We just got back from the high school, where the township hosted its annual fireworks display. We arrived as the Philadelphia Funk Authority (I’ll refrain from saying anything about them) was finishing up and the rain was slowly building. They shut the band early and kicked off the fireworks before dark. A nice display, even in the rain, hanging with family amid the local faithful.
The thing about an evening like this is that it can remind us what patriotism is supposed to be about — a shared sense of ourselves. I am a fierce critic of the current administration and much of what our government has done in our names across its history, but I remain a staunch defender of the basic values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, viewing them as a plan for our future, knowing that the nation we live in has not always been the best that it can be and appreciating those special Americans who have been willing to fight to make it better– people like Mother Jones and Martin Luther King Jr., the Wobblies and the Yippies, the two Father Berrigans, the muckraking journalists of the Progressive Era, the Populist movement, the suffragists and so on.
There’s a petition making the rounds in Cranbury (see Friday’s Press for details) seeking to get the Township Committee to put the question of whether the PNC Bank building should be purchased by the township back on the table.
The bank, which is for sale with a pricetag of around $1.4 million, has become a somewhat contentious issue, with supporters viewing it as a way to provide parking and expand library services and opponents seeing it as an unnecessary cost. It appears that opinion is split pretty equally, though that is not something that is easily determined.
A majority on the committee (Stave, Stannard and Stout) appears to favor a study, though a fourth would be needed to actually move ahead with the sale. And right now both Tom Panconi and Wayne Wittman oppose it.
Wittman, of course, has opted not to seek re-election this year and the bank sale could have an impact on the race for his seat — the same way that the Updike property decision helped Democrats several years ago.
We’ve come out editorially in favor of the purchase, though I can see the merit of both arguments. I still believe the purchase can work for the township, but not if it divides the community.
As a compromise, it would make sense to do a study that looks examines not just the initial cost but the cost of renovations and how borrowing to cover the purchase and renovations would affect the township’s credit and debt load.
Once that’s done, the committee should consider putting the PNC sale on the ballot in a non-binding referendum designed to gauge community interest.
What the committee needs to do is diffuse the bank as a divisive issue so that it doesn’t poison debate in town on other issues.
John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, proves how little he knows about the economy every time he opens his mouth on the economy. Consider the add embedded in this post in light of this story from The New York Times:
About 62,000 jobs disappeared in June, the government reported Friday, the sixth consecutive month that payrolls have declined, as businesses rushed to lay off workers amid the worst economic climate in a generation.
And as job losses mount, even those still on payrolls have felt the pain: employers are putting hours for their full-time employees and shrinking salaries, just as workers face record-high prices for gasoline and food.
The unemployment rate stayed steady in June at 5.5 percent, the highest level in four years. The elevated figure dispelled speculation among some economists that last month’s half-percentage point jump, the biggest monthly spike in 22 years, was a statistical anomaly.
Indeed, employers have been steadily shedding jobs for the last three months. Businesses cut 52,000 more workers in May and April than the government first thought, the Labor Department said, casting aside initial estimates that suggested some deceleration.
In the last 12 months, the economy had seen a net gain of only 15,000 jobs, the lowest net increase since November 2003.
In the last 50 years, the economy has entered a recession every time jobs have dropped for six consecutive months.
And most Americans who are still employed earned less money in June than they did a year ago. Wages, which have been steadily shrinking in recent months, took a sharp hit last month, growing at the slowest pace since September 2005.
Among rank-and-file workers, who make up the majority of the nation’s work force, weekly paychecks have grown 2.8 percent in the last 12 months. That was down from 3.2 percent in May and well below the rate of inflation.
Average hourly earnings grew 3.4 percent, the slowest pace since the start of 2006.
McCain’s response to the report — boilerplate Republican nonsense — is equally as illuminating:
“At a time when our small businesses need support from Washington, we cannot raise taxes, increase regulation and isolate ourselves from foreign markets,” Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate, said in a statement. He called for tax relief, job creation, and investment in innovation.
So, workers are hurting so we’ll … help … business…..? And while he speaks of small business, we all know that the businesses most likely to benefit will not be so small.
Hank Kalet 