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(Two Letters)

Overworked Police Department Attests To Merits of Municipal Consolidation

To the Editor:

I consider Chief of Police Anthony Federico to be a very competent and able law enforcement administrator, as well as a man of profound integrity.
I recently learned from Town Topics that Chief Federico made a public statement revealing that his subordinates do five times as much work as they should. The reason the rank and file of the Princeton Borough Police Department are overworked, in my opinion, is because the voters in Princeton Borough continually reject the idea of consolidating the Borough and Township. In my 29 years as a Princeton resident I have voted for consolidation as a resident of both municipalities.

If a man from Mars came to Princeton and learned that Princeton, a community of less than 20 square miles, had two local governments instead of one, he would think someone would be nuts. And he would be right.

ETHAN C. FINLEY
Princeton Community Village

Recreation Board Decision Defended By Mayors of Township and Borough

To the Editor:

The diversity of our community is something that we all applaud and enjoy. As mayors we are always trying to represent the views of all of our residents and to make decisions that include the different preferences of all of our constituents. Such is the case with our boards and commissions. Citizens are appointed to these volunteer boards with the expressed mission to do what is good for the entire community.

The Recreation Board is a perfect example, and we wish to commend its decision to expand the summer programming at the Pettoranello Gardens. The New Jersey Opera Theater brought two wonderful evenings of Broadway music. The Thomas Sweet's Film Series engaged adults and children with a variety of movies. Two bands, Rackett and Lofash, that performed rock, classics, jazz, etc. on Friday evening pleased many music lovers. The Latin-American music ensemble Eco Del Sur’s concert scheduled for Saturday, September 17 satisfies an entirely different musical taste that should be a part of Princeton's artistic offerings.

We do regret that the Princeton Rep Company, which in the past has presented excellent professional Shakespeare, was unable to adjust its schedule to accommodate other performing groups. A ten-week period was offered to the PRC, but nothing less than 12 weeks seemed to be acceptable. This would have virtually denied other groups the chance to offer free entertainment to our community. With PRC being unyielding in its 12-week request, the Joint Recreation Board was forced to make a difficult but responsible decision. We praise the Board for fulfilling its mission of bringing a variety of programs to our various populations.

Thanks to all who organized, attended, and supported the summer season, and a special thank you to the Pettoranello Foundation and its gardeners, who make the park such an attractive place.

Negotiations are soon to begin for the 2006 summer season at the Petoranello Gardens. We expect that our Recreation Board will continue to bring free exciting artistic experiences to our community, and of course we would welcome the PRC back as one of the participants.

PHYLLIS MARCHAND
Mayor, Princeton Township
JOSEPH P. O'NEILL
Mayor, Princeton Borough

Parents of Marine in Afghanistan Offer Additions to Town Topics Story

To the Editor:

The piece on our son in the August 31 issue of Town Topics ("Connecting to the Reality of War: One Princeton Family's Story") was superb. I was impressed by how quickly you put the story together and also how generous it was of Town Topics to devote so large a space to the story with all the pictures. Friends have called to tell me how they were touched by it. Thanks so much.

I hope you would not mind my pointing out a couple of discrepancies in the story which are significant to me personally. They do not in any way detract from what was written. Only as a mother, I would like to set the record straight. The story said that "Having been in ROTC at Princeton, he joined the Marine Corps as an officer." Another reference was made about Mark having been a ROTC student. Mark was, in fact, not in ROTC as an undergraduate but joined the Marine Corps independently upon graduation from Princeton University.

Uwe and I had specifically told Mark many times when he was an undergraduate at Princeton that we were happy to pay his tuition so that when and if he decided to join the Marine Corps after graduation it would have been a decision made not out of legal contractual obligation to the USMC, but based wholly on free will.

I might add that Mark accepted the Afghan tour, his third in two and a half years, as his way to serve the larger world community. As he put it to me in January this year, he viewed this mission as an opportunity "to help a young country get on its feet, to create something of true value." I was proud that he had taken to heart his alma mater's motto "Princeton in the Nation's Service, and in the Service of Nations" with his commitment to nation building in Afghanistan.

MAY T.M. CHANG
(MAY REINHARDT)
Princeton

To the Editor:

I take the blame for not having been clear on the ROTC thing, and it was natural to assume ROTC. Only the Marines, I believe, have the OCS (Officers Candidate School) mechanism that allows juniors not in ROTC to attend Marine OCS boot camp. During those ten weeks of boot camp, drill sergeants put the candidates through a very harsh and demanding course of indoor teaching and outdoor exercises, which ends with the so-called Crucible, a 60-hour outdoors training exercise, rain or shine, with very little to eat, almost no sleep, and only water and salt to keep the body going.

Later on, after the invasion of Iraq, Mark said that the run from Kuwait to Tikrit in 2003 was very much like the Crucible. Because his unit moved forward so quickly, supply lines to them were stretched so thin that they got only one MRE ration per day, one bottle of water a day, and very little sleep. So he thinks that the Crucible was highly relevant training.

UWE REINHARDT
Princeton

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