The column that is not a partner at Dewey, Cheetum & Howe, but there have been times when we wished we could have retained them to deal with some of the unscrupulous people we’ve run across in 49 years of writing in South Jersey — but not you, of course.
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By Jack Hummel
Radio: 92.1 FM WVLT Saturdays noon to 2 p.m.
Email: jhummel9794@gmail.com
Phone: 9856-237-6645
U.S. Army: RA13815980
Google all columns at jackhummelblog
Good evening!
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Giuseppe Ungaro is coming to town Wednesday to make a dinner appearance at DiLisi’s in the Upper Deerfield Shopping Center where you can always cut the grilled chicken with a fork.
Giuseppe, who once covered Cumberland County high school sports like a blanket, trusts the process in Philly, but writes for Glory Days magazine at the shore.
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Sobering thought …
“Everyone dies. Just a matter of where and when.”
— Shep
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Mike Abbott’s heater blew up, and he figures a new one will cost $10,000.
Another response.
“Hey, Mike,
“Replace your existing heater with a gas heater. The gas company will finance it for you most likely with 0% interest. Check into that.”
— Randy Colle,
Randy’s Bicycles Plus
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“Mike,
“Gas or oil-fired? SJ Gas has a program 5 years, no interest, or check with the city. They have funding for repairs, but income eligible.”
— Rosemary DeQuinzio
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“Will the Cumberland County College campus in Millville produce taxes?
“Will there be enough parking available for students and staff?
“Do we think these people will be walking our streets and spending money after class?
“A few blocks (east or west) of the college) appear to be crime areas. Will this encourage the revitalization of downtown Millville?
“Only the future will answer these questions!”
— Taking Back Millville
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“There is no economic development here and I feel this was a catastrophic waste of taxpayer monies that otherwise could have been spent on other economically stimulating projects.
“I consult for businesses and I am a die-hard entrepreneur and this area needs a type A entrepreneur with strong business background to lead the city’s economic growth with the strong emphasis on job creation again to lead it into the light.
“Instead of being the epicenter of industry for glass or another industry, we are a prison industrial complex with entitlement policies gone wild making entire generations of people dependent on government.
“Sadly, there will be a huge fight against entitlement reform and the only way out is to create good paying career jobs and without any incentive for industry to return, Millville and Cumberland County will continue to decline.
“To that end, an aggressive economic development for the area is desperately needed that is here to serve the area and not him/herself in cooperation with a proactive local and county government.
“Instead, if New Jersey history has any bearing, if the government will get someone in that position, it will likely be a politically connected person that has never built anything in their life, rinse, repeat and hardworking taxpayers fail yet again at the hands of government.”
— Gary E. Meyer
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But the complaints aren’t just confined to Millville …
“Dear Jack,
“Bridgeton is a town that has become a Mexican city. We can thank the mayor and city officials, plus landlords.
“Mostly, the town is a welfare living that some of us have left because of no enforcement.
“Just the JINS on Sunny Slope Drive, turned it into a county office when they should have made it into a veterans home or senior housing. Drugs are everywhere and the police say nothing can be done because of funds.”
— Dale Capps
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What would the police do with $10 million more a year in funds. $50 million a year? $100 million a year?
Have 50 police cruisers answer each drug sale gone bad?
Remember the Hall of Fame baseball player who summed up bis successful career by saying, “Hit ’em where they ain’t.”
That’s the drug dealers’ motto: “Deal ’em where they ain’t.”
The demand has become overwhelming. Every expert agrees on that. They all call it an epidemic. They crawl up the front steps of a dealer’s house at 3 o’clock in the morning, banging on the door for a fix that we will never feel, so not understand.
Our fix is food.
Bridgeton a welfare state? Poor, yes, but what facts do you have to call it a welfare state? Just the way it looks. People crying in the wind about all the free handouts?
Here’s one take in a list of four types of people on welfare no one talks about …
“Kids.
“You could include the severely handicapped and the elderly in here, too, if you like. T here’s plenty of room for them in this hot tub of a subject, baby. But on the whole, I don’t think any group is as overlooked as children. And now I’m positive that this whole paragraph just put me on a government watch list.
“I don’t blame anyone for forgetting about them because when we have the welfare debate, it’s almost entirely based on how we perceive its fully adult, able-bodied members.
“In those exchanges, kids are only brought up as ammunition. ‘They keep having babies, and I’m the one who ends up having to pay for them!’ I’ve even heard people saying that poor people reproduce so they can get more government money. Just an honest note here: If you’re one of the people who think this, you’re far too stupid for this conversation. Door’s to the left. You can take a lemon bar on your way out.
.”When I was finally old enough and found out what public aid actually was, I was mortified. Even though my only input in the need and decision to be a part of the program was my simple existence, I felt like the most worthless piece of crap in our whole school. I did everything I could to hide the fact that we were on it. When I had friends stay the night, I begged mom to buy groceries before they came over so they didn’t see her using food stamps. I took jobs during the summer so I could restock the clothes that were starting to look old. I hated being on welfare. If welfare were a face, I would have punched it right in its stupid suckhole.
“And even back then, it was still a debate. Even at that age, when I heard people on the news talking about it, it didn’t matter that they were discussing my parents. As far as I was concerned, they were talking about me, too. I was a burden on them. The country hated me because I couldn’t afford to pay the rent or buy food. Even at my age, it was my fault. I didn’t understand it, but I felt that heat. They hated me.”
— John Cheese,
http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-4-types-people-welfare-nobody-talks-about/
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He’s talking about people who have no say in the matter.
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“Came home from work … basketball court was trashed.
“Sent my son in the crib to get some trash bags broom and dust pan. Started cleaning the courts and all the little kids came and helped. We got it done in 10 minutes. Offered cakes and chips to them.
“Tell me again how hard it is to get the community behind something positive!
“Of course, I told them it’s important to keep the court cleaned if they’re gonna be playing out here.”
— Coach Lynwood Mosley,
Takes a Village
Amity Heights
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That is what happens when you interact within a community instead of standing off hurling invectives about something you know nothing about.
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Hey, Michael Mickey Williams and anybody else looking for the solution to substance abusers getting clean and re-entering society.
We’ve been told some get a year’s treatment costing $105,000 up north, then put on a bus back home with no support group.
If it’s true, it’s shameful. No job, same surroundings that got them hooked in the first place.
Mickey now works for First Step, which is just what the name suggests.
Now, listen to this plan …
Everybody we have ever known that got off drugs has stayed clean by helping others in the same boat.
Check it out. All the people who give speeches in school assemblies are former addicts. All the people we have on 92.1 FM talking about drug abuse are former users.
The greatest feeling in the world is said to be when you help someone else feel better.
Perfect!
After they’ve gone through drug court, detox, rehab successfully, we’ve got a job for you that pays well: Keeping other reformed junkies clean.
This idea came to us when the inmates Mickey mentors at Kintock kept telling him they wanted to mentor, too, when they got out. Instead, groups have sprung up all over searching for places to employ these people needing a second chance.
They don’t need education. They already know things about this epidemic the rest of us will never know. They are the teachers. Put them through a six-week course that includes as little book learning as possible and put them in charge of, say, a dozen other addicts just coming out 0f rehab.
And pay them for their knowledge and expertise.
And make them take a drug test every payday.
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YOU CAN BOOK IT: It’s an epidemic, Citizen, and tsunami is headed your way with no place to hide!
jackhummelblog 