Work Moves Ahead on Bridgewater’s Municipal Complex

(Photo by Dick Bergeron -- Angled Front view of the Bridgewater Township Administration Building)

On May 7th, Bridgewater’s New Municipal Complex formally opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony. But that was only to herald the opening of the Police Headquarters, and the Court and Meeting rooms.

The Administration building is the last major section to go and it needs a long-overdue revamp. The working conditions for some of the employees there are really cramped and inadequate for a modern municipal facility in Somerset County.

This week, when Priscille and I drove down to pay our real estate taxes (would you believe that this is the first time since we moved to Bridgewater over three decades ago that we had forgotten to pay on time!!) the corridor leading to the tax office was cluttered with basketballs – (or were they soccer balls?). There’s just no place to put stuff in the transition from work-in-progress to job completion.

Anyone who has been following my writing knows exactly how I feel about paying New Jersey’s exorbitant taxes. Nonetheless, we’ve spruced up older school facilities and built new school buildings in the Bridgewater-Raritan School District while neglecting Bridgewater’s municipal facilities far too long. It’s good to see the work moving ahead on Bridgewater’s new center.

p.s. Gheesh!! You’d think that after being an on-time tax-paying citizen all these years that the interest on the late payment (just a few days) would have been forgiven.

You, Me and the Abbotts

Finally, the New Jersey Supreme Court has issued a ruling that it should have handed down years ago: It recognized that half of the Garden State’s poor children live outside of the 31 Abbott districts.

With this recent decision, none of the Abbotts will receive less than the swollen base amounts which they have regularly obtained from the state. The clock is not being turned back; nor is the cash spigot to the Abbotts being shut off. Instead, the increasingly growing flow of supplemental dollars which New Jersey no longer has is simply being ratcheted down, leaving some of it to be redirected to New Jersey school districts that are just as deserving.

The high-pitched, partisan rhetoric which began decades ago circa 1976 has resulted in an on-going tug of war between core cities, suburbs, and edge cities. The exclusionary demands of Abbott proponents have been and continue to be based on the assumption that ever-enlarged pots of gold are the sole solution to the learning challenges within the Abbotts.

There is no sustained, serious discussion by Abbott proponents of the role that a stable and nurturing home environment plays in the educational and societal formation of young minds. The compelling argument that a successful family is – in most cases – the predominant motivating source of educational outcomes remains conveniently tucked away behind a curtain of denial.

Shoveling cash into school buildings, supplies and salaries is much easier than helping to reverse the deteriorated status of family life which is at the root of New Jersey’s educational problems in many communities. It’s much easier for politicians and judges to give palliative treatment to symptoms rather than to remedy the causes.

In Memoriam

(Photo by Dick Bergeron, Sayen Gardens, Hamilton, NJ)

Today, the quiet, somewhat somber weather seems to be appropriate to the event; that is, setting a day aside to remember the sacrifices made by all U.S. servicemen and women – past and present – who gave so much of themselves for this nation and for what it represents.

It may also be a good time to call a halt to the self-imposed, self-flagellation of the American character emanating from within the Beltway. We are not a perfect country and have a long way to go: Yet, as I assess the modern world, America’s position in it, and try to place the American experiment in its proper perspective within the long sweep of history, I don’t see many close competitors. I wish that those governing this nation in the highest places along the corridors of Washington would pause this weekend and internalize these thoughts.

Reminder: Bridgewater Mayor, Patricia Flannery, sent out a recent email that American Legion Post #327 is sponsoring a parade and “service festivities for our armed services on Monday, May 25.” It starts at 11:00 a.m. and will follow a route along Old York Road, terminating at Ardmaer Park where a memorial service will take place.

Congress Continues to Sidestep Major War Decisions

The recent exchange of words between House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Leon Panetta, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, concerning detainee interrogation techniques reminds me of just how spineless some members of Congress can be when it comes to taking a stand on what they do and why they do it.

