TOWN TOPICS, PRINCETON, N.J., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018 • 14
Many of the organizations, local agencies, farmers, schools, and stores in the Princeton area contribute to Cornerstone and their donations of food and produce are Letters do not necessarily reflect the views of Town Topics gratefully welcomed. Donations of clothing and household Email letters to: editor@towntopics.com or mail to: Town Topics, PO Box 125, Kingston, NJ 08525 goods are also received from throughout the community and all donated items are distributed without cost to us. I am grateful to Cornerstone people for their amazing support! May God Bless all the people of Princeton! To the Editor: MARINA AHUNBABAEVA My annual property tax bill just increased by eight perFormerly of Billie Ellis Lane cent primarily because of an adjustment to the assessed value of my land, not the house. Is the eight percent increase a reaction to the lowering of the values of the higher priced non-selling homes in Princeton, and are the rest of us making up the difference? To the Editor; The cost of the school referendum is estimated to be ap- When I returned from seeing the new Spike Lee movie, proximately $800 additional taxes for several years for the BlacKkKlansman, about Ron Stallworth, the first African average assessed home value in Princeton of $837,000. American officer in the Colorado Springs Police DepartThe taxes on the average home are already about $20,000 ment, who infiltrated the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan a year so that is an additional four percent. Remember 50 in the 1970s, I read the news that racist stickers had been percent of Princeton homes are above average, many way posted in Princeton, about one block from my house. I was above average. For a million-dollar home, the tax increase already upset by listening to the hatred spewed by Klan will be about $1,000 a year. And all of that is without any members on the movie screen. Knowing that this hatred persists in my time, in my town, infuriated me. increase in the schools’ operating budget. Princeton has great teachers and great students. Isn’t Racism and white supremacy are very familiar to me. there a more creative, cost-effective way to continue the I am active in the local anti-racism organization, Not in Our Town Princeton (niotprinceton.org). Like many people tradition? STEPHEN T. SCHREIBER who are upset by racism, I immediately wanted to act. This Prospect Avenue letter is my first response. I call on my fellow townspeople to take action. We must: 1. Educate ourselves about the true history of our town — history which includes all people who have resided here, but especially the Lenape, on whose lands the town was built by white British colonists, and the African American community, which was founded by enslaved and free To the Editor: Africans and African Americans and their descendants Having been a victim of the Griggs Farm fire on who continued to experience the humiliation of Jim Crow 12/27/2017, I want to express my sincerest, heartfelt segregation and present-day discrimination. Read Kitsi thanks to the wonderful people of Princeton for their help Waterston’s I Hear My People Singing, voices from the and support. You never know what life will throw at you Witherspoon-Jackson community. Take Shirley Satterand everyone can experience terrible tragedy like a fire or field’s tour and hear about the life of that neighborhood. flood. Typically, insurance companies reimburse you for Advocate for racial literacy education for students and your loss, but I was uninsured and have no savings. I am staff in our schools. still facing the enormous task of rebuilding my life. 2. Do the inner work necessary to understand the unconI just want to say how grateful I am that the municipality scious implicit bias we all hold as the result of indoctrinaof Princeton offers assistance for people like me who are tion through media, education, peers, family, American in need by providing food resources through programs society. Take the implicit bias test at Project Implicit. like Arm In Arm, Cornerstone Community Kitchen, and 3. Speak out every time we see or hear discriminatory acthe First Baptist Church of Princeton. tions or remarks in our homes, our workplaces, our faith I want to express my personal thanks to people who are communities, our social circles. part of Cornerstone working through Princeton United 4. Make contact with people of different identities, races, Methodist Church on Vandeventer Avenue. I know others who have experienced a tragedy and feel the same way and religions, ethnicities. Attend Not in Our Town’s Continuare grateful for this community “safety net” and would be ing Conversations on Race and White Privilege at 6:30 p.m. on the first (non-holiday) Monday of each month much worse off without it. at the Princeton Public Library. Next meeting: Tuesday, I especially want to thank the founder and CEO of CorSeptember 4. Topic: “Racial Battle Fatigue: In This Time nerstone Larry Apperson, clothing store manager Judith of Turmoil.” Presenter: Dr. Don Trahan. Miller, assistant manager Jeanette Timmons, dining room 5. Donate to organizations, especially local groups, that leaders Rick Kelly and Ramesh Jayaram, piano player work to eliminate racism such as Not in Our Town PrincYvonne Macdonald, and all the other volunteers who have given their time and continued support to people who are eton, Paul Robeson House, Kidsbridge, Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund. in need. Cornerstone offers a free, nutritious full sit-down meal As Martin Luther King, Jr. said “For evil to succeed, in a friendly atmosphere: the tables are covered with white all it needs is for good men to do nothing.” I trust that tablecloths, each table has a seasonal centerpiece, and the the good people of Princeton will not ignore these racist, soothing sound of live piano music is playing discretely in hateful acts. LINDA OPPENHEIM the background. South Hawthorne Street
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Is There a More Creative, Cost-Effective Way to Sustain Princeton’s Tradition of Great Teachers, Great Students?
