Letters to the Editor
It's Your Turn
Kindness Appreciated
To The Editor:
I am a special education teacher at Thorne Middle School in Port Monmouth. In the 13 years that I have been teaching students with disabilities, I have received many gifts and donations for the students in my class, but I have never witnessed such a wonderful act of good
will as I did on Tuesday, February 24, 2009. My class was having lunch at the Royal Buffet in Middletown as part of our monthly community-based instruction lesson involving daily living skills when one of my paraprofessionals called my attention to a man at the cashier. Our waiter informed us that this man had just paid our bill in full. I quickly asked the adults in attendance if anyone knew this man; no one did. I approached the complete stranger and said that I was at a loss for words; that the gesture was not necessary but very much appreciated. I thanked him, and his eyes welled up. I asked if I could give him a hug; surprised he agreed. I asked him his name, he declined to give it to me, and he left. In the true spirit of our former teacher at Thorne, Kathy Weinstein, this complete stranger just practiced an amazing Random Act of Kindness. To the man that I do not know at the Royal Buffet: Thank you very much!
Kristyn Corace
Special Education Teacher
Thorne Middle School
Middletown
The Stimulus We Need
To The Editor:
I'm not an economist but sometimes simple solutions fix major problems. The current administration's plan of taxing, spending and throwing trillions of good monies away will not fix this economic crisis. If anything it will exacerbate it.
Our economy is in shambles, stock prices are in a free-fall and unemployment is getting out of control. Instead of our government tossing trillions of dollars away why not have a flat, 10 percent federal income tax with no deductions. Those families earning $40,000 or less per year pay no taxes. This would give every American more disposable income.
Next, reduce corporate taxes from 35 percent to 20 percent with the stipulation that they add 10 percent more people to their workforce. This, of course, would help our country stem the tide of rising unemployment. Next, do away with the capital gains tax for two years, reinstating it after that to a maximum of 15 percent.
And lastly, reduce real estate taxes to percentage levels that home prices have been reduced.
These I truly believe are the stimuli we need to quick- start our economy and to bring our great country back to prosperity without big government spending or an unnecessary raising of our already extreme taxes.
Anthony Victor
Shrewsbury
Trying Times
To the Editor:
We are living in the worst financial times since the Great Depression. The big picture is becoming more frightening with each passing day as the downward financial spiral continues. Even more frightening is the fact that no one knows what to do in order to stop the free-fall and nobody knows when it will end. If the downward financial spiral continues any further we may fall through the safety net and find ourselves living on the street carrying all our possessions in plastic bags. This is not a recession; it's an economic Pearl Harbor.
It is not only impacting on the poor but also the working class and even the rich as one CEO stated,"One day, cock of the walk, next day a feather duster!"
Consider the fact that Oprah Winfrey is now worth more than General Motors. Over at Chrysler, they are burning the furniture to keep the house warm and Ford is literally running on fumes. Prior to the Bush presidency, the DOW hovered at about 13,000; On Monday, March second, it fell below 6,000, and it is still falling. If you invested $1,000 in Citigroup just three months ago, today it would only be worth $181. If you invested $1,000 in the Las Vegas Sands, today it would only be worth $27.37 and if you thought Siriius XM Radio was a good place to invest your $1,000, today it would only be worth $56.34. If you purchased a home or condo three years ago, today it's only worth two thirds of what you paid for it as more and more homes go up for sale, and bank foreclosures rise.
Depending on the vehicle you are driving, soon there may no longer be parts available for it, nor will the warrantee be valid if the auto maker dclares bankruptcy. The company you work for may soon be closing its doors forever; Fort Monmouth has a two-year horizon before it closes its doors forever, and it sails into the sunset, thus further adding to the millions currently unemployed. With Fort Monmouth gone, the Monmouth Mall will go the way of the Seaview Square mall as rental space cannot be filled.
Twenty-five banks went under last year, and currently there are 250 on the government's "watch" list. Your bank is not required to tell you if they are on the list. In South Jersey, some farms are giving away baskets of fruits and vegetables to the needy while in the rest of the state, food pantries are feeding more and more working class and unemployed along with the poor. As the credit crunch deepens, shops and stores have noticeably fewer items on their sheleves as a result of not being able to procure supplies from their wholesalers who fear that they will be stuck with the bill if the retailer goes out of business. Hospitals are closing their doors. With an estimated eleven million Americans out of work in 37 states, the department of labor and industry which distributes unemployment compensation is running out of money.
