From Jerry Green's Page

I am an avid reader of Jerry Green's Page. Sometimes I find some of his facts questionable and perhaps he will clarify or expand on some of his statements. At the risk of being a "naysayer", I did read in Jerry Green's Page on Sept. 20,2008;"We are winning the war on crime"
"Our current administration has realized that the time is NOW for change, which is why major crimes in the Queen City are drastically down. The former administration's efforts in the matter resulted in 15 murders, while our current administration has mounted a front on major criminal occurrences, yielding only two this year."

That sounds great, but this was the headline in the Courier News, Sept 25,2008; "PLAINFIELD —Three separate shootings that killed one man and injured two others, occurring during a span of 14 hours, shook the city Wednesday night and Thursday morning." That is disturbing.

If my Arithmetic is right and the previous administration was in office for 8 years. 15 murders in 8 years averages out to less than 2 a year. In the past 21 months there have been 7 murders which averages out to 4 a year or twice the previous rate. Since the 2 reported for this year was in a 6 month period. 3 in 9 months is on track to continue the present rate.

Are we winning by having more of the bad guys killed? Undoubtedly the County/Local Police task force will if given time and cooperation have a very positive effect. I will grant that approximately 10 years ago I heard the then mayor state that he did not believe we had a gang problem in Plainfield. Of course at that time he had been supported for his position by the local Democratic Party, however this was before he challenged the Green party leadership.

Assemblyman Green you are so right when you wrote "Feathers are being ruffled in the camps of the ‘usual suspects’ because EACH issue voiced on my blog is researched, yielding SECURED truth in EVERY matter."

My problem is I don't know what a "SECURED truth" is. Are there "unsecured truths" and if so how would you define them? I suppose the "usual suspects" are individuals that find statements in the newspaper's files or legislature voting records that seem to be in conflict with your truths. Please elucidate in an understandable manner your definition of the quoted phrases.

You further wrote; "The premise of this blog is to research issues within our community, and shed truthful light on them, aiming to bring about unified resolve. The reason a few feathers are being ruffled is because for such a long time, issues were not being handled correctly, and this type of behavior stoked the fires of complacency within this small handful of spoiled, inactive members of our community. After noting the positive movement towards healthy reformation with the Plainfield Police Department, the ruffled ‘usual suspects’ labeled me as “trying to run Plainfield.” Is not 'fires of complacency" an oxymoron?

And more recently you stated; "After eight years of the McCain/Palinism behavior in our community, it most CERTAINLY is time for CHANGE. It is time for US to wake up as a community. That old way of thinking was hurting our community, doing much more harm than good. I hope and pray that our city of Plainfield begins to wake up, just as the nation is waking, and acknowledge that the time for change is NOW. So then, what sort of instrument can be used to institute this change…? The answer to that question is YOU; the power of COMMUNITY!! Because Together, EVERYONE, Achieves, MORE!!"

I am bewildered since I don't know what McCain/Palinism is, or how that reflects on the last 3 years of the "Green Mentored" Briggs administration. I believe that the Mayor did refer to you as her mentor when she assumed her first political office.

I am relieved to understand the meaning of "COMMUNITY'. Heretofore I had originally thought that the definition was " a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and have a cultural and historical heritage"*. However you define it more succinctly as: "Community is such a powerful word, but sometimes, because we use it so much, the meaning gets lost in translation. When I use the word community, I am addressing those who partake in, some time or another, the same environment I do. In order for the TRANSACTION of community to be accomplished, there are certain elements of life that are needed. A few of these necessities are unity, respect, trust, TRUTH, and communication." That last sentence hits the nail right on the head. We need more of those necessities.

*-Source an out of date 1962 edition of The American College Dictionary. (Belonged to one of my daughters)

This was written and timed posted before "A DANGEROUS DAY"