MONTCLAIR NJ calls off the war

The Montclair Times, Montclair NJ ^ | Wednesday, March 05, 2003 | By JEFF HARRELL

[lindasobers]

Yet, last Tuesday night, protesters showed up en masse at the Municipal Building to bully the Township Council into passing an antiwar resolution.

Nearly half of the protesters were Montclair High School students, which is always a nice touch when you’re trying to sell a panel of adults on anything. The rest were a lot of the same adults who tried to talk the council into passing a resolution against the death penalty a couple of years back.

Those in town who aren’t honking for peace were nowhere to be found, probably because they were manipulated into staying away.

A council conference session was scheduled for last Tuesday, which usually consists of round-table discussions focusing on township projects with no time set aside for the public to speak. The original agenda had the discussion of an antiwar resolution scheduled for 10 p.m.

Once word spread that the antiwar protesters were meeting on the corner of Bloomfield and Church at 7 p.m. with plans to march to the Municipal Building just in time for the council’s meeting, the antiwar resolution discussion was moved to the first item on the agenda.

Exactly when the item was moved is unclear.

Councilman Don Zief, the only council member who opposed a township antiwar resolution, didn’t find out that he had missed the protesters until he showed up late to last Tuesday’s meeting at 9 p.m. expecting to discuss the antiwar resolution at 10.

Then there was John Morris.

Morris, a Vietnam veteran and father to a Coast Guard reservist who was recently deployed to an unknown location in the Middle East, admittedly didn’t like the thought of a war in Iraq any more than he enjoyed the Vietnam War.

Still, Morris showed up with a framed American flag in hand and served as the only voice in the room who thought the council should represent everybody in Montclair and not “play to the noisy minority.”

“This is not a township issue,” he said. “I’m asking the council not to deliberate on this issue or take a stand either way.”

But even a neutralist wasn’t going to be spared by these protesters. Morris spoke over snickers, hisses and under-the-breath comments that turned the idea of freedom of speech into the personification of a child selfishly hogging a toy.

“I don’t want these kids to come back home and be called names,” Morris said. “When I came back from Vietnam, I was called a military industrialist bastard.”

“You still are,” mumbled a voice from two rows behind me.

So I’m done honking for a bunch of self-righteous antiwar protesters whose only concerns involve what their country can do for them. After the council voted 6-1 in favor of an antiwar resolution this past Tuesday night, they don’t need my horn anyway.

Besides, if they think the president is going to stop in his tracks and bark out a commandment like, “Call the troops home because the Township of Montclair just passed an antiwar resolution,” they’re smoking stuff that was a lot better than anything we had in 1972.

Nor am I going to bother letting them in on what this antiwar resolution really means.

I will tell anybody who is as sick and tired as I am of these people hogging a freedom that is meant for everybody, though.

4797

[sweetliberty]

Oh well, now I feel better knowing that New Jersey has taken an "official" position against the president war.

[Black Agnes]

S'ok. Having lived near both places I can tell you this. The rednecks are outbreeding the 'socialist socialites' by a hefty margin.

[Question_Assumptions]

Montclair. French name. French delusions of grandeur.

[hellinahandcart]

Why should Montclair have hesitated, just because so many of its citizens died in the WTC? The New York City Council just passed one of these things too.

The antiwar movement bagged the big elephant. Watch the "peace" rallies this weekend on TV and see if they DON'T start crowing that "Even New York City, where the 'tragedy' happened, says 'NO!' to war!"

Don't you just love it? 31 people (14 Democrats and all 3 Republicans voted aainst it) decided to issue an OPINION for ten million people, and now we have to live with it for all time.

I'm telling ya, it's going to make it very easy to leave New York, when the time comes...

[ELS]

Montclair hardly speaks for all of New Jersey.

[Calpernia]

Montclair use to be a really nice town. My husband's family grew up there. My husband and I went to Montclair State.

