Goodnight Irene!

A setting sun glows through a tree stand in Bridgewater, Sunday evening.

I’m taking the liberty to selectively quote a few lyrics from a great oldies song dedicated to a lady of the same name.  

However, the Irene who just passed us by in New Jersey had far worse habits:  She not only caused a sleepless night for millions of us, but she became the source of great mischief and grief with her wanton shenanigans and destructive habits during her relatively brief stopover.

“Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight
Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene
I'll see you in my dreams

I wished to God I'd never seen your face
I's sorry you ever was born

You cause me to weep, you cause me to mourn
You cause me to leave my home

Irene goodnight, Irene goodnight
Goodnight Irene, goodnight Irene
I'll see you in my dreams”

Probably like many of you in The Garden State, Irene kept me up past midnight with her “ramblin'” and her “stayin' out late at night.” 

Leadership in Action

Christie is a take-charge guy – a man of action.  He hasn’t been everyone’s hero since his election, but there is no denying his ability to act decisively.  Viewing his press briefing on TV this afternoon, I was amazed by the manner in which he spoke effectively for an extended period of time without notes or prepared text. 

Governor Christie's Saturday briefing.  (TV Screenshot/Dick Bergeron)

Just as impressive was his total recall of events; the people he spoke to; the places he visited; his non-partisan treatment of this emergency; and his total commitment to storm preparations.

Christie and his staff are communicating with all agencies and people who are tasked with roles in this crisis.  He has given credit to elected officials from both parties and has made it clear that politics has absolutely no role in this emergency. 

Even if some of you, dear readers, may not be particularly fond of some of the unpopular legislation which he has shepherded through the New Jersey Senate and Assembly, it’s hard not to admire the manner in which he is working to help The Garden State weather Irene, our decidedly unwelcome guest.

When I was recently vacationing in New Hampshire with family, I found out quite serendipitously how this man has made his mark well outside of New Jersey:   As I was walking back up the sidewalk of a mountainous hill overlooking the village of Meredith, NH after shooting photos in the neighborhood, I came across a local resident who accosted me, wanting to know what I was doing.

Bidding Adieu to the Grand Dame of the Lakes Region

Shortly after dawn, the morning greeted me with a palette of subdued tones which painted the wide expanses of the mirror-still waters of Lake Winnipesaukee with tints of gun-barrel gray.

The Mt. Washington as it steams towards Center Harbor, NH

A solid dome of sky hung closely over the surrounding mountains and islands, all of which seemed to be snuggling together, as if not wanting to wake up to face the imminent threat of the damaging high winds and rain predicted to reach this region from Hurricane Irene’s planned onslaught as it roars up the eastern seaboard.

I brewed a pot of java and filled a second filter with ground coffee which I put aside in anticipation of the needs of the rest of the family which would soon be falling out of bed, one by one, in the next couple of hours.

Coffee pot turned on, I walked out to the reliable Subaru waiting for me on the gravel driveway, backed out and drove across the small arched bridge connecting Black Cat Island to the mainland.  A short drive onto Route 25 took me to the local Baygulls bakery at Center Harbor, where I purchased freshly baked bagels and muffins for the sleepyheads.

B-R Board and School Unions Keep the Door Open

In the second week of August, representatives of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education (B-R BOE) and those of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association (BREA) met to discuss the status of contract negotiations. 

Evan Lerner and Patrick Breslin, President and Vice-President, respectively, and Peter Starrs, Board Secretary,  discuss a point prior to start of  the 7/19/11 meeting where disposition of $1.3 million of additional state aid was taken up. (Photo/Dick Bergeron)

That meeting followed requests made by BREA representatives Steve Beatty and Dave Doheny, both of whom had spoken at previous Board meetings, suggesting publicly that the parties should sit down and have a face-to-face discussion without hired negotiators present. 

Earlier in the summer, the BREA had declared an impasse to negotiations and requested the appointment of a mediator. In an apparent change of heart since then, both Messrs. Beatty and Doheny seemed to feel that it would be better if both groups could come together informally to discuss their current views.  That meeting took place  August 11^th.

Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, Bridgewater-Raritan Board President Evan Lerner confirmed that the Board’s negotiations team did meet with the BREA.  The outcome of that meeting, at least from my phone discussion with Mr. Lerner, seems to have attained its purpose, which was to clarify positions and to establish what is still at issue between the Board and the BREA.

Wilderness & Politics

When compared, few things appear to be as incongruent to one another as the quiet of the north woods of New Hampshire and the strident sound of politics. 

A required stop for politicians at the nation's first primary.

When one is away from the major population centers of the northeast, it is refreshing to see how quickly one can become inoculated from the barrage of misinformation and the mindless chatter that passes for analysis as it streams from the mouths of TV’s talking heads.

Yet here in New Hampshire, politics is big business, especially every four years, when presidential hopefuls who otherwise would never entertain a second thought about visiting this beautiful part of the country converge upon its first-in-the-nation primaries, with all of the enthusiasm of suitors vying for the same mate. 

Therein lies the paradox. 

Union & Board Reps to Meet Informally Today

Representatives of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education and the teachers’ union, the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association are scheduled to meet informally today to see if stalled negotiations can be productively resumed.

Earlier this summer, talks between the two parties had broken down when the BREA, apparently frustrated with being unable to come to an agreement before June 30, the end of the now-expired three-year wage and benefits contract, decided to declare an impasse to negotiations and to call for the appointment of a mediator to be brought into the negotiations.

Mr. Doheny addresses the Board, 7/18/11 (Bergeron Photo)

Calls last week to Board President Evan Lerner and BREA President Steve Beatty confirmed that, after several attempts at scheduling a meeting, a date was finally pinned down for today.  This get-together is intended to be informal – no attorney advisors present – in a move to get talks moving again. 

The  background to this is that on July 18^th, a previously unscheduled B-R BOE meeting was quickly convened specifically to discuss disposition of the $1.3 million of additional state aid which the New Jersey Department of Education unexpectedly decided to award to this school district, as part of a package to all other New Jersey school entities.

During the public comment period of the July 18^th meeting at the Wade Building, Mr. Dave Doheny, who is a teacher in the Bridgewater-Raritan School District and a member of the BREA’S negotiation team, came to the podium to address Bridgewater-Raritan’s Board of Education. 

Addressing Board members at the lectern, Mr. Doheny offered to get talks going again when he said, “As far as negotiations go, we are willing to open [them] again.  If you want to meet, let’s do it tomorrow.  Leave the lawyers out of it.  Let us talk. We have already given back to residents.”

America’s Warriors

I had just finished reading Eric Greitens’s book, The Heart and the Fist, when I heard the news of the downing of an American Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan which resulted in the death of 30 of America’s best, brightest, and toughest, including 22 Navy SEALS from SEAL Team 6. 

The account of a humanitarian and Navy SEAL (Photo/Bergeron)

Earlier this summer, I had read the first two books by Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior and Red Cell.  All three books were written by former Navy SEALS from Seal Team 6.  Written in the 90’s, Marcinko’s first two books describe personal accounts of his early efforts and training which eventually led to the establishment of SEAL Team 6.

In the other book published this year, Eric Greitens, a Rhodes Scholar who earned a PhD from Oxford University, describes his humanitarian work in Bosnia, Rwanda and Bolivia, prior to his becoming a Navy SEAL.

Greitens writes of how he was troubled by his firsthand observations of the suffering being inflicted in those countries and elsewhere by regular as well as rogue military forces.  That’s when he decided that there were times when the proper application of force becomes necessary as a  balance to compassionate civilian help. 

Nature Goes its Own Way; Takes Little Heed of Us Humans

This little marvel feeds while not alighting on the bloom.

One of the refreshing things about nature is that it moves along each day taking its time as it has for eons, tolerating our presence, but largely ignoring it.  It’s not that we humans are a wholly insignificant presence on earth – far from it.

But we certainly can do our best at times to mess things up.  One has merely to look at the worldwide contemporary economic, political and cultural scene to come to that conclusion – one, I should add, which is not easily challenged even by the most optimistic among us.

Nevertheless, there are some very pleasant observations that can be made, if one will only – albeit temporarily – turn away from some of man’s self-inflicted problems and turn to an observation of nature and some of her creatures for an example of how to live.