TALKBACK

Public & private lines blur in the Matrix
Julia Orwell
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Central Jersey is in the house—or should I say —on Facebook, with more than 500 search results for groups related to “Central Jersey.” Almost 20 of those groups, ranging in membership from two to 532 members, are about Central Jersey generally. The New Brunswick fan page has over 2150 fans.

 

If you’re on Facebook—and there’s a good chance you are—you’re among 350 million plus people worldwide who are storing much of their personal information on the Internet… indefinitely.

 

And you know where your next meal is coming from . . . . Really?
Leigh Davis
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Food has arrived. In particular, concern about both global and local food security, a “nice” term for hunger. With a popular cable channel featuring more than 80 programs dedicated to food and cooking; with America anxiously awaiting Gordon Ramsey’s next kitchen nightmare; it’s still just like your mother used to say when you wouldn’t eat your peas: People are starving.
Civics 101: Getting to the "Meet" of the matter
"SPEAKER POWER" - Guest Column
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Every so often I’ll be asked to attend a public meeting: something of interest to me is about to be decided, but there is confusion about the process and often frustration about the timing.  Since this happened recently with a borough council meeting, I followed up with the Borough Clerk and what I discovered may help you navigate council meetings when there is an issue of importance to you.

To start, the Borough Council meets on Tuesdays, twice a month (a once-a-month summer schedule is in place in June, July and August).  A yearly schedule of the exact dates is posted on the borough’s website, www.hpboro.com, under Public Meetings and all meetings are open to the public.

Vigil for Route 18 victim charges lax pedestrian design
Amy Braunstein
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

 

On October 19th George Coleman was hit by a car and killed while walking to the New Brunswick Youth Center with friends. George was 15 years old, a student at the Charter School, with plans for Law School.

Board chair seconds that motion
"SPEAKER POWER" - Guest Column
Sunday, November 8, 2009
A recent letter by Ms. Ellen Rosner of Highland Park ("Vickie White's legacy," Sept. 10th) lamented the sudden passing of Vickie E. White from our Highland Park scene. Her strong support for our Annual Heath Fair will surely be missed. We were glad to see that Ms. Rosner supports the idea to honor Ms. White by naming our next, and future health fairs, in her name.

We very much appreciate Ms. Rosner’s glowing comments about our Health Fair.

If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It
"SPEAKER POWER" - Guest Column
Thursday, October 22, 2009
  • New Brunswick High School graduation rates, already well below the state average, dropped from 76% to 70.5% in 2008.  Nearly half of New Brunswick public schools fail to meet NJ Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
  • A massive kickback scheme in 2006 shut down the city's Housing Rehabilitation program, a service which helped low to moderate income families maintain their homes, for a year and a half.  Out of control corruption left the most vulnerable households in the lurch.
Morgan and Weinberg should resign
"SPEAKER POWER" - Guest Column
Thursday, October 22, 2009

The proceedings of the Highland Park Municipal Democratic Committee’s meeting of October 11, 2009 should be voided because the committee had no quorum yet made an important decision of selecting three names to fill a current vacancy on the Highland Park Borough Council.

In the Age of Disaster, Trinkets and Artifice Matter
"SPEAKER POWER" - Guest Column
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Global warming is real. So is the harm caused by the manufacture, use and disposal of the synthetic turf field lying in the middle of my children's future.

Failing to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 sets in motion a chain of events we cannot alter and that will hit like a tsunami in the world that rightfully belongs to coming generations.

My children and grandchildren are at stake. They cannot afford to pay the price of selfish indulgence and disdain for future generations for the sake of a few more soccer games a year. So I am calling us out. I mean to leave them a world worth living in and will allow no amount of political grandstanding to interfere. Having thought deeply about my words, I say that the selfish fools, the adults, “proud supporters” of the fake turf need to get a clue and work toward the hasty demise of that field, join in promoting sanity, or get out of the way so concerned adults can do what’s needed. Future generations need us to grab hold of sanity and plant it firmly in the ground, to finally set long overdue essential environmental limits. There is no second shot at this.
Housing project will backfire
Letters to the Editor
Thursday, May 21, 2009

Your article about the plans for the All Saints Episcopal Church [“Historic church headed for a makeover,” May 7th] omitted some critical facts. At each hearing the plans for the apartments were revised, from eight to ten to eleven units. With so little living space, why does Greenfaith have to locate a two room office there? No one answered that question. An office for a mental health counselor would be better use of that space.

A question of freedom
Letters to the Editor
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Writing in the last issue of the Mirror [“Time to Get Serious about Cannabis,” Jan. 25th] Steven Liga argued that cannabis should be further studied to isolate the medically beneficial properties of the plant, so that medical professionals can prescribe a definite dosage to patients rather than legalizing medical marijuana and telling patients to “smoke this.”  It is certainly long past time to seriously study the benefits of marijuana. But the debate over medical marijuana sidesteps the more important principle of liberty.

Winter safety is job one
Letters to the Editor
Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The letter by Ruth Bickhardt printed in the January 25 issue of the Mirror urges Highland Park residents not to use salt on their icy sidewalks, claiming that “It’s actually the law.”  I would like to know to which law Ms.

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