Today, tucked inside the pages of a regional newspaper was a short article about a Rutgers University professor who just lost his case in Federal Court. The professor had sued to have the 2003 invasion of Iraq declared unconstitutional. He claimed that only Congress has the right to declare war. He is, of course, correct.

Pelosi’s squirming about what she knew concerning alleged torture techniques and this lawsuit vividly underscores that most members of Congress will do whatever it takes not to commit one way or the other about do-or-die decisions – the most notable of which is war.

Ever since 1950, the U.S. has fought three major conflicts and is now fighting two– and not a single one of them with a declaration of war from the Congress: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq I, and Iraq II. For political reasons that emit a malodorous smell, Washington’s U.S. legislators of those wartime periods sidestepped their responsibility on the question of declaring war. They went along with mere “authorizations” or “resolutions.”

One might think that declarations of war are only for the warlike. You know – those right-wing nuts. But the real warlike action of Congress in those circumstances was to throw the baton from Capitol Hill to the White House, thereby abdicating its Constitutional responsibility on this most extreme of issues.

Since the Korean War began in 1950, any President with enough moxie can apparently arm-twist Congress to his obeisance. Any wonder that President Barack Obama is now able to increase war-zone troop levels seemingly at will?

Obama Won’t Release Photos

Last week, in what appeared to be a surprising reversal of his prior public position, President Barack Obama stated that he will now block the release of dozens of photos reportedly showing terror suspects being questioned under not-so-friendly interrogation methods.

These EIT’s – “enhanced interrogation techniques” – call to mind the furor which resulted after the release of pictures showing the treatment of detainees by American interrogators in Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison. We all know of the worldwide revulsion to which that led and of the hatred of America which it engendered, especially in the Muslim world.

The President’s purported reasons for changing his mind is that making public these previously unreleased, classified photos would “further inflame anti-American opinion” and would jeopardize U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. military is strongly opposed to their release.

But the really compelling speculation is just why President Obama has chosen this moment to alienate a very large segment of his supporters by challenging the ACLU-inspired court decision which ordered the release of the interrogation photos.

Here’s my take:

President Obama is scheduled to be on an overseas trip in early June. Some of his stops will be in Buchenwald and Dresden; another will be in France to commemorate D-Day. But there is another very sensitive venue – Egypt.

This is why I believe he has now chosen to challenge the release of those photos: On June 4th, on Egyptian soil, President Barack Obama will follow through on a campaign promise to deliver a major speech to the Muslim world. In his delivery, he is expected to focus upon America’s relationship with Islam.

Think about it: If he had released those photos in May and then flown to Egypt to deliver that speech just a few weeks later in early June, the Abu-Ghraib-like reaction to those photos would have been at its peak. Not a very favorable environment in which to try to convince Muslims that we are nice guys trying to co-exist!

Each and every decision made in Washington is thoroughly scrubbed for its political impact. The President’s decision about not releasing those photos is barely dry from that scrubbing.

Note: You can read the ACLU’s reaction at http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/39587prs20090513.html

Ribbon Cutting at Bridgewater's New Municipal Complex

The photo shows Bridgewater officials enjoying a light moment at the ribbon cutting ceremony held last week, May 7, at the new Bridgewater Municipal Complex on Commons Way. Mayor Patricia Flannery stands behind Township Council President Patrick Scaglione.

To the left is Council member Howard Norgalis, with Michael Hsing, barely visible, next to him. Bob Albano stands smiling to the right. Councilor Matthew Moench was unable to be present for the photo op.

This observance formally launched the new police and court facilities which are now completely functional. The administration building is still under renovation. A Township email advised that, “A more formal grand opening will be held once the entire project is complete in 2010.”

Township representatives gave tours of the police station and of the Municipal Court and meeting rooms. I was quite impressed with Bridgewater’s new operational headquarters. The police station is extremely functional and appears to be highly secure – you won’t want to fool around there.

The court facilities will also serve as the venue for Township Council and other meetings. The Court and Meeting Room area is quite imposing and much larger than the old facilities.

