I have made a point of it to refrain from getting into the ugliness of what has become the debate concerning the existence of the Red Bank Charter School (RBCS), but it has recently dawned on me that it is not a debate at all but, instead, a one-sided slugfest.

All I’ve read in this newspaper and other area papers are the voices of the unionized teachers association with no voice from those who appreciate the fact that the state of New Jersey provided residents of Red Bank a choice for schooling their children, albeit via annual lottery, with no guarantee of acceptance.

In addition, despite recent commentary from the teachers union, the enrollment lottery is open to all, regardless of income level or race.

Having arrived in Red Bank in the mid-1990s, prior to the explosion of what has become Red Bank as we know it today, the test grades of the public schools were horrendous. Was it because of a lack of funding? Was it due to the inability of the same unionized teachers? Was it a lack of parental involvement with their child’s continued education at home? Who knows? But the fact is the system was not working — in fact, it was barely serving our community, based on the test scores at that time.

I think it is great that Red Bank Primary has a Blue Ribbon nomination. Kudos to those involved who helped turn what was obviously a broken system into something Red Bank citizens can be proud of.

But does that mean we should board up the RBCS because the public school has achieved what it should have been doing all along? Who’s to say that the recent success is here to stay? Trashing the existence of RBCS is not the answer, but instead, a concerted effort to repeal S-1701, a concept that was probably considered a wise idea at the time but instead turned out to be an ill-conceived piece of legislation not good for New Jersey communities.

Finally, one thing that has become painfully evident is the need for those of us who support RBCS to organize ourselves so that our voices can be heard rather than muffled by the continued slugging.

Kevin Kelleher

Red Bank

Circle of life connects people & animals

In the Broadway musical “Lion King,” actors assume animal personas to remind us that all living things are part of the “Circle of Life.”

What a wonderful message to reflect upon following a troubled and turbulent year of natural and human-made disasters.

We are inextricably connected to each other and to all living things. Taken to the next level, how we care for animals is a telling reflection of who we are in the “Circle of Life.”

Could it be that the possibility of a healed world rests, in part, on how well we live up to our shared responsibility of taking care of the animals that depend upon us for their survival? At the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, we believe this to be true.

Over the course of the year, we have cared for thousands upon thousands of unwanted, injured and homeless animals.

Since the county has no municipal shelter, we rely on the generosity of the community to help us provide for these unfortunate creatures.

As the executive director of the Monmouth County SPCA, I would like to thank all of our loyal and generous supporters who have helped us on this winding path in the “Circle of Life.”

Ursula Goetz

executive director

Monmouth County SPCA

Eatontown

Like Arctic Refuge, Sandy Hook needs protection

(This is an excerpt from a letter to Rep. Rush Holt [D-12])

I thank you for your vote for the protection against drilling in the Arctic Refuge. Two related issues are at the top of my holiday wish list.

Related issue 1: I would like you to stress the need for your support of renewable energy in New Jersey, especially the implementation of wind turbine farms off the coast. With New Jersey as the most populous state, land-sited wind farms are very impractical, especially when our land has become so rare and expensive that working-class neighborhoods are being taken by eminent domain.

We have a chance to unclench the choke hold that the fossil fuel purveyors in this administration and the industry have on us. It’s doubly damning — dirty air that we breathe, and for which we pay, through the nose.

Related item 2: Like the Arctic Refuge, Sandy Hook Gateway National [Park] is being threatened by developers. They don’t have oil rigs, but the threat is as real, maybe more, and devastating to our state. As mentioned before, all open space and even well-situated occupied space is being gobbled up by developers.

The national parks were set aside for citizens like you and I and our grandkids to cherish.

Under the ill-advised and corrupt leasing process, we are giving away our land to developers for at least 60 years. It doesn’t matter whether the intentions were noble; the fact is that the noble uses identified will fail to generate the income needed and will be supplanted by more and more commercial and privatization concessions that will change the character of our nearest national park.

The NPS will see no revenue from this potential lease, since all the NPS will be collecting is a service fee for infrastructure services. The list goes on. You can see the official criticisms in Clearwater/Save Sandy Hook’s lawsuit or go to our Web site at www.savesandyhook.com. I’m sure you’re familiar with it, since I visited you at your office a while ago on this matter.

The following quote in an article planted by SHP in the February 2005 Northeast Real Estate Business Web site says it all for me:

“Less than an hour away from Lower Manhattan floats a stretch of New Jersey coastline that has remained untouched by private development. With nearly 14 miles of beachfront, the Sandy Hook peninsula is a real estate developer’s dream. But since Sandy Hook is a national park, owned by the federal government and managed by the National Park Service, those visions of commercial development have remained only in developers’ imaginations — until now.” The article, by Jennifer Orr, is titled “A new life for historic Army fort in New Jersey: Rehabilitation effort to encompass a variety of uses.”

If desecration of the Arctic is worth preventing, then preventing the desecration of our national park at Sandy Hook is worth it, too.

Ed Dlugosz

Eatontown