The controversy over the venue for the Neptune High School graduation started last July when “a member of the public” objected to the venue on religious reasons at a workshop meeting of the board. Minutes of the school board meeting do not say who the person is.
A member of the Neptune Board of Education refused to reveal the name of the person, siting board policy.
Media reports in the APP and on News Channel 4 have said that the complainant is a “non-district woman,” and the grandmother of a student who graduated last year.
Blogfinger, who otherwise has done a very good job covering the story, including publishing a timeline of the district’s communication with the ACLU, is also protecting the ornery granny’s identity.
Even members of the facebook group that is rallying public support to keep they traditional graduation at the Great Auditorium are withholding the name of the grandmother.
I don’t get it. Commenting anonymously on a blog is one thing. Threatening legal action anonymously, and having that threat taken seriously is another.
MMM is going to find the identity of the ACLU’s client in this case. We will publish it when we do. If you know who it is, please post as much information as you have it in the comments.
Blogfinger is reporting that the Neptune Board of Education met with approximately 200 students, parents and residents last night to discuss the ACLU’s threat to file suit over use of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s Great Auditorium for the high school’s graduation.
Board President John Daniels said that the board “is one hundred percent behind the cause of this event….to continue at the Great Auditorium.”
Superintendent David Mooij said that no lawsuit has been filed, that the negotiations continue with the ACLU and that other venues for the graduation, including the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, will be considered if the ACLU gets an injunction against holding the graduation at the same venue where it has been held for six decades or more.
Mooij encouraged those at the meeting to rally public support for the traditional graduation by writing letters to the editor and speaking out at other forums, yet said that “the legal arguments will determine the outcome” rather than public sentiment.
The pantywaists running the Neptune school district are caving to the ACLU without a fight. What a bunch of kittens. Kittens, kittens, kittens.
As reported in the Asbury Park Press, the ACLU wants the Neptune school district to break a 60 year tradition of holding their high school graduation in the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s (GOD’S SQUARE MILE AT THE JERSEY SHORE), Great Auditorium.
The ACLU hasn’t filed suit. The are jawboning the kittens into compliance with the threat of a suit.
The ACLU is arguing that the graduation being held at a religious venue with crosses is a violation of the first amendment separation of church and state.
If the sight of a cross at a secular event violates the separation of church and state, then school buses should be prohibited from driving past churches, synagogues or mosques for fear that a student will see a religious symbol while being transported at government expense.
The ACLU’s chief bully, state legal director Ed Barocas told the APP, “They are making it uncomfortable for non-Christians to appreciate their child’s graduation. It gives the impression that there are certain people that are insiders and others who are outsiders.”
Well, there are certain people who are insiders and others who are outsiders. That has nothing to do with religion. Anyone who has a problem with that, like Barocas, is an outsider and a loser. Next he’ll be wanting to do away with football and cheerleading.
The head pantywaist, Superintendent David “Kitten” Mooij, has already caved to certain of bully Barocas’ demands. He has removed the convocation and the singing of “Onward Christian Soldiers” from the program. Bully Barocas is not satsified, he wants the graduation held somewhere other than the 3000 seat auditorium.
Bully Barocas is all wet and Kitten Mooij should stand up to him. Let the bully sue. Kitten Mooij is probably worried about the legal fees. He should ask the NJEA for help, they burnt $6 million on political ads last year that made absolutely no difference. The NJEA would get more good will from defending the kittens of Neptune than they will from their silly TV and newspaper ads bashing Governor Christie.
The Great Auditorium is building, an auditorium. It holds both religious and secular events. Tim Conway, Tony Bennet, Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra, JR are performing their in August. There is a Doo Wop Extravaganza scheduled for Labor Day weekend.
There has to be an attorney somewhere who can win this case, if there is a case.
If kittens like Mooij keep caving every time the ACLU calls, just because they call and the kittens don’t think they can pay for a fight, then the ACLU will always win and keep being a bully.
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels would like to run for president, according to an article in The Huffington Post that quotes a Daniels advisor.
Convincing his wife, Cheri, to support his presidential bid is said to be Daniels challenge. The Daniels divorced in 1993 and remarried in 1997. Cheri married and divorced another man during that four year period. She is said to be reluctant to expose that period of her life to the media spotlight of a presidential campaign.
