editorial

Homework Time

In just a few weeks — November 2, to be precise -’the voters of Cape May County and the rest of New Jefsey will be Called upon to make important decisions;which could affect

their lives in the years ahead.

Once again it Will be Election Time and it seems barely a few monthfcs ago that we were ftivolved in a cliff hanger that resulted in the

r Thornes K;

UfJIIIIUII

as Kean ! worloy

In politics are ever in

election of Governor

as elsewhere, time and thi

night. .

The big contest this year is between Congresswoman Millicent Fenwick and Frank Lautenberg for the U.S, Senate seat. While that is the so-called glamdur event, there are other races on the congressional and municipal levels that are significant to the

voters of Cape May County, too.

■ Beginning today and throughout the election campaign, the Herald and Lantern will be running a series of exclusive articles in which the candidates' views and positions will be outlined. It is recommended that the voters read these articles as part of tlicir homework for the 1982 election. To ^ote intelligently, pne must know where the candidates stand/and that's what election campaigns are really all about’ Sometimes successful candidates change their positions after elections, but in the absence of soothsaying machines, one must make his or her choices on the basis of past perforniance and promises, promises,

promises.

It’s an old cliche about the need for more people to go to the polls. Stay-at-homes are usually the disenchanted or apathetic. Yet they often.are the first to complain when

things don't go right.

Now is the time to study the issues, to -evaluate the candidates. November 2 is the time to make the decisions

September Solitude By Suzanne McKinley The tourists have gone. They are content. They believe they’ve enjoyed the beach at its best The sun was scorching. A warm brecw was blowing, and a crowd was present. As I stroll along the w.ater’s edge, I notice a plastic shovel half buried in seaweed. A last trace of summer washes away. The waves roll gently toward the shore. The rising tide gradually swallows the beach, turning the sifted white sand to a coarse ocean floor. The sea is like a blue desert, although it stirs with life beneath its surface. \« The soft roaring of the waves accompanies a swift brefeze in a whisper of song. A seagull soars gracefully through the air as though it were dancing to the peaceful tune. In the distance, two figures walk hand in hand in my direction. Before they notice me, they turn. I'm alone ag^in...in September. (Suzanne McKinley, a resident of Clermont, is’a literature major at Stockton State College.)

The State We're In Barrier Islands Help on the Way

By David Moore

At last the federal government is moving in the direction of safety and sanity regarding the ongoing weakening of barrier islands, those narrow sandspits which protect the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from the furies of the open seas, while sheltering young marine life in calm waters between them and the mainland. Secretary of the Interior James Watt, who has been taken to task more than once in this space, has acted to restrict issuing of federal-flood insurance on many of the country’s barrier islands This means for all practical purposes, that nobody will be crazy enough to gamble big bucks on structures which are prone to disappear when a burriedne hits. With flood insurance, it’s no gamble, so barrier island development would

continue to burgeon.

That’s merely step one, and Watt has"not included some.important areas, such as major barrier islands

reader's forum \

Red Cross Ready For Inevitable

by Marie C. Dugan We are constantly being reminded that it has been over 20 years since a major hurricane hit our coastline area and that, statistically, we ire well overdue for what may have because of the wanton overdevelopment of our coast - devastating results. Aware of this prediction, the Cape May County chapter of the American Red Ciloss — dedicated to pro vide immediate emergency assistance to disaster victims — has been giving priorityjto disaster preparedness by making plans lor providing emergency mass care in a shelter situation land assisting individuals with urgent disaster-caused needs IN PREPARATION, THE CIIAPTER HAS had 30 volunteers attend a three-hour Disaster Workshop. 22 volunteers attended a sevcn-hoiir Shelter Management Course,-and also planned an alljday Disaster Nursing Course - all in an effort to assure quality assistance in a hurricane, or any,disaster caused evacuation to a Red Cross shelter I Red Cross is, indeed, your Good Neighbor. In addition to our commitment to disaster preparedness, we provide a variety of services to our communities such as Blood, Service to Military Families anti Vets; First Aid, CPR, and Water Safety training, Nursing and Health Care. ANYONE READING THIS I.ETTER who is interested in being part of the Red Cross Team of people helping people may call the chapter office at 465-7382.

