To the Editor:
I would like to comment on the July 26 article in the Herald regarding Middle Township’s proposed action against the homeless. In particular, I would like Mayor Donohue and Middle Township Committee to tell us what solution they are offering to abate the situation.
Oh, yes, they will send in the police to break up the encampment, arrest anyone who refuses to leave or stands in the way, and send the remaining homeless on their way! Great idea! Then what? You still have a group of homeless people with the same problem; nowhere to go!
Oh, but that is not the township’s problem. Seeing that the decrees of the almighty township committee are carried out is all that matters! Well, perhaps the homeless individuals will move a few hundred yards south and then they are Lower Township’s problem.
Mayor Donohue spoke of a group of individuals who were working to improve the economic status, etc., of Rio Grande, and that they had done little to solve the issue. Hate to break the news to you, mayor, but it’s not their problem, it’s yours!
You and the committee members were elected to represent the residents of Middle Township. All the residents of Middle Township! That includes the homeless in Rio Grande! It is the responsibility of the township leaders to find a viable solution by helping the homeless. Not just push them out and throw them to the curb like yesterday’s trash!
Regardless of the reason for their homelessness, these are human beings. People just like you and me. The answer is not an ordinance making their current “homes” illegal and empowering the township police to eradicate the problem. The answer is step up to the plate, do your job, and help these people!
The duty of the township committee is to govern the community and act in a manner that is in the best interest of all the township residents. Not just the business owners and contributors.
I spent the first 25 years of my life in Rio Grande. I have seen what has been done “for the good of the community.” Trust me, folks, Middle Township Committees, past and present, created this monster!
This is not a problem that is going to go away simply by decree of the township committee. It is going to take looking out for the best interests of homeless just like the rest of the people you represent.
Just because they are homeless, for whatever reason, doesn’t mean they are lesser beings, not worthy of our help. Sadly, in my opinion, we now live in a society where those who can’t or don’t contribute to the cause are seen as disposable and in need of elimination. Is that the position of the Middle Township Committee? They are parasites on the community, so we will just eliminate them? God forbid that we have stooped that low!
I have known Jim Chew my entire life. My parents knew his parents all their lives. I laude him for his involvement with the homeless and his concern for them. I did the same with Sam Kelly, who, many times, took up the plight of the homeless. Many years Sam Kelly stood on behalf of these people and in all those years, nothing has been done in the way of a solution. All that has ever been done has been the effort to eradicate the homeless encampment and let them go somewhere else to be someone else’s problem!
That’s what I call leadership! That’s how we address things now? We simply eliminate them. It reminds me a lot of Germany’s “final solution.”
BERTRAM HALBRUNER
Woodbine
