LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, June 5
Nothing courageous in library film fest
To the editor:
I felt enough had been written about the Princeton Public Library’s recent "human rights" film festival. However, since three letter writers have chosen to keep the subject alive, a response is warranted.
One letter denounced "hard-right anti-Castroites" who protested the inclusion of pro-Cuba films. Well, if it is "hard-right" to loathe a dictator who brooks no dissent, jails political prisoners, and has clung to power for a half-century, I plead guilty.
A few questions for the writer: Does this make you a "hard-left pro-Castroite?"
Should you have mentioned that your wife organized the festival?
Among those "hard-right anti-Castroites," do you include the elderly man who spoke about his years in Castro’s prisons?
Finally, does Cuba, which Human Rights Watch calls the "one country in Latin America that represses nearly all forms of political dissent," really deserve to be lauded in a festival about "human rights?"
Festival organizers even embellished their films with a guest speaker:- a particularly noxious woman who would not even concede that Castro’s gulag is less than democratic. For the former prisoner, it was literally insult heaped upon injury.
Another letter praised the festival’s "courageous" pursuit of free expression. With apologies to Warner Wolf, give me a break! "Courage" implies steadfastness despite a threat of harm, such as daring to dissent in Cuba, or boarding a raft hoping to reach Florida.
In the case of our film festival, a few activists used other people’s money (taxpayers) to show films promoting their own world view. Attendees learned about the plight of the millionaire Dixie Chicks, whose "rights" were apparently trampled when radio stations refused to play their music.
At last year’s festival, we heard that corporations, by their very nature, are "psychopathic" and in need of therapy. Yet each year, festival organizers are praised by their colleagues, and letter writers commend their "courage." My point is that ascribing "courage" to people who dabble in radical politics insults to those who actually deserve that adjective.
It is vitally important to mention that in the festival’s three years, there has not been one offering about the Muslim/Arab world, where "rights" are truly in short supply.
What about the right of a female to drive, to study, to avoid genital mutilation? The right of an Israeli teenager to have pizza without being vaporized by a suicide bomber? The right to publish cartoons mocking the "prophet" Mohammed? Not a syllable in three years. Is it because these "courageous" librarians are afraid to offend Muslims, who fight back with fatwas? Is it because condemning Islamic abuses doesn’t mesh with their world view, in which the West is the source of all evil?
If the festival organizers want "dialog," let it commence. We might begin by asking whether Princeton’s overburdened taxpayers wish to subsidize a festival that is less about "human rights" than it is a pretense for promoting a political agenda. And, oh yes, those "psychopathic" corporations might consult their therapists about the wisdom of supporting people who loathe their very existence.
Paul J. Budline
Rollingmead
Princeton
On a tax break for Cottage Club
To the editor:
I would like to thank Cottage Club for the opportunity to help support them since apparently their members and alumni can not provide enough financial support for them to be responsible tax payers in our community. I am sure maintaining their building is expensive. And paying their taxes is most likely expensive also.
So really, why not shift their tax burden to the rest of us if they can? Over 50 percent of the borough is tax exempt already, so what’s one more property off the tax rolls? After all, what is more important to the fabric of this community, the continued existence of Cottage Club or the ability of say a lifelong borough retired couple on a fixed income being able to keep their home?
I assume Cottage Club is not concerned with the impact this decision will have on the rest of their community. The immediate impact is the rest of us have to fund this $320,000 payment to them; long term do others use the same trick to get out of paying their taxes? In my opinion, the granting of questionable requests for tax exemption, like Cottage Club’s, will further reduce the social and economic diversity of our town over time. And that is a blow to what makes Princeton, Princeton.
Seeing that Cottage Club is willing to be open to the public 12 days a year makes me feel much better about their decision to increase my taxes. Looking at their Web site, those 12 days a year I get to go there is only six days short of the eighteen "on Tap" days they have listed for September 17, 2006 through February 15, 2007. Seems pretty fair.
And let’s face it, just because their present and past members aren’t motivated enough to support them so they afford to pay their taxes; why shouldn’t the rest of the taxpayers in the borough feel sorry for them and pick up this burden? The more I write this the happier I am to pick up their share of the borough taxes, their share of the school taxes and their share of the county taxes. Is there anything else I can help them pay for?
