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Protecting the Environment is Up to Us

'The headline oppo.il* 1 thl» page la moat

dlaturblng; the accompanying I ■' ' ' J ng. Perhapa even mofe diaco_. irtent Given auch a diamal traca

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dlaheartening. Perhapa even more dlacouraging la-Um> portent: Given auch a diamal track record, what will man do to hla environment during the Reagan preaidency when there are

HUE BUSIEST ■ertlon of Ihe Inland Walooway, Uio Capo May Canal In letter Township shows jasl how mnny craft ply thr ocean and bay waters off the Jersey .Cape-thousands Hopefully, most aboard show concern for Ihe marine milieu.

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fewer federal dollara earmarked for en-\ vtronmental protection and a greater emphaaia on the aearch for a uae of foaall fuela. The Reagah admlnlatratlon la intent on getting government off our backa, and that la good. Hopefully, hla determination to return many of the function* which the federal bureacracy haa aaaumed tb atate and local control will not be viewed aa a aignal for en-vironmental-rampage and degradation. INDEED, THE TIME IS HERE when men a mettle will be teated; when the ability or inability of the individual to act the destiny of this planet will come to the fore. This ia not editorial hyperbole. Just as this natifip’s people consume most of the world's oil jUid certain other natural resources, so It IsThat we 4erc in the United States set the tone, If not the ■course, for world action. It may therefore be truly said of us as a people that to whom much

Is given, much Is expected.

Let us, then not become bogged down In a great debate on the wisdom or timing of this return tn Individual Initiative. Let us, rather,

Burger's Right, Court System Is Failing Us " by Arthur R. Hull I hope that the nation takes to heart the suggestion that our criminal Justice system ia failing ua - I grew up close to the U.S.-Mexican border and made frequent visits thdre As I would go through the streets, noting the bars on the windows of the houses and the shops. 1 felt so grateful th«t I lived in a country where that was not necessary But now. with the staggering annual Increases in the crime rate in our nation, those bars are beginning to appear on the homes, even in our little community. / we as a nation, need to face this probleih now. or face a breakdown in our socialfystem in the years ahead ArthurR Hot1.lt a resident o/Wildwood Crest.

CAPS MAV COIJWTV

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John H. Andrus II William J. Adamn Hon nit- Reina Darrell Kopp

* Editor Advertising Director General Manager Publisher

Phone 9S7-33I2 For News Or Advertising Information DEADMNKM

Thursday Friday - 3 p.m.

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reaolve to prove to ounelvet and to all the world that we are responsible human belnga; that we can be tmated to shape our destiny

wifely,

WE HERE ON THE JERSEY CAPE can be

instrumental in setting the tone in an area of the glove which while the small is nevertheless situated In the midst of one of the most

populated and important areas of the Earth (given our proximity to New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D C.). To our shores flock hundred of thousands of

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tourists and vacationers every summer. Let us show them and others that we care about our Heautiful environment; that we are responsible stewards. With the great Atlantic at our front door and the Delaware bay at our back, let us sail with optimism and resolve, determined to chart a new course of understanding and cotb pa lability with our environment — not the old tack of unmindful disregard for resources and sur-

roundings.

The Herald t Lantern

7

Cronkite Pushing Clean Oceans

Public Service Announcement! (PSAs), those pleas for worthy nonprofit causes that tv stations squeeze onto the air between their programs and paid commercials, rarely make news Everyone is against cancer and for maintaining Red Cross blood supplies. But a new PSA soon to be released by a Washingtonbased conservation group may well get some attention In the press as well as' free time on the air. In fact, It may become the mosttalked about TV "spot" since the Pittsburgh Steeters' Mean Joe Greene toased his football jersey to that kid who gave him a Coke. IT 18 A PSA narrated for the National Wildlife Federation by the natidn's best-known tv newsman. Walter Cronkite^and it will start appearing'on tv stations around the country on March 8 — two days after Cronkite anchors his last CBS Evening News show. It is the first "spot" of its kind ever made by Cronkite and he made it for the NWF because of his extraordinary interest In the subject of the spot — the world's oceans. x Cronkite's message is that' man, as well as wildlife, is dependent upon clean oceans for survival. Or, as Cronkite says in the 60-second noncommercial: "When we

“W* should all oeaank..." foul our oceans (with sewage, oil, chemicals and radioactive wastes), we disturb a delicate web of life on which every creature depends—from the tiniest fish to the greatest whale." CRONKITE MADE the spota as chairman of National Wildllfewek, which will be obsei^ed from March 15 through 21 this year. The "week” has been sponsored by the NWF annually since 1938. when President Franklin D. Roosevelt first proclaimed it to rally public support for wildlife conservation. The theme for this year's observance is "We Care About Oceans.” Cronkite will serve' a week in the honorary, unpaid Wildlife Week chairmanship. He agreed to serve as chairman — another "first” in his long career as a Journalist — because as a lifelong conservationist and as the skipper of a 42-ft. seagoing yawl, the Wyntje, he cares about oceans. " WE SHOULD all care about our oceans, no matter wherfe we live,” he said ih accepting the one-week assignment, “because we all share the gifts of the sea around us. They are a priceless resource that we must protect.”

