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.

More on Park51 and intolerance toward Muslims

I called some of the opponents of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque bigots in the headline to a column I wrote last week. I stand by my characterization and ask that they explain how the singling out of Muslims is anything but ugly religious bias. This column, which ran in the South Brunswick Post today by a longtime resident and friend, only underscores my point.

Note, by the way, how Mr. Rasmussen elides four of the five elements of the First Amendment, making it about speech and speech along and ignoring the religious establishment clause — which is the first one listed in the Amendment. No one is saying Park51 opponents can’t speak or that they cannot say bigoted and ugly things. They can. But when they do, they should expect to be called out on it.

On a side note, I keep hearing about debris from one of the hijacked planes hitting the building proposed for the Park51 but the only documentation anyone has provided has been something on Wikipedia. Wikipedia? Really? I tell my students and my reporters that Wikipedia is not a reliable source — it is open source and much of it has not been vetted. In any case, I still can’t figure out what that has to do with anything.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

So much for property tax reform

Chris Christie ran for governor on the promise that he would cut property taxes. Instead, the average New Jersey taxpayer will be paying more out of pocket for local government and schools.

From The Asbury Park Press:

The average property tax hike in New Jersey will be 3.3 percent this year — and will hit 23.5 percent after the loss of the homestead rebate is factored in, a statewide review of new tax rates show.

Property taxes increased 3.7 percent in 2009, only nominally more than what has happened so far this year. But, as the story points out, taxpayers had rebates to help them deal with the pain. No such luck this year, though the governor says he will offer a revamped rebate program for next year — a manuever that promises to be difficult.

The rebate program was a victim of this year’s budget balancing act, so his promise raises the question of how he’ll pay for the rebates in the 2011 budget. What programs can we expect to be slashed? Colleges and public schools already are paying the price and the public workforce has been gutted, with the expected increase in unemployment. So, dear governor, what is your plan?

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Dispatches: A simple fix for Social Security

My Dispatches column is about fixing Social Security — which hit around the same time as a similar column I wrote for The Progressive Populist addressing the myths and calling for SS’s expansion.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Budget cuts hurt everyone but the rich

Anyone who thought cutting the state budget would be easy should read this story. These job cuts will add to the state’s unemployment rate and, along with the tuition hikes already planned, take one of the better state college and university systems in the country and weaken it. But that’s alright, because the state’s richest taxpayers didn’t have to pony up anymore in taxes this year.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.