To the Editor:

I would like to express my outrage over the words “Settled in 1683” being removed from the “Welcome to Princeton” signs. There are new policies worth adding to the town government’s administration and there are current policies worth changing or removing from the town government’s administration. “Settled in 1683” is, without a doubt, not one of them.

Most of us, no doubt, would not have any idea this happened recently unless we read news articles. I catch changes on signs (speed limits) or weird signs that my friends don’t notice.

Then why should I care one iota about the phrase, “Settled in 1683”? How weird to raise that question. Those signs are meant to mark historical milestones. The original settlers were just that: original settlers. I don’t care if they were Lenni Lenape or any other tribe. I believe that the removal of the notation of the milestone is a form of education suppression. The state of Florida is feeling the effect of education suppression.

The town of Princeton wants to suppress education to bring memory back to a time that can never exist again.

Culturally speaking, we have moved on from the Renaissance. There have been the Industrial Revolution, and our revolutions for freedom, civil rights, equal rights for voting and equal pay, and sexual identity.

Let us practice the creed of Ethical Culture and Baha’i: the oneness of humanity. Let us put the lyrics of Kenny Chesney (“Get Along”) and the Zac Brown Band (“We’re All in the Same Boat”) into effect not just today, but every day. Let us learn about the first occupants of New Jersey, but not to suppress the European settlement of towns, a mere 340 years ago.

Dan Rappoport
Copperwood