting the wind in some parts of the state. Another big wind state is Kansas. New York State has a plan to have a huge wind farm off of Long Island. New York State has both wind and solar farms upstate, and their present and future locations can be found on the Internet.

Global Warming is viewed as a worldwide problem, thus it was news in the United States when Sydney, Australia had record tying temperature of 114 degrees and Townsville, Australia had a record four foot rainstorm in which crocodiles and snakes were swimming.

Also the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas was a concern in the Asian countries, including India, because of its impact on the growing of crops at or near the base of these seven-mile high mountains.

A very different story is that the Chenier (LNG) will be shipping liquefied natural gas to China from its terminal in Sabine, Louisiana, and be used in natural gas electric plants, which will replace some of China’s coal fired plants.

And the biggest story and it made most front pages was 2018 was the fourth hottest year in the known history of the planet Earth and this is “projected to continue.” Ten years ago it would not have been a front-page story, but it was this year as it was accompanied by a companion story that in terms of NEVA, it was the fourth most expensive climate change year for the United States at $95 billion, and followed 2017, which at $324 billion was the costliest in history. 2018 was expensive because of Florence, Michael and the California wild fires.

Because of the shutdown the government had to delay its prediction of hurricanes for 2019. My prediction is that the ocean waters were the hottest they have ever been in 2018 and that there was another big production 0f CO2 in 2018 that possibly 2019 may come close on a number of scales of being record breaking.

New Paltz had minstrel shows and blackface local performers
Until 1954, New Paltz had minstrel shows, with a blackface quartet performing. One of the performers was a longtime New Paltz Campus schoolteacher. Then the college hired its first black professor and the minstrel shows ended.

Growing up in New Paltz at that time was Suzie McClain. She encountered racism at the high school, where she was an outstanding student. At Sarah Lawrence she made history in 1958 as the first black student elected president of the student council of what was essentially a White student body. Suzie later married a MIT professor, was appointed an associate dean at Harvard, and was active soccer mom as she and her family lived in Brookline, Mass, which had a Kennedy compound.

Suzie’s parents were New York City Social Workers. They had a farm in Gardiner. Suzie had her own horse, which she liked to ride. She was an only child. Her neighbors were her cousins, the Gardiners. Recently Reggie Gardiner died. His sister Pearl, a graduate of New Paltz High School is a graduate of Cornell. Suzie has cousins in Highland. Ann Marie McClain is a graduate of Williams. Highland already has produced three black doctors and the first black graduate of West Point, Captain Eric Williams.

New Paltz had its last minstrel show 65 years ago. I was in middle school when I saw my only one. And there were only four men with blackface. The show was in the college’s auditorium, and then in 1955 there was no show. The college’s President, William Haggerty played a role in having African students attend the college. One of them, Solomon Iyasere, an Ebu from Nigeria became my friend. His son, a graduate of Harvard is one of my Facebook friends, Sol earned his PhD in English at SUNY Binghamton and became a professor of English at the University of California at Bakersfield.

I posted on Facebook that I was writing about New Paltz minstrel shows and got this response, “True. I was born in 1954, so never saw them. But I did note my mother has a few references in her scrapbooks. Not something to be proud of -- but it was a sign of the times. Heck, Bing Crosby did a black face scene in the movie Holiday Inn.... and, as I remember it, John Wayne did one in a brief idiotic scene in The Spoilers. ---- But these politicians in Virginia were doing it in the 1980s!!”

Is Highland developing a dynasty?
This past weekend in the Section 9, Division II Wrestling Championships, the Highland wrestling team went head to head against Port Jervis, which has a tradition of over 60 years in the sport and Port won the title again with 218 points, following in second place was Highland with 174. Coach John McFarland’s team captured three weight titles at 106 lbs, Peter Bender; 132 lbs, three-time champion, Matt Malheiro, and 183 lbs, Drew Bendy. Malheiro defeated Jody Amato of Port Jervis, 7 - 3.

Wins over Port are special. Port Jervis has two Olympic wrestling champions, Ed and Lou Banach, who also between them won five NCAA titles. Taking second place for Highland were: Justin Halbert, 145 lbs; Logan Smith, 152 lbs; Adain Maduro, 170 lbs; Ben Swart, 195 lbs., and John Perez, 228 lbs.

Eight times at the finals, Highland had a wrestler honored for either winning or taking second. This was a night to remember for Highland, but with coach McFarland there will be more big nights.