Letters
Basic freedoms being stripped

While a lot of folks are drawn to the scene where the war on terrorism is being waged overseas, I have become increasingly concerned with what is going on in my hometown of Long Branch.

For the last 10 years houses of worship are not primarily permitted anywhere in Long Branch. Where is our religious freedom in Long Branch?

For the last eight years, homeowners are no longer permitted the right to expect to live out their days in their own homes, as they have been tossed aside by development plans that displace low-income and middle-class families. These people have had no protection under the law and their elected officials have turned a deaf ear to their pleas. Where are our property rights in Long Branch?

Recently at a City Council meeting (Aug. 23) in the city of Long Branch, many of us were restrained from comment by a clock held tight-fisted by a council member. If we politely attempted to continue we were told to “sit down.” Where are our freedoms associated with speech in Long Branch?

On Aug. 23 there were 23 resolutions on the agenda, not to mention the many continuing and outstanding concerns the citizens have asked questions about and have yet to get proper answers for.

The public portion of the council meeting is the only place for the public to ask questions and make comments. If you are going to limit our free speech to 3 minutes or even 5 minutes, how do you expect the legitimate concerns of those citizens ever to be aired, never mind dealt with?

More and more people each and every day are realizing that our basic freedoms, our basic liberties, our civil rights are being stripped away from us!

These rights were granted us by a document signed and sealed in the blood of our forefathers. They have been maintained by the blood of every young man who fought to preserve them, during war. In this century, the blood of our young women has been added to the toll as even women are soldiering in the war on terrorism.

Let us not forget the price our liberties have cost us!

Let us not forget these rights are inalienable!

Most of all let us not forget at the next election, who has deprived us of these civil liberties.

Let us not elect them again.

the Rev. Kevin Brown

Lighthouse Mission

Long Branch

Bear shop denied right to fly flag

The borough of West Long Branch will not allow the American flag to be flown from the TB’s Stuff Your Own Teddy Bear shop.

According to the information that was provided by the borough official, it is illegal to fly any flag from the outside of the building. Not only is this our right, but our moral obligation to show our support for our troops. Bears are all about love, security, loyalty and healing, yet someone is being allowed to forbid us to display our flag. I believe that this violates our rights.

According to the borough representative, a complaint has been filed against us for the second time. The complaining individual is too cowardly to make himself known, but chooses to have an officer represent him.

The borough came to the shop last Saturday and issued a warning to us. He told me he was going to another shop near us for the same issue, but when I spoke to the owner a short time later, he had not spoken to him and no warning was issued for the same violation.

We were told that we had to go before the Borough Council and, according to another borough official that we spoke with, it will take at least six months due to a backlog of issues before the council.

I grew up in West Long Branch and our family has lived there until the last passed away a few years ago. I had no idea things had changed so drastically. I have ridden around the borough a bit this past week looking to see what was around, and I have seen much that I have been told was not legal.

I do realize that when a complaint is made, the town must act on it. But I also know that what one merchant is allowed to do, then all must be allowed the same. When a town sinks to the level of denying a merchant the right to fly the American flag, then it is time for people to re-evaluate the ordinances of their town.

We brought the bear shop to West Long Branch with the thought that it was a perfect place for a bear shop. Now some small-minded, petty individual with nothing better to do than to try to destroy a business owned by a disabled grandmother is being allowed to deny the right to fly the American flag.

I ask one question: West Long Branch, what has happened here?

Leslie J Bear and TB

West Long Branch

Reminder from SPCA: Bears were here first

For all those urban folk who moved from an overdeveloped area to escape congestion and the effects thereof on their quality of life, the expectation that all other previous inhabitants should move out to make room for them is self-serving, shortsighted and unrealistic. Bears inhabited New Jersey long before the relocation of those fleeing urban sprawl.

What will be the next species that encroaches on residential dwellings and deemed by Fish and Wildlife to be a nuisance?

