To the Editor:
The Road to Easter
This Easter please don’t show up at church without having traveled Holy Week. That’s a lot like going to the wedding reception of a couple you don’t know or attending a birthday party of a stranger. Sure, you can join the festivities but how can you be sure what you are celebrating? Of course, you can speak the expected “congratulations” and offer the customary “best wishes” but how authentic is that?##M:[more]##
The Christian church’s celebration of Easter is the conclusion of a long, painful and amazing week. It is a journey not to be missed. It begins on Palm Sunday (March 16) with the joyful experience of Jesus’ royal welcome into Jerusalem, but then quickly moves to tales of disappointment, portrayal, misunderstanding, suffering, and death. To show up right at the empty tomb is to miss the story and leave you totally unprepared for what happens next.
Do join me and others around the world this year proclaiming “He is Risen!” on Easter Sunday. But please, do so only after you have traveled the confusing and dark road that leads to a very real dead end. This year experience Easter as the end of Holy Week — not a standalone party. It will make for a better Easter celebration knowing the beginning of the story.
Pastor Paul Lutz
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Princeton Junction
www.popnj.org
Station Parking:
Protect Permits
Legislation introduced by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora to allow individuals to park in permit spots at the Princeton Junction train station during off-peak hours is absolutely wrong.
Parking at Princeton Junction clearly needed improvement. However, Mr. Gusciora’s legislation would actually make the situation worse before it can get better. What happens when a paid permit holder needs to travel during off-peak hours — as I sometimes do — and can’t find an open space, as they have been filled by day-trippers? Will space be added for the day-trippers? And how will this space be funded if the day-trippers don’t pay a fee to park?
Controlling parking at the Princeton Junction station, at least during the week, through permits and fees, is the only reasonable solution at this point. Let’s encourage the use of mass transit. But until the parking situation improves, off-peak travelers need to plan ahead for their trips, either by being dropped off at Princeton Junction or using a different station.
Phil Edwards
West Windsor
Who Is Responsible For Trash Service?
Plainsboro used to have a private garbage collector called Township Sanitation. If something went wrong with the pick-up, one could call and get immediate action. Some 15 years ago, when the listed-on-the-national-stock-exchange MIDCO took over, we moved into the hands of a monopoly, which keeps hiking prices for services with abandon, but does not respond when the service fails.
MIDCO failed to collect my garbage two of the last three Saturdays. Calls to MIDCO are put on hold and then the “customer service” machine responds with a recorded message promising a call back which does not materialize.
As unbelievable as it may sound, local and county governments wash their hands of the problem.
What are citizens to do if they have no recourse? Leave the garbage to the mercy of local crows who spill it all over the streets? Is there a way to make local and county governments responsible for the public services such as sanitation?
Jasha Levi
Marion Drive, Plainsboro
Nash Fire Report: Bad Journalism?
While I appreciate your investigative reporting on the house fire at John Nash’s home (The News, March 7), and all of us in this community have seen or understand the story of “A Beautiful Mind,” I feel that it was in bad taste and classless reporting the blurb on Nash’s house fire with the ending, “his battle with schizophrenia.” While I know that you may defend this statement by saying that it was a part of the movie, it did not have to be placed into print at all in the reporting of the fire. It was sensationalistic reporting (sorry, cannot call it journalism) at its worst.
Regardless of Dr. Nash’s personal business, he has been, and still is, a wonderful contribution to this community. He does not need a community newspaper adding to the misunderstood image that most people have toward the word “schizophrenia.” He is a brilliant mathematician (I am sure an understatement to his art). That is the aspect that should be emphasized. Why didn’t your newspaper end the article with the statement, “which details his incredible and immeasurable contribution as a research mathematician and scientist?”
Shame on you. I suggest that you send John and Alicia Nash an apology.
Alexandra Lawrence
Nassau Place, West Windsor
Antidotes to Poisons
Children act fast; so do poisons. Young children will eat and drink almost anything, often without respect to taste, color, or consistency. Fortunately, careful planning can prevent most accidents.
Each year there are between 2 and 4 million poison exposures in the United States. March 16-22 is National Poison Prevention Week. The Health Department offers the following suggestions:
If you suspect a poisoning, immediately call the Poison Hotline at 800-222-1222.
Keep household chemicals and medicines in a locked cabinet or closet, or use special child-safety latches.
Medication is a major cause of accidental poisoning. Always keep it out of reach, even if the bottle has a safety cap. If children attend daycare, homecare or school and are taking medication, ask the pharmacist for a spare, labeled bottle with the medicine’s name and dosage.
Never throw unused or expired medication down the drain or toilet. Since wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove pharmaceutical compounds, they may eventually end up in your drinking water. Throw all medicine away in the garbage: mark out personal information on the label, mix with water and coffee grinds or dirt, place in an opaque container, and hide it in the kitchen trash.
Always turn on the light when giving or taking medicine — many bottles and containers look similar and are easily confused in the dark.
Since children tend to imitate adults, avoid taking medicine in their presence.
Turn all medicines and household products to their proper places when you are through with them, even if you will be using them again shortly: children move quickly.
Keep all products properly labeled. Read the label before using, even if you are familiar with the directions. Keep all items in their original containers (don’t use an old soda bottle or cup for storage).
Lead poisoning can occur whenever a child has access to old lead based paint. Children may be exposed to lead from older leaded paints used on household walls and woodwork. Remove all loose pieces of paint; replace lead based paint with a lead free paint.
The household cleaning products that have made our lives so much easier are also sources of hundreds of potentially harmful chemicals. Follow these basic rules when using any hazardous household product, even when children are not present:
Purchase only as much product as you need — do not buy bulk quantities. Store, and dispose of, hazardous products carefully.
Always read the product label and follow manufacturer’s instructions.
Increase ventilation when you use a hazardous product; whenever possible, take the job outdoors to reduce indoor air pollution in your home.
If possible, use a less toxic, non-chemical alternative. Try these substitutes:
Air freshener: Simmer potpourri or cinnamon sticks & cloves in burners over candles to sweeten the air, or set out baking soda in decorative bowls which will naturally neutralize most odors.
General household cleaner: Mix 1 teaspoon liquid soap, 1 teaspoon borax (laundry “booster”) and juice of one lemon into a quart of water. Try a baking soda & water paste on extra greasy spots.
Window cleaner: Spray equal amounts of white vinegar and water with a pump bottle, then wipe-up with a linen towel or damp chamois cloth.
Drano or liquid plumber: Pour a mixture of vinegar and baking soda followed by boiling water down a sluggish drain instead of caustic chemicals.
Robert Hary
Health Officer
West Windsor
Take Your Medicine
Until I reached 80, I was not involved with any medication. I would take an aspirin if a cold were imminent and tolerate a doctor’s prescription when a fever entered the picture. The first ailment of any consequence was diabetes, but the prescribed medication was ignored.
Along came 85 and I was introduced to arthritis which forced the usage of a cane and a fluctuating blood pressure equating the New York Stock Market. Holy Moly, when combined with my diabetes, I realized I had better behave like an educated senior and take my medicine before I am introduced to another ailment. Now I hope to reach 90 in 2009, 95 in 2014, and God forbid, 100 in 2019.
Yours in good health,
Victor Opalski
West Windsor
