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1.? Important Business Meeting?Saturday, June 9 at 10:45 AM.?? Right after the breakfast.?? Help us plan summer ?high roller? fundraising event, reach out to students and visitors here for the summer, July Fourth Parade in Galloway, choose officers and trustees for next year.???? Shore Diner, Ttilton and Fire Roads by Parkway Exit 36.? Egg Harbor Township, NJ.??? Meeting open to all voting and non-voting members.???? Non-voting members pay $30 dues and have no formal obligations.? Voting members pay $60 and must attend 3 business meetings each year and do at least one volunteer project each year.?? We have many people who want things to happen, but only a handful of active leaders? who make things happen.? Be one of those ?makers?.
2.??? We were surprised (and happy) that both ?Congressman Frank LoBiondo and Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson dropped by our breakfast last Saturday.???? (We welcome all elected officials of all parties to attend our breakfast meetings.)? Dennis Levinson spoke briefly on how half of homeless population for the entire State of New Jersey is now living in Atlantic City and killing the tourist business.
3.? Congressman Frank LoBiondo spoke informally at the breakfast and outside in the? parking lot.? He expressed a new willingness to work with conservatives in getting serious about our $16 trillion federal debt.??? He agrees that we long ago reached the point where there is a painless way to fix this problem.???? He may be ready to take some long overdue measures on a federal government that now borrows 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
4.? But if LoBiondo and the Republicans in Congress cut spending by 40% to end the deficits, nearly half of all Americans will lose all or part of the government benefits they have come to depend on.?? This will almost certainly cause hardship for many?and violence.?? Are you prepared for what is ahead of us?? ?Think of the hardship and dangers drug addicts and alcoholics suffer when stop taking the substances their bodies got used to?or of? obese persons who surgically remove parts of their stomachs when they cannot control what they eat. (By coincidence, Jonathan Mahon, the 16 year old son of Liberty and Prosperity president Dennis Mahon gave a presentation on survival techniques in the event of a major disaster during the breakfast.)
5.?? Tuesday, June 5 is Primary Election Day.? Anyone can choose to identify with either the Republican or Democrat parties and vote to select all candidates of the party they choose.??? ?The November elections is when you can only choose between the candidates?chosen by Republicans or Democrats (or ?Independent? candidates, who almost always lose.)? Unfortunately, few people run as candidates unless they are selected and supported by a handful of party insiders.? And very few independent conservatives vote in June primary elections, which make it difficult for outsiders to win.
One exception is?Northfield, in Atlantic County.??? Tea Party conservatives there formed a ?New Republican Party? organization and picked up two seats on the local town council last year.?? This year, they are running John Travagline for Second Ward City Council in the Republican primary against incumbent Republican Steve Vain.? The winner will run against Democrat candidate Frank Perri in November.
6.? Delegates to the Republican and Democratic national conventions are also being picked in the June 5, 2012 primary this year.
Governor Chris Christie, his Wall Street brother Todd Christie, Tom Kean, Sr., Susan Kyrillos, Jon Hanson, Kathleen Donovan, Marcia Silva, Aubrey Fenton, George Gilmore, Sherine El-Abd, Donald T. DiFrancesco, Jay Webber, John Amodeo, Sonia Harris, Keith Davis, Lynda Pagliughi, and Michael Donohue are among the delegates for Mitt Romney.
Michael Doherty, Harrison Fischberg, Murray Sabrin, Charles Ward, Thomas Ditmars, Donna Ward, John Fisher, and Ron Brittin are among the delegates for Ron Paul.
Some members of our group say it?s important to vote for Mitt Romney because he needs early and united support from all conservatives to beat Obama in November.??? But Ron Paul supporters say Romney would continue too many of the Obama policies to make a difference.??? Whatever you decide, please vote on Tuesday.
7.? For United States Senate, Jo Rullo, Bader Quarmout, Joe Kyrillos, and David Brown are candidates for the Republican nomination to run against Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Menendez.??? Some members of our group said Joe Rullo is the most articulate? conservative candidate,?? and that we should vote for him to send a message to state-wide party leaders.?? Others said that only Joe Kyrilloshas put together a serious state-wide campaign organization needed to defeat Democrat Menendez. They say we should show established Republican leaders that we understand the importance of organizing effective campaigns and spend our energy preparing to run effective ??candidates for State Senate, Assembly and County offices next year.
8.? For U.S. Congress, Mike Assad is challenging Frank LoBiondo in the Republican primary..??? Assad is using the label ?Conservative for a Change?.??? Assaid is a 24 year old who was elected to the Absecon School Board at age 18 when he was n high school.??? He was a member of Liberty and Prosperity briefly, but quit several years ago when he wanted a job with an established politician.?? Assad has not been to?any of our events since then.?? He has been accused by other members of the Absecon Board of Education at getting newspaper publicity,?and but not being an effective Board Member.?? Cassandra Shober, Viola Hughes, and Gary Stein are candidates in the Democratic primary.
9.??? In certain counties,?like Cape May County, Republicans are electing Party?County Committee for four year terms, and Democrats are elected County Committee for two year terms.??? The County Committees choose the County Chairman for the Party, and sometimes meet to fill vacancies.?? In many districts in Cape May County, no candidates filed nominating petitions.?? If your sample ballot shows that no candidate was nominated for County Committee in your district, why not make yourself a write-in candidate!?? Simply talk to a dozen friends and family members and write your name in as a candidate!?? You can be elected with as few at ten votes!