r II COUNTY

i?ralfc

I’uhll.hrd KVrr> Wrtnrtdi) Hs Tto H*a w a v * Carpara U*a

P.O.RoiO Avalaa. NJ MM2

Jacob Scbaad Jr. Bonnie Reina Darrell Kopp

Managing Editor General Manager St Advertising Coordinator Publisher

laewovaCorp '*•? All ligtot r*«*rv*d Alt proparty fight! to* < on tan ft o» fhii publKfihop iholl ba tha proparty o* tha Saovova Corp No pari haraol may ba raprodurad mihoul prior wnltan cootant

DEADLINES New* & Photos Thursday Advertising Friday - 3 p.m. Classified Advertising Friday - 3 p.m.

r*«7-33l2 For News Or Advertising Information]

AND I.ANTKR.N wlH rrvponilblr or liable lor mklnformaltoa. mloorlnU. lypographlral rrrorv rlr . In any Itaur Thr rtllor rrtrrt r* thr rlgbl torilt any tHIrr a* artklra Mibmltlrd lor pobllra-

(.oarri

Townahlp

LANTERN

PabUakH Krrry WrtbwMlay Tbr Seaway* Corporation

P O Hot «M Cold Spring, N J 08204

Everyone can be part of the Red Cross Team by responding tomnd drive appeals, which are now cir-culating-throughout the county. Your financial support — the county chapter’s on/y source of income — is needed and much appreciated It makes our services to our communities possible. - » Think Red Cross. Marie Dugan is chairman of the Cape May County Red Cross Chapter.

Musings... Remember Jack Fulton? by Jane Ann Cunningham It’s a little startling to be reading a book about someone famous and come across the name of someone else you personally knew. While browsing through Bing Crosby. The Hollow Man (an interesting book, by the way), I Came across Jack Fulton, a name I hadn’t thought of ip years. It was in the section devoted to Bing's affiliation with the Paul Whiteman orchestra. Jack Fulton was mentioned a number of timeA. The name probably has little Special meaning, unless you’re from my old hometown. In Phillipsburg, Pa., Jack was the local boy who made good. A NUMBER OF NEARBY COMMUNITIES had their stars. Jimmy Stewart was from Indiana, Fred Waring from Tyrone, Perry Como and Janet Blair from near Altoona. We had Jack Fulton, vocalist and trombone player in Paul Whiteman's orchestra. His family and ours had close ties. He and my father played in bands together. His sister’s husband was my father’s bestman. And years later, the son of another of Jack's sisters was usher at my wedding. We all had more than a passing intenestHMus career. Each Paul Whiteman recording was, of/course, purchased and saved. IN THOSE DA(YS. EVErV .BAND member was listed on the record, and it was of l)»ss interest to us that George Gershwin played the piano for Rhapsody in Blue than that the name of Jack Fulton was there too. Fulton also had parts in a few movies; hits in his hometown, if nowhere else. Decades have passed and more than one generation of young peole have gone forth from thfet little town deep in the Alleghenies to take up noteworthy endeavors, but none have dusted the people back home with the glamor's reflected glitter like the man vin Paul Whiteman’s orchestra. Even now when old timers reminisce, the name they all mention is Jack Fulton, whose life added a little romance to life in a dreary town during the Depression.

off South Carolina and Florida, in his flood insurance ban. THE NEXT STEP is embodied in two bills now awaiting action in Congress: jTlOlB and H R. 3252. The former may have come up for a vote by the time you read this. The latter underwent several days of committee hearings in June. The thurst of both is to curtail any federal loans or grants for construction of just about anything on barrier islands. That means roads, bridges and other support projects which will make it easier for the islands to be ruined for the purposes nature intended. Easier to get an awful lot of people drowned one,of these days, too. There's precious little to save in the way of barrier islands in this state we're in. Witness I,ong Beach Island as an exi/nple of what can happen. Those with 20-year memories will recall that a March nor’easter, not even a hurricane, struck Long Beach Island in 1962 and wrecked hundreds of homes, killed a dozen persons and cut several new channels through what were, and are again, residential areas. The Senate bill, cosponsored by New Jersey Senator Nicholas Brady, is now the winner of support from a broad-based coalition