Young Bridgewater Student Steals the Show

This morning’s town hall meeting featuring New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was hosted by the JCC (the Jewish Community Center) in its gymnasium on Talamini Road in Bridgewater.
 

Bridgewater student Adam Bernstein queries
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie at
this morning's town hall meeting.

The Governor finally made it to our township after two prior, but necessary cancellations.  His arrival had been widely anticipated:  Although the event was scheduled to start at 10:30 AM, people had already filled the JCC parking lot to capacity shortly after 9:00 AM, and vehicles were already lining adjacent roads.
 
If you arrived after 9:45 AM, good luck getting a seat.  Priscille and I arrived around 9:15, and ours was one of the last vehicles to be admitted into the JCC grounds, where we were directed to park the car to the right of the entrance road, with room for only a few more cars.
 
The gathering filled the gym to standing room only.  A near overflow group of New Jerseyans lined both sides of the room and stood along the back wall, where a large, rectangular podium had been set up for a big contingent of print and TV media.
 
Governor Christie arrived just a couple of minutes after 10:30 AM to a rousing welcome and, when he took the mike, immediately began to quip about how he seems to never see the front entrance of any facility that he appears in, joking that he has passed through an endless series of kitchens and back door entrances.
 
You’ll read, see, and hear in other media articles, video and TV news reporting all about the Governor’s remarks and the Q&A session that followed.

Welcome Back, Jay!

The Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C. November, 2011

Priscille and I have been getting the print edition of the Courier News delivered ever since I can remember, probably since the very first year that we moved to Bridgewater 35 years ago.  I like newspapers.  Always did.  Sorry to see them immersed in such a hang-on-for-dear-life struggle to survive as the Internet captures readers.  

I once considered dropping our subscription a number of years ago – didn’t think that there was enough of the stuff that I like to read about, but Pris wouldn’t let me.  It’s the only way that I can get a handle on what’s happening around here, she told me.  
So we kept it going.  I’m glad.  She was right.  There are still some features and stories in the print edition that you won’t see in the online version.

I’ve also developed a habit of regularly reading certain columnists, even though there aren’t too many of them featured anymore, and even though I don’t always agree with what they write about.

Jay Jefferson Cooke is one of those.  I can’t find a single adjective to describe him and his writing.  I think this is a good sign – it’s indicative of a complex personality and of one which may not be so easily categorized.  

Nation Honors MLK Jr.’s Memory & Achievements

The likeness of Martin Luther King, Jr. emerges from carved stone,
as viewed from streetside on a November day  in 2011.

One of the best and most balanced tributes to the life and times of Martin Luther King, Jr. is the one which I first read last Thursday in the print edition of the Courier News.

Tucked away on page B6 under Matters of Faith was a column entitled “Move beyond race wars,” written by the Reverend Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr., a well-known personage in Somerset County and beyond.  (He is the Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens.)

In his piece, Soaries revealed an admirable trait which, I believe was also shared by MLK, Jr. – that is, the ability to seek peaceful, yet, if necessary, forceful solutions to some of the most obdurate problems which America has faced.

Sanofi’s Acquisition of Genzyme to Impact Bridgewater Lab

Outside one of the Sanofi facilities (Route 202/206 south) Bridgeweater, NJ

The April, 2011, Sanofi acquisition of Genzyme, a leading biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, will, according to an article appearing in last Tuesday’s Boston Globe, lead to the closing of a research lab in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

According to that report by Robert Weisman, “Sanofi is closing a New Jersey drug research lab because it has been less productive than Genzyme’s labs, which have developed treatments for rare diseases, Sanofi chief executive Christopher A. Viehbacher told investors gathered here [in San Francisco] at the 30th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.”

School Board Update: Teachers’ Pay & Benefits

Evan Lerner at the first draft discussion of the
2012/2013 School Budget on
December 20, 2011. (Bergeron Image)

At this evening’s meeting of the Bridgewater-Raritan School Board, its President Evan Lerner released the following statement on the status of the contract mediation process currently under way between the School District and the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association:

“On December 8, 2011, the first mediation session was held between the Board and the Association.  Subsequent to that meeting, I contacted the B-REA suggesting that we agree to switch from our current private health insurance plan to a state-sponsored plan to reduce the number of items to be negotiated while achieving a savings.  The B-REA declined.  Mediation is ongoing.  The next scheduled mediation date between the Board and the Association is on February 2, 2012.  We look forward to continuing negotiations.

Direct negotiations between the two parties were halted at mid-year, when the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association declared an impasse and requested the appointment of a mediator.

(Click on the photo for an enhanced view.)

Signs of Discontent with an Unsatisfactory Process?

Yesterday afternoon, while driving through Bridgewater to run a few errands, I noticed a roadside placard emblazoned with white lettering against a prominent blue background bearing the statement, “We support our teachers and staff.”

Early this morning, I had to go out again to complete another short run of errands and I came across more of the same posters on front lawns in Washington Valley, up in the hills around Martinsville, and on a public intersection near Route 22.

They seemed to have sprouted overnight like blue and white tulips anticipating an early spring.

I wondered where they came from. 

However, none of these placards bore the usual small-lettering statement at the bottom identifying the source of the message.  Such disclosure is customary with public signage which is normally associated with a citizens group, an association, or a political entity backing a candidate . . . so I wondered. 

GOP Makes its First Presidential Pick in Iowa

Today, Iowa gets to determine its Presidential choice for the GOP.  This contest between the final seven candidates has been tough.  After today, it promises to get even more intense. 

Mitt Romney fields a question from CNN host Wolf Blitzer at
the 11/22/2011 televised GOP debate.  (TV Screenshot)

Although I don’t feel that the Iowa GOP caucus is truly representative of the majority of voters in that state, it nonetheless provides a strong impetus for the winner who will have an advantage going into the New Hampshire primaries on January 10^th. 

The Iowa caucus remains influential:  Four years ago, in what some pundits considered an upset, Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton, and subsequently propelled himself into the White House. 

But for the GOP in the last few months, polls have been teetering every which way.

A Christmas that Morphed into New Year’s Day

Only forty-two seconds left for the beginning of the 2012,
Times Square, New York City.  (TV Screenshot)

As I begin to tap out the first words of this post, it’s 10:33 pm on New Year’s Eve in the vicinity of the Nation’s Capital.  The darkness of the night has enveloped the area, and the family clan has just finished unwrapping Christmas gifts – a counter-cultural move, but one that worked out quite well for everyone.

This year, we all decided to tone down the holiday frenzy as much as we could by not packing in too many activities into the Christmas weekend.  That meant putting the gifts aside for later.

Instead, the clan agreed to congregate early on Christmas Eve at our home in Bridgewater, and to enjoy a reunion that would concentrate on the pure joy that comes from focusing solely upon one another, instead of upon the gifts that we traditionally exchange.

Good decision!