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It's
time to end greed, secrecy in Toms River
It is sad to see a big town like Toms River
manipulated and mismanaged by people who do not care
about anybody but themselves.
Greed and secrecy are the
motives that drive corruption, "legal" or otherwise.
Taxpayers are the victims and
the source of the money that drives the corruption
of the political machine.
Our town, and our county, is
like a large schoolyard dominated by a bully who
intimidates all the other students and extracts
tribute from them under the guise of providing
"security" and "services."
Lunch costs $20 instead of $5,
so the bully can recycle the money from the other
students to pay off his henchmen and henchwomen who
are given little titles to cover their function as
bully assistants and intimidation thugs.
Of hundreds of students, there
is one big boss bully and a couple of dozen henchmen
and henchwomen who profit from him and keep him in
power.
The other students are always
broke because they have to pay four times what lunch
is worth as long as they want to stay in the school
yard.
In the Ocean County
schoolyard, you do not get a government job unless
you get it from the bully boss or his accomplices
who are elected officials.
Qualifications are not
important.
Greed and secrecy are
important.
Television has been around
since the 1940s.
Audio tapes have been around
since the 1930s.
But every time I click my
cable remote to Public Access Channel 22 in Toms
River, I see a blank screen.
In 2003, I got a surprise
township proclamation for bringing town and county
events to television and the Internet.
That was the beginning and the
end of public coverage of Toms River Township
Council meetings, and even there, the council
president once physically removed the microphone in
order to maintain a level of secrecy acceptable to
the bullies (bosses.)
Toms River has had many
opportunities to televise township meetings for more
than four years now, but the bullies (political
bosses) are afraid their profit and greed schemes
would be more visible in the homes of the taxpayers
they think they are fooling, a kind of reverse take
on "American Idol" — this time "American Boss" and "Chumping
the American Taxpayer."
It's time to get rid of the
bullies and save ourselves a lot of money and
self-respect.
Maybe an opportunity will come
soon.
RICHARD E. SCHIFF
Toms River
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