Perhaps the blue jay will be considered too noisy for the peace and solace of suburbia. Fish and Wildlife would reap overwhelming revenues for issuing voluminous permits to hunt blue jays. One cannot expect an agency subsidized by fees for hunting permits and fishing licenses to be objective when establishing best management policies/practices for those that are hunted and fished.

For human habitation in New Jersey to remain desirable, a balance must be struck to preserve, conserve and protect our vanishing natural resources.

Wildlife is a byproduct of and are vital inhabitants for our natural resources. The conservation/preservation of and bonding for open space are popular and promoted by elected officials and those who seek public office. Not all open space must and/or should be destined for soccer fields, golf courses, associated recreational pursuits and commercial use.

Areas kept in their natural state are the best bang for the taxpayers’ buck to keep our air and water safe and sound and our taxes down.

Wildlife is key to keeping nature’s balance in a natural area.

Ursula Goetz

executive director

Monmouth County

Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Eatontown

Eminent domain targets unpolluted land

Excerpt from a talk at the Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater Festival on Aug. 21

I see the injustice of eminent domain looming as the biggest challenge of all in New Jersey. Recently reports cited that there is only 7 percent open space left in New Jersey for development. That means that redevelopment of existing, pollution-free land is the new target for developers, and their secret weapon is eminent domain.

We have seen the injustice of Long Branch’s and New London’s redevelopment.

In town after town, redevelopment for private gain is being confused with the “good of the people.” We know better.

We want you to join with us to make our state legislators know our determination and to support their efforts to write state laws that severely limit the use of eminent domain.

Our liberty and welfare are at stake. “This land is your land, This land is my land” are Guthrie’s words that we grew up singing, not “This land is their land for the taking!”

Ed Dlugosz

president

Monmouth County

Friends of Clearwater

Middletown

Stop the ‘runaway eminent domain train’

Election 2005 promises to be quite unique in our state. Voters’ concerns about higher taxes, health insurance, Social Security, stem cell research and abortion will obviously resurface in all of the debates and political rhetoric by both Republicans and Democrats. The 2005 election is going to introduce a new issue concerning millions of homeowners in New Jersey and across the nation: the abuse of eminent domain in redevelopment by our local officials which allows for the taking of people’s personal homes simply for gain by other private citizens.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of New London (Conn.) v. Kelo that the city had the right to take the property of residents of that community and give them to big business. However, in that decision, the Supreme Court clearly left it up to each state to pass its own legislation pertaining to this very controversial issue.

The residents in our country have been incensed by the audacity of the U.S. Supreme Court justices. That decision has awakened a sleeping giant — the people — and much to the surprise of many, it has also awakened many of our state legislators. Numerous bills have been introduced in New Jersey’s House and Senate putting restrictions on this runaway eminent domain train.

I would like to urge each and every voter in New Jersey to step up to the plate and do two things. First, call, write or e-mail your state legislators (www.njleg.state.nj.us) and urge them to pass the bills that will protect the residents of New Jersey from losing their homes. Second, let all of your state and local candidates know that you will not support anyone who condones the use of eminent domain for private gain in their communities or districts. We need your support.

The next house taken may be yours.

Richard G. Gober

Ventnor

Struggling middle class threat to nation’s security

According to recently released statistics, employers in June cut more than 110,000 jobs following on the heels of an 82,000 job loss number in the prior month of May.

This is a 73 percent increase in job losses from the same month a year ago, and continues a trend this year of a six-month job loss of more than a half million.

Job losses are coming not only in manufacturing, which has been bleeding jobs for decades now, but also in the retail, automotive, and the government sector.

For years we have been listening to politicians claim that jobs are being created in the retail sector to replace the jobs we lost in manufacturing. Now they are being swept away.

There are many reasons why.

Increased energy costs, outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions, and consolidation continue toward the troubling trend which will not abate any time soon.

Anyone who thinks that the loss of a strong middle class is not a threat to the security of our nation is a fool.

If working men and women cannot pay their bills, provide health insurance for their family, and educate their children, then the very security of our nation is threatened.

It’s time we all wake up and do the right thing.

Chip Gerrity

president

New Jersey I.B.E.W. (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers)

Hightstown