I drove down Hamilton Avenue today and spotted several members of our armed forces in full uniform in the area of St. Francis Hospital.
Trenton High School's crumbling facade in the background struck me as stark contrast to the promise and dedication of these spiffy uniformed young men and women proudly strolling our city streets. It gave me a warm feeling to see them this Memorial Day weekend because this is what it is all about.
Remembering our fallen and acknowleging our present...
There are many ceremonies scattered all over our local area. Multiply that by hundreds of communities throughout the state and it becomes an awesome display of support and affection for our fighting forces.
I had an opportunity to visit my brother's grave a couple of years ago. He was in the Navy when he died and was buried where his wife and sons were living at the time, far from the hills of New Jersey.
The grave was marked by a simple bronzed plate, imbedded in the sod, and embraced by wisps of grass which softened the sharp corners and renewed with the seasons. This weekend it will have an American flag planted exactly a step from its face.
Whether in Arlington National Cemetery or in a tiny village in New Jersey, the method is always the same.
The soldier planting the flag puts his boot in front of the headstone or marker, toe touching, and jams the flag pole at his heel into the ground. This provides a uniform distance for every flag marching down the rows.
Leave it to the military to find a no-nonsense way to honor their fallen conrades.
One of the most touching ceremonies I can remember was back home at our local cemetery. The cemetery sprawled over a long sunny hillside and each year the town chose a different gravesite to honor for the ceremony.
The local Memorial Day parade ended up at the cemetery location with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Ambulance Corps and Volunteer Fire Department marchers in closed ranks. Businessmen and townspeople, some wearing Memorial Day poppies, gathered and watched local dignitaries lay a red, white, and blue carnation wreath at the chosen spot.
The American Legion Firing Squad fired their World War II carbines three times in salute, thundering through the little valley, sending ground hogs into their burrows and children burrowing into their mothers' shoulders.
Finally closing the ceremony, the lone bugler played Taps.
Then down the long sunny hill, from the deep shady green woods out of sight, a second bugle, softly and unexpectedly, precisely echoed the notes of the first. Note for note.
"Day is done, gone the sun, ...safely rest. God is nigh."
By this time I was always in the Kleenex, squinting against those tears, embarrassed and knowing that my mascara streaked.
That second bugler gets me every time, notes and shivers rushing over me, with years of wishing and waiting and hoping... but knowing that the sense of loss is as sharp and painful as it was over thirty years ago.
When an elderly parent dies, or a friend succumbs to long illness, it just is not as hard as that knock on the door... and the Captain standing before you in full uniform and all that gold braid...to deliver the news.
"Regret...to inform you..."
Back then, it was so very, very personal, that sense of not being able to say good-by, like 9/11 for all those thousands of people who died so suddenly and left so much unsaid.
I cut myself off from a lot of contact with our mutual friends after my brother's death. In fact, I did not even send Christmas Cards for over a decade as I tried to deal with the scars.
It still hurts to write about it today.
Pain of remembrance? And in the end, maybe this is truly the real gem of Memorial Day. Every single one of our tears is a diamond, reflected in a pool of mutual respect.
U.S.A. rocks!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Art All Night Needs Help This Weekend
Here is a flash bulletin!
Art All Night is having a work party this weekend at the site of this year's June event. All workers are welcome. Come at 10 am and coffee and donuts will be supplied to get your energy prepped.
If enough people come, it shouldn't take more than an hour or so.
Please bring:
a push broom (or any broom will do)
a dustpan for the sweepings.
a pair of gloves for safety's sake.
The address of the Roebling Wire Works is 675 South Clinton Avenue. Go to the entrance at the NJ Housing and Mortgage Finance Association parking lot.
This is a great way to get your holiday weekend going!
See you Saturday.
Art rocks.
Art All Night is having a work party this weekend at the site of this year's June event. All workers are welcome. Come at 10 am and coffee and donuts will be supplied to get your energy prepped.
If enough people come, it shouldn't take more than an hour or so.
