Youth in N.J. county need more of a PAL | Letters – NJ.com

A rift that has always existed has grown even deeper following the deaths of George Floyd and Tamir Rice at the hands of police officers. There is mistrust by many in the African American community after so many young Black men were killed with no way to defend themselves.

These rifts can last a lifetime, causing residual problems. Who do you call when you fear for your life if you cannot call the police? How do we heal these rifts and build relationships on both sides?

The Police Athletic League (PAL) for years has done just that. PAL organizes events like football or basketball pickup games, picnics and Halloween parties. These are not only fun, they have the intended side effect of forming bonds between the police and young people. Then, when the officers see the youth in a real-life situation, that person is someone they already know and respect.

Currently, however, many towns do not have a PAL program.

We saw the 2012 incident where Marcus Jeter was beaten by Bloomfield officers when, in fact, a dash-cam video shows he was not resisting arrest. We saw 12-year-old Rice gunned down in the street in Cleveland when he was carrying a water gun. If there had been robust PAL programs in these places, perhaps Rice or Jeter would have been someone the police had already met under better circumstances.

I met with the Essex County freeholders, now commissioners, over a year ago to discuss expanding and putting more funding behind the Police Athletic League and have a PAL representative in every county municipality.

Let’s call on our county commissioners to stop delaying and expand PAL. Our community is worth that effort.

Kevin Lindahl, Bloomfield

Note: The writer is vice president of the Bloomfield tenants organization.

Ciattarelli will halt our downward spiral

The State of New Jersey is in a downward spiral. New Jerseyans suffer from high taxes. Many leave to resettle in states with more tax-friendly policies, placing a greater tax burden on those who stay. It dampens business investment in our state, leaving fewer jobs available.

So far, Gov. Phil Murphy, who is running for reelection, has shown little or no interest in departing from the status quo; little or no interest in lowering taxes, or decreasing infrastructure repair costs, getting our schools back to basics, or standing up to unions, special interests and cronyism.

This November, we can send someone to Trenton who can provide a course change and get things done. That person is Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli. He knows knows how to run a business and knows from personal experience that it takes a hands-on manager for a business or state to succeed.

Murphy knows all about back-slapping and smooth talking from his time on Wall Street, but it’s clear he doesn’t know how to run a state. He’s great at photo-ops, but has he changed things for the better? Does he have the insight, the policies or the drive to turn things around in New Jersey?

Ciatarelli, by contrast, is a doer, not a talker. He’ll bring a fresh perspective and insight into fixing our state.

We gave Murphy a chance to turn things around. Are you better off? We have an alternative to provide that change this year, and his name is Jack Ciattarelli.

Daniel A. Bazikian, Weehawken

Bitcoin-infused economy a bad bet for N.J.

Kevin Ryan, an Essex County businessperson, is running for an Assembly seat in the 27th Legislative District as a Republican. This area encompasses 61 municipalities in Essex and Morris counties. In general, this is an above-average income area.

Ryan’s profile and political stance appear to be rather cryptic. Now, to make things even more “cryptic,” he is advocating for the State of New Jersey to “mine” Bitcoin cryptocurrency — one of the the wacky, digital, unregulated forms of “electronic money” that is all the rage.

Ryan believes that New Jersey can better manage its outstanding debt by infusing some $500 million a year of Bitcoin value onto the state’s balance sheet. His observation that Third World countries are doing this is an unreliable defense of such a wacky policy.

I believe that if Ryan’s proposal is enacted, it will open up New Jersey to even further questions and losses of confidence in its fiscal stewardship. And, of course, I believe Ryan must lose big on Election Day, Nov. 2.

Arthur J. Grisi, Toms River

Time is now for voting rights law

Our government should be accountable to the people rather than wealthy political party donors or special interests. But, obstructionists in the U.S. Senate have been holding hostage an historic proposal called the “Freedom to Vote Act” that could save American democracy.

This voting-rights legislation would set Election Day as a national holiday, require two weeks of early voting, and allow any registered voter to request an absentee ballot. It would attempt to ban partisan gerrymandering and stop dark money from influencing our political system.

The Senate has blocked through the filibuster four bills this year alone that would fix our our democracy, and now they’re heading into recess while we run out of time to pass this smart bill that represents a compromise among Senate Democrats. I urge our senators to do everything in their power to end use of the filibuster this way, and pass the “Freedom to Vote Act.”

Yvette Mintzer, Princeton

It’s not easy being green, and in orbit

I watched with confusing interest as Vice President Kamala Harris addressed some apparent “school children” — alleged by some to be child actors — in a recent YouTube video posted by NASA for World Space Week.

Instead of dealing with the many major issues affecting the country, the vice president is seen talking to them about space exploration. “You’re gonna literally see the craters on the moon with your own eyes,” she tells them before a trip to an observatory, possibly implying that they will all be able to go into space.

Obviously, Harris has never seen a space launch. It takes tons of fuel that is burned to lift a capsule into space. So, as these “future astronauts” view the moon with their own eyes, they should also look back at the carbon footprint they just left behind on Earth.

William P. Koeller, Morris Plains

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