Senior: Everyone should contribute to public education

Writer is responding to a March 24 letter from Brick resident Robert Gordon

Well, Mr. Gordon, here’s one senior citizen who finds your anti-future, anti-democracy, penny-pinching rhetoric more offensive than I can bear. You are an embarrassment. As I read the stats, Brick Township, thanks to senior defeatism, ranks close to the bottom of New Jersey’s educational funding pie... Would you prefer that we become the Mississippi of the Northeast? Another defeat would keep those dollars in your pocket, safe for your children and grandchildren to inherit. Well, [Mr. Gordon], if you weren’t the recipient of some grand private education, people like my parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles and neighbors reached down into their piggy banks and paid for your free public education. I never remember their complaining. They knew that their money was going to ensure a safe and free democracy, one that prepared you to write, albeit mean-spirited and short-sighted, a letter to the local paper. May I remind you, too, that [Dr. William] Boyan and other Board of Education members work as volunteers for our community while you, sir, are in it for you. For shame.

I apologize to those hardworking young parents who are counting on Brick teachers (and hooray for their wonderful letters) to devote their time and energy and smarts toward providing our children with the best education that tax dollars can buy. This is one senior who is on your side. Should Mr. Gordon, and those of his ilk, succeed in a fourth defeat of the school budget, I sadly suggest that retaliation is in order. Don’t shop at stores that offer senior discounts. Boycott all restaurants that offer early-bird dinners. Vote against any proposal that use tax dollars in service to seniors. Unfortunately, it’s time we “ole” geezers were reminded that the political stick swings in both directions.

Meanwhile, I count on everyone to vote on April 19. It’s about America’s future.

Dorothy G. Kranich

Brick