10.? Thanks to all who helped marched with us in the three Memorial Day parades in Northfield, Linwood, and Somers Point.??? Jonathan Mahon and Megan Quam, both high school students carried our Liberty and Prosperity banner, while 14 year old Matt Lewis and 12 year old Adam Myers beat the drums.??? Doug Stroz, Joe Czanecki, Joel Rubenfine, and Bob Glaser carried the POW/MIA, U.S., Don?t Tread on Me, and NJ flags.??? Pete Clark, Eileen Wood, Ute Langkau, Kelly Sr., Kelly Jr, and Matt Grillo, Ann and Mary Beth Cates, Nancy Hutchinson, Chrissie Martin, Rich Brys, Seth Grossman, Barbara Brown, and BJ Villon wore the patriot sashes and carried the symbolic wooden pikes draped with red liberty caps.?? Marine veteran Tim Phelan kept us somewhat in line and in cadence.? Clarence Abbott, Marc Hutchinson, Dennis Mahon, and Roger Stabile transported everyone to the three parades.? Mary Kazmarck documented the event with photos.?? Marissa Mahon made sure everyone was wel fed afterwards.
11.??? The independent New Jersey government authority that runs the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway is now proposing to eliminate the ?hidden? exit from the Parkway by milepost 41 to Jim Leeds Road right by the rest stop and Park-and Ride.?? This will cause much inconvenience and hardship to everyone who works, lives, or visits students at Stockton or patients at Atlantic City Medical Center, the Bacharach Rehab Center, or other businesses and doctor offices in Galloway Township.??? The people who run this Authority are notorious for rewarding political people with sweetheart contracts and borrowing lots of money without voter approval.?? They spent a fortune to chop down trees in Atlantic County and building an ?anti-terrorism fence? by Milepost 28 for no apparent reason.
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13.? Rough Draft Seth Grossman column for Current Newspaper for this week.? Please send your corrections, comments, and suggestions to sethgrossman49@gmail.com.
On Memorial Day,?I and about 30 other members of Liberty and Prosperity marched in the parades on Shore Road in the Mainland towns of Northfield, Linwood, and Somers Point in Atlantic County.
We displayed the portraits of Eric Rivera of Atlantic City, Anthony Sausto of Somers Point, and Bradley Iorio of Galloway Township who each volunteered to join the U.S. Army, and who died in Iraq at ages 21, 22, and 19 respectively.
When President Abraham Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War,?he said it was ?fitting and proper? to hold a ceremony?a dedicate a cemetery for those who gave their lives so that our exceptional nation, a nation ?conceived in liberty?, could live.
But Lincoln also said our brave soldiers, living and dead who struggled at Gettysburg had already consecrated that ground, and it was ?for us the living? who needed to be dedicated to their unfinished work.
Lincoln urged us to ?highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain?that this nation, under God,? shall have a new birth of freedom?and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth?.
And so besides displaying the portraits of our ?honored dead?, ??we also carried six foot wooden poles or pikes, draped with caps of soft red cloth.????? As we marched by, small children asked ?their parents, ?What are all those red things??????? Most parents did not answer because they did not know either.
There was a time when every American? knew the meaning of a red cap draped over a wooden pole.?? And when almost every American schoolchild could recite Lincoln?s complete speech, or address at Gettysburg from memory.
The red cap and wooden pole were important symbols of the American Revolution, and if you look at the two ladies on the New Jersey state flag?one representing Liberty and the? other Prosperity?you will notice that the goddess liberty is holding those symbols.
The red cap is known as the liberty cap or Phrygean cap.??? According to legend and tradition, this red cap was worn by slaves in ancient Rome who had somehow obtained their freedom.??? They wore the red cap to hide the brand of slavery on their heads, and to show the world that while they once had been slaves?they were now free.
The wooden pole, or pike, was also a symbol of liberty.??? Before the American built a society where every almost every citizen owned a firearm, the only weapon available to farmers, craftsmen, and ?tradesmen in Europe was a simple wooden pole or pike.
This weapon was totally useless against a knight or nobleman who rode a horse, wore armor, and carried a sword, lance, or gun.?????? If any ordinary citizen dared to defend? his home, his property or his freedom alone, using a simple wooden stick as a weapon, with a simple wooden stick, he would be killed instantly.
If the rest of the ordinary citizens in the county stayed home and did nothing when a handful of knights or nobles abused their power and wrongfully robbed another citizen of his or her liberty or property?if they had the attitude ?They?re not coming after me?so it?s not my problem?, , then? nobody in the county had any rights.???? Anyone could lose everything at any time.
But if every citizen in the county picked up his wooden pike to defend any citizen whose rights were threatened, they would overwhelm the the? knights and the nobles?and the liberty and property of every citizen was secure.
The Americans who created our nation in 1776, ?four score and seven? (87) years before Lincoln gave that speech at Gettysburg, combined the symbols of the red liberty cap and the wooden pole to remind us that we are free?and no longer slaves.???? But that our freedom depends on certain obligations.?? One of those obligations is for you personally?not some judge or lawyer?to read and understand ?each of the unalienable rights that are written and described in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution?and to teach your children to do the same.
And once you know and understand those rights, it is your obligation to protect and defend them?not just for you and your family, but for every American?even if it costs you everything you own.? Even if it costs you your life.
14.? For last week?s published column ?State kicks in $400 Million for Revel Casino, but won?t pay to get mentally ill off the street?, go to http://www.