More and more communities are freezing salaries and placing their employees on mandatory furloughs in an effort to balance their budgets. The post office is contemplating reducing mail deliveries to four days and other communities are considering cutting back on garbage pickups. Other communities are even closing schools and laying off teachers as the economic dominoes continue to fall. The state of N.J. is contemplating 12-day furloughs for its state workers. These are very scary times for all of us; none of us knows when we will be next.
And we are not alone; in China, 65,000 factories have closed and in Europe, unemployment is already double digit. In some countries in Eastern Europe, there is already rioting in the streets and military forces are needed to quell the violence. Nobody knows what to do or when it will end, these are very trying times, and most of us have never experienced this before.
Thomas A. Blasi
Eatontown
Let's Move Together
To The Editor:
Arthritis is at epidemic proportions in our nation. Forty-six million Americans have doctor-diagnosed arthritis and 1.7 million of them live right here in New Jersey. Yet arthritis remains the silent epidemic, overlooked by many because they view it as an inevitable disease of aging. But it is not inevitable, and it is not just a disease of the elderly.
Arthritis is the number one cause of disability in people over the age of 16. Over 11,000 children in New Jersey have juvenile arthritis, one of the most prevalent diseases among our children. These are our kids - struggling to get to class on time when the bell rings, sitting on the sidelines when others are playing, laboring to do all the simple tasks of daily living.
The month of May offers us a chance to take action against arthritis.
May is National Arthritis Month, and we encourage New Jerseyans to help put the arthritis epidemic in the spotlight. How? Participate in one of the eight Arthritis Walks occurring around the State in May. Participating in an Arthritis Walk not only benefits the Arthritis Foundation but offers the chance to learn about arthritis and participate in one of the best forms of arthritis pain relief: walking.
This year, the Arthritis Foundation launched Let's Move Together, a nationwide movement encouraging people to move every day to prevent or treat arthritis. Moving just 30 minutes daily, even 10 to 15 minutes at a time, can ease joint pain, promote mobility and reduce fatigue often associated with arthritis.
To learn more about the Arthritis Walks and the many ways the Arthritis Foundation can help you deal with arthritis, call us at (732) 283-4300 or 1 (888) 467-3112 (toll free in N.J.) or on the Web, www.arthritis. org - keyword New Jersey.
It is our hope that the Let's Move Together movement will lead people to take action, both to improve their own lives and the lives of others with arthritis
Linda Gruskiewicz
President
Arthritis Foundation,
New Jersey Chapter
Noisy Cycles Signal Spring
To The Editor:
It's the first really warm day of 2009 as I write this: Saturday, March 07, 2009. I decided it was a great opportunity to throw open the windows to refresh the house and get outside to clean up the downed branches and twigs of winter. It was wonderful to see flower bulbs expressing signs that spring is right around the corner.
But how I really knew spring was coming was by my ears.
The thundering, ground rumbling, ear splitting sounds of a group of bikers out for a ride. It was a great day for it, and I don't blame them for wanting to take a cruise through our lovely area.
But this has become the part of the warm weather ritual in our area that we could live without. Motorcycles have become a popular form of transportation and a great recreational activity for many. They use less gas than cars, and some brands actually have focused on making their bikes quieter and added exhaust pollution controls. But the "hog" community is still enamored with the thundering un-muffled sounds that emanate from their cycles as they ride.
I don't blame people for wanting to engage in a recreational activity that lets them enjoy the freedom and joy of a ride. I do think a ride can be enjoyed without undo noise pollution - millions of riders do just that on muffled bikes.
Would it detract that much from the image of being a tough-guy/girl that is part of the hog mystic to tone the noise down a bit? Maybe bikers could lower the revs and avoid the unnecessary and often intentional throttle and bloated back-pressure as they pass though residential streets and save the big noise for the Parkway, Turnpike, Routes 35, 36, etc.
I would prefer that bikers voluntarily turn it down before a smart municipal official suggests that perhaps a sure-fire way to quickly close, for example, the Middletown budget gap would be to start citing those with un-muffled pipes for "disturbing the peace." Based on the volume I'm hearing today, one officer should be able to generate enough revenue in one weekend to perhaps keep the property taxes of those living on my street right where they are.
Glenn Jones
Atlantic Highlands
