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Citizens are petitioning their governments for change

Jul 20, 2020 6:33 am
There are two petitions for change in the Hudson Valley. Paul Kirby reports in the Daily Freeman that Frances Cathryn is leading efforts to bring down statues of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland; George Clinton, New York’s first governor and vice president under two presidents; and explorer Henry Hudson from Academy Green Park in Kingston. Clinton was a slaveholder, Stuyvesant was an anti-Semite, and Hudson a colonizer for the Dutch East India Company. Academy Green Park has hosted many protests in the past two months. “What struck me is how high they rose up over this crowd of people who were calling for basic human rights,” Cathryn said. “My message to people is that we can have better imagination when it comes to our public space and do better than these three men.” More than 3,600 people have signed an online petition to bring the statues down. In Catskill, more than 4,200 people have signed a petition to paint the words "Black Lives Matter" on Main Street. Village of Catskill officials announced June 30 that they had voted against the proposal. But that vote did not take place in any meeting that the public could attend. Instead, Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley said the board took the action through email, which is not allowed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's current executive order on town meetings. Now, on July 22, the Village of Catskill will have another town meeting, and discuss putting an "All Lives Matter" mural on Main Street. The Village of Catskill does not provide complete information about how to attend their meetings online, but folks who want to attend can call 1-866-584-3084 at 7 p.m. July 22 to be a part of the meeting.
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