LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Nov. 25
Another day, another accident
To the editor:
Just to give you a brief update, today Nov. 22 there was another accident on the Alexander Road bend. Last week, there was an accident as well. Both occurred in wet conditions.
Doesn’t West Windsor have the budget to install temporary speed bumps? It’s just a matter of time before another tragedy happens.
Susan Fogwell
Alexander Road
West Windsor
New art entry noted in very talented society
To the editor:
This past Saturday evening, the Princeton Fire Department held an imaginative fundraising dinner that included an art exhibit.
The exhibit displayed great variety and surprising talent.
One artist in particular caught my attention. Steven Buzash’s oil paintings display a five-dimensional perception and a depth of emotion rarely experienced. This became especially evident in his depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion. Steven is continuing to study and undoubtedly will come up with more such exciting and intuitive conceptions.
I have a broad and intensive background in arts, and recognize exceptional work when I see it.
So not only was the evening most enjoyable, but also I discovered a new entry into Princeton’s very talented society.
Mary P. Funk
Province Line Road
Princeton
Crafters’ Marketplace supports Y programs
To the editor:
On behalf of the YWCA Princeton, I want to thank everyone who contributed to the success of our recent Crafters’ Marketplace held at Educational Testing Service on Nov. 19 and 20.
Thank you to the many dedicated volunteers who gave so generously of their time, talent and hard work; to ETS for being so accommodating and generous; and to the hundreds of patrons who came through the doors to shop and support this event.
Proceeds from Crafters’ Marketplace go directly to the YWCA Princeton’s Pearl Bates Scholarship Fund. For 31 years, this fund has helped make the programs and activities of the YWCA accessible to all children and adults wishing to participate. Community support of this event helps us open doors.
Thank you, one and all.
Barbara Purnell
Crafters’ Marketplace Chair
Edgerstoune Road
Princeton
It is past time to speak out
To the editor:
Jill Turndorf: You are not alone. (Letter to the editor, The Packet, Nov. 18.)
Anyone who knows me will vouch that I opposed President Bush’s war from the beginning. His strident and repetitive arguments always rang hollow; his proposed action seemed simplistic and overly optimistic. The father of a 13-year-old son in 2002, I perceived that President Bush’s military adventure would continue for years and ultimately place my son in great danger. My opinion has not changed.
The issue then was not removing Saddam Hussein but his threat. These were not necessarily the same. War was not the only possible approach; indeed, another containment had worked for years at far less cost and danger to us and our sons and daughters.
I do not know that President Bush intentionally lied to the American people. He did, however, assert things as factual that were untrue. His administration did stretch the truth, discounting cautions of its own intelligence services. Congress, at the president’s request, acted on the basis of an apparently sanitized version of the administration’s information, one that was scrubbed of analysis indicating a far less clear-cut case for war. It is one thing to stretch the truth if you are selling a new brand of toothpaste or a new diet. It is another when the bodies of American troops and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are the risk.
The war is a result of this administration’s demonstrated unwillingness to countenance information that contradicts preconceived notions. Call it determined ignorance. Other results of it are an administration:
that sees no wrong in imprisoning people indefinitely without charge, counsel or trial;
that says it opposes torture but threatens to veto a bill that absolutely outlaws it;
that runs secret prisons in which God-only-knows-what is done to nameless people held inside;
that viciously attacks those who have risked their lives in our defense, but whose members have never risked themselves;
that sends sons and daughters to war but at best delays providing proper equipment or protection for the conditions they face;
that is so unsure of its policy that it won’t allow any showing of the caskets that result from it (and, in so showing, accepting and honoring those sacrifices);
that sees no wrong with granting massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans while reducing vital assistance to the neediest, poorest and most afflicted;
that cannot provide effective assistance in real emergencies; and
that is presenting the bill for this sorry record of non-achievement to our children.
In 1980, though faced with economic distress and a more difficult tax structure, we were a people that still felt we could accomplish anything. President Bush’s legacy may be an America, cut off from its adherence to the rule of law and common decency, that can accomplish nothing. It is past time to speak out. It is time to reject this leadership, reverse our course and begin to repair the damage.
Steven Heckel
Tall Cedar Court
Montgomery
3 members of Congress bravely support troops
To the editor:
As if insisting that the body politic of the nation is rotten, on Nov. 18, the House of Representatives authenticated the idea that "supporting the troops" in Iraq meant killing and mutilating more of them. All but three of the 435 members voted against a non-binding resolution to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within six months. When the "nays" are someday asked by their children, "What did you do during the war, Daddy?" they can answer, "I cut and ran."
The disgraceful count was upheld equally well by both parties and reconfirms there is no opposition party, only one that sits and waits licking its chops on whatever political advantage they believe may be theirs by letting the party in power self-destruct. Their fear of fear only expands the roster of dead Marines and Army amputees.
Their votes affirmed that this war is another vanity-shelf on which to preen and prance and choose image-enhancing props from which to hang timely and interest-serving dramaturgy a dance macabre over the mushrooming graves of the dead.
In the time of the country’s founding, when blood-and-guts patriots populated the republic, faced with the shameless manipulation and shabby disingenuousness driving this government, the people would have marched on the president’s house and Capitol and burned them to the ground with the president and Congress inside.
