Historical uncertaintiesand the Monroe high school

Ah the vicissitudes of historical debate.

The efforts by Monroe — the Township Council and the school board — to push forward with plans for a new high school on a 35-acre section of Thompson Park have turned what otherwise might be an esoteric historical question into a massive controversy with huge implications for public policy and Monroe taxpayers.

The question: Where exactly was Bethel Indian Town (also known as the Bethel Mission) actually located?

The answer appears to depend on which historian you speak with.

Monroe Township Historian John Katerba places the encampment, at which Presbyterian missionary David Brainerd converted the Delaware Indians to Christianity (or, at least, tried to), at or near the Jamesburg Municipal Building near the corner of Forgate Drive and Perrineville Road — at the southwestern corner of Thompson Park. He said the

Monroe Township Historical Society researched the Bethel site in the 1970s and concluded it was located near the Jamesburg Municipal Building. He said the research was based on “evidence or things that people had witnessed or documented,” including early 1800s documentation from Alexander Redman, who bought the property at that time.

Richard Walling, a historical consultant from Somerville, has a different location in mind — “at the headwaters of the Wigwam Brook, which was located in what is now Thompson Park.”

He said he has 19th-century geological survey maps and a 1953 Middlesex County engineering map that put the brook’s headwaters in the location where the high school is to be built.

And then there is the survey by Richard Grubb and Associates, a Cranbury archeological firm. It shows no evidence of a settlement on the high school site.

(Township Business Administrator Wayne) Hamilton said the results show no sign of the 40 cabins, two schools and church said to make up the 18th-century mission, which many believe was located on the Thompson Park parcel.

“There is absolutely no evidence of that kind of settlement being on the 35 acres,” he said. “This is based on hard, scientific evidence.”

Mr. Hamilton said the survey did turn up some artifacts but added that “with any property in New Jersey, it’s not unusual to find artifacts.”

Richard Grubb said Thursday that the company is “recommending that we did not find Bethel.”

From my perspective, there just doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to hault the high school project. Let’s get the building up.

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An acceptable level of violence?

The president acutally said this yesterday, during a speech to the Associated General Contractors of America in Washington:

And the definition of success as I described is sectarian violence down. Success is not, no violence. There are parts of our own country that have got a certain level of violence to it. But success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve.

It’s received some press coverage — though not nearly enough. Violence, he is saying, is OK. It will be there. It is a fact of life.
There is violence in East St. Louis and Newark and Trenton — and that’s just the way it is, this president says. “Success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives.”
Comfortable? Acceptable? Humans are remarkably adaptive and will find ways to get along no matter what the circumstances. So the Iraqis live through the violence and find ways to make due — same as those Americans who are stuck in drug-scarred neighborhoods. That doesn’t make it right.
Then, this is pretty standard from a president who has shown little compassion for America’s cities, who pretty much ignored New Orleans in the days immediately after the hurricane hit, who has only visited New York for fundraisers and photo-ops (and a political convention), who rarely ventures outside of his comfort zone.
In many ways, this comment is like Sen. John McCain’s stroll through the Baghdad market — or like Bush I’s attempt to buy socks during the 1992 presidential campaign — another example of how out of touch the president and his administration is.
It also is another example of the president’s shifting rationale for the war and for remaining in Iraq — we’ve moved from weapons of mass destruction to deposing Saddam to imposing democracy to maintaining order to … to what? And that’s the point. What exactly are we hoping to accomplish?
It’s time to get out.
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Bring ’em home

Juan Cole is right: The president’s veto of the withdrawal timeline needs aresponse, but John Edwards’ approach — to send the same bill back to the president until he signs it — is probably the wrong one politically.

It is satisfying to say so, but it probably isn’t good political tactics. When Newt Gingrich played politics with the budget under Clinton and even shut down DC, it was Congress that took the hit in the polls. Just being obstreperous isn’t very attractive.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha appears to have the best idea on this — as Cole points out:

Murtha is suggesting that they don’t fund a whole year, maybe only two months. That sort of conditionality, whatever its mechanism, seems right to me.

The key is to find a way to fund the troops, but begin the process of getting them home. In the meantime, war opponents need to turn up the pressure by expanding their protests. This thing has gone on way too long.

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