Iraq Follow-Up##M:[more]##
Thank you for your article “Letters from Iraq” that our son sent and that Fran Ianacone covered (The News, August 26). The article may sensitize returning troops to the therapy of sharing their journey. The safety and well being of brave men and women in uniform is aided if the article helps correct mismanagement of troops and/or proper equipping. The article may even contribute to serious debate about current foreign policy. Thanks for reporting an unedited account from a corpsman with boots on the ground and a heart over there.
I offer this follow up:
1.) Wishing to rejoin his unit, John was sent back to Iraq despite a Navy physician diagnosis that his physical injury rendered him unfit for re-deployment;
2.) Letters to the Marine Corps Commandant regarding medical needs in Iraq resulted in a “pep talk” as opposed to supply of reported needs for equipment, more skilled physicians, improved recovery conditions, and safe staff rotation; and
3.) President Bush did not respond to the reported needs above to include the dangerous re-deployment of injured troops. Rather we were reminded by our Commander-in-Chief of their duty and bravery. So much for “staying the course.”
Doug Opalski
Plainsboro
Time for Hindi?
The Hindi Association of New Jersey has been in discussion with members of the West Windsor-Plainsboro School Board regarding Hindi as a language course in the curriculum of West Windsor-Plainsboro middle and high schools.
Many parents and students in the district have shown an immense interest in including Hindi as a new language option. Increasing globalization, cultural awareness, movies, and literature are fueling the demand for a structured curriculum for Hindi language.
The Board is requiring the association to present names of students genuinely interested in taking Hindi as a class. Those students who would seriously consider taking Hindi as a language should E-mail WWP_Hindi@hotmail.com with their name, phone number, and E-mail address. Your support would be much appreciated.
Satish Mishra
Drug War Fruitless
We read in “From The Police Blotter” from time to time about drug arrest after drug arrest, after drug arrest. How much longer is the war on drugs going to go on?
Almost every day for decades, we’ve read about drug busts, drug raids, drug stings, whatever you want to call them. Drugs are here to stay. Drug arrests, whether large or small, made by police in New Jersey and around the nation have not put a dent in the drug trade at all.
Police are still making as many drug arrests today as they did decades ago, and will continue to do so far into the future. The laws against drugs are useless. Drug arrests by police are fruitless.
Actually, there is no answer to how much longer the drug war will go on, but one thing is certain: A hundred years from now, the term “with intent to distribute” will still be the main vocabulary reported across the land by police.
Gordon Cowan
Deer Creek Drive, Plainsboro
In Chen’s Defense
Allow me to respond to the groundless personal slander of Yifei Chen published in the August 26 News.
Plainsboro residents Janet Pfeiffer and Sheryl Brown are clearly grossly contemptuous of this nation, its values, and its laws.
In their opinion, accountability, responsibility, humility, and maturity means passively accepting the denial of this 6th Amendment right to a fair trial. In their opinion, exercising this right is a “waste of court resources.”
In their opinion, a prosecutor who knows that his witness is on vacation may arbitrarily try to abuse and harass the defendant into pleading guilty.
In their opinion, defending the Bill of Rights is a matter of personal pride. I rest my case.
Kevin Huang
West Windsor
World Beyond War
How do you live in a 9-11 world?
Sometimes I hear my friends and neighbors talk about the “war on terrorism” as if that is all there is. They are so concerned with the latest battle and the most recent update on the location of our enemy that they listen for nothing else. The world seems so content talking about how bad things are that we sometimes forget that there is anything else out there.
On Sunday, September 11, the Lutheran congregations in your neighborhood invite you to come hear another story. You are invited to listen to some good news.
This is not an exercise in denial. We admit, bad thing happen in this world. But we want you to know, such catastrophes are not the only thing worth our attention. And although you may think you know what religion and church is all about, chances are you missed a class or two in your religious education. There is more to church than rules and regulations, sex scandals, and financial woes. There is more to religion than “thou shall not have any fun.”
Accept this invitation to experience the warmth of Christian community and to listen for an alternative broadcast than what permeates CNN. Christianity is more than prohibitions and restrictions, more than dogma and theology. In fact, the Christian faith is best experienced in the community that gathers to hear an announcement of peace in an otherwise war-torn world.
This 9-11 come to a “Celebration of Life and Hope” at your neighborhood Lutheran church. Bring whatever sadness, confusion, and pain the world forces you to carry. You will hear an alternative tale to the one most of your neighbors tell. You will be offered a vision of the future more powerful than any you’ll read in the paper this week, or next. You will have the opportunity to consider for yourself what it may mean that there is a story more deserving of your attention than all the evil of this world.
