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•Rif Herald and Hie Lantern

Wednesday, February 13.1W»

The Best Ratable At the southern end of our beautiful/ peninsula, South Cape May continues to erode away; little but catch up patch-up done to combat the problem because so few ratables are invoved. Beginning just a few yards inland, however, the politicians in Cape May Point. West Cape May, land Cape May City together with officials 6f the County MUA have been scurrying about trying to convince one another and federal bfficiais that there is public support in favor of allowing them to install sewer lines in areas of development potential which are nonetheless susceptible to potentially devastating o<^ean flooding. In neighboring Lower Township, development continues at a fast pace, slowed only temporarily by a tight \money market, the politicians (and, apparently, most of the people) still buying that .song and dance about how great ratables are. Vver in North Wildwood permission has finally been received to build on a stretch of batffe bay mdadowland. And in Stone Harbor, the grass covered dunes beyond 122nd St. known as The Point, appear to be on their way providing a future hedge against raising the tax rate in the short run. (Politicians are almost! always concerned about the short run. whiefc coincides with their term of office.) * j

It is'because of this vfe be'puzzled how politicii elected and re elected forms calling for more when it is it host* very ra most cases, also the root for more and more public And, make no mista circuitous the route, ultimately come from on further removed tax n individual taxpayer, the salary’s they must suppo taxpayer. That is why th|? ultimately the least g< there is a lesson there wii

v that we continue to id ns can keep being iy running on platand more ratables tables which are. in causes for the need

services.

«\ no matter how government funds e? source. In fact, the onies arc from the more administrative t enroute back to the best government is ibvcrnmenl. Perhaps t|h regard to ratables.

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Now. it is true that sea gulls will ‘occasionally threaten a passing motor vehicle with a falling clam shelli And the sand from dunes does have a nasty fiabit of blowing into nearby lawns and swimming pobls. There are seasons when a farmer & field will give up dust And it's true that at certain times of year, the life-giving marshes give off what to many is an unpleasant smell. But we have never known the fire company, or the police, or the Coast Guard, or the rescue squad to be called out bycause of something inherent with wildlife or its habitat. And we don’t know of .any school faxes that have had to be paid out in support of a dune or a field, meadow or forest.

Don't Exploit the Land To the Editor: l liked your editorial, County Land Ethic (Feb. 6). with its admirable point that ownership oj land carries with its privileges, an obligation to use it properly and not exploit it for any gain that is anti social. R. Leslie Chrismer Cape May Dynamic Leadership Lacking In Wildwood City Gov’t To the Editor: I suppose much curiosity and speculation has been aroused.by the coming opening of the new polHical campaign headquarters at 3120 Pacific Ave., Wildwood. Let me preface this letter by saying I always have and always will love the City of Wildwood and only feel badly because our city hasn't reached the high potential that it so richly deserves! Active, aggressive and interested individuals are direly needet^to stimulate

Wildwood’s growth and lead us down the road of success that Atlantic City Is currently enjoying. We have been promised the help of our sister city, but we are now lacking the dynamic leadership to form this alliance and go forward with new and aggressive ideas and plans. Spending 90 percent of my time in the City of Wildwood due to my residence and various businesses. I have had the opportunity see some vast voids in our political leadership... We have most certainly gone/ram a bad bus station to no bus station in a time that this is one of our most important assets. I am sure no one has forgotten the long lines and cancellations of last season due to the gas shortage. And I also believe that we are not so naive to believe that things won't be much, much worse this coming season. What have we done over the long winter months to Insure that we aren't caught in the same exact situation this year? A marriage with Atlantic City, a new bus station and gas coverage are just three areas that are screaming for help in the City of Wildwood. But our city will not receive this help unless new, active and aggressive leadership is introduced into our coming plans for the coming years. This problem has our city, our business people and general community very much concerned... I am personally, a deeply concerned businessmart because of the lack of direction and co-operation the city o//icia(s have taken. As recently as this past October, my company after many months of hard effort was able to bring over 30,000 people far Wildwood's first Oktoberfest. The co-operation I have received from the city officials was NIL. The end result thus became a loss and I may be forced to go to Atlantic City for the 1980 Oktoberfest. In fact, because of my companies' problems with respect to convention hall and the city officials unwillingness to work out matters of convention hall or other facilities. I may have no other choice but to divert a majority of my people to Atlantic City. It is not my personal motivation to be mayor or city o//icial, but my deep oncern that the City of Wildwood must have new dynamic, dedicated leadership which Is now totally lacking. Therefore, myself and other concerned Wildwood people are discussing with civic leaders and businessmen the need to form a political group to oppose the present inept mayor and city commissioners. ’We would hope in a matter of weeks, that a political group will be formed to challenge the present city government. Lou Lambert Erma