Racist Stickers Posted in Princeton Inspire Resident to Call for Action
Griggs Farm Resident Displaced by 2017 Fire Expresses Thanks for “This Local Safety Net”
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The Rub and the Irony: The Democratic Party Needs to Be Responsive to Its Broad Coalition
To the Editor: This country was built on the backs of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and other people of color. When Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president, it was a proud moment not just for African Americans, but for all Americans who understand that “we are a nation of immigrants.” Donald Trump is the antithesis of Barack Obama. While Obama was the president for all Americans whether or not you agreed with his political views, policies, or decisions, Trump represents far fewer Americans, and has used those people to divide the country along racial lines, and turned back the hands of time. While Obama was a statesman who reached out to Cuba, forged a nuclear deal with Iran, established affordable health care, and maintained America’s long-standing relationship with NATO and other alliances, Trump has been duped by Kim Jong-un, and outfoxed by Vladimir Putin. He has been humiliated by porn stars, and bad actors. America is said to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, but I don’t see that now. People of color are under assault, our leaders are cowardly and mute. Checks and balances are late arrivals. The president is committed to building walls instead of bridges. I wish I could say the future looks bright, but it doesn’t. Social justice has taken a backwards trend, and white nationalist rhetoric and actions are on the rise. America is not winning, it is not being made great again. November’s election is the most important election in our lifetime. African Americans and other people of color will again be asked and expected to help turn Congress blue and put the president and his policies in check. Therein lies the Rub and the Irony. It’s time for the Democratic Party to be responsive to its broad coalition. It’s time to demand a return on our investment. If the Democratic Party cannot place the following agenda items on their platform, on November 6 we should stay home and fry chicken: • Rewrite section 4B of the voting rights act to negate the discriminatory voting policies being passed by states throughout the country. • Establish a U.S. Commission of Law Enforcement with a national data base on police shootings and prosecutorial oversight. • Eliminate state and federal funding for private prisons that contribute to mass incarceration. • Work to reverse Citizens United with a constitutional amendment and eliminate Super PACs. Give democracy back to “the people.” • Establish responsible gun control legislation. • Provide affordable access to health care. • Remove all confederate statues and signage. Let’s stop the Democrats from taking the black vote for granted. If all politics are local, and they are, throughout the U.S. black folk should be engaging their local representatives and the DNC by asking what have you done for “us” lately and will you commit to the above if “we” get out the vote and help turn congress blue in November. Wait patiently, but not long for an answer. LEIGHTON NEWLIN Birch Avenue
Personal Experiences Lead to Different View of Weapons Used Against Japan
To the Editor: With all due respect to Ms. [Niki} Van Aller [“Hinds Plaza Rally Commemorates Hiroshima,” page one, August 8, 2018) and her view of nuclear weapons, which I agree with regarding their possession and possible use by unstable leaders like those in Iran and North Korea, I have a slightly different view of the weapons used against Japan in World War II based upon two personal experiences. First is the fact that my father fought in the Pacific theatre, and would likely have been involved in an invasion of the Japanese mainland had that become necessary. It is highly likely that I owe my existence to those bombs, as do many of my generation. Second is a conversation I had years ago with the mother of a business colleague of Japanese descent who lived in Japan during the war. I don’t recall how the subject of Hiroshima and Nagasaki came up, I certainly wouldn’t have raised it in such company, but she made a very insightful point about those events. When I tried to deflect the discussion by suggesting that the U.S. could have found a better way to use the bombs; perhaps making a giant crater in the middle of nowhere to show their potential, she replied “no” and offered the following: “The Japanese people were prepared to fight to the last man, woman, and child had the Emperor ordered it. The U.S. had to convince him that the war was unwinnable. Those bombs saved tens of thousands of Japanese lives.” Expert estimates of the casualties on both sides resulting from an invasion of Japan, including Japanese civilians, tend to confirm her opinion. Numbers I’ve seen totaled upwards of one million. While a world free of nuclear weapons is certainly a worthy goal, as long as people like Kim Jong-un and Ayatollah Khamenei have them, the U.S. has no choice but to maintain its nuclear deterrent capability. BILL MCJAMES Hillsborough
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