The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

The Inside Press

A Busy Week in New Castle!

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It’s a busy week . . .

The League of Women Voters of New Castle reminds you of the following events

FIREHOUSE EXPANSION
VOTE 
Tuesday, October 25th from 6-9 pm
On October 25, 2016, New Castle residents in Fire District #1 will be asked to vote on two bond propositions totaling $15.37 million:
1. Purchasing property adjacent the Bedford Road Firehouse, demolishing the animal hospital building, and preparing the site for expansion: $2.67 million;
2. Renovating the current station & constructing a two-story addition with three drive-through bays: $12.70 million.
 
 
More information can be found on our Fire District page.
 
 
If you are not available to vote on October 25, 2016 during the hours of 6-9 pm, you might still be able to request an Absentee Ballot from the Fire District. Complete this  APPLICATION FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT and call the Fire District Office at 914-238-6287 to see if alternative arrangements can be made.
 
BEDFORD ROAD FIREHOUSE
491 King Street

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We have TWO Candidates’ Nights This Week

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Thanksgiving Desserts Fundraiser

 

For the second year, we have teamed up with Pat Yost of Babe’s Delectables to offer you a delicious selection of Thanksgiving pies and cheesecakes to serve to your guests or bring to your host. Proceeds go to support the work of LWVNC, including producing Candidates’ Night and the Voters Guide.

 

Place your order by November 15, 2016 online or by mailing the Dessert Order Form with a check.

Pick up your order between 5:30 and 7:30 pm, Tuesday, November 22 at 110 Marcourt Drive, Chappaqua.

Filling One Bowl Feeds Many

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Over the past six months, community members have unleashed their inner artist to paint over 200 bowls to be given away to guests at the second annual Empty Bowls Westchester fundraiser on Sunday, November 13th. The event was created by Chappaqua Cares to raise funds and awareness for food pantries. In addition to bowls painted in the community, approximately 15 bowls signed by celebrities will be auctioned.

Information & tickets: www.chappaquacares.org

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Because All of Us Should Vote

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By Alina

According to The American Presidency Project, only 54.87% of eligible voters placed a vote in the 2012 presidential campaign. Many Americans today are not voting, but here’s why each of us should.

The United States is a democracy, which means that each and every citizen who is age 18 or older has the right to vote for the candidate they want as their President. However, if enough of us aren’t voting, then can this truly be called a democracy?

As an American citizen, it is your duty to vote for the leader you want to represent your views and goals. By not voting, you are throwing away your right as a citizen. Because many are under the impression that “their vote doesn’t matter so what’s the point,” plenty of Americans tend to lay back and let others do the voting.

However, if every person who believed that their vote didn’t matter stood up and decided to vote after all, we’d have close to 100% participation in the upcoming election, which is much more than having “no impact” as many tend to believe.

Voting is especially vital to us here in Chappaqua because one of the presidential candidates happens to live in our town.

Yes, Hillary Clinton is our neighbor, and, as Chappaqua is primarily a Democratic town, it is important for us to vote for her, the Democratic candidate, in this election. Many people in Chappaqua support Hillary’s ideals, and what better way to show our support for our neighbor than to place a vote in the elections? It is really unwise to rely on everyone else to vote for Hillary because, as much as it may seem so, she will not simply become president “no matter what.”

If each individual person does not get out and vote, no one will make any progress, and this country would certainly no longer be called a “democracy.” Addressing the situation of getting more people to vote can be simple: Explain to others that their vote matters and that casting their vote helps benefit Hillary greatly. She, in turn, helps us by supporting our views and making them a reality. Help support our next door neighbor by voting in the next election.

Alina is a junior at Horace Greeley High School whose political knowledge extends to conversations (which sometimes turn to heated debates) with her friends. She moved to Chappaqua fairly recently, but has already seen Hillary.

Editor’s Note: One of Seven Girls’ Essays featured in the November “If Our Neighbor Becomes President” Cover Story.  The girls were directed by Keri Walsh, Ph.D., who heads the Chappaqua Summer Writing Program for Girls at the Greeley House.

Clinton vs. Trump: The Race to the White House

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By Amber Mildenhall 

Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump, it’s a race to the White House. Both are leading the course by becoming their parties’ representatives. In addition to the obvious difference, namely the political parties they support (Hillary Clinton being Democratic and Donald Trump Republican), the two candidates have opposite opinions on so many matters.

I moved to the United States at the age of eight. I didn’t even think about politics until I was in second grade, the same year Barack Obama became President.

My elementary school simulated the election of 2008; each student was given a chance to enter a booth where we could either circle a picture of Barack Obama or his republican opponent John McCain, and therefore “vote” for each candidate.

Unaware that an election was even going on, I chose Barack Obama (whom I didn’t even realize was Barack Obama) based on whatever preference I had as an eight-year old (although I still do support my decision now, eight years later). I went home that day and asked my parents what this alien booth-circling activity even meant. They gave me facts and pointers comparing Obama and McCain, which all seemed quite complicated to my eight-year-old self. So, without further ado, here are the facts of this year’s candidates for all those as confused as I was eight years ago.

