Letters
Residents should know about bias hotline

We of the Monmouth County Human Relations Commission (MCHRC) are concerned that there are bias incidents that are not reported at the time of the event. The victim who has been intimidated may not know where or how to report these incidents or crimes. We believe that the sooner an incident is reported the less likely that it will give the people committing the incident both the tacit approval they are looking for and a chance to take the incident to the level of a crime.

The MCHRC, the oldest such commission in the state, maintains a bias hotline for just this purpose at (732) 303-7666.

In conjunction with the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, this bias hotline helps us combat acts of discrimination and bigotry in the county and promote an environment that will make such acts unacceptable to the community.

For successful functioning, the MCHRC needs input from all parts of the community. Partici-pation in ongoing dialogues on diversity is the major way that we can prevent hurtful discrimination and harmful intimidation from also becoming overt acts of violence.

Our bias hotline should be well-known and used by all — those directly affected by and those who witness acts of discrimination and bigotry — a sort of 911 number to ensure humanity and respect for each other.

It is there to help the residents of our county who feel that they are victims of incidents or crimes because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or any other class protected under a state law against discrimination.

A call to the bias hotline can get the right professionals involved before intimidation leads to violence.

For more information, see our Internet Web site at www.visitmonmouth.com/humanrelations or contact us at mchrc@co.monmouth.nj.us or (732) 308-3770.

We ask that you remember and use the MCHRC bias hotline number, (732) 303-7666, before there is a higher level of physical or emotional harm committed.

Laurence M. Traub

chairman

Monmouth County

Human Relations Commission

Freehold Township

Senator is on target with pay-to-play reform

We should applaud the efforts of legislators like state Sen. Ellen Karcher, who continues to push for ethics reform at all levels of government.

There is a price to the practice of pay-to-play, and we all pay it: contracts cost more because campaign contributions come with a promise that business will come their way. We can’t be assured that those getting the contract are the most qualified, but it’s a safe bet that they were the most generous in their political contributions.

As a recent candidate for county office, I heard directly from voters that they had lost faith in their elected officials and automatically assumed that all government business was conducted with favors, not qualifications, as the most important criteria.

The legislation Sen. Karcher recently pushed for in Trenton is an important step in allowing municipalities to eliminate the practice of pay-to-play on their terms, since each town has its own unique problems.

With the many forms of municipal government, there is no “one size fits all” when addressing local pay-to-play bans, but the negative effects of the practice influence all levels of government. This bill should certainly help stem the tide at the local level.

Ellen Karcher has been fighting the corrupting influence of pay-to-play on two fronts. For more than two years, she has promoted the toughest pay-to-play ban in the state which would include putting severe limits on developer money. Through her hard work, the Legislature has recognized the pressing need for reform and has validated the efforts of more than 50 towns across the state to enact tough local reforms.

Those of us living in the 12th Legislative District are fortunate to have a voice in Trenton willing to restore integrity to government at all levels.

Rebecca Aaronson

township committeewoman

Manalapan

A differing opinion on a high school football coach’s rights

I’ve considered Greg Bean’s columns as [Greater Media Newspapers’] finest feature: entertaining, sensible, thought-provoking. That said, I must disagree with his position regarding the Marcus Borden situation (“Borden’s Lawsuit Grounded in the First Amendment,” News Transcript, Nov. 30, 2005).

Mr. Bean is not an expert on constitutional law or history, yet he makes judgments in both areas. And while a newspaper column is only an expression of personal beliefs and opinions, its voice is authoritative, and, in a sense, parental to readers.

Therefore, on behalf of those who do not share his values and points of view, I offer this rebuttal.

Any prayer supervised by an authority figure in a nonreligious setting reflects the beliefs and/or attitude of that person.

So when said authority figure kneels to pray, that in itself is an act of Christian observance. Muslims do not bend one knee to pray; Jews do not kneel to pray, nor do Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, et al. For that matter, we should include agnostics and atheists, who are also being insulted in these circumstances.

Let’s not be naive. Any young person present in the locker room who resists or objects will be singled out as being different and, by implication, wrong by those sharing (East Brunswick High School football coach) Borden’s belief. (Whether the coach participates or stands to one side is insignificant; his presence says it all). Social pressure on any nonparticipant is considerable.

Mr. Borden, or anyone with similar authority, does not have a right, in a public school setting, to freely exercise “his own constitutionally protected right to pray and speak to his own god” in the company of others who may or may not share his beliefs or feelings about prayer.

This isn’t a house of worship, it’s a high school locker room, which is precisely what the courts intended when they ruled that a person cannot “initiate or even participate” in some activity that compels others to do the same. In brief, he is forcing his beliefs on them.

