June 14, 2016

To Charles Moe

Chairman American Legion Post# 45

530 Smith Street

Perth Amboy, NJ 08861

Dear Mr. Moe:

I want to sincerely apologize to you and the members of the American Legion for a miscommunication that occurred this past Memorial Day.

It was unfortunate that inclement weather changed our initial plans of having an annual parade and ceremony outdoors.  However, when changes such as these occur, our organizations are contacted and notified of the alternative plans.  It has come to my attention through your letter published in the Amboy Guardian today that the American Legion was not properly notified of the changes.

As you know, our outreach and partnerships annually for both our Veterans and Memorial Day ceremonies have always highlighted the appreciation we have for our community and the members of the military.

I am pleased to say that in the past, both the late Judge Joseph Deegan and Ed Hmieleski were honored and the Deegan family each and every year joins us at our Memorial Day ceremony and they were present again this year.

Our 2016 Grand Marshal and honored veteran was Corporal John “Rocky” DeNardo of the US Marine Corps., a well-respected resident of our community.  It is important to know that we do not control the message of our speakers, especially those of our veterans, not in length and not in content.

I also want to make it clear that in my eight years as Mayor, I have never politicized an event that honors our service men and women. In fact, as a request from some of our veterans, we took the initiative to remove all the elected official’s names from the face of the Veterans War Memorial on Sadowski Parkway in 2012.

On a personal note, many members of my family are members of the military, including my own son, who will be going on his second tour overseas.  I cannot express to you how strongly I feel and respect our military men and women.

Year after year, we join together as a community on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and have contributed to updating our monuments to consistently and specifically honor and pay respect to those who have given their time, and even some their lives for our country.  Additionally, we recently opened a satellite Veteran Center that offers counseling for combat veterans at our Alexander F. Jankowski Community Center, because I personally understand the need for this service.

On behalf of the City of Perth Amboy, I once again sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this caused you and the members of the American Legion.  I look forward to our continued partnership.

Respectfully,

Wilda Diaz, Mayor

City of Perth Amboy

cc: Adam Cruz, Business Administrator

Council President and Council Members

More letters below

More letters:

Correct Verbiage

A recent letter used the nebulous phrase “assault weapons” when they might have meant the undefined phrase “assault rifle”. Any weapon can be used for assault, even a rock. If that writer read his Bible, he would learn about Cain and Abel.

US Supreme Court decision around 1935 affirmed the natural right of people to own military weapons by striking down a challenge to a law that banned sawed-off shotguns (not a military weapon). A weapon sold to civilians that used the same ammunition as the military has benefits for any supplier and their customers (“one size fits all”). Beware of liars and their one-sided arguments.

Some claim “profiling” will stop terrorists. That would be nice as long as it was reliable. A profile by itself is not proof of a criminal act. There was a movie (“Rendition”) about a man imprisoned without a trial because his cell phone was called by a foreign terrorist. Those who get a cell phone may get calls from those who really want the previous owner of that number.

Is there something morally or mentally wrong with those who want to deprive people of their rights? Don’t they also want more regressive and oppressive taxes on people too? Of course they will deny it.

Ronald A. Sobieraj

The American Terrorist

On June 12, 2016, a mass shooting happen in a nightclub called “The Pulse” in Orlando, Florida. 50 people were wounded and 50 were shot dead from one person named Omar Mateen. He was a U.S. citizen who used to work for a Florida Security Company called G4S that has a contract with the Department of Homeland Security. This so-called one man shooter which was using an AR-15 rifle and shooting lots of ammo to clean house on gay people for some reason (you guess). The FBI checked his background twice when he was working for the security company doing work for the DHS transporting Illegals from Arizona. I want to clear something up here. This guy had a master plan in his mind but he kept it to himself for some time. MAYBE his wife and friends knew something was up – but when? Now we live in a world where people of any ethnic group can become a terrorist for any reason and they don’t even have to use conventional weapons – just bombs to wake up their concerns. Will terrorism be the new way of life in America?  We hope not, but then people will be using this act of terror to express their concern. We know the FBI knows who and why this is going to happen. By the way, someone sent me this: Orlando Police: 8:21 AM June 12, 2016 – Orlando, Florida. United States ATF; the gunman legally purchased the firearms within the last week.

Orlando “Wildman” Perez.

Parents, Mayor Diaz Join 

Community Push to Break Impasse

PERTH AMBOY – Parents and the mayor are joining Perth Amboy educators in calling on the Board of Education to bargain a fair contract with the union representing the district’s staff. Educators have been working without a contract for a year, according to Perth Amboy Federation-AFT union president Patricia Paradiso, a third-grade teacher.

Mayor Wilda Diaz has been meeting with teachers to plan educational programs and said some are “disheartened” by the board’s refusal to bargain with them. “The board is showing a lack of respect for the professionals who are teaching and caring for our children,” Diaz said.

Iram Shah is the vice president of the Shull Middle School Parent-Teacher Organization and the mother of a fifth-grader. Her older son graduated from Perth Amboy High School in 2015 and is currently in a pre-dentistry program at Rutgers. “Parents are very supportive of the teachers because they know they are doing their best,” Shah said. She pointed to large class sizes and comparatively high numbers of special education and English language learners in district as challenging factors for teachers to contend with.

Paradiso noted that the board is responsible for public funds and questioned the propriety of contracts for highly paid district personnel such as superintendent Roman with lower costs for health insurance than what educators pay. “New contracts for Dr. Roman and district management are on the board agenda for tonight,” she said. “Will they continue to offer management less expensive health insurance than they do for teachers and lower-paid district staff?”

Mayor Diaz also called it “telling” that board members are seeking to move the board election back to next April. “More parents are going to show up and vote in the general election in November, when the Presidency is on the ballot,” she said. “Keeping the election in November will allow more Perth Amboy residents to have a voice in who sits on the board and elect members who will be responsive to the needs of the students.”

NAT T. Bender

President NJ-AFT

The Perth Amboy Federation-AFT represents more than 1,400 educators who work with students every day.