LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Nov. 27
By:
Proud to serve
in time of need
To the editor:
As president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Local Branch 268, Princeton, you may be able to imagine the reasons for the delay in writing this letter.
Since Oct. 26, the letter carriers, as well as the other employees and manager of the postal service, have been working under the most trying of circumstances and conditions. We reported to work on Saturday morning to find the building sealed off and all equipment, winter and rain gear, all information on holds and forwards, left notice forms and, most important, mail, locked in the building. The postmaster was ill and the possibility that she had contracted anthrax and that any one of us might also be in danger surrounded us. Remarkably, with all that was going on, the decision was made to go forward and deliver whatever mail we could. Trucks arrived; mail was broken down and prepared for delivery from the backs of our vehicles and on the ground of the parking lot. Delivery was accomplished that day and every day since.
I left work Thursday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m. to attend a briefing at the Hamilton facility. I returned to work at 6 a.m. on Friday to see that a tent had been erected and carrier and clerk sorting equipment had been recreated in a tent. This was an accomplishment I would have never believed possible. Since that time, the carriers have been working long days, up to 12 hours and in some instances longer. We delivered the mail Sunday, Nov. 4 and again on Nov. 12, the Veterans Day holiday, in an effort to catch up and deliver America’s mail.
We are thankful for many things:
*For the strength derived from those who suffered and have endured the ultimate sacrifice of Sept. 11.
*That no one has been ill in our post office.
*That the postal employees that have become ill around the country are recovering.
*That the patrons we serve, while concerned with the safety of the mail we delivered, always had the safety and well-being of their carrier in the forefront.
*For the gratitude of President Bush and the patrons we serve recognizing the performance of letter carriers when called upon.
*That the weather has cooperated for us, and especially for the employees at the Hamilton facility, who continue to work admirably in the tent.
*That we at the Princeton post office are pretty well caught up at this time.
*That at the time of this writing, there is news of the surrender of the Taliban.
*That we could spend the Thanksgiving holiday with our families rather than at work.
*For McCarter Theatre for donating tickets to "A Christmas Carol" to all employees of the Princeton post office.
*For the job we have, that gives us the opportunity to provide the best mail service in the world to the American people.
In closing, I would like to say that I have been proud to serve as president of Branch 268 since 1991. I can now say, without hesitation, that I consider it an honor to serve the carriers of Branch 268. At a time when many Americans will be called upon to help in this war effort, they too can follow the lead of those already called, and answer with the same dignity and pride as the letter carriers of the U.S. Postal Service.
Raymond F. McDonald Jr.
President
Local Branch 268
National Assn. of Letter Carriers
Princeton
Nursing-home staff
is proud of record
To the editor:
Regarding the article "Caregivers for the elderly face narrow options, tough choices" by David Campbell (The Packet, Nov. 2), Mr. Campbell outlines the difficulties involved in providing quality care for a parent or loved one by evaluating the three nursing homes in The Packet’s circulation area.
In his two-page article, Mr. Campbell devotes 16 paragraphs to assessing the myriad citations and deficiencies imposed upon two of the facilities he discusses. The Princeton Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, the third facility in the area, which has not been cited for a single deficiency, was mentioned in one sentence.
We at Princeton Nursing Home are proud of our record and are committed to maintaining our high standards. In order to help readers make an informed decision in this matter, I believe a more detailed description of our facility would have been helpful.
Gail Bogner
Director
Princeton Nursing Home
Quarry Street
Princeton
Senator grateful
for voters’ support
To the editor:
Please allow me to take this opportunity to thank the voters of the 15th District for demonstrating their confidence in me on Election Day.
I am very humbled and extremely honored to have the opportunity to serve in the state Senate for another term. I would also like to take this opportunity to commend my opponents for running an honorable, issues related campaign.
The next two years will bring us many challenges; however, I will continue to advocate on behalf of our senior citizens and work to improve the education of our children. I will remain steadfast in the fight to reform and reduce property taxes and preserve open space through "smart growth" legislation. The legislature must address the inadequacies in our state’s housing, child-care and health-care policies and establish an affordable approach to assist New Jersey’s working families.
Serving the people of the 15th District in the New Jersey Senate is an honor and a privilege. My district office, located at 1440 Pennington Road, is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. I can be contacted at (609) 530-3277 or by e-mail at [email protected]. I am pleased to represent this district and state and stand ready to continue serving my constituents.
Shirley K. Turner
Senator
15th District
Lawrence
Basketball fundraiser
a real slam dunk
To the editor:
On behalf of the Montgomery/Rocky Hill Municipal Alliance on Substance Abuse Prevention, I want to thank everyone who attended and supported the Montgomery/Rocky Hill Municipal Alliance Community Fundraiser and Red Ribbon Basketball Event The Community All Stars vs. the NFL Celebrity All Stars on Oct. 25.
