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6
February 2, 2012
Because you were probably
too busy, I watched the State of
the Union address by President
BarackObama for you last week.
Good of me, wasn't it? But
here's the deal, you didn't really
miss too much. OK, maybe that's
not exactly right, youwere spared
his really lame effort at a joke
and a tiny glimpse of the leader of
the freeworld's temper.
He's not exactly happy with
most of the members of Congress,
can you imagine? He's more than
annoyed at all the Republicans
and maybe some Democrats who
are stifling his efforts to make the
changes he promised when he
campaigned.
And it seemed that every elect-
ed official fromhere toD.C. want-
ed to tell me exactly where the
President went wrong or right in
his address in an email the next
morning.
Seriously.
More than 200 emails, sent to
every news outlet of any kind
across the country, awaited my
attention the morning after the
Presidential address, and I could
tell you what they said without
every reading any of 'em.
The Democrats all thought he
did a swell job and was right on
target but suspected he might not
be able to deliver on his plans
because of
those nasty,
e v i l
Republicans in
Congress. The Republicans
decided he was lying, foolish,
divisive and putting the country
on a path of destruction from
which it cannever recover.
Aren't you glad I simplified
that for you? Actually, it was pret-
ty easy. These guys are as pre-
dictable as the cycle of themoon.
The speech was rousing and
the President proposed a great
number of new tax incentives
that certainly should appeal to a
Mayor's campaign
funding questioned
To the editor:
From the Candidate Committee
Page for (Wayne) Mayor (Al)
Haidous datedOct. 23, 2011 submit-
ted by the Citizens for Adul H.
Haidous, I found the following:
$21,726.33 was reportedly collected
from 71 addressees. Of the 71
addressees, only five are City of
Wayne addressees. Of these five,
Mayor Haidous is one. One other is
surnamedHaidous.
The percentage of addressees in
the City of Wayne donating to the
election campaign of Mayor
Haidous is approximately 7 per-
cent (7.042254 percent).
A little more than 92 percent
(92.957746 percent) of the
addressees who gave Mayor
Haidousmoney are not in the city.
Of the reported $21,726.33, a lit-
tle more than 14 percent
(14.51961744 percent) or $3,154.58
came fromaddressees inWayne.
Of that small portion of local
money----$3m154,58----over 77 per-
cent (77.81004127 percent) came
fromMayorHaidous.
Of the total of $21,726.33 made
available to Mayor Haidous, more
than 85 percent (85.48038 percent)
came from addressees not in the
city.
It is unfortunate so much inter-
est in this campaign of our small
and beloved city should come from
the outside of it. I wonder why so
Last week, during the Plymouth Ice Festival, we were
reminded of comedian Steven Wright's line, “Anyplace is
walking distance if youhave enough time.”
At the very strong risk of indignant letters from the various
worthwhile charities and civic groups involved, we'd like to
comment that a “free” event, sponsored by generous dona-
tions from area businesses is not “free” when visitors have to
pay $5minimumto park anywhere near it.
This isn't a criticismof the organizers of the event, it is just
the way things have developed in the community. As the
economy spiraled downward, donations for many of these
worthy causes and valuable groups decreased, leaving them
searching for new means of fundraising. The idea of getting
local businesses with large parking lots to allow them to
block them off and charge the public a fee to park for the
“free” events in the community seemed to be a good one and
surely generated some revenue for the groups. But we find it
discomfiting, at best, to publicize a free event repeatedly, only
to realize that to attend, there is a hefty fee for parkingwithin
a reasonablewalking distance.
There is no parking along side streets in the community as
the police, in response to residents' complaints about being
inconvenienced or even blocked in or out of their own drive-
ways, have posted the surrounding residential streets with no
parking signswhich include aheavy fine.
If people come to the event from, say, Belleville, and
haven't been to downtown Plymouth before for any of the fes-
tivals, the Art in the Park event, the Green Street Fair, the
Rotary Chicken Barbecue or the fall festival, they traveled to
the community expecting to attend a free event. They didn't
expect to pay $5 for parking, which really amounts to an
admission fee.
It was a good idea for a fundraiser for the groups, and
obviously, lucrative when every $5 fee goes to the organiza-
tion which uses the money to benefit the community as a
whole. We don't doubt the worthiness of the causes for a
moment.
We do feel uncomfortable, however, with promoting a free
event throughout the area, in the newspapers, on TV and
radio, only to have visitors discover there is no parking with-
out paying. The sponsors of the event, many of whomdonated
thousands of dollars, did so on the basis that theirmoney pro-
vided an event that was free to the public.
For many, who work in the community, to find a volunteer
from one of the civic groups at the blocked off entry to the
parking lot of their place of employment asking for $5 for the
privilege of going to work on Friday or Saturday, left an
unpleasant view of the event as a whole, one as far removed
from the goals of the organizers and committee members as
couldbe imagined.
We don't know the answer to the conundrum. The groups
do good work and the funds are used for only the best pur-
poses. But the irritation and annoyance of being charged to
enter a “free” event is more prevalent than many might real-
ize.
Voting
rights are
threatened
Last week, we heard a comment
about the conflict in Plymouth
Township between the residents
and officials that simplified the
issue beyond any logic.
The person in question vehe-
mently claimed that the entire
imbrogliowas amatter of the town-
ship firefighters not being willing
to take wage concessions while
every other union in service in the
municipality did.
If only it were that simple. And
that may have been the impetus to
the current situation, but it has
gone far, far beyond any contract or
wage dispute. This situation has
escalated, for whatever reasons,
into what appears to us, a clear
and dangerous violation of the civil
rights of at least 4,000 people.
Our logic is pretty clear, we
think. Take the firefighters union
and negotiations out of the equa-
tion. Let's just, for the sake of clari-
ty, say that 4,000 people petitioned
the township board for the right to
paint the new township hall pur-
ple. Bright, Barney the Dinosaur,
purple.
Now, the color of the township
hall isn't the fire department fund-
ing, as the board members are so
quick to point out, and the legisla-
tion in place regarding equipment,
property or services, or even land
acquisition in a Special
Assessment District are convoluted
and complex.
But, if 4,000 people in the town-
ship of 28,000 or so signed a peti-
tion asking for the right to vote on
the issue, they should have the
right to do so. They should not be
denied the right to vote. It is that
simple.
Not in Plymouth Township,
apparently, where the rules seem
to be different. The township
board of trustees fought the effort
of a group of 4,000 residents seek-
ing a vote on the funding of their
fire department tooth and nail and
were in court on the issue three
times before a judge ordered them
to allow these people their consti-
tutional right to vote. They then
colluded to find the means to vio-
late the spirit, if not the letter, of
the judge's order and put the issue
on the ballot, as she ordered, but
raised the amount the petitioners
had requestedby 10 times.
This issue, to us, smacks of dem-
agoguery and dictatorship and
should be carefully watched and of
serious interest to citizens through-
out the state.
Because if the officials in
Plymouth Township can, by what-
ever means, deny citizens the right
to vote on an issue, how far will
such an insult to our system of gov-
ernment reach?
We're very concerned about the
issue.
We're even more concerned at
the apathy, misinformation and
confusion that seems to surround
it.
Letters
See
Address,
page 7
See
Letters,
page 7
But the irritation and annoyance
of being charged to enter a “free” event
is more prevalent than many might realize.
”
Aren't you glad I simplified that for you?
Actually, it was pretty easy.
These guys are as predictable
as the cycle of the moon.
”
It’s just the same old song and dance
Parking for ‘free’ city events can be costly