An absolutely beautiful morning for a run outside. Yes, I managed to get outside and log 3.5 miles around my neighborhood in about 32 minutes. Not a great time, but a great feeling. Onward and upward, as they say!
I am not the only New Jersey columnist who believes the state needs to rethink how its local governments are organized. Alfred Doblin, editorial page editor for The Record, takes on the sacred cow of home rule in his column today:
What is more important: Quality education or a local school district? Is the firefighter less competent because he or she answers to a regional supervisor instead of a local chief? Does it matter if the municipality, county or an independent contractor removes snow as long as the snow is removed?
He likens the state’s fiscal crisis to the Chicago fire that destroyed that city in the late 19th Century, saying New Jersey has “burned down” and adding that “We should not build it like it was.” As he says of the sacred cow of “Home rule” — a “very big cow”: “it’s time it either produced a beverage or became an entrée.”
The fiscal reality is bleak. But there are ways of providing many of the services we expect while still spending less. We don’t have too many teachers. We don’t have too many parks. We don’t have too many roads. We have too many districts. We have too many municipalities. We have too many departments that essentially duplicate other departments.
It is in the new governor’s hands. Gov. Chris Christie, Doblin says, “has the personality to withstand the blowback from reactionaries afraid of change.” But does he have the vision? Is he willing to take on the web of problems that have created our fiscal mess, or does he plan to just slash indiscriminately, balancing the books but breaking our backs?
The jury is still out, though his budget freeze — which essentially will create problems for many school districts next year and exacerbates pension problems — raises some concerns.
Ultimately, though, as Doblin points out,
Change is happening. The issue is whether it is change for the better or for the worse. It is time to put the home-rule sacred cow on the altar of fiscal sanity.
In desperate times, every cow is accountable. Either produce milk or end up as hamburger.
That may not be popular, but it has to happen.
Aside from their injuries, Rosie and Sophie are getting along just fine today — a day after what probably was their worst fight and first in almost three months.
This is no surprise; dogs have short memories when they fight and long memories when it comes to the people they love.
Wouldn't it be nice if humans were the same way?
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Call this the perfect ending to the perfect week, a dog fight that drew blood and left my arm with a painful bruise.
The dogs were outside, sniffing around in the grass and mud, much of the snow having melted. Everything was fine until they found an old, muddy piece of rawhide that they must have left behind before the snow came.
I was watching them from the window when I saw them stiffen and tense up. I went out, grabbed the rawhide and then — call me stupid — attempted to toss it over the fence. It missed, landed in the yard and the dogs got to it and then got into it.
I was outside by myself, which made it difficult to stop — I got behind one and lived her like a wheelbarrow, but the other one kept coming. AFter what seemed like an eternity, my neighbors came running over and Annie’s sister Susan came out of the house along with my brother Mark. Susan grabbed one dog and I had the other and we finally pulled them apart.
Both had bloody wounds, a gash on Rosie’s snout and a larger gash on Sophie’s leg, but I think they look worse than they actually are. We put peroxide on the wounds — which caused Sophie to scream from the burning — and we’ll monitor the situation for now and hope they heal on their own.
In the meantime, they have decided to be friends again, as the above photo shows.
It was the first fight since Christmas Eve and probably would not have happened were I able to get to them sooner or had I been smarter about disposing of the rawhide.
It was just a capper to a week that included a death of a close friend of my sister-in-law, bad news at work that will make paying my bills more difficult and a brutal cold. It has to get better, right?
I got on the treadmill today and ran three miles in 26:51 — a good run given my recent history. My only hope of regaining consistency is to post these things and ask my readers to call me on my laziness. Next run is planned for Thursday.
