OPINIONS & COMMENTARY Deadline For Political Letters And Elected Official Press Releases

It’s that time again.

With election day looming, supporters of candidates like to get letters into their local paper. It’s important to note that there are deadlines in order to make sure that your letter gets in.

In order to give enough time and space for let-

Storage Facilities Built While Homeless Have Tents

This letter was written in response to “Homeless Camp Forced To Relocate,” in the August 12 edition of The Toms River Times

After reading this article, as well as the week before in The Toms River Times dealing with the same subject, I’m disgusted that this problem still exists for the past many decades. In the end its all the same. These encampments get knocked down and people need to move on to find another place in the woods to live or I should say, to try to survive, which is something we’re all trying to do for the most part. Kudos to Toms River Police Chief Little for what he and Ocean County Sheriff Mastronardy are trying to do in getting some ters, given the print schedule for our weekly papers, we will not accept any letters regarding local candidates after Oct. 22.

Keep in mind that the sooner you get the letter in, the more likely it is to run. After October 22, there will only be two weeks of papers.

The best length for letters is 300-500 words. I will not publish anything that is crude, insulting, or makes false accusations.

I also tend not to run letters that are obviously workshopped. Sometimes, I get three letters in a row that are making the same point, showing that the campaign gave talking points to a bank of letter writers. I’ll usually run the fi rst one I get, but not the rest. (Note to campaign staff – we’re pretty much the only game in town who runs letters to the editor for local campaigns, so don’t coach your letter writers. You are wasting time and resources.)

Letters to the editor are sent to me at CLundy@

Letters To The Editor

social help to these encampment individuals & families. However, it’s not enough and never has been.

What these people need is simple. A place where they have an actual roof over their heads with a twin bed or bunk, small sink, electric, toilet, 2 burner stove, 4.4 c.i. refrigerator, w/HVAC system, and solar panels to cut electric use down to more than half.

Where would we find such a building? That’s easy. Has anyone noticed how many storage places are popping up all over the County for people to store their worldly goods? Has anyone noticed how many acres of woodland has been cleared for these storage buildings? So why not construct a storage building with 50 (more or less) 9 x 12 rooms to house the homeless? While we’re at it, have or contract Ocean

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The Toms River Times welcomes all points of view for publication and provides this page as an open forum for residents to express themselves regarding politics, government, current events and local concerns.

All letters are printed as space allows unless deemed offensive by the editorial staff, and provided they are signed and include address & phone number for veri�ication. Letters may not be printed if we cannot verify them. Names will not be withheld from publication. While most letters are printed as submitted, we reserve the right to

Thursday. Mail typed letters to: PO Box 521, Lakehurst, NJ 08733, fax 732-657-7388 or e-mail news@jerseyshoreonline.com. Letters may be limited to one per month per writer at the editor’s discretion.

The opinions expressed in the Letters To The Editor section do not necessarily re�lect those of the staff, management or sponsors of Micromedia Publications/ Jersey Shore Online. Letters to the Editor are the OPINION of the writer and the content is not checked for accuracy.

Ride to be used as transportation to or near a workplace (well known there are plenty of jobs available all over) or to medical buildings (for those who need to see doctors for medical assistance or to get to social services).

How to pay for such a building would be the next problem. Instead of a question on a voting ballot for additional monies to be used for open space, put those monies onto such a building on a piece of land and check for any grant monies that can be applied for.

The people that use this building would have to work or be disabled enough where they’re unable to work. If they work, don’t go taking their social assistance money from them. Let them get the nest egg they would need to afford permanent housing (1st & last months rent & security). Give them 18 months in order to secure a permanent residence.

If building these storage buildings for people to store their worldly possessions which are just “material things,” then why can’t the same building be built for humanity? It seems to me that some people just have too much “stuff.”

I don’t claim to have all the answers nor am I the smartest person I know but at times all you need is to have a little common sense.

Robin Boggiano Berkeley

JerseyShoreOnline.com.

Every week, we have a government page where we run press releases from your elected representatives. We will not be running any press releases from candidates that are on the ballot throughout the month of October, or the week before the election.

Any candidates who

LWV Advocates For LGBTQ+ Students, Supports Educators

The League of Women Voters (LWV) has a long history of advocating for the rights, health, and education of children. Defending democracy and ending discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community go hand in hand.

We are gravely concerned with proposed policies putting students’ safety and mental health at risk and violate New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination. Public schools are a cornerstone of democracy, and New Jersey should strive to ensure schools are safe, inclusive, and welcoming.

Proposals like this cause political polarization and are manufactured to divide communities and increase distrust in public education and civic engagement. Outing children puts them at risk for bullying, harassment, and discrimination and makes them vulnerable to self-harm and suicide. Numerous studies and data show forced outing is harmful, not helpful to LGBTQ+ youth.

This policy is part of a concentrated effort to undermine public education that includes book bans, attacks on sexual education, and rewriting American history by prohibiting accurate and necessary conversations want to broadcast their message to our readers, which number literally hundreds of thousands, can contact us at Sales@JerseyShoreOnline.com.

Thank you for your understanding.

Chris Lundy News Editor

about race and equity. The LWV cannot stand by while a small minority uses classrooms as political battlegrounds at the expense of students and our country’s future.

This is also an attack on public school educators and has driven highly trained, experienced teachers out of the field. It is time to say NO to these attacks, support educators, and stand up for children.

Co-Presidents of The League of Women Voters of Monmouth County

Barbara Chaudhery

Evelyn C Murphy, PhD

Sharon Steinhorn

What Would Soldiers Think?

Do you ever wonder what our WWII servicemen and women - killed in action, forever maimed, dealing with PTSD in varying degrees and for various stretches of time would think about July 4, 2023?

These and all who served to bring down Naziism, the ugliest form of fascism and Japanese imperialism would be dismayed and angry to watch their beloved nation fall into the grip of a new form of fascism masquerading as a constitutional political party but contradictorily displaying fascistic thinking and conduct.

When exactly did Republican leadership turn against democracy in favor of oligarchy? How did the Party of Lincoln come to reverse its commitment to “form a more perfect union” and to “establish justice”...?

Was it post-911 when we officially endorsed and practiced extrajudicial rendition, suspension of habeus corpus, waterboarding and other techniques of torture?

Was the transformation accelerated by the “no Republican vote...not one” for the initiatives of a mixed race president as he struggled with two inherited wars and a crashing economy? How could any party be so hard-hearted and stiff-necked as the GOP had become?

Even now, facts and evidence about the crimes of their true leader Donald Trump are simply ignored or discounted, as were the crimes of so many other cult leaders of the past and present.

I think it better that the millions of Americans who fought and suffered for the future of America - that is, us - have no consciousness at all, rather than having to witness this march to American Fascism!

Remember how Adolf Hitler cleverly perverted the democratic, Christian nation of Germany and forged it into the hell on Earth it became! Shame on those supporting this surge to fascist dictatorship!

Nicholas Molinari Brick