a tontldormd viewpoint on on Important Issue of tho day

conspectus

Genuflection in Iran Would be Only the First Knee

I

By ARTHUR JONES I deem it my duty as a Christian minister to register my profound disagreement with the opinions expressed by the Christian clergymen who recently visited Iran. Since most of them stated positions and advocated actions which I consider mistaken, and since I did not hear a dissenting voice among them, I think it not unfair to respond to them as a group. I admire their courage and sense of commitment for undertaking their difficult and dangerous tasks. and my disagreement in no way diminishes my esteem and affection for them, some of whom I know as personal friends. IN VARYING degrees, the clergymen seemed to have been impressed in two principal ways: First, by the evidence and testimony they saw and heard concerning the Shah's 25-year record of brutalities against the Iranian people,' and the United States complicity in those brutalities; and second, by the religious zeal manifested by the Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers. These factors seem to have impelled the clergymen to place primary responsibility on the United States to engage in self-corrective atonements and actions to secure the release of the hostages I wish to examine these two points. NO ONE. not even the most rabid apologists, can deny the inhuman repressions of the Shah's regime The complicity of the U S. Government in the ftje hir^e

part we played in installing him in power and keeping him there, constitutes one of the darker chapters in the history of American foreign policy. Unhappily, however, despotism is not the exception but the rule on the international scene. If we are going to call on nations to "repent" of their "sins," as one of the clergymen suggested, perhaps we should begin with those who rank much higher on the 20th century "sin" scale than the U.S. AT THE top would surely be the Soviet Union, murderers of tens of millions of its own people and perpetrators of the most horrendous labor and death camp system in human history, "the Gulag." A close second place would have to be reserved for Nazi Germany. the butchers of Europe Prominent positions on the scale would have to be found for Idi Amin, "the Black Hitler." the genocidal Pol Pot regime in Cambodia and the present despots of Ethiopia. And who will call the Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers to don sackcloth and ashes? Which leads to the Second question - the Ayatollah's religion Is the Aydtollah religious? If religion and ethical morality go hand in hand, he surely is not. IS IT religious to substitute mob rule for the rule of law — to carry out a bloody reign of terror that includes secret trials with the flimsiest of judicial processes and summary executions of hundreds of people for all kinds of exotic "crimes." including the "crime" of opposing his regime?

Is it religious to whip up mass hysteria for the support and adoption of a "constitution" whose most salient provision is to make him a dictator for life? — to terrorize an ancient Jewish community that has been a vital segment of Iranian/Persian society for thousands of years. IS IT religious to subject men and women, accredited as diplomatic personnel, to imprisonment and separation from their families? To pour out venom daily against the American Government for acts of the past while maintaining an unexplained silence (at this writing) while the Soviet Union sends a massive invading force of soldiers, planes and tanks to bludgeon the small moslem country of Afganistan into submission? To teach his Mullahs to "pray" with guns in their hands and hate on their lips? To apply the term "religious" to such a man is to rob the word of all rational meaning. And surely Christian clergymen, well trained in church history, must know that some of the most hideous chmes on record have been committed in the name of religion. FOR THE U.S. to adopt any in the range of the submissive actions proposed by the clergymen return of the Shah, "repentence." trial of the Shah by a "tribunal" "thanking" the Iranians for allowing visits to the hostages would be dead wrong and would accomplish no good purpose On the contrary, it would place the U.S. in a position of extreme vulnerability vis a vis the other nations of the world; it would

encourage other terror groups to try similar tactics; and it would dangerously tilt the power balance in the Middle East. Such results would further enlarge the ominous, forbidding shadoW of the Soviet Union, who, at this moment is engaged in a devious bid through armed invasion for control of the Persian Gulf area. IN THE large geopolitical chess game - which we must play and win if we are to survive in a harsh and dangerous world — the most crucial factor today and for some time to come is the relative power positions of the two giants. On the one hand is our own country which, with all its faults, shines like a jewel of freedom against the dark despotism of most of the world; on the other is the Soviet Union, whose mission in the world is to supplant political and religious freedom with its own atheistic new order. The clergymen's proposals would, moreover, do violence to the deeper Christian im^ peratives. It is mft a correct rendering of the morality of Jesus to advocate submission at all costs and in any circumstances. Jesus' death on the cross was not a surrender, but a defiant refusal to give up His mission of preaching universal love to all humanity. for all humanity The correct approach in the Iranian crisis is firm patience, based on the principle of never giving in to terrorist blackmail.

Rev. Arthur S. Jones is pastor of St. Mark's AME Church of East Orange