Please bring:
a push broom (or any broom will do)
a dustpan for the sweepings.
a pair of gloves for safety's sake.
The address of the Roebling Wire Works is 675 South Clinton Avenue. Go to the entrance at the NJ Housing and Mortgage Finance Association parking lot.
This is a great way to get your holiday weekend going!
See you Saturday.
Art rocks.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Attention: Art All Night 2011
Drum roll, please. Save the dates everyone!
Saturday June 18 and Sunday June 19.
Hold the spot on your calendar for the 2011 edition of one of Trenton's hottest and most successful events. Join the more than 15 thousand visitors expected to stream through the Roebling Complex on Dye Street during round-the-clock festivities to experience everything from wine tasting to glass blowing demonstrations. This is the place to be this third weekend in June, 2011.
And of course there is art. Last year over six hundred artists brought in work to showcase in the soaring Roebling Wireworks building. Ranging from professional sculpture to kids' refrigerator art, there was something for everybody.
Art All Night is scheduled for 3 pm Saturday June 18 to 3pm Sunday 19, 24 hours of non-stop paintings and music and crafts and food and demonstrations and sculptures and films and....you get the idea!
We will post news and dates for volunteers...just in...bulletin...bulletin:
More Volunteers Needed! And all volunteers get to party before the show (as we set up) and wear free T Shirts! Register at http://www.artworkstrenton.org/artallnight/volunteer2
And this just in: Lynn Lemyre has just been selected to be the new Executive Director of Artworks! Yea! Lynn! Yippee!
Lynn was the former Director of the Burlington County Arts Center and when Burlington cut back its funding to the Division of Cultural Affairs and Tourism, she lost her spot. She is a find. Way to go Artworks! Way to go Lynn Lemyre!
Art rocks.
Saturday June 18 and Sunday June 19.
Hold the spot on your calendar for the 2011 edition of one of Trenton's hottest and most successful events. Join the more than 15 thousand visitors expected to stream through the Roebling Complex on Dye Street during round-the-clock festivities to experience everything from wine tasting to glass blowing demonstrations. This is the place to be this third weekend in June, 2011.
And of course there is art. Last year over six hundred artists brought in work to showcase in the soaring Roebling Wireworks building. Ranging from professional sculpture to kids' refrigerator art, there was something for everybody.
Art All Night is scheduled for 3 pm Saturday June 18 to 3pm Sunday 19, 24 hours of non-stop paintings and music and crafts and food and demonstrations and sculptures and films and....you get the idea!
We will post news and dates for volunteers...just in...bulletin...bulletin:
More Volunteers Needed! And all volunteers get to party before the show (as we set up) and wear free T Shirts! Register at http://www.artworkstrenton.org/artallnight/volunteer2
And this just in: Lynn Lemyre has just been selected to be the new Executive Director of Artworks! Yea! Lynn! Yippee!
Lynn was the former Director of the Burlington County Arts Center and when Burlington cut back its funding to the Division of Cultural Affairs and Tourism, she lost her spot. She is a find. Way to go Artworks! Way to go Lynn Lemyre!
Art rocks.
Friday, May 20, 2011
"Shared Sacrifice" vs Millionaires Tax
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has insisted time and again that his policies result in "shared sacrifice". The latest information from the Office of Legislative Services seems to contradict this.
The decline in income tax revenue between 2007 and 2009 was disproportionately at the high end. In other words, the wealthiest New Jersey residents paid $1.7 billion less that the previous period.
And our governor wants to continue this?
Our governor cut back schools and teachers, fire fighters and police, medical benefits for many civil service negotiated contracts, charity care for hospitals, tax rebates and senior citizen tax refunds, all in order to maintain his tax cuts for the wealthy.
Is this ethical?
According to the OLS report of the week of May 13, 2011, $1.3 billion was a decline in "tax liability" for incomes over that one million mark.
Get this: People with incomes less than $500,000 accounted for a mere $228 million of the decline. This dramatically illustrates New Jersey's top heavy income tax revenue and what happens when millionaires are relieved of tax liability.
