UPDATE: Governor Cuomo announced Tuesday the following: "We will make reopening decisions in New York State on a regional basis. We recognize not all regions are impacted with COVID-19 in the same way. It's the logical thing to do."
Dear Governor Cuomo,
I hate to resort to this “open letter” business, but that’s where we’re at these days. We are not one of your media darlings, so calls and emails from us at the Chuck and Kelly show on WGY have largely gone unreturned for the last 10 years. Here’s the thing: when I contact your office, it’s not for me. It’s because I’m relaying very real and valid issues brought to us by concerned Upstate New Yorkers. Yes, I said Upstate New Yorkers because you and I both know there is a difference.
Since you have never responded to invitations to come on our show, dating back to day 1 in office, let me introduce you to our audience. You may think we are “The RUSH Station” and all of the aspersions that carries with it. But the reality is that our show, from 5:30 to 9 am, is a non-partisan, fair, broad, topical show that ranges from the silly to the serious. We welcome opinions from all sides and do our best to present issues in a way that allows people to form their own opinions, while also sharing our own. Our listeners don’t all fall on one side or the other. They are educated, and above all, they CARE. They care about what’s happening in their community, their state and their nation. They are among the most generous people I have ever had the chance to meet or work with. Our listeners have never failed to step up and do their part to support others in the Capital Region, whether is raising money for the Children’s Hospital or our own grassroots campaign for less fortunate kids at Christmas. They amaze me with their generosity. Even when they don’t have it to give, they find a way.
These are the people who listen to our show.
These are also the people who are now locked in their homes and out of work. They have been staying home, like you have asked. They are homeschooling their children, like you have asked. They are canceling birthdays, weddings, funerals, surgeries, family vacations, graduations, proms, first communions, confirmations and bar/bat mitzvahs, like you have asked. They are now sucking it up and wearing masks, like you have asked. They have flattened the curve… like you have asked.
And in return, questions THEY have asked, have gone unanswered. They have reached out to us to ask questions for them, we have relayed them to your office, and we have not even been given the courtesy of a “We’ll look into it and get back to you” BS reply.
Over the past 6 weeks, they have asked us why you have refused to take a Cohoes company up on their offer to help build low cost ventilators with locally sourced materials, at a time when the need was climbing rapidly and you were begging for help. They asked us why you ignored an offer from Remington Arms to help provide PPE for front line workers, when they had the space and access to materials? They asked us why you ignored a Clifton Park business owner’s offer to obtain a million N95 masks when health care workers were being told to reuse the same masks over and over and over, when it was unsafe for them and their patients?
And now they want to know why the state is sitting on a massive stockpile of PPE tucked away in warehouses across the state, while some front line workers STILL can’t get them. Some ambulance companies, nursing home workers and ARC workers have reached out to us personally because they can’t get enough N95 masks, yet as of April 15, there were more than 2.3 MILLION of them sitting there. I have contacted your office multiple times, and gotten the same response I have gotten all along: crickets. These are people who are putting their own health on hold and risking their families’ health to help others. They are asking for YOUR HELP and they aren’t even getting the courtesy of a reply.
I don’t know how else to help our listeners when our efforts to advocate for them fall on deaf ears, because you have your media favorites and we aren’t among them.
But here’s how you CAN help. We have also heard from our listeners who want to know when we in Upstate NY can begin to emerge from our homes with caution. When will it be ok to see our loved ones again? None of us want to compromise the lives of others, but we have done our part and will continue to do so. We have done everything you asked, flattened the curve and passed the apex. Now it’s time to come up with a reasonable reentry plan for Upstate. Let’s start to open the valve, like you have mentioned in your daily briefings. According to your latest power point presentation, we have less than 6% of the statewide hospitalizations. We are not in danger of overwhelming our healthcare facilities. We are now giving ventilators away to other states. Let’s protect and isolate our at risk population,while slowly allowing people to get back to work so they can pay their mortgages and put food on their tables. This is now becoming just as much of a mental health concern as a public health issue.
But I don’t expect a reply. Those PPE will continue to sit in warehouses by the millions while EMTs and nursing home workers reuse their rations more times than is safe. We will continue to sit in our Upstate homes, hostage to NYC statistics. And we at WGY will continue to ask the same questions, even though we don’t ever get a response. We do it because we are committed to our listeners and our community while most of the time they feel you aren’t.
Sincerely,
Kelly Lynch
Chuck & Kelly, 810 and 103.1 WGY