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In the Wildlife Week tv spots — which will be distributed, not to networks, but to some 600 local tv stations around the country — Cronkite will share the small screen with a scene-stealing sea otter, a sometimes comic marine mammal that appears on the 1981 Wildlife Week posters. Ironically, Cronkite narrated the NWF’s we-need-clean-oceans spots standing on a beach near the lighthouse at Edgartown, Mass., about 50 milts from the scene of one of America's worst marine oil disasters — the spot where the tanker Argo Merchant , ran aground off Nantucket Island In 1976, spilling 7.7 million gallons of heavy fuel oil Into the Atlantic' Ocean. A BREACHING whale am) most of the sea ottefs appearing in the spota were filmed In the Pacific Ocean off Monterey, Cal., about 900 miles from the site of the infamous 20-million gallon Santa Barbara spill of 1909 — an offshore oil well blowout that helped launch the "environmental revolution" of the 1970s. Cronkite refused to have his script printed on ‘cu0 cards for the filming of-his on-camera segments of the spots. "If I don’t know this

by heart, then I shouldn't be here,” he explained. THE VETERAN tv newsman narrated the PSAs in near-freexing temperature on a day when a 20 to 25 mph wind was lashing Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard, where he has a summer vacation home. When a gust of icy wind delayed the shooting, he Issued a mock warning to the camera crew: "If we don't finish this soon, it’s

Cronkite on beach at Martha's Vineyard going to turn out to be a commercial for pneumonia." As it turned out Cronkite didn’t get pneumonia, though his voice was husky on the CBS Evening News for several nights after that finger-numbing filming. What the spots will "sell," instead of pneumonia, is a greater public understanding of-the fact that polluted oceans threaten not only sea otters, whales and shrimp, but people, too.

British Seagull 387 The Featherless Biped

By Ima Byrd

We gulls get a kick out of the way humans wheel and deal Sometimes we just can't keep from laughing. Take the recent beach fee controversy in Wildwood. Or the Point development in Stone Harbor How about the tax situation in Middle Township? It's all the same In each instance the taxpayer is threatened if he doesn't , go along with what the officials want. YOU MIGHT SAY ITS a sort of politica] blackmail.' Now I know that term might seem a little harsh, hut think about it. In Wildwood people were told to vote for beach fees or suffer the consequences of less serviedk and benefits. In Stone Harbor they said develop or raise taxes, and in Middle it was a simple case of cops or robbers. But maybe the officials have gone too far in their enthusiasm in getting their, point across. AT LEAST IN WILDWQOD it seems as if pssple have taken a stand. There the plan may have backfired a bit because taxpayers did their homework and demanded that the budget cuts be taken from what they felt was wasteful manuevering by those In charge. Residents, in heated debates, suggested various innovative ways for saving tax dollars. None of them. I might add, seemed to appeal to the officials, but at least the people were in there

with officials. Many of them arie concerned about the development of the last, bit of open land (outside of the bird sanctuary) but they fee) they've already lost the Point. They seem to think that officials who joke about wildlife don't really understand it or take it seriously. These people apparently have forgotten that officials are

supposed to be “servants of the people.”

IT'S AMAZING JUST HOW much mortals will tolerat?. For instance, committee members in Middle Township didn't hesitate for a moment to raise their salaries to a whopping $10,000 a year. Reports pre that other ipioyees also received raises. This seems mighty

of the fa - . . ~ .

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ange in view c

i fact that it i

»in the face of

^tremendous concern on the part of the committee and mayor. Tremendous concern about the — ahem! —

budget! There, the police are expendable.

I REALLY ENJOY FLYING around the county. 1 love to perch on the window sills of those human meetingplaces Just to soak up the'warmth from the energy generated by ‘ the debates But the best part comes when the taxpayers gohome and officials open up and discuss ways to handle

"them”. I Just sit, listen and take'lt all in.

It might ruffle my feathers a bit, but then I remember who I am and give quiet thanks that Tin not one of those

Over in Stone Harbor, residents seem to be playing ball Next week • leef watch