Finally, the founding fathers of this country, which was indeed Christian in the 18th century, could not have foreseen that the constituency of our nation would be quite different in the 21st century. For current figures, simply consult any almanac’s listing of religious groups in the United States.

And please, don’t cite as definitive, defensible or admir-able the “tradition of high school coaches across the nation.” Coaches shape their teams in terms of athletics, not religion. Thus, it seems to me, Mr. Bean is the one who is narrowing the interpretation of the First Amendment. And, as he wrote, interpretations can be wrong.

Louis Sabin

East Brunswick

Time for leaders to stand up to political correctness

As the ranks of our World War II veterans are diminished so is our ability to understand and appreciate what it truly takes to be a superpower. How can we expect our youth to cherish being No. 1 ... we ourselves have only heard of the struggle to attain that status. To us it is more entitlement than accomplishment.

To our children, seemingly the only way it can be. We idly watch each day as the fabric of this great country is shredded, by various factions, in an attempt to remanufacture it into something it wasn’t when our status as No. 1 was attained, and worse yet, a fabric that will not be able to sustain it. Every “common bond,” every “thread that ties us together” is under attack. We are being dismantled from the inside, and the assault is becoming relentless.

There was no mention of the significance of the day in my son’s school again this Dec. 7. A foolish guy tried to claim it 60-some years ago as “a day that would live in infamy.” How he got to be president three times I don’t know. Tens of thousands of our young men died believing those words, they never saw “political correctness” coming.

Well, folks, we’d lose that same war today because we had to use napalm to burn the well fortified enemy out into the open and that would offend our newly delicate sensibilities. Oh and let us not forget “the bomb,” it was our version of one our enemies were working on to drop on us, we need now to be apologetic about saving our own behinds, I don’t think so.

If our elected leaders don’t find their spines and stand against “political correctness,” which is anything but, the finely crafted blanket that our distant forefathers left to us and that our fathers and grandfathers fought and died to protect, will soon be too tattered to protect our grandchildren.

Paul Schlaflin

Marlboro

Resident wants town to address Hawkins Road access

Here I go down the same old road again. Wait, the road is blocked with a police car. I tell the policeman I live down there. He says Hawkins Road is closed. I say there is no other way down there. He says go to Wawa, have a cup of coffee, it’s no big deal.

I make the turn at the new road across from Wawa and go until I can’t go any more. I park and hike up a mud hill until I’m standing on Hawkins Road.

Thinking I’ll walk home, the cell phone rings. It’s my wife. She asks me where I am. I say I’m standing on Hawkins Road with mud up to my knees; why?

She says my eldest daughter tried to drive to work and got turned back. She tells me to stay where I am and says she will be right there with our daughter.

Up pulls my wife with my daughter who is crying, “I can’t miss my first day of work, I’ll be fired.” I tell her to walk through the park and that I’ll go get the car and meet her at Millay Road and drive her to work.

So down the mud hill I slip and slide, get the car, drive around, pick her up on Millay and drive her to the mall. On the way between sobs she says, “I can’t get out again, Daddy.” When are they going to do something about this?

OK, enough is enough already. Does anyone have an answer for my daughter? When are you going to do something about this? Are we going to have to wait until someone dies? We want results, no more excuses. What would have been the result if it were a school day? Fix it now!

Allen Forkowitz

Manalapan

Writer supports Narozanick for freeholder director

During the past year we heard much of how badly our elected officials have acted and the misdeeds they committed, but one name you did not hear anything bad about was Monmouth County Freeholder Ted Narozanick.

During his many years of service not once has there ever been anything bad said about him. He is like cream in a bottle, the best always rises to the top. Next year we will be losing him as he is planning to retire. It’s a shame because he is the example that we should follow, and what a mentor he could be to the newly elected freeholders.

I hope that whoever reads this will either call, fax or e-mail the other freeholders to appoint Ted as director for his last year of service to his community. He has never said no to anyone who has asked him to be there, whether it be for a groundbreaking ceremony, to give a speech for the veterans or at a political function. He supports all people in any way he can, and it’s time for him to be rewarded for a job well done.

Grace Abramov

Howell

Result of school referendum did not surprise resident

It is not with much surprise to read that the voters rejected the $7.8 million referendum on Dec. 13. Nowhere in any of the articles covering this subject was there any mention of “why” our schools are overcrowded.

With a new tax bill issued this past fall, I refuse to pay an additional $10 per month for the life of the bond.

I think I can speak for many of the residents of Freehold Borough. We are tired of footing the bill to benefit the lives and situations of others. Hitting us in the pocket has been going on for a while now and I say, time to go after those who pay nothing.

Katherine Blum

Freehold Borough