By Carolyn Maxwell—

I have written many editorials in the last 2 years. Unfortunately some of them have been written about those who have left this earth much too soon. Those who I have paid tribute to are ones that I have a personal relationship with – except for one which was former New York Mayor, Ed Koch.

The reason I wrote about him is because he was a perfect example of a politician who would bend and support someone from another political party if he felt that they could do a better job than the party that he was affiliated with.

That is a philosophy that I agree with – to vote for a person – not the party. He was a perfect example of this which is why I admired him.

The reason I am writing about this particular subject is because someone called and asked why I did not pay a tribute to Father Roscoe who passed away a short time ago.

I would see Father Roscoe a few times at events, and I would just briefly say hello, but I never had conversation with him or knew what he did for the City or the Hurricane Katrina victims.

At the time of Katrina, I was not affiliated with any newspapers.

One of my coworkers said that he was also approached by someone who wanted to know why there wasn’t a tribute to Father Roscoe.

There have been other readers who have sent tributes to those who have passed and we have gladly printed them. There is no reason for those who knew what Father Roscoe did not to have written a letter to pay tribute to him. It is still not too late.

In last week’s paper, I had intended to write something that was very disturbing during the May 27th Memorial Day Parade in Perth Amboy.

Unfortunately, a good friend (Jim Shea) of mine and the late Bill George passed away suddenly and I wanted to pay tribute to Jim.

What happened during the Memorial Day Parade, unfortunately upset me, but I heard others as well.

As the parade approached Smith Street where I was standing, there was very loud party music coming from one of the vehicles. I was shocked. If it was patriotic music which would have shown respect to those who gave their life for this country, they could have played the music as loudly as they wanted.

If I was blind and couldn’t see who was marching in this parade or what date it was, I would have assumed it was a festival or Mardi Gras passing me by.

I heard that some people who attended the Memorial Day Service at the monument were also offended by this music. Someone told me that someone politely asked the person to lower the music. Instead of lowering the music, the person who requested the lowering of the music was told that they were a racist.

This is a very sad state of affairs when you politely request something and then are unfairly accused of racism. Perhaps there should be guidelines of those participating in parades. Especially when it comes to honoring those who served and are serving our country.

I was kind of surprised of the lack of active service personnel marching in the parade. When I was growing up, I remember the soldiers proudly marching the army tanks rolling and the American flags waving by the spectators. The parades were much longer then. When I lived on State Street we had the best view because the parade route was on that street. What pride we had on those days and perhaps one day we can get back to them.