Pastor Paul Lutz
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
177 Princeton-Hightstown Road
Angel’s Wings Deserves Support
The rash decision to eventually close Angel’s Wings at St. Francis Medical Center is upsetting. We were there five years ago to help open the shelter. In fact, we became foster grandparents to the first two boys who walked through the doors. Five years later they are adopted sons of an Angel’s Wings volunteer and we are still part of their lives. Angel’s Wings motivated us to become certified foster parents.
Angel’s Wings provides a safe, nurturing, immediately available short-term haven (even at 2 a.m, after an emergency home removal). Siblings stay together until an appropriate placement is found. It is sad enough that they are separated from family; don’t force the children to be separated from each other by hasty, inappropriate placement that further traumatizes them.
The abuse we read about in the news doesn’t happen at Angel’s Wings. Young children (especially pre-schoolers) respond well to the positive structure and loving care that this unique setting offers. Maybe someday there will be enough good foster homes and caseworkers will have time to search for placements that keep siblings together. Until then, Angel’s Wings is the gold standard for temporary placement. I hope the child welfare panel and our legislators come to the same conclusion
Mary Ellen and Bill Obreiter
Fairway Drive, Princeton Junction
For more information on Angel’s Wings, call 609-392-6100 or visit www.angels-wings.org.
Plainsboro’s Math?
With real estate taxes rising between 32 and 35 percent this year for long-term residents of Plainsboro, I think the Mayor should be rethinking the need for a new library. This would be the third Plainsboro library in 20 years, but the same Mayor.
Something is rotten in Denmark or is it Plainsboro?
Richard M. Stone
Sayre Drive
To the Editor
In June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion redefining and expanding this country’s law of Eminent Domain. Since that decision, I have been monitoring the press7 efforts to inform the state’s property owners of the serious implications this decision will have on them. Newspapers like yours and the media as a whole across the state have a responsibility to continue to inform our residents and ask candidates for public office and those already in office the tough questions as they apply to Eminent Domain. Let me explain.
The Supreme Court’s decision was by no means unanimous (5-4). Justice Sandra Day 0’Connor was one of the dissenting votes. Justice 0’Connor expressed fear the court was abandoning its long held basic limitation of government power and that under the banner of economic development all property can now be taken and transferred to another owner as long as it will be used in a way the taking authority feels is more beneficial to the public. Justice Clarence Thomas was even more emphatic in his opposition. He said that if economic development takings are a public use then any taking is and that the Court has erased the public use clause from the Constitution.
We should be weary when we hear or read about local officials saying they will use Eminent Domain as “a last resort.” What we’ve seen is that “last resort” translates to taking property when owners refuse to move voluntarily.
New Jersey legislators will try to downplay the Supreme Court’s decision, saying it didn’t change the law. The scary thought is they would be right. Government in New Jersey uses state statutes more and more every year, and in doing so, ignores the New Jersey Constitution. The current rationale of economic development in New Jersey—less profitable uses can be taken for more profitable ones—goes against everything this nation has stood for over the last 225 years. It eliminates the American Dream of owning your own small piece of this nation without fear of having it taken away.
Currently in New Jersey, government can take anyone’s property as long as it is for a “public purpose.” Both United States and New Jersey Constitutions still read that can be done only when the property will be put to “public use.” Article V of the U.S. Constitution states: “…nor shall private property betaken for public use without just compensation.”
New Jersey’s Constitution states “public use” even though the legislature changed the statutes to read “ public purpose” starting in 1971, creating a conflict between the two. It was Justice Kennedy in a concurring opinion noted it would be up to each state to amend its statutes to conform to its constitution. In New Jersey since 1971 our legislators have amended our statutes so that they no longer conform to our state’s Constitution as it relates to the powers of Eminent Domain. We, as REALTORS, agree with Justice Kennedy that each state should review its statutes.
What is needed is for the State’s statutes to be amended back to their original form, eliminating the “public purpose” verbiage for the taking of private property. Unfortunately, this action will need our state legislators to act. We need our free press to continue to inform the residents of the fundamentals of this issue. The articles and editorials appearing in your publication to date on this extremely important matter have not asked the tough questions of our elected officials. There are only two questions we believe needed answered. All they require is a YES or NO answer from our legislative and gubernatorial candidates. They are:
1) Are you willing to work toward amending the state statutes in New Jersey so they again will conform to the State’s Constitution?
2) Are you willing to propose an amendment to Article 1, Section 20 of the State’s Constitution, so that private property may only be taken for public use ?
It was the voters in New Jersey who decided the Eminent Domain issue when they approved the State’s Constitution. It should only be the voters who have the right to amend our State Constitution, not our legislators through statutes. As it stands right now, local officials are becoming more aggressive in taking an individual’s property to give to their politically connected developers.
Joseph W. Hottendorf
Executive Vice President
Libery Board of Realtors
