To the Editor:

In response to “Ogdensburg Commits to Positivity Project” which appeared in the Sept. 1-7 issue of North Country This Week: I wish them a lot of luck, and hope to see a modicum of success at least.

The hard and cruel facts, however, are that you do not coerce students into relationships and friendships by adding even more rules and controlling oversight for them. Lifelong friendships are formed at the very personal levels between two or more people, and shared experiences that strengthen those relationships.

It is not going to be thrust upon them and regardless of the time talking to them is not going to make things change much.

I will agree that even one such success might be well worthwhile, but we'd never know it as there are no metrics to make success of failure decisions on these things. A great friendship is nothing you'll ever see in the news, let alone a larger geographic or demographic area; so I wonder how all this is going to be "measured".

I'll go along with it however, as long as none of my tax dollars are used to support it, and that other hidden taxes don't go on the rise, as in sin-taxes, one of the most deplorable terms ever dreamed up, though they do rely on the words a lot in politics.

Also, at the first sign of this turning political, it should be ready to box everything up and move on.

I did a little research before writing this and nowhere was I able to find lasting support for such plans even in CA, other parts of NY, including the city, FL, Maine, Iowa, and South Carolina.

Perhaps you think I'm complaining for the fun of complaining: I assure you I am not! I am simply a realist and a life long observer of human nature with a smattering of education about the subject.

Tom Rivet

Heuvelton