To the editor
This is a reply to Alex Moore, staff writer for the Hillsborough Beacon. His attack on seniors (Dec. 19) is something that I can not allow to go unanswered.
I will not defend the woman in her 60s who killed an elderly woman and injured four others because of a mistake she made. However, I will not accept the writer’s indictment of seniors for the incident.
He accepts the "authorities" conclusion that this was an accident; but his attack is upon all seniors. His attack might be better directed toward the "authorities."
He’s leaning on the useless crutch philosophy that if something goes wrong, we only need to pass another law and it will be fine. It is time to demand more individual responsibility of our citizens and officials.
There are lots of tolerated violations. Mr. Moore claims that we do not tolerate drunken drivers but we do. Many drunken drivers are convicted on multiple occasions. They are also allowed to plea-bargain to lesser offenses.
Some bad drivers have their license revoked, but then they get caught driving on the revoked list and their penalty is a fine and another meaningless revocation.
Mr. Moore wants a law "that will insure that every licensed driver is physically and mentally capable."
Every licensed driver yes but his "law" is useless against the unlicensed drivers. In many police reports, I see stories about multiple offenses where unlicensed drivers are driving unregistered vehicles without insurance. His new law does nothing to correct this.
What about the illegal aliens that violate dozens of federal, state and local laws to drive on our streets? What about the aliens that get licensed by DMV but they can’t read English which is what all traffic signs are printed in on our roadways?
What about the terrorists that legally register with NJ-DMV and purchase cars with phony addresses?
No, Mr. Moore, we do not need more laws directed at seniors. It is time to impose real punishment for violations and not permit whitewashing a person’s record via plea-bargains that cover up the original charges.
Let the felony violators spend their prison time making brooms and mops; and then let the misdemeanor offenders use these brooms and mops to keep our public buildings and parks clean while they wear outer jackets that indicate that this is public punishment.
Let the punishment have some meaning and serve some public value.
While we are at it, let’s keep an eye on those judges and lawyers that allow a client’s money to buy an easy pass through the judicial system.
Hillsborough

