Letters
Eminent domain must be stopped

I was in Long Branch on a recent weekend. I had a function to attend at Rooney’s Crab House. I remember when it was so easy to drive off the parkway go down Route 36 onto Joline Avenue to Ocean Avenue and there it was — that glorious ocean right in front of you.

All I had to do was make a left onto Ocean Terrace and there I was at my aunt and uncle’s beach house looking at that glorious view of the ocean … and the view was of the entire ocean not just a little piece.

Well let’s fast forward to this past weekend. You now need to go up down and all around just to get close to the ocean and then through a maze of condos to get to Rooney’s. It is just so crowded and congested.

Eminent domain is just plain wrong. There is no other way to explain it.

Why should my aunt and uncle be forced to sell their home which they worked so hard to get for others to make a profit? And of all people to get that profit but Hovanian, he just can’t stand seeing an empty area.

MTOTSA is the organization which is trying to keep this three-street neighborhood alive I have many childhood memories of this neighborhood.

Please let us keep what little we have left of this neighborhood. Stop eminent domain.

Emily Krause

West Paterson

Summer activities don’t mix well with alcohol

As the Fourth of July fast approaches and our activities turn to the beautiful beaches of the Jersey Shore, don’t let alcohol put a chill on your summer.

The sunshine, warmth and long days of the coming season provide a wealth of opportunities for recreation and relaxation but, when mixed with alcohol, these activities can turn dangerous and even deadly.

It is a fact that alcohol consumption results in an eventual dulling of reactions of the brain and nervous system, turning normal situations into potentially dangerous ones.

It causes a loss of inhibitions, which leads to aggressiveness, poor judgment and reckless movements in the water while boating, swimming and diving.

It can cause faulty coordination and disorientation in the water, and impair a person’s swallowing and breathing reflexes — both of which are essential to swimming.

The following statistics underscore the negative consequences of over consumption of alcohol:

Drinking may be a factor in 80 percent of boating fatalities, says the National Transportation Safety Board. According to the National Safety Council, boating accidents are this country’s second-largest cause of transportation injuries.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol is involved in an estimated 38 percent of drowning deaths.

Data assembled recently for the Surgeon General shows that this number rises to between 40 and 50 percent for young males.

Forty to fifty percent of all diving injury victims consume alcoholic beverages, according to the same report.

For heavy drinkers, alcohol consumption during the summer months can contribute to heat prostration. This dehydration also can increase your chances of having a stroke, particularly for individuals with high blood pressure.

Hypoglycemia and heart rhythm irregularities are additional dangers of drinking on a hot, sunny day.

With so much fun to be had, why let alcohol put a chill on your summer? People under the age of twenty-one, drivers and people planning water-related recreational activities should stay away from alcohol.

For a free copy of “Summer Drinking Tips,” send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Summer Drinking Tips, Prevention First, 1405 Route 35, Ocean, 07712 or visit our Resource Center located at the same address.

Mary Pat Angelini

executive director

Prevention First

Ocean Township

Photos of 9/11 ‘bring the war home,’ reader says

I have just read the article describing Grace Graupe-Pillard’s “frightening reminder of the human cost of war.” Ms. Graupe-Pillard could have saved herself a lot of time by just looking at the photos of the two planes crashing into the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001. To quote Ms. Graupe-Pillard, “I want to bring the war home.”

Well, the photos of Sept. 11 certainly do bring the war home.

Kathleen Kenny

Middletown