Press of Atlantic City

The Fourth of July / Read the Declaration

Published: Jul 04, 2008

Every couple of years on the Fourth of July, the nation's birthday, it's a good idea to remember what started it all.

The Declaration of Independence, although its language seems a bit stilted here in 2008, is a remarkable document. It is 232 years old today, but as a piece of writing, as an outline of the principles this new nation would stand for, as an indictment of tyranny, it still gives us chills:When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation. For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world. For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury. For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences. For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies. For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments. For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. More

Jul 03, 2008

• Court ruling on developer fees / Change the law

For years, many southern New Jersey towns have required builders either to include open space and recreation in their subdivisions or to pay into a recreation fund for offsite improvements such as municipal parks and playgrounds.

Jul 02, 2008

• Prison work crews / They were never free

There's no such thing as a free work crew.

Jul 01, 2008

• A.C. rail line: Time right to boost service

We get a little nervous any time there's news about the number of riders dropping on NJ Transit's Atlantic City line.

Jun 30, 2008

• Merging schools / Law makes it hard

A proposal to close Sea Isle City's elementary school and send its 80 or so K-8 students to Ocean City seemed like a win-win plan.

Jun 29, 2008

• Litter at Corson's Inlet State Park / Policy, people, politics

Corson's Inlet State Park, at the southern end of Ocean City, is one of the more beautiful spots in southern New Jersey - a spot made all the more beautiful by the fact that its sandy trails and secluded bay and ocean beaches are so close to Ocean City's more commercial, tourist-packed areas.

Jun 27, 2008

• Property-tax rebate fraud / Good news (kind of)

Lost amid the frenzy of activity in Trenton in recent days was news about an audit of the state's property-tax rebate program in 2007.

Jun 26, 2008

• State pension reform / Small, welcome step

It would be easy to bemoan the weakness of the pension-reform package passed by Trenton lawmakers this week. Most of the stronger provisions were stripped from the final bill. What remained were small steps, some of which were largely symbolic.

Jun 25, 2008

• Austere state budget / Marred by borrowing

Good news. The state is using a $650 million windfall in tax collections this year to pay off some of its staggering debt.

Jun 24, 2008

• Eminent domain in Ventnor / Be careful

First, Ventnor's new City Commission deserves some praise for immediately trying to make good on a campaign promise.

Jun 23, 2008

• A.C. traffic, casino workers in office / Just do it

No, this editorial is not brought to you by Nike. And, if necessary under any trademark-infringement statutes, we offer all due apologies to the "Just Do It" company.

Jun 22, 2008

• Where New Jersey shines: Promoting renewable energy

Newspaper editorials criticize government quite a bit. We register outrage over state spending, cluck disapprovingly over local shortsightedness and waste.

Jun 20, 2008

• DEP and records requests / A better solution

The Legislature often does the most good by doing nothing at all. It deserves praise for recently shelving a bill that would roll back the public's hard-won right to view government documents.

Jun 19, 2008

• Assisted-living evictions: It may be a business, but ...

A recent press release from Assisted Living Concepts Inc.'s investor-relations department is rosy: Revenues are up, partly because the company has succeeded in its new corporate strategy of lowering the number of Medicaid residents in its facilities.

Jun 18, 2008

• Staffers campaign contributions / Good bill ridiculed

Freshman Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, brought a sensible measure to the Assembly floor this week - and was mocked for his efforts.

Jun 17, 2008

• Millville and shade trees / A cool program

Can Millville ease crime by planting a few sycamores?

Jun 17, 2008

• Cumberland County tourism / Smart marketing

Just a little reminder to the hundreds of thousands of people who live in southern New Jersey:

Jun 16, 2008

• Voting by mail: Better safeguards needed

How easy should it be to vote?

Jun 15, 2008

• Permit extension act / Bad public policy

State Department of Environmental Protection permits are good for five years and can be renewed for another five years. That's a reasonable public policy. The economy goes up and down. Credit markets loosen and tighten. Real-estate markets change. It can take a while to get shovels into the ground, and permits need to have a certain shelf life.

Jun 13, 2008

• DEP, marinas, public access / Just sink the rules

The state Department of Environmental Protection’s new rules requiring realistic public access and ample parking and restrooms at beaches receiving state beach-replenishment funds are rock-solid public policy. The right of the public to use tidal waterways and their shores is beyond dispute. And you can’t use what you can’t get to. But the DEP has gone too far, as it too often does, by also requiring that private marinas and boatyards provide 24-hour public access to the water. The problems with requiring 24-hour public access to the water from a private marina are so obvious — public safety, liability concerns, boat owners’ privacy and security concerns — that this proposal should have been dead in the water as soon as it came up . How can it be a good idea to allow 24-hour access to private property where drowning is a distinct possibility and thousands, if not millions, of dollars in private property — the kind that floats — is sitting right there either unattended or with people living aboard? The outcry was immediate from marina owners, and state Sens. Andrew Ciesla, R-Monmouth, and Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, drew up what we thought was sensible legislation scuttling the DEP plan. The measure — S1553 — acknowledges that it is in the public interest to require public access to the water from a private marina “to the maximum extent practical” and requires marinas to submit public-access plans to state regulators. But it allows marinas to restrict access to areas that pose a public-safety risk and during the hours when the marina is closed. The legislation also allows marinas, when crafting their public-access plans, to take into account alternative access areas nearby. The legislation goes a little easy on marina owners — the access plans don’t require DEP approval and the fine for failing to provide a plan is a mere $250. But it is a cautious approach that carefully balances the interests of boat and marina owners with the public’s obvious right to access tidal waterways. Seems reasonable to us. But instead, this week the Senate Environment Committee approved a substitute measure that simply creates a two-year moratorium on the new access rules and a task force to study the issue. The problem with this approach is that it allows the issue to simmer. And the longer the threat of these rules is out there, the less inclined marina owners will be to renovate their facilities — or even to hold on to them. Marinas are disappearing all over the state and being replaced with waterfront condos — condos that will make it even more difficult for the public to access tidal waters. The DEP and the Legislature should be encouraging the continued existence of marinas, not discouraging them. The two-year moratorium on the misguided rules is better than nothing, but a more comprehensive and definitive resolution of this issue would be better.

Jun 12, 2008

• Gasoline prices / Saving pennies

Just up ahead ... that sign on the right ... it's only $3.83 a gallon ...
Motorists stressed by rising prices and a gloomy economy are looking for relative bargains whenever they can - even if it's only pennies of difference in a stratospheric price zone where no gallon of U.S. gas has gone before.

Jun 11, 2008

• Now is the time to reform state pensions

State government sometimes resembles the movie "Groundhog Day." A crisis - such as high property taxes or budget deficits - leads to calls for sweeping reform. Special interests squeal loudly, politicians back off, and a year later ... we're back to the same crisis. The cycle repeats.

Jun 10, 2008

• Vaccine exemptions / Dangerous policy

A bill that will allow New Jersey parents to exempt their children from the state's mandatory immunizations is bad public-health policy based on fear and beliefs rather than on knowledge and science.

Jun 09, 2008

• New police vehicles / Think fuel-efficient

The surging price of gas is making more and more people who are in the market for a new vehicle consider something a little more fuel-efficient than a sport utility vehicle.

Jun 08, 2008

• School elections / Hold in November

Last week's primary election drew a meager 10 percent of the electorate. That's unfortunate, but understandable. The higher-profile presidential primary was held in February - and voters have been asked to vote in as many as three other elections sandwiched between the two primary elections. Call it voter fatigue.

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