My Two Cents on Confederate Railroad Controversy

After sitting and thinking about all the controversy surrounding the decision to pull Confederate Railroad from the Ulster County Fair. I just wanted to share my opinion.

When I first read a few weeks back that Confederate Railroad was being pulled from a fair line up in Illinois I had to re-read the story because I was like really? After reading about it, I went on with my day and didn't really give it another thought because it was in Illinois and not really close to affecting me here in the Hudson Valley. Boy was I wrong.

By now you have heard that the country group Confederate Railroad was scheduled to play at this year's Ulster County Fair on Thursday, August 1 and after an online petition was started and some Ulster County elected officials got involved, the folks at the Ulster County Fair decided to pull the group from its line up and replace them with another band.

As I said on the air the last few days, when I first heard that the band was being pulled, the only word that came to mind was "disappointed." I went from being able to make a choice to see a band one minute to having someone else make the choice for me. That is not what we are all about. Having a choice⁠—that's what makes us, us, right?

Now here is where things get sticky for me. I have read all over the place that people are threatening to boycott the fair this year because of this decision and if you choose to do that, that is your choice.

For me, at first that was my decision, I just won't go and spend any money there this year, then I thought about the other performers that are going to be there and even more I thought about the vendors that are counting on us spending money at the fair to put food on their table. I mean they had nothing to do with any of this and now they are going to pay the price. I just don't think that's fair at all.

My CHOICE this year is to go to the fair with my kids for a day, spend some of my hard-earned money to keep those vendors in business and support local business. I also choose to support some super talented singers and performers, but that's my CHOICE!

I promise you one thing, I will never forget that my choice was taken away from me when it comes to election time again here in the Hudson Valley.

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