tHE ColoR wHEEl tuRNS Library appreciation

paints? Nothing. But persistence pays off and my Santa left a complete oil paint set under the tree that year.

Thus, the learning curve began.

I became familiar with names like cadmium yellow, aliziran crimson and ultramarine blue.

I learned how to use the linseed oil and turpentine that came with the set, the wooden pallet, pallet knife and the little cup that attached to the palette.

I painted my picture, my youthful joy of creation, and because I thought it was so beautiful, entered it into the art contest at school.

How excited should you be when you win an honorable mention?

The awards for the contest were a premier event at our school. Presented in the evening, you were expected to dress in your best to walk across the stage to receive your award.

The whole family would be there - Mom, Dad, my siblings, grandparents and assorted aunts and uncles. I was over-the-moon excited.

Full of herself would be a good phrase to attach to my mind set. Since I was going to be on stage, I decided to experiment surreptitiously with my mother’s makeup. There I was in the bathroom, with my mother’s rouge, trying to embellish the 10-year-old’s face.

I put a dab on my right cheek. I looked like a clown. I tried to wash it off. I rubbed gently, but there seemed to be a remaining smudge of red that needed to be removed, not only for beauty’s sake, but to hide the evidence. I rubbed some more. The spot got redder. The more I rubbed, the darker my cheek became until it began to sting with every effort to erase my sin.

and for the exciting projects and actions in connection with Micron that are proposed.

D AN K INSE ll A

Fayetteville t rustee

Supports ban on sale of flavored cigarettes

To the editor: My father smoked cigarettes and suffered a heart attack and later COPD as a result. My mother-inlaw needed to be on an oxygen machine for years before she died prematurely from cigarette smoking. Almost everyone has a story about a loved one who got addicted to tobacco and struggled with the health consequences. We sometimes think tobacco is no longer a problem, but over 22,000 New Yorkers will die this year from tobacco related cancers and other health conditions. It’s predicted that without major changes a billion people worldwide will die this century (yes, that number is not a misprint!) Commercial tobacco has been labeled the most deadly consumer product in human history. Any other consumer product that kills half of those who use it as directed would have been taken off the market long ago.

Now Governor Hochul has proposed eliminating flavored tobacco products in NYS. This is a unique opportunity to prevent youth from taking up a tobacco addiction, as flavored products have been shown to be especially enticing to young people. Nearly all tobacco users start before age 21, so preventing youth from starting a lifelong tobacco addiction is crucial to ending the tobacco epidemic.

Menthol cigarettes are by far the most common type smoked by people of color, as a result of decades of targeted marketing by the tobacco industry. Research for the FDA demonstrates that menthol makes it easier to start, and harder

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I had monopolized the only bathroom in the house for quite some time. There were several siblings at the door, whose pleas had gone unanswered until my mother knocked on the door to ask what was wrong.

By this time I was sobbing. Why couldn’t I remove that rouge from my now bright red cheek. I had ruined my life. Not only would my mother be mad at me, but I probably wouldn’t be allowed to go to the awards night.

Well, my mom wasn’t mad at all. She smiled and explained that my red cheek was the result of my over-industrious use of the wash cloth and that we would still go to the event. She even used some of her “pancake” makeup on my sore red face.

That night I won a box of Jon Gnagy colored pencils. I still have them much in the same fashion that you only use the good dishes on special occasions, I rarely used these precious reminders of my award. They rest in the back of the drawer of my desk. And how many years ago did my competitiveness and ego earn these eight pencils? A lifetime ago. I long ago gave up the idea that I was an artist. That died with lesson plans and laundry. But those Jon Gnacy pencils are still there and I think I have found a special occasion for their use.

I think that I will use them to embellish a page from “Well Said, The Library Lovers Coloring Book of Quotes” in honor of Library Lovers Month. So now I come full circle to a coloring book. The wheel turns.

Ann Ferro is a mother, a grandmother and a retired social studies teacher. While still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, she lives in Marcellus with lots of books, a spouse and a large orange cat.

The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and NAACP support this approach as they are acutely aware of the devastating harm that menthol has done in black communities. Unfortunately, tobacco industry also has a long history of funneling money to some black leaders and organizations as a way to blunt this common-sense reform.

Efforts at reducing tobacco addiction in NYS have made great strides over the past 20 years, but as the recent vaping epidemic with young people shows, the tobacco industry keeps morphing. We still have a long way to go. Eliminating flavored tobacco, as other states are doing, is an important step on this journey.

I don’t want my children to suffer as I saw with my father and my mother-in-law. Ask any tobacco user, and nearly all regret getting hooked and don’t want their kids to start. Our kids’ lives literally depend on it.

V AN Cl EAR y-H AMMARSt EDt Fayetteville

Town left out of Micron meeting

To the editor:

So many of us, even in the Eastern suburbs, are excited about the promise and possibility that Micron’s arrival brings. We care about learning as much as we can and preparing for the many new people who will be moving to and within our region. I am writing to express my disappointment in County Executive Ryan McMahon and County Legislator/Village of Fayetteville Mayor Mark Olson with regard to the recent Micron info session held

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