Today, we instead get the martyrdom of American grunts burned at the stake of their elected leaders’ cover. The latter ride together insisting they stirrup a white horse in the service of the homeland and her good name but all the time deceive. While in the distance another rider approaches. His name is Death, and Hell follows him. And after the House’s abject retreat from battle, he rises in the saddle and pushes to a canter. On a pale horse, he approaches to consume by sword while Congress and the executive mislead on an ass exalting their soldiers’ advance to victory. Downy Washington beds are far from Iraq, but the gates to perdition open insatiably wide.
On this day, Reps. Jose Serrano, Robert Wexler and Cynthia McKinney bravely supported our troops.
Luis de Agustin
Gates Court
West Windsor
Seeing the other side of the ‘Separation Wall’
To the editor:
I am a Princeton native, living and working as a teacher in Jerusalem for the past seven years.
One autumn Shabbat morning, I journeyed with two bus loads of Israelis and "foreigners" journalists, international activists, etc. to the other side of East Jerusalem, the bus rumbling along serpentines, scattering pebbles and dust on the refuse that lined the road. The purpose was to inspect the proposed route for the Separation Wall, which will completely encircle a cluster of villages with 80,000 people, rendering them effectively residents of a prison.
We joined about 200 Palestinians, men between 15 and 80, and marched through the streets of their village for a kilometer or so, passing children returning home from schools, arms flung around each other, waving cheerfully to us. Eventually, we reached the checkpoint where a dozen or so soldiers waited for us, arms braced across their chests but who decided to let us pass, on the road usually reserved exclusively for the passage of Jews.
Beyond the village, we scrambled up onto a barren hilltop where we gathered around a bulldozer; one of the speakers stretched a map onto the windshield, explaining to us the route and impact of the wall, which final segments are scheduled to be in place within a few months. We looked out onto the proud and prosperous settlement of Maale Adumeem and, next to it, a new settlement of a few dozen families, in whose apparent name the wall is being built.
This wall will separate Palestinians from their lands on which they depend for their livelihood, cause Bedouin families to be uprooted and render both already struggling communities completely destitute. We were informed that, according to Ariel Sharon’s "vision," we were no longer on Palestinian land but standing instead in new neighborhoods of "Jerusalem" the appropriation of their land the real agenda for the wall.
I returned with a heavy heart to Jerusalem. There is little doubt that these demonstrations are necessary; they may occasionally give some small sort of meaning to my life here or, at the very least, I can thus take some responsibility for learning about the lives of people on whose backs and suffering I enjoy my cozy one. And, as well, they offer Palestinians brief interactions with alternative faces to the soldiers who are otherwise their only contact with Israelis. But I am not sure there is very much effect otherwise.
And then I remember the shiny eyes of the children and their faces, which crinkle in smiles when they see us, and I think about how they are sometimes obliged to wait in the cold rain at the gates of the wall, dependent on the will and the kindness of a soldier to allow them passage through so they can get to school. And so I pack my sandwiches and bottle of water and fold my newspaper into my knapsack and continue the hopeless and dogged pursuit of justice. There is no other choice.
Susan Abeles
Deer Path
Princeton
This holiday season, help Salvation Army
To the editor:
This has been one of the busiest and most devastating hurricane seasons in recent history. The outpouring of compassion, support and prayers has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. I’d like to sincerely thank our generous donors for their support of The Salvation Army’s relief efforts on the Gulf Coast. In New Jersey alone, donor support for the Army’s relief effort amounted to more than $3 million which, in part, has helped to assist nearly 1.3 million hurricane victims.
And as we move into the holiday season, I’d like to ask for your continued support of The Salvation Army. Needs in our local communities have risen by leaps and bounds and we anticipate that they will continue to grow over the winter season as people are challenged by higher utility bills, the cost of affordable housing and the cost of commuting. For some, food and heat may become a luxury rather than a staple of life.
Inevitably, giving declines after a major disaster but our local needs do not. I’d like to ask for continued support from our donors when encountering our red kettle bell ringers or when receiving a mail solicitation. It is only with the public’s support that we will be able to continue our program for the needy in our communities.
Once again, thank you for your support of the Gulf Coast hurricane victims and please help The Salvation Army as we enter a critical fundraising season that supports our programs all throughout the year.
Major Stephen Banfield
New Jersey State Commander
The Salvation Army
Gary Road
Union
Earthquake victims need immediate help
To the editor:
Today, we face "the most difficult humanitarian crisis ever," in the words of a senior United Nations official. It is taking place in Pakistan and India now. Yet the international community and the U.S. have failed to provide sufficient relief dollars for an earthquake that displaced three times as many as the Indian Ocean tsunami.
And where has the leading media, like your organization, been in the face of this indifference? All too silent. With the Himalayan winter less than three weeks away, and rugged terrain a major obstacle for aid workers, each hour is costing lives.
Already the quake has left 86,000 dead and 74,000 injured, and the 3 million survivors, many children or elderly, are in desperate need of shelter, food and medical assistance. Yet we lack the resources to supply thousands of winterized tents and medical supplies, fund relief workers and send more helicopters to reach the stranded in remote locations.
To prevent further loss of life and suffering, this funding gap needs to be bridged ASAP. Unfortunately, worldwide donors have so far contributed $98.5 million and pledged an additional $38 million, or 25 percent of the $550 million that the United Nations will need for immediate relief.
Only the media has the power to help by making the scandalous lack of funding a headline story. Nothing else will encourage the relief donations needed to save thousands who will otherwise be abandoned in a brutal environment with little hope for survival.
Mohammad Chaudary
Cain Court
Montgomery