We lived there for about 2 years before we went and did our Medical Rotation.

Considered moving back there....but it really has changed.

[sweetliberty]

I stand corrected...make that "...Montclair has taken an official position..."

[Calpernia]

Princeton NJ is trying to do the same too. I really find it laughable since one of the claims to fame is the Princeton Battle Field and their Revolutionary War Reenactments.

[ELS]

31 people (14 Democrats and all 3 Republicans voted aainst it)

How many people are on the NYC council? (17 is a majority of 31 ...)

[sweetliberty]

Yes, our world (in the USA) is filled with irony and hypocrisy these days like at no other time in our history as far as I can tell.

[hobbes1]

Montclair Doesn't even speak for itself.

I guarantee, if you go past Sunrise Bagel, and Starbucks between, say 8:30 and 10:30 am, you will find that tiny mouthy segment of the population that pulls the town councils strings.

[hobbes1]

At least living one town over, is good for amusement..lol

[XRdsRev]

Agreed, Montclair definately DOES NOT speak for all of New Jersey.

New Jersey - "Crossroads of the American Revolution"

We Remember.........

Fort Lee - 1776
Rariton Landing -1776
Retreat Across New Jersey - 1776
Mount Holly - 1776
Burlington - 1776
Basking Ridge - 1776
Crossing of the Delaware - 1776
1st Battle of Trenton - 1776
2nd Battle of Trenton - 1777
Battle of Princeton - 1777
Winter Cantonment at Morristown - 1777
Operation in Middlesex & Union - 1777
Rahway - 1777
Bonhamtown - 1777
Quibbletown - 1777
Rariton Landing - 1777
Van Nest's Mill - 1777
Battle of Bound Brook - 1777
Operations in Somerset - 1777
Millstone & Middlebush - 1777
New Brunswick - 1777
Piscataway - 1777
Battle of the Short Hills - 1777
Billingsport - 1777
Battle of Fort Mercer (Red Bank) - 1777
Quinton's Bridge - 1778
Hancock's Bridge - 1778
Crosswicks - 1778
Battle of Monmouth Court House - 1778
Baylor's Massacre - 1778
Chestnut Neck - 1778
Osborn Island "Pulaski's Massacre" - 1778
Winter Cantonment at Middlebrook - 1778-1779
Simcoe's Raid - 1779
Paulus Hook - 1779
"The Hard Winter" Cantonment at Morristown - 1779-1780
Elizabethtown - 1780
Newark - 1780
New Bridge - 1780
Paramus - 1780
Connecticut Farms - 1780
Battle of Springfield - 1780
Toms River Block House - 1780
Bulls Ferry - 1780
Winter Cantonments at Morristown & Pompton - 1780-81
Pennsylvania Line Mutiny at Morristown - 1781
New Jersey Line Mutiny at Pompton - 1781
Elizabethtown - 1781
March of the American & French Armies to Yorktown 1781
Return of the American Army from Yorktown - 1781
Return of the French Army from Virginia - 1782
Tom's River Block House - 1782
Washington's Final Headquarters Rocky Hill - 1783

[firebrand]

Went to junior high and high school in Upper Montclair for six years. We could see the NYC skyline from the school windows.

Then some creep did a short story in a local NYC freebie rag (circulation 100,000) that made Upper Montclair sound like a very classy town. Fifteen years later we have Chelsea in the Jersey hills.

[Coleus]

Where did you get that historical info.?

[Coleus]

Yea, it used to be a nice Conservative town.

[stand watie]

!!!!

[ELS]

Battle of the Short Hills - 1777

Interesting, I grew up in Short Hills. I never heard of that battle before. (History wasn't my favorite subject in school...)

[ELS]

Even my left-leaning stepmother finds it ironic that the liberals who move to Montclair (from parts east...) move there because of the "diversity" and then proceed to send their kids to expensive private schools.

[ELS]

I meant to ping you to my reply #39, too.