Ran four today (27.5 for the week!), which was probably pushing it, and I am paying for it now. My right hip is sore and I maybe getting a slight cold. Will have to hit the vitamin C.
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I posted an open thread question at Blue Jersey yesterday asking for a progressive solution to the state’s fiscal mess. Go here to participate.
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I’m just not buying this decision. It is OK for a commercial entity to use an inflatable sign to draw attention to itself, but not a labor union or political organization waging a protest? That seems rather inconsistent, though the appellate court seems to think that’s value neutral.
All inflatable signs, other than grand opening signs, are prohibited. DeAngelo contends that the “Township has exhibited an explicit preference for commercial speech, i.e., inflatable grand opening signs, at the expense of all other inflatable signs.” However, a regulation is considered content-neutral so long as it does not differentiate between different speakers or messages.
Seems to me that an ordinance that would allow a car dealership to put up an inflatable elephant to announce its grand opening but does not allow a union to use a giant inflatable rat to protest against the use of non-union labor — or, to demonstrate the impact on the other side of the political aisle, an inflatable sign announcing a group’s opposition to abortion — “differentiate(s) between different speakers or messages.”
But that’s just me.
There’s more: The court essentially ruled that towns have a right to determine how messages can be disseminated. Handbills, fine. Conversations, check. The demonstration — even that’s OK.
But bring in a giant rat to draw attention to the protest — well that’s just not protected speech.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t get it.
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OK: 24 days and counting until I hit the pavement in Long Beach Island. I did an 11-mile run this morning (listening to Springsteen — “I’m a rocker, baby I’m a rocker…”) in 1:50:34 — that’s one hour, 50 minutes and 34 seconds, or 10 minutes and 3 seconds per mile. Not a bad pace, though the soreness is kicking in about now — mostly abdominal muscles, because I worked them yesterday and the need to keep good posture puts a lot of pressure on them, as well. In any case, here is what I wrote at the end of today’s Dispatches (a longer take tomorrow on the LBI run in The Cranbury Press):
I will be running in the 35th annual LBI Commemorative 18-Mile Run in Long Beach Island on Oct. 7, which raises money for the St. Francis Community Center in Brant Beach. It will be the first time I participate in a race like this — I’ve done a few 5Ks, including the South Brunswick run last year — but the longer distance is a different kind of challenge.
My goal is to finish without walking and to raise some money on the side for the South Brunswick Human Intervention Trust Fund. To that end, I’m asking readers to help by sending me donations, which I will then forward on to the township’s Division of Social Services. Readers who are interested in donating should send checks made out to the South Brunswick Human Intervention Trust Fund to the South Brunswick Post, P.O. Box 309, Dayton, N.J. 08810, attn: Hank Kalet.
They not only will help local families in need, but will give me the extra motivation I may need to finish the race.
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The Sunday poetry series is back at the South Brunswick Library beginning this week, Sept. 16, at 2 p.m., featuring Gretna Wilkinson. Read the Time Off story on it here.
Here is the release:
Gretna Wilkinson — whose poetry speaks to issues of human suffering, children and love — will be the featured reader on September 16 when South Brunswick’s monthly series of Sunday poetry readings resumes following a summer hiatus.
The program, sponsored by the South Brunswick Arts Commission, in cooperation with the South Brunswick Public Library, starts at 2 p.m. in the Library, 110 Kingston Lane, Monmouth Junction.
Born and raised in Guyana, South America, Wilkinson works also address aspects of Guyanese culture. She gives several performances each year and works as a professor in the English Department at County College of Morris in New Jersey. As a Guyanese African American, she specializes in African American Literature and wrote her dissertation on the works of Gwendolyn Brooks, first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in the U.S.A.
Ms. Wilkinson began her teaching career as a missionary teacher in Guyana. She is published in various publications including Poets of New Jersey From Colonial to Contemporary, and Spindrift. A Senior Fellow of the Southern Regional Educational Board, she also teaches creative writing in the Visual and Performing Arts Academy of Red Bank Regional High School.
The Sunday poetry readings will run through May 2008 and also feature:
Oct. 14 — Nancy Scott and Maxine Susman
Nov. 18 — Diane Lockward
Dec. 16 — Sam Friedman
Jan. 20 -– Hank Kalet
Feb. 17 — TBA
March 16 — Jack Wiler
April 20 — TBA
May 18 — TBA
For more information, including directions, contact the South Brunswick Arts Commission at (732) 329-4000, ext 7635, or Hank Kalet at otherhalf@comcast.net.
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Hank Kalet 