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.

Runner’s diary, Thursday

I wasn’t sure how I felt this morning when I woke up, so I wasn’t sure what kind of run I’d get in. My goal was to do seven, but a minimum of five miles — that would have kept me on a pace to match last week’s total, provided I did four on Friday, as I did last week.

But it was a nice morning, temperatures moderate with a high blue sky, and I started to feel pretty good at about mile two. My pace was moderate to slow — about 9:30 — and I just decided to keep going and see what I had in me.

The result: eight miles in 1:16:40, a 9:35 pace and the longest run I’ve done in quite some time. That puts me at 21 for the week and 413 for the year (I think).

iPod selection was a mix of music (new Mellencamp song, Widespread Panic, Wilco, Springsteen and Elvis Costello) and podcasts (A “Bill Moyer’s Journal” from January and some poetry byYusef Komanyakaa).

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The McCain mystique

This piece by John Dickerson can only be considered a critique of the McCain campaign if one buys into the Straight-Talk myth the press created about the Arizona Republican eight years ago. Forget McCain’s flip-flops — the reality is that McCain only bucks his party when doing so will have few consequence and that, when it has counted, he almost always has been the loyal Bushie. Read Free Ride by David Brock and paul Waldmann for a detailed analysis of the McCain Mystique.

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Busting stereotypes

You’ve heard it before, the one about how the poor are lazy, how they’d rather live on welfare, how we’ve encouraged a culture of dependency. That’s the stereotype and, as a report issued today by the Poverty Research Institute shows, it is rather far from the reality.

The report found that one in five New Jersey families suffers from what it calls “income adequacy,” meaning they fail to earn enough to cover normal expenses for the region in which they live.

Two of the key myth-busters in the report are that:

  • 85 percent of families living below the sufficiency level have at least one breadwinner
  • one in eight families that have one member working full-time and year-round are living below the sufficiency level

The report goes into significant detail, outlining how the sufficiency level is calculated and what the levels are by county, as well as offering policy prescriptions. It is worth reading — and heeding.

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Death of Congo

As a dog lover (and owner), I find this story just too sad for words. Congo (pictured above, taken by Mark Czajkowski of the Princeton Packet), the dog involved in an attack on a landscaper earlier this year, attacked a family member and — along with three other dogs — was euthenized this morning.

The owners, Guy and Elizabeth James, had fought a months-long court battle to save Congo from being euthanized following a June 2007 attack on a landscaper, but now they have had four of the five dogs — Congo, Lucia, Hunter, and Bear — euthanized after their involvement in the Tuesday evening attack.

Police said Congo and the other animals pounced on 75-year-old Constance Ladd, the mother of Elizabeth James, as she left the house and was walking through the yard in order to leave the James’ Stuart Road West residence.

Ms. Ladd suffered puncture wounds and lacerations to head, chest and arm and complained of pain in her hip, according to emergency workers responding to a 911 call from the James’ residence.

I know this was difficult for the family, but I don’t know that they could have handled it any differently.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.