Continued tax subsidy and relief for our states' millionaires, as campaigned by Governor Christie, perpetuate this lopsided contribution from our middle and low income residents.
Case in point is the $175 million dollar tax credit awarded to Xanadu. This financially troubled and probably worthless piece of real estate was propped up with tax payer monies because the Governor seemed to think that there was a need for "high end" retail or entertainment in that area of the Meadowlands.
Personally, I think Xanadu is ugly, worthless, and it makes my skin crawl to think that every hundred dollar bill snagged by this construction jumble is taking something priceless from a senior citizen.
Every dollar going to Xanadu is essentially diverted from being used for Medicaid glasses for a senior, prescription meds for a senior, dental fillings for a Medicaid child, transportation for a wheelchair bound adult who needs to go to a doctor or would just like to visit a library. Every dollar spent on this foolishness could be used to offset the expense of meals for the homebound, home care for recently hospitalized persons, shelter for the homeless....
These "millionaire taxes" are objectionable for our governor's purposes because he is creating an environment he thinks will protect his supporters and fund raisers.
We are thinking about the rest of us.
New Jersey State Senator Shirley Turner has introduced a resolution to place a tax of 10.75 percent on persons whose annual income is over one million dollars. This bill does not affect anyone under that one million limit. Previous bills included adjusted incomes from $400,000 up to one million, but that is not the case here. If you would like to see it on the ballot this fall, please call her office at 609-530-3277 and give her your support.
Senator Turner's bill could energize New Jersey's economy by letting the largest part of the population distribute monies throughout segments where it is needed the most. Instead of a wealthy investor buying a huge yacht, you would see average Americans paying to have their lawns mowed. designing and building a new garage or kitchen. This would put monies in the middle sector of the economy immediately, instead of waiting for the "trickle down theory" to work.
Needless to say, the Governor would like to kill the bill.
Another thing. I am so tired of people telling me so earnestly, "Millionaires are leaving New Jersey." Horse puckey.
According to an editorial in the Trenton Times (April 4, 2011), Charles Varner and Cristobal Young of Stanford found that the average migration of millionaires from 2000 to 2007 was only 459. The newly wealthy increased at this time by 43 percent to about 47,000 in 2006.
Their conclusion was amazing: New Jersey makes millionaires, not exports.
We are looking at smoke and mirrors here folks.
Governor Christie wants to hide our state's momentum and take the credit for growth by crediting his tax subsidy efforts as the reason for blossoming numbers of wealthy residents.
In the meantime, all of us on fixed income are looking at those "Peanut Butter and Jelly Thursdays"....
Seniors Rock.
The decline in income tax revenue between 2007 and 2009 was disproportionately at the high end. In other words, the wealthiest New Jersey residents paid $1.7 billion less that the previous period.
And our governor wants to continue this?
Our governor cut back schools and teachers, fire fighters and police, medical benefits for many civil service negotiated contracts, charity care for hospitals, tax rebates and senior citizen tax refunds, all in order to maintain his tax cuts for the wealthy.
Is this ethical?
According to the OLS report of the week of May 13, 2011, $1.3 billion was a decline in "tax liability" for incomes over that one million mark.
Get this: People with incomes less than $500,000 accounted for a mere $228 million of the decline. This dramatically illustrates New Jersey's top heavy income tax revenue and what happens when millionaires are relieved of tax liability.
Continued tax subsidy and relief for our states' millionaires, as campaigned by Governor Christie, perpetuate this lopsided contribution from our middle and low income residents.
Case in point is the $175 million dollar tax credit awarded to Xanadu. This financially troubled and probably worthless piece of real estate was propped up with tax payer monies because the Governor seemed to think that there was a need for "high end" retail or entertainment in that area of the Meadowlands.
Personally, I think Xanadu is ugly, worthless, and it makes my skin crawl to think that every hundred dollar bill snagged by this construction jumble is taking something priceless from a senior citizen.