In addition to his marriage, Daniels will face questions about his role as a senior executive at Eli Lily from 1990 until 2001 when he became President George W. Bush’s budget director. During his tenure at Lily, the drug maker paid $2.7 billion in fines and damages in criminal and civil matters concerning for illegally marketing two of its drugs. Lily has said that Daniels had nothing to do with the agreements to settle the criminal charges.
If he gets into the race, Daniels could dominate what is considered by most a weak field on GOP candidates considering a challenge to President Obama in 2012. He is considered a strong fiscal conservative. As governor, he put an end to collective bargaining for public service workers, expanded school vouchers, and signed a bill that defunded Planned Parenthood.
Daniels turned a budget deficit into an budget surplus in Indiana. How he did it will cause some tap dancing for any New Jersey Republicans who decide to back the head Hoosier. He leased Indiana’s East-West toll road to foreign investors for 75 years, raising $3.8 billion dollars. Sound familiar? Jon Corzine might still be governor had he not emulated Daniel’s plan to restructure New Jersey’s fiscal mess.
Daniels has close ties to Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, going back to the 1970’s when Lugar was mayor of Indianapolis. He ran Lugar’s senate office and his campaigns. He was political director in the Reagan White House, turned down an opportunity to be appointed to Dan Qualye’s U.S. Senate seat to enter the private sector and returned to government service as Bush’s budget director.
By Joseph Reynolds, Co-Chair, Bayshore Watershed Council
New Jersey’s world famous beaches are a public space that bring people together
as equals. Yet, if Governor Christie gets his way it’s possible that new beach
access rules will dramatically reduce a New Jerseyan’s right to view, use and
enjoy the state’s rivers, bays and coast for fishing, swimming, jogging,
surfing, kayaking, birding, beachcombing, walking the dog, or simply enjoying a
stroll in the surf or along an urban waterfront.
New rules recently announced by NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin will roll back
years of hard-won progress by placing much of the control and authority over
beach access squarely in the hands of local towns. This is a system that has
proved disastrous for decades, as more than forty years of litigation over easy
public beach access has demonstrated.
Easy access to public beaches is not a tradition in New Jersey. It has only come
about after hard fought litigation between coastal advocates and towns or
business. Decades of poor planning by local politicians and planning boards has
lead to quite a few beachfronts now bordered by either a concrete wall or a wall
of private homes, townhouses, and commercial businesses.
There is a long history of many beach towns working against public access by
limiting on-street parking, limiting access from only dawn to dusk, installing
parking meters, prohibiting food and drink, and providing no public bathrooms.
It seems clear that many coastal towns are not accommodating the public’s right
to enjoy their water, but accommodating their desire to control public land use
for their financial benefit.
New beach access rules will only make matters worse and undo decades of progress
in ensuring the public’s right to walk on their beaches — many of which are
currently maintained with state tax dollars. New rules do not protect
year-round, 24-hour access, nor do they preserve current public access points.
New rules do not offer much in the way of public participation and there is no
provision on how NJDEP will enforce the plan or provide oversight to make sure
coastal communities provide ample and fair beach access.
A Rutgers-Eagleton survey paid for by the Surfrider Foundation recently found
more than 82 percent of those surveyed want towns that get beach replenishment
funds to provide better public access. Yet, the proposed NJDEP public access
rules contain no such requirement.
All of these issues provide great concern to New Jersey residents. Instead of
maximizing public access while ensuring the fair treatment of all people, the
new beach access rules proposed by the Christie administration will divide
people into income groups and put town against town to re-fight battles that
have already been won.
While Governor Christie says you should be able to freely enjoy our state’s
beautiful coastline, unfortunately his new beach access rules will make it
increasingly difficult to reach them.
I strongly encourage you to opposes the new public beach access rules and urge
anyone who wants to protect their right to enjoy New Jersey’s coastal waterways
(including Delaware Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, Barnegat Bay, and the
Hudson/Raritan estuary) to make your voice heard. Please contact Governor
Christie and NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin to demand that more public hearings
be held so that the working people who will be most severely impacted by the
proposed rules will actually be able to be part of the public discussion.
Christie Administration Urges School Districts To Spend $200 Million In Stimulus Funds
There is $200 million in unspent federal stimulus earmarked for New Jersey Schools that will have to be returned to the federal government unless spent by August, according to a report at NJ Spotlight.
