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Apr
28
2006
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Dan Veaner
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Friday, 28 April 2006 |
I am writing this on the first International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and have just come back from hearing Fred Voss speak to Lansing students about his experiences with the Nazis (read the full story in next week's Star). His talk was indescribably moving. Growing up I was taught that remembering the Holocaust is the most important way to avoid a repeat episode, and to honor those 6 million Jews, not to mention handicapped people, gypsies, Poles, Russians and others considered by the Nazis to be inferior who were slaughtered in Nazi Germany. Voss is a piece of living history who suffered the loss of his home, much of his family and his country.
It is important to remember that in 1940s Germany nobody imagined that such a thing could happen. It was the complacency of the large percentage of German people looking the other way that was as much to blame as Hitler. As a result nearly two thirds of all European Jews were murdered in what the German Government dubbed "The Final Solution."
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Apr
21
2006
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Dan Veaner
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Friday, 21 April 2006 |
Two months ago a Town Councilman had an idea for a sex offender law that he thought would make Lansing a safer place to be. Today the law is in effect. Whoa! Did I get that right? A government accomplished something in only two months???
That speaks to the efficiencies of local government. At its best a local government does what needs to be done for its constituents, spending the least to accomplish the most. It's not like state or national politics where strategy is a lot more important than accomplishing anything useful. Yet government this good isn't necessarily the norm. When the "group of six" municipalities got together to come up with a sewer agreement for the region, it took six years to get its act together. That was six local governments in Tompkins County. I'm told it was the biggest of the six that held things up.
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Apr
07
2006
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Dan Veaner
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Friday, 07 April 2006 |
I was really entranced by Frank Moore's comments about what makes a village (see his campaign interview on the Elections page in the News section of this week's issue). He noted that the Village of Lansing isn't as much of a village as the Town is, because of history and circumstances.
I have been interested in this idea of a Village identity since I spoke to Trustee Lynn Leopold about it last November. "Some people who live here don't even realize they live in a village," she said. "They're totally confused. They say 'Oh I thought this is Ithaca, because that's on my address.' But we are a village, and try to behave like a village and treat our village residents as if they belong to us."
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Mar
31
2006
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Dan Veaner
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Friday, 31 March 2006 |
Lansing takes pride in its school system. And in a school system that is worthy of a community's pride there are at least some outstanding teachers. This week two science teachers really stood out as their students displayed the results of their scientific research and analyses. (See the Schools page, under "Around Town")
Therese Arsenault and Sue Henne's classes displayed their environmental findings that were clearly high quality and beyond what you would expect of the students' age groups. Henne reached out to other teachers who took what she had taught the kids and expanded on it in their classes, reinforcing the lessons and getting the kids to look at their work from different angles. Arsenault got her students involved in studying their own environment, and they learned things about it they hadn't noticed before.
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Mar
24
2006
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Jim Evans
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Friday, 24 March 2006 |
To all the praise for Lansing's great production, I must add some for whomever did the lighting. The proof is in the photos. A well-lit show always photographs well. The pictures in the Star always show balanced light -- no hot spots or gaps -- and evenly saturated colors.
Nice work.
From: Jim Evans
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