Every dollar going to Xanadu is essentially diverted from being used for Medicaid glasses for a senior, prescription meds for a senior, dental fillings for a Medicaid child, transportation for a wheelchair bound adult who needs to go to a doctor or would just like to visit a library. Every dollar spent on this foolishness could be used to offset the expense of meals for the homebound, home care for recently hospitalized persons, shelter for the homeless....
These "millionaire taxes" are objectionable for our governor's purposes because he is creating an environment he thinks will protect his supporters and fund raisers.
We are thinking about the rest of us.
New Jersey State Senator Shirley Turner has introduced a resolution to place a tax of 10.75 percent on persons whose annual income is over one million dollars. This bill does not affect anyone under that one million limit. Previous bills included adjusted incomes from $400,000 up to one million, but that is not the case here. If you would like to see it on the ballot this fall, please call her office at 609-530-3277 and give her your support.
Senator Turner's bill could energize New Jersey's economy by letting the largest part of the population distribute monies throughout segments where it is needed the most. Instead of a wealthy investor buying a huge yacht, you would see average Americans paying to have their lawns mowed. designing and building a new garage or kitchen. This would put monies in the middle sector of the economy immediately, instead of waiting for the "trickle down theory" to work.
Needless to say, the Governor would like to kill the bill.
Another thing. I am so tired of people telling me so earnestly, "Millionaires are leaving New Jersey." Horse puckey.
According to an editorial in the Trenton Times (April 4, 2011), Charles Varner and Cristobal Young of Stanford found that the average migration of millionaires from 2000 to 2007 was only 459. The newly wealthy increased at this time by 43 percent to about 47,000 in 2006.
Their conclusion was amazing: New Jersey makes millionaires, not exports.
We are looking at smoke and mirrors here folks.
Governor Christie wants to hide our state's momentum and take the credit for growth by crediting his tax subsidy efforts as the reason for blossoming numbers of wealthy residents.
In the meantime, all of us on fixed income are looking at those "Peanut Butter and Jelly Thursdays"....
Seniors Rock.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
SEC Finally Takes Look at Insurance Derivatives
I have been clamoring for an investigation into derivatives trading on Wall Street, especially in the trade of bundled insurance policies. The Security and Exchange Commission started an investigation this January into the secondary market for life insurance policies held by strangers instead of the persons insured.
My February 14 column (Artfull Codger, 2/14/11) discussed the bundles of these policies and how they were transferred, like stocks between investors, by companies who profited from fees they made on the transactions. Investors could only make a profit if their insured died soon after the investor took over the "bundle" or they would find themselves paying the premiums for as long as the insured lived. This obviously diminished the anticipated return to the investor.
One of these companies, Life Partners, has been officially notified that the SEC is giving them a chance to explain themselves or civil charges may be filed. The SEC wants to know how "Life Partners" sets a value on their product. Some articles have been critical of the advertising and methods used to determine how long an insured is really going to live.
My original article last year was in protest for what could be a motive for murder. That is a situation where someone would profit from an insured dying sooner, rather than later, for optimum return on investment. I am thrilled that this shady aspect of the derivatives market is under scrutiny and hopefully will be shut down.
Finally the Obama oversight is pecking away at the problem on Wall Street!
Seniors Rock!
My February 14 column (Artfull Codger, 2/14/11) discussed the bundles of these policies and how they were transferred, like stocks between investors, by companies who profited from fees they made on the transactions. Investors could only make a profit if their insured died soon after the investor took over the "bundle" or they would find themselves paying the premiums for as long as the insured lived. This obviously diminished the anticipated return to the investor.
One of these companies, Life Partners, has been officially notified that the SEC is giving them a chance to explain themselves or civil charges may be filed. The SEC wants to know how "Life Partners" sets a value on their product. Some articles have been critical of the advertising and methods used to determine how long an insured is really going to live.
My original article last year was in protest for what could be a motive for murder. That is a situation where someone would profit from an insured dying sooner, rather than later, for optimum return on investment. I am thrilled that this shady aspect of the derivatives market is under scrutiny and hopefully will be shut down.
Finally the Obama oversight is pecking away at the problem on Wall Street!
Seniors Rock!
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