NJ Court Hits Foul Ball

This week, in another miscue, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that local municipalities can no longer prevent registered sex offenders from living within mere feet of schools, day care centers and playgrounds.

The New Jersey legislature is expected to act quickly to enact Megan’s Law modifications which will change that dunderhead decision by the high court. The ruling by the NJ Supreme Court demonstrates just how irrationally selective that body can be.

There are few things any more heinous that the mental ravage caused by psychopathic sexual predators, as they stalk and abuse New Jersey children. The statistics clearly show – over and over again – that the recidivism among this class of criminals requires close and constant monitoring of their whereabouts.

The court’s ruling has made it possible for malignant sex offenders to fly under the radar and to rent or buy a home close to a grade school, playground or day care facility anywhere in New Jersey. This is a chilling reminder that courts can often be devoid of the most basic understanding of what motivates criminal behavior.

Let’s hope that the New Jersey legislature has a better sense of judgment and fixes this loophole in Megan’s Law. If there is any misgiving whatever about the rate of recidivism for convicted sexual abusers, it’s better to give the benefit of the doubt to a community’s children than it is to provide comfort to the predators among us.

The Changing Face of Local Journalism

In his latest regular column in the Courier News, managing editor Paul C. Grzella, commented on some of the feedback at the community outreach meeting from last week, one that I witnessed. He wrote that “one of the community members who attended talked about how an opinion piece she wrote and that we published in the paper generated some unkind words on our Web site.”

Before newspapers adopted the Internet, letters-to-the-editor were submitted for publishing either by email or ‘snail mail.’ Original letter writers and those wishing to respond were bound by the same crisp rule designed to keep at least a moderate level of sanity in the process:

As I remember it, the policy of the Courier News was that it would print only letters and responses signed and submitted with a name and legitimate telephone number for confirmation of the author’s identity. I think the author’s address also was required. Anonymous contributions were simply not published.

This process maintained a reasonable level of social consciousness and integrity. But Internet practice has flushed at least part of those rules down the tubes. Today, anyone with a fictitious handle can respond to just about anything on the ‘net.

A person can be as careful, thoughtful, and as intelligent as can be with his or her response to a known author. Conversely, a person’s Internet response can be …… well …… as inconsiderate, uninformed, and as dim-witted as one can imagine. But that’s the way it is. Most professional journalists that I read and the few that I know will tell you that they don’t like it.

But the newspaper business is in an economic crunch. The anything-goes rules for online reader responses have been cast in stone for a long time, and newspapers have little influence on those rules. There is a need to carry on and to keep getting those ‘clicks’ on Web pages and the accompanying ads that may help them to survive and to prosper.

Freedom of speech is a powerful instrument of liberty. But it doesn’t inoculate anyone from the written thoughts of aspiring dolts.

A Common Sense Missive from the Superintendent

Obviously, nobody likes to see the onset of what could be a major flu epidemic. Similarly, no one wants to see the start of a national panic, should people begin to throw reason out the window over the threat of the spread of swine flue. (The feds have now labeled it H1N1 flu.)

The superintendent of the Bridgewater-Raritan School District is one person among others who seems to be maintaining his cool and disseminating information to parents about what the status is in our schools.

In an April 30th email distribution, he quashed a rumor about a student at the high school contracting the virus – it didn’t happen – while letting us know that the Somerset County Health Department indicates that there are currently no reported cases in this county.

Using good judgment, he informed parents that “a 4th grade Milltown School field trip to Ellis Island” was cancelled. Too close to NYC which has a high number of swine flu cases. Also too risky because it would involve placing small kids on a public ferry.

If you’d like to see a bit more information, refer to this link at the B-R Schools website http://www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/news.cfm?story=570.

Thanks for checking in, and take care of yourselves. I’ll be recharging my spiritual batteries this weekend.


Update: Since this was posted two days ago, the Courier News reported on Sunday, May 3, that a Bernards Township girl became symptomatic. See C-N story at
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/section/NEWS0206