I wonder if the students and alumni members of Cottage Club understand anything about what the informal motto of their University stands for. I think it partly goes something like this "Princeton in the Nation’s Service….". Clearly Princeton Borough and its’ taxpayers aren’t part of the nation, since this is a huge disservice to us.
Mark Freda
Fisher Avenue
Princeton
Thanks for telling a veteran’s story
To the editor:
Thank you for your excellent war veteran story in the May 25 issue of The Princeton Packet. The timing with Memorial Day last Monday and D-Day coming up on June 6 could not have been better.
Edgar Buttenheim is but one of a significant number of World War II and Korean War veterans residing happily at The Princeton Windrows, adjacent to Forrestal Village. We are proud of our contributions to our country and to the world during those difficult and challenging times.
W. Marshall Schmidt
Conifer Court
Plainsboro
A veteran’s story could have said more
To the editor:
We read with much interest your front page story, Friday, May 25, featuring Windrows resident Edgar M. Buttenheim. Our regret is that you did not include more of his experience in the French village of Elbeuf, in 1944, during his service in the U.S. Army in World War II. It offers a stark contrast to the experience of our armed forces in Iraq today.
Mr. Buttenheim’s detailed account of what happened that August day in 1944 appeared in the April 2002 issue of "Window on Windrows", the community newsletter of The Princeton Windrows, under the title "Incident at Elbeuf."
Kit Melick-Niemiec,
Cynthia Minor,
Window on Windrows
Windrow Drive
Plainsboro
Dinky move a wrong move
To the editor:
The University’s plan to relocate the Dinky train station is simply continuing a long-standing trend in the wrong direction. Showing little respect for the elegant accessibility that it offers, it’s been an easy call for University planners to simply usurp the Dinky’s assets whenever there was a need for new land. People can simply drive a little farther, plus the extra 500 feet will be good for the walkers.
Originally located at the base of Blair Arch, it was a simple call in the 1920s to seize some of the Dinky’s land to build new dorms and move it to its current location. My goodness, of course, the Dinky can move again – it’s for the arts. Some have even suggested that the terminus be moved all the way to Faculty Road where everyone can simply drive to it, or, better yet, let’s just bring on BRT (Bus (not-so-) Rapid Transit) and we can get rid of the Dinky once and for all.
Is there really such little concern about our climate problems, oil dependency and addiction to the automobile? A more responsible approach would be to realize that the Dinky, not the automobile, is central to Princeton’s future. A visionary plan would have proposed extending the Dinky to an underground terminus at Palmer Square with a new station serving the Arts Complex and even a new third station located at the Route 1 crossing, serving a park-and-ride facility.
Conversion to an automated operation, as exists at every major airport around the world, would offer frequent on-demand service at all times. There would be no need to drive to Princeton from the "North, East or South". Nor would there be a need to build more parking facilities on campus. Everyone in Princeton Borough could walk to the Dinky.
Expensive? Not really. What is truly expensive is our dependency on oil, our addiction to the automobile and the cleanup of the environmental mess that we’ve created.
Alain L. Kornhauser
Montadale Circle
Princeton
Foundation thanks Princeton donors
To the editor:
I am writing to thank the sponsors and guests of "A Breath of Fresh Air" cocktail reception that was held on May 11 at the American Boychoir School in Princeton to benefit the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. With over 100 people in attendance, we raised nearly $23,000 for the Foundation’s Research Center of Excellence.
The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, in partnership with the University of Chicago, has created the Research Center of Excellence where a team of dedicated scientists will work to find the cause and cure for Pulmonary Fibrosis a devastating disease that strikes 200,000 people and takes the lives of 40,000 Americans each year. This news comes as "A Breath of Fresh Air" for those suffering from the disease.
Many thanks to The American Boychoir, The Andover Companies, Ashton-Whyte, Caliper Farms, Fiduciary Trust International, Haddon Plumbing, Haddon RV’s, Henry Bean Insurance, Olympic Airporter, Simply Add Water Design, Amy & Jeff Smith, and Stark & Stark. With their help and the support of many individuals, we raised funds for much needed research into the causes and treatment Pulmonary Fibrosis. We also helped to raise community awareness of this little known disease in hopes that a cure with some day be found.
Sandra Bean Lewis
Co-chair
Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation
Pennington

