Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Our gay-bashing president

The president and his conservative base are hoping to write discrimination into the constitution. The New York Times reports today that the president will support a constitutional amendment that “would prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriages.” I’ve written about this before, so I won’t belabor it.

Here are the links to my columns on the issue:

And I’ll quote with something from the Times:

“This is fundamentally both a civil rights and religious freedom issue and the president’s position of supporting amending the constitution is just dead wrong,” said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “This is simply to give ammunition to the so-called religious right just to show that the president is still with them.”

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

A reader’s blog

A reader from Monroe sends along his blog. It is the musings of an octanegarian, as he says, a bit of nostalgia from an old newspaper man. How could I resist passing it along?

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

The news from Iraq

The news from Iraq just keeps getting worse. Even as the United States promises to cooperate with Iraqi probe of Haditha killings, new questions are being raised about a March attack on civilians.

We really should take Ruth Coniff’s advice on this.

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Too many letters

I’ve been astroturfed real bad this week. Over the last two days, I have received probably 250 e-mails concerning New York state insurance legislation that would affect the coverage of austistic patients. While I may be sympathetic, I have to point out a couple of things:

1. My papers do not cover New York state.

2. I don’t respond to form letters — this goes for letters with which I may agree and those to which I’m opposed.

3. Volume is meaningless. Just because I receive a large number of form letters on a given topic does not mean I will be more likely to do something about it. On the contrary, the more form letters I get, the more likely I am to ignore them.

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Enough already

I’m getting tired of running these stories.

To date, there have been at least four bomb threats/hoaxes at South Brunswick High School, none of which were serious threats, but all of which created unnecessary problems for the school.

The administration has reacted as it should — admitting that these are not serious threats, but treating them as they are, evacuating the school and warning students that, should they be caught, they will face criminal charges and expulsion.

That’s really as far as administrators can go, however.

It’s now up to the students to make this stop. Students need to understand that these are not funny. They waste time and resources and could lead down the road to a “Boy Who Cried Wolf” mentality, lulling students and staff into a false sense of security. The more false threats made, the more likely it becomes for students and staff to take them lightly — which could have dire consequences should a threat turn out to be real.

Enough is enough.

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press