To the editor:

I thought about Mr. Doolittle’s column and whether it will turn out that “if the pandemic can’t unite us, probably nothing can.” I do remember my grandparents referring to the “us vs. them” divide between upstate and downstate, and grumbling about those big-city politicians who don’t care about the North Country.

However, I do think they care about us now, or we would have been left high and dry to fend for ourselves during this coronavirus. In the Republican North Country, it turns out we are fortunate to have a Democratic majority in our state government. They have conducted an organized, medically based, statistically orientated approach to this pandemic. We can thank Gov. Cuomo, U.S. Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand, our 40-23 Democrat majority New York Senate and our 21-5 Democrat majority of New Yorkers in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Rep. Stefanik, among the five Republican House minority members, may keep up her petty sniping against Democrats while I’m happy to say that our governor has an 81% approval rating. In a recent North Country Public Radio poll, only 9.3% of the North Country wanted an immediate, uncontrolled opening. Everyone else expressed concern or the need to reopen carefully with varying degrees of guidelines. 

So except for some disgruntled people, perhaps misguided or insensitive to others, I think we can be proud of the goodwill and compassion being shown among fellow New Yorkers. And perhaps we’ll take a closer look at how we are essentially interconnected throughout the state after all. 

Martha Hodges

Massena