In an effort to unify the community against substance abuse, the Montgomery/Rocky Hill Municipal Alliance was proud to support the community in celebration of "Red Ribbon Month." The Alliance works intensively on programs for the education and prevention of substance abuse for all school-age children. Our efforts are part of the nationally recognized Substance Abuse Prevention Month proclaimed each year by the president of the United States. With the help of many organizations in our towns and enormous support from Alliance volunteers, our PTAs and PTSAs, and our school administrators, we are able to offer many programs and activities for our community.
We had 12 teams from our community willing to test their athletic talents against the NFL All-Star Team. It was a fun-filled evening attended by an energetic capacity crowd, supporting a very important cause.
I want to send a special thanks to our Red Ribbon financial sponsors. Without the incredible support we receive from these community organizations, we would not be able to offer such fantastic programs. Specifically, we would like to thank Bloomberg, Carrier Clinic, St. Charles Borromeo, Convatec, Johnson & Johnson, The Montgomery/Rocky Hill Rotary Club, 3M Corporation, Mason, Griffin & Pierson, Bell Mead Orthodontic, the Montgomery PBA #355 and the Alfred H. Merritt Agency for their major financial donations.
It took a lot of people to make this event successful. I want to thank the Montgomery High School Brass Choir, under the direction of Greg Strauss; Debbie Lingel, our national anthem soloist; the high school cheerleaders and their coach, Mrs. Aloisio; the Pop Warner cheerleaders and their coaches; our Cougar mascot, Jeff Adams; the Girl Scouts & Boy Scouts; Mr. Charlie Olenick, our timekeeper; Stas Lipovesky, our DJ; and the TREND students.
I want to thank our school staff and administrators Anne Marie Weber, Bill Korson, Bernie Demsky, Pat Lott and Janis Baldwin from the high school and Bill Robbins, Michael Richards, Debbie Camamis and Arlene Milgrim from the middle school.
Thanks to our PTAs and PTSAs for their support – Corrine Mulford, Patty Moeller and Arlene Maroli from the Village School, Barbara Urban from Orchard Hill Elementary, Kim Amato from the middle school and Nancy Bennett from the high school.
Thanks to our DARE officers for providing special programs in our schools for Red Ribbon Month and for their ongoing support.
And, last but definitely not least, our Alliance volunteers – especially Pam Gizzi, Melissa Kurtz, Kim Amato and Lisa Youngberg for all their hard work in making this event and many other Alliance programs successful.
Greg Harkins
Chairperson
Montgomery/Rocky Hill
Municipal Alliance on
Substance Abuse Prevention
Montgomery Township
Police Department
Montgomery
Absorbing concert
by local orchestra
To the editor:
On Nov. 4, three composers and a soloist from Scandinavia provided the basis for an absorbing concert by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. The opener was the effervescent overture to the comic opera "Maskarade" by Danish composer Carl Neilsen (1865-1931). From the very first notes, the orchestra displayed a lustrous yet transparent sound that was a consistent pleasure throughout the concert. At times, however, Richardson Auditorium was hard-pressed to comfortably contain the volume of the expanded PSO.
The demanding violin concerto by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) came next, with the renowned Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen as the soloist. This concerto is bristling with difficulties, and is tightly and logically constructed. (The self-critical Sibelius lopped off nearly 20 percent of his initial version.)
Tellefsen was masterful in both technical and communicative terms, and the performance was greatly enhanced by the highly sensitive and well-coordinated partnership of conductor Mark Laycock and the PSO. Laycock’s tempos were ideal, and the orchestra’s interweaving with the solo violin was all one could wish. Here, as in all the works, there were many superb individual contributions, including an outstanding performance from the orchestra’s new first oboist Pedro Diaz, whose lustrous tone, sure technique and musicianship were superb.
After intermission came the 2nd Symphony of the brilliant Danish pianist-conductor-composer Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927). Though not yet well known in the United States, Stenhammar composed a variety of works well worth hearing. Completed in 1914, this composition, like virtually all of Stenhammars’s, radiates a life-affirming optimism that, one sadly reflects, European composers have rarely been able to recapture since then.
Fifty-plus minutes long, the work contains enough good musical ideas for two symphonies, and abounds with difficulties and traps for conductors. For example, the first movement, though marked Allegro energico, needs to be taken at a moderate speed (Allegro energico ma moderato?) for its many felicities to be fully savored.
Throughout the concert, and especially in traversing the new ground of the Stenhammar 2nd Symphony, Mark Laycock again demonstrated his innate musical sensitivity. His unerring choice of tempos, shaping of phrases and handling of rhythmic shifts and transitions maintained the always-sought but hard-to-achieve combination of clarity, communication and flow. The near-capacity audience responded with enthusiasm.
Harold Borofsky
Hun Road
Princeton