**A New Weekly Editorial Feature**
DON'TCHA
THINK...OR DON'T YA ?
Jim
Kinkade
Editor and Publisher of The Franklin Sentinel
Jim & his Golden Retriever "Red"
Have you heard the radio ads in which Governor Christie Whitman touts how the
"Republican" legislators are giving you back a nice property tax rebate.
I can't help but wonder where that nice money they're "giving back" to
me came from. Is it from their own pockets? Or is it money they stole from my pockets
during the past five years that they've had control of the legislature? And guess
when those nice rebates are going to arrive in your mail boxes?
Could it be just
before the elections next November? Yep... you guessed right!
You also should
remember that you're not getting all the money you should. The cost of sending out
millions of rebate checks will cost a fortune. If those taxes would have been sent
to the state's municipalities for property tax relief, instead of to each taxpayer,
it would save millions and reduce our taxes even more.
But then it would have
been hard for our legislators to take claim for giving you back your own money. Can
we really be so stupid as to fall for this old trick again and keep electing those
who keep doing it to us?
Speaking about wasted ~money. Can you believe that
the Postal Service spent more than $5 million in France, sponsoring a bicycle team
for the Tour de France? They also spent $124,000 for a retirement party for outgoing
Postmaster General Marvin Runyon, and gave out $9 million in bonuses to executives.
Your local post office is also selling all sorts of things, such as neckties, Christmas
videos, etc., that have nothing to do with speeding up the delivery of mail. And
then they raised the price of a first class stamp to 33 cents! Doesn't seem right,
does it?
Franklin Township is gearing up for it's seventh annual Community
Day, to be held this year on September 11th. Anyone who wishes to participate in
this year's events should contact Carol Coulbourn at the Franklin Township Municipal
Building for more information. I can't help but wonder why Freeholder Director Stephen
Sweeney is so adamant about advising towns not to get locked up with a single water
company before exploring their alternatives Seems' to me that he should follow his
own advice when it comes to allowing towns to shop for trash disposal services. How
about it Director?
I just love the fact that our President, who just months
ago was so concerned about saving Social Security, has now decided to spend that
surplus to buy bombs to dump on Kosovo. You can bet the farm, that"after we
bomb the country into rubble, we'll spend billions more to rebuild it.. that is if
we can ever win this war.
Maybe our senior citizens, should get together and
declare war on Washington. They could have a few bombs lobbed at them, surrender
and finally get the aid they deserve... Don'tch'a think... or Don't ya?
Don'tcha Think....or Don't Ya ?
TOP OF PAGE
I read an interesting story the other day about how network television probably
will not survive the next ten years... at least not as we know it now.
When I
was a boy, we only had three stations and they carried programming from NBC, CBS
and ABC. You either watched one of the "Big 3" or none at all. The "Big
3,, is now not so big anymore. Their lunch has been gobbled up by cable and video,
and as the number of cable channels continues to get bigger and bigger, their audience
continues to become smaller and smaller.
It is entirely possible that in the
not too distant future we may end up paying for most of our programming. As the net
works continue to lose viewers, and revenues, they won't be able to keep signing
billion dollar contracts to show major league sports.
The networks are already
asking local affiliates to help pay some of these costs, and the local stations aren't
too happy about it. But advertising revenues are based on the number of viewers you
can attract, and when that number goes down, so does your income.
If you were
to equally distribute the number of viewers on our local cable channels, taking into
consideration the number of sets that are turned off at any given time, and the number
that are either watching videos or playing video games or are on the internet, you
find the viewership of any one channel at only a few hundred homes.
That's not
enough to justify some of the advertising rates that are now being charged. As the
number of channels increases with fiber optics and digital TV, the number of viewers
watching any particular program will continue to decrease. That's bad news for the
cable companies that sell adyertising, but it's worse for the• viewer.
Without
advertising revenue, the only way to pay for programming is to charge the viewer.
And if there are not enough viewers to pay for the programming, you can bet that
many stations will go off the air.
So let's enjoy that Monday night football
game while we can~.. it may not be around too much longer.
*** *
Can you believe
that the l1 year old boy who was recently arrested in Vineland for turning in a bomb
scare bad been previously suspended 21 times?
Why is a "student", who
has been suspended 21 times for threatening other students and teachers, and threatening
to burn down the school, even allowed near the building?
This kid should be in
reform school, not public school. How can an administration allow this to happen?
Schools should be a place where children can go to learn and feel safe, not a place
where they have to worry about another student threatening them.
Why has Vineland's
Superintendent, Gerald Kohn, not petitioned the Board to expel a student like this
long, long ago? When I hear stories like this I no longer wonder why our school systems
are in such poor shape.. Don'tcha think... or Don't ya?.
Don'tcha Think....or Don't Ya ?
Book
mark this page to find it easily.
Every WEEK it will change.
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