Look Beyond Labels When Voting

To the Editor: 
With 13 kids, my parents never owned a home. Often we moved simply because the rent was due.
I attended Catholic and public schools in Philadelphia, Mays Landing, Wildwood, North Wildwood, and Middle and Lower townships. I never finished grade school, and got my GED in the service, serving three years in the Army.
I married my childhood sweetheart. We have four wonderful, successful daughters, nine grandkids, two great-grandkids, and a few more on the way. I lost my wife almost 10 years ago, after 45 years of marriage.
I worked as a carpenter and became a licensed general contractor. I drove a truck delivering newspapers to stores and became a circulation manager for the Philadelphia Enquirer.
I worked as a bridge repairman for Cape May County and became the representative for most every public employee in the area. I worked as a car salesman and became a manager, worked on a clam boat and became savagely seasick. I’ve made pizzas for a living but I’m loved for my cheesecakes and cinnamon buns that I make for my friends.
Many years ago, I was a member of the Warlocks motorcycle gang. Not that many years ago, I was the president of the Middle Township Taxpayer’s Association.
Still, they call me a liberal as though that one word could possibly define me. I call them conservative and we could have more in common than any of their partisan friends ever did. None of us fit into the horrible labeling that is the norm today.
I have been a hardworking man. I did better than my parents. My children have done better than me. Many of their children are doing better than them.
We are not liberals or conservatives, we are the American dream. I hope they’ll ponder this between now and the moment they cast their ballot. There are many good candidates to be considered if they’ll look beyond the labels.
Partisan politics has given us a freeholder board that is an employment agency for the well-connected. For every favor granted, another favor is due.
In my mind, if a politician’s family name appears on the public payroll, their motives are suspicious. If their own name appears on the public payroll, their motives are quite clear.
This system puts unqualified people into important managerial positions and creates discourse among employees who must serve under them. Because politicians make the laws, it may not be illegal but it is an obvious conflict for anyone whose livelihood is dependent upon one governing body, to pretend to give independent representation on another.
Middle Township has a disproportionate number of homeless and certainly its share of heroin addicts. Our freeholders need to be challenged for giving nothing more than lip service to these grave issues.
No one whose livelihood is dependent upon the freeholders will do what is required. With two bright, young candidates for freeholders, we can begin the process of giving this panel back to the community.
A sheriff independent of the freeholders would be unprecedented in many years and give new direction to this politically-mismanaged, crucial department.
A man with no political background, yet great savvy through his career as a teacher and respected member of the legislative committee representing his fellow workers, would give Middle Township Committee great guidance in dealing with other governing bodies.
These people are Danielle Davies and Gregory Wall for freeholders, Richard Harron for sheriff and Frank Toth for Middle Township Committee.
Forget the labels and check them out for who they are. We’re told what we want to hear, now let’s hear what we need to be told.