LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, April 21
Fiesta will benefit literacy initiative
To the editor:
We’d like to draw readers’ attention to an upcoming event being held to benefit a very underserved portion of the greater Princeton community.
Proceeds from Fiesta Dia del Niño will benefit the YWCA Princeton and its ESL Literacy Initiative, a program that serves low-income, limited-literacy, non-English-speaking families, especially mothers and their children.
Part of the initiative is the Child Care Center at Valley Road School, where preschool-age students achieve kindergarten-readiness through early intervention more effective, long-lasting and sustainable than later remediation. The children gain language and cultural skills, giving them the confidence necessary for successful learning from the very beginning of their educational lives, where studies say it is most needed.
For adults, the initiative provides ESL literacy skills and classes at minimal rates so participants can attain greater self-sufficiency. They have the potential to find better-paying jobs with increased English verbal and written skills, they no longer have to suffer the embarrassment of relying on their children for translation, and they can advocate for themselves and their children in health-care and school situations.
Fiesta Dia del Niño will be held on Sunday, April 30, beginning at 5 p.m. Festivities include a 35-course buffet with "Latin flavors," a silent auction and dancing to the exciting sounds of the Swing Sabrosa band. Cost is $200 per person and we’d like to encourage everyone out there to attend and, in turn, help our community members.
For any questions, please call (609) 497-2100, ext. 316.
Judith Hutton
CEO
Barbara Purnell
Doodie Meyer
Princeton Chairs
Fiesta Dia del Niño
YWCA Princeton
Paul Robeson Place
Princeton
Retiring librarian will be sorely missed
To the editor:
May I use your pages to honor Sue Roth, about to retire as reader services coordinator at the resurgent Princeton Public Library. Sue has turned that new building, that venerable institution, into a center of adult inspiration and information. I suddenly realize that, before Sue, my key PPL connections had been with book-laden daughters in tow.
I have been both exhilarated and deeply moved by Sue’s rich programs. At the pinnacle has been Voices, Multilingual Poetry Night the gift of Ragged Sky poet Carlos Hernández-Peña, with Sue’s blessing. I told the two of them afterwards, "It’s events like this that make me glad I live in Princeton. Not every day do you hear a scholar apologizing for his accent, reading his translation of cuneiform tablets: ‘I don’t usually read the [Gilgamesh Epic] aloud.’"
On a simpler level, thanks to one of Sue’s programs, I was stunned to learn that our benighted, often castigated New Jersey Turnpike is more than a seminal influence upon global transportation and travel. Its design is considered a major catalyst for art in general sculpture and architecture in particular of both 20th and 21st centuries. The authority was no less than Robert Venturi, architect.
Sue’s welcome to the work of poets and writers has been discerning and generous. Someone will succeed her. No one can replace her. In the halls of the Princeton Public Library, Sue Roth has created our very own Piazza San Marco.
Carolyn Foote Edelmann
Salem Court
West Windsor
Board member will work to justify faith
To the editor:
I want to thank everyone for their support in the recent West Windsor-Plainsboro School District elections, both for me personally and for the district’s budget.
It is especially difficult to achieve a positive outcome for a budget when the tax effect is uncertain (due to the ongoing revaluation in West Windsor), and when the state seems either unable or unwilling to find ways to support local school districts with adequate funding and/or tax relief.
Great schools and great school districts don’t happen by accident, and no school board can create excellence all by itself. Thank you to all the parents and teachers who support us, and who make it easier for us on the board to succeed.
And perhaps even more, thank you to all those citizens who, even if you don’t have children in the district’s schools, still believe that quality public education is one of the most important goals that a community can support. We will do everything we possibly can to justify your faith in us.
Stan Katz
Member
West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education
Rumford Way
West Windsor
Election lost, but not fight
To the editor:
As I gracefully acknowledge losing an election in 2006, I’d like to thank all the voters of Montgomery who gave me their confidence with their vote in an election that was surrounded by too many obstacles and driven by well-organized political machinery that could never stand for, nor see, any truth. I’d like to thank everyone I met on the campaign trail, including those who said they are moving out of Montgomery because they can no longer afford the ever-rising taxes.
I’d also like to thank the people who most graciously volunteered their hard work in support of my candidacy and what it stood for. The one, without even being asked, who single-handedly delivered 800 flyers to residents of the township, driven by their belief that Montgomery needs a different Board of Education. Or those who called whenever they had time to spare to deliver more flyers and convey the message to the voters. Or the residents who took the time to highlight their concerns with the status quo, and pointed to their fellow residents the need for change while identifying the reliable agents for good governance on the board.
Several hours before the polls closed, I received an e-mail, which was to me far more important than anything the outcome of this election would have brought otherwise:
"Mohamed: We are fortunate to have people such as you in our community. You have kept our township committee and BoE on their toes fighting the good fight for all of us. I do appreciate what you do, and recognize that the policies in Montgomery would have been much worse if not for the loud and persuasive voices of a few; yours included. And I thank you for it."
Have I lost anything with this election? The answer is no. I’ll continue to do what I have been doing over the past two years in Board of Education and Township Committee meetings in search of good governance and integrity in the operation of both. Then I have my forum on the blog to keep the people of Montgomery informed about issues and concerns. The Citizens Watch the two letters that you see on the blog "CW" will continue to carry on the fight for good governance in Montgomery.
Would I trade places with the "people person" voted on the board if either of us were to have a choice? Not in a million years. I most sincerely feel deeply sorry for him and what he is about to encounter. He has my deepest sympathies.
Is this time for hypocrisy and feel-good words for anyone? Far from it. The challenges remain, and more will come, with the Township Committee budget not too far behind.
Don’t cry for me, Montgomery. My mission remains just the same, albeit from the outside rather than the inside.
Congratulations, Mrs. Ross. I know that you are a decent human being and I wish you well.
Mohamed H. Kilany
Spring Hill Road
Montgomery
U.S. must make good on pledge
To the editor:
What would you think if there were children in the United States who weren’t allowed to attend primary school because their parents couldn’t afford to pay required school fees? These children would never learn to read or do arithmetic. When they grew up, they would find it very difficult to earn a living or to contribute to our society.
This is the sad situation for over 100 million children (one out of every five) in developing countries. The majority of these children are girls, and many are AIDS orphans. Fortunately, developed countries have recognized how important primary school education is and have decided to do something.
The G-8 countries, which include the United States, have agreed on a Millennium Development Goal of universal access to basic education for all children by 2015. To achieve this goal, governments in developing countries will have to eliminate school fees, and these governments will need money to provide additional teachers, classrooms and supplies for all the children who will suddenly start attending school. (When Kenya eliminated its primary school fees, over a million new students enrolled in school.)
Some of the G-8 countries are already taking major steps to achieve the goal. For example, Britain recently pledged at least $15 billion over the next 10 years. But the United States, despite having agreed to the goal, has not yet stepped up to the plate. So far, the United States is giving only $480 million dollars a year for basic education and elimination of school fees, while Britain’s 10-year pledge comes out to at least $1.5 billion dollars a year. Since the United States has fivetimes as many people as Britain, that means that, per person, the United States is contributing only 1/15th of what Britain has recently pledged.
We can certainly do better than that, when the education of children all over the world is at stake. If you agree, contact your congressional representatives and urge them to increase the appropriations for basic education and for the elimination of school fees in developing countries.
Phyllis Teitelbaum
Hawthorne Avenue
Princeton