A Reasonable Path for Channel 3 and Public Access • Another CIA Coup Coming Up in Venezuela?

A Reasonable Path for Channel 3 and Public Access
I think a majority of Woodstock voters would like to see Channel 3 public access clean up its grouchy act, expand public access coverage to be more inclusive, start covering things like sports, more cultural events and issues involving youth and students. And just to be more friendly and less hostile.
An energetic but small group is determined to block the designation of Woodstock Community Television, Inc. a non-profit corporation set up after extensive public meetings and discussions, as the "operating entity" for Channel 3.
The Community Center was almost filled the other night (December 11) for the presentation by Woodstock Community TV supporters and board members. The presentation was high quality, and the opposition, while few in number, was hostile to the point of huffiness.
What the Town Board should do, if it wants to follow the clear wishes of a majority of Woodstockers, is to vote for expanding the station's work in the community. If they are nervous about control, they could grant Woodstock Community Television a two-year trial status as operating entity, and then address the issue again after two years.
I have attended a number of meetings of Woodstock Community Television and am convinced it is a totally open, fair, wide-ranging, and ethical group worthy of the Town's vote of approval.
As a non-profit, the group can raise funds, get grants, and operate the station fairly for all of Woodstock. It should be able to set up a climate of good will so that the Town Board will not have to spend as much time on the minutiae of local television issues.
It was the Supervisor himself that started this long process of coming up with a new operating organization for the station. It's time now to allow these Woodstockers to operate the station.
For, if the Town doesn't allow Woodstock Community Television this two-year trial period, then I think the station will eat up even more and more of the Board's time and resources. And the station will continue to wither into a laughable mockery of what a world-famous art colony should have for a public station.
You mention Channel 3 to members of the world-class Woodstock art, painting, recording, moviemaking, computer graphics, acting, and performance community, and just about all of them will roll their eyes, screw up their faces, laugh, and toss off sentences that contain words such as "too angry," "elements of insanity," "who are these guys?" and "what a waste."
It doesn't have to be that way any longer. It's time for the Board to certify WCTV.

Another CIA Coup Coming Up in Venezuela?
For America, a History in Verse, I have been studying fairly intently the history of the CIA's involvement in destabilizing the government of Chile from 1970 through 1973, leading to the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. The CIA set up truckers strikes, riled up labor unions and in general tried to create as much domestic turmoil as possible, until the coup which set up the ghastly, death-squaddy rule of General Pinochet, a blight on the history both of the world and of the USA.
And so I've been reading with skepticism about the current turmoil in Venezuela, and pondering whether the Shrub in 2001, as Nixon and his would-be Metternich sidekick did in 1973, has ordered the CIA and the Service intelligence agencies to destabilize Venezuela.
It has to do with oil (shades of the CIA overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran in '53 after Mossadegh's government nationalized the Iranian oil company.)
Venezuela provides about 15% of the U.S.A.'s oil. The freely elected government of President Hugo Chávez, in power for 3 years, has passed a law which almost doubles royalty payments to the government for oil, and provides for majority government ownership of oil projects. D.C. is now under the control of the oil business, in important ways, and one should suspect that the CIA and other agencies were involved in the recent one-day strike and work stoppage in Venezuela, designed to shake apart the Chávez government.


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