Gun control has been a major debate between many politicians. The Second Amendment to the Constitution allowing the right to bear arms is viewed by many as no longer relevant. The United Kingdom has already instituted many laws to prohibit firearms. Hours of paperwork, applying for a license, and proving that you are not a threat to society has limited the violence that results from firearms. The United Kingdom’s firearm-related death rate per 100,000 per year in 2011 was 0.23, and the United States’ rate in 2014 was 10.54. Hillary Clinton wishes to abolish the Second Amendment and have gun control more similar to the UK’s.

Hillary Clinton said, “More than 33,000 Americans are killed by guns each year. It’s time to act. As President, I’ll take on the gun lobby and fight for commonsense reforms to keep guns away from terrorists, domestic abusers, and other violent criminals—including comprehensive background checks and closing loopholes that allow guns to fall into the wrong hands.” Donald Trump has an opposite opinion, and wishes to keep the right to bear arms. Donald Trump wrote, “Democrats want to confiscate all guns, which is a dumb idea because only the law-abiding citizens would turn in their guns and the bad guys would be the only ones left armed.” Donald Trump believes that it is every US Citizen’s right to bear arms, whereas Hillary Clinton views the existence of the second amendment as dangerous.

Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s postions on immigrants, like gun control, are also opposite. Donald Trump wants to build a wall on the Mexican border and have Mexico pay for it. Hillary Clinton stands for the less extreme measure of a fence along the Mexican border. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” Trump said of undocumented Mexican immigrants while announcing his candidacy last June. Donald Trump wishes to allow legal immigration, triple the number of ICE officers (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers), and end birthright citizenship.

Hillary Clinton supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants whereas Donald Trump believes they should be deported effective immediately. Clinton also wishes to toughen penalties for hiring illegal immigrants, and supports Obama’s executive decision which would have allowed for illegal immigrants who are parents to legal citizens to remain in the USA for a certain amount of time.

Terrorist threats are a major factor in the immigration issue the USA is currently facing, but Clinton continues to believe that, “First, we rely on partners in Muslim countries to fight terrorists. The immigration ban would make it harder.”

Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s views on gun control and immigration are opposite. Healthcare is yet another subject in which Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton must agree to disagree. Donald Trump wishes to get rid of Obamacare, the unofficial name for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, whereas as Clinton wishes to expand it. When one of these two candidates becomes President, completely different policies will be instituted.

Amber is a legal alien, a citizen of the United Kingdom, and a sophomore at Horace Greeley High School who is currently obsessed with Pokemon Go.

Editor’s Note: One of Seven Girls’ Essays featured in the November “If Our Neighbor Becomes President” Cover Story.  The girls were directed by Keri Walsh, Ph.D., who heads the Chappaqua Summer Writing Program for Girls at the Greeley House.

If our Neighbor Becomes President: The Impact on the Earth

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By Reilly

I’ve never been one for politics. I don’t like the divisions it instills, the animosity it provokes, or the assertive natures of the politically-savvy. However, I find myself wanting to care more and more about politicians’ stances as the years pass by, if only for my deep concern for the deteriorating state of the environment.

Humankind has been steadily destroying the earth for hundreds of years, and I’ve been realizing just how influential politicians are in determining the future of the natural world (which seems to be growing less and less natural by the day) that surrounds us. For example, the economy can only thrive and the government can only operate so much in a languishing environment such as the one we inhabit today.

According to nasa.gov, arctic sea ice now has a 13.4% rate of depreciation, due to the ever-rising global temperatures (an average of 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit higher than in 1880). A major cause of climate change is deforestation, which has a rate that is equal to losing 20 football fields every minute.

The United States’ rate of deforestation is one that, if continued, will ensure that only a quarter of the forests standing today will be there in 70 years. So, someone arguing that climate change is a myth is quite possibly the most severe form of ignorance one could claim.

Donald Trump has seemed to make it his goal to hasten the downfall of the natural world. Trump has been quoted saying climate change (commonly referred to as “global warming”) is “nonsense” and an “expensive hoax”, and said that the EPA’s attempt to preserve the earth “is a disgrace”. His total disregard for the environment and his pledge to defund the EPA’s role in government is blasphemous, and unacceptable. Therefore, if a reader is even in the slightest bit leaning towards Trump, remember the environment, and think of the Earth that your children will be struggling to survive in and will be scrambling to save as it approaches the brink.

Our neighbor, Hillary Clinton, has vowed to keep the environment as one of her primary concerns: “As President, I’ll say no to drilling in the Arctic. I’ll stop the tax giveaways to big oil and gas companies. And I’ll make significant investments in clean energy. Our children’s health and future depend on it.” Could she have said it better? Hillary, unlike Mr. Trump, is the only hope for the preservation of the environment, and for us.

If my age didn’t inhibit me from voting in the 2016 election, I would vote Hillary if only for my concern about the environment. After acquainting myself more with the political scene for the past year, I’ve learned that Hillary has much more to offer than her pledges for the natural world. But we all know about healthcare, and immigration, and abortion rights. We, as citizens not of the United States but of the world, need to start educating ourselves about the current state of the natural world- need to step up, face the problems, and conquer them- and I believe that voting Hillary is one of the first steps in that equation.

Reilly is a junior at John Jay High School, who hates discussing politics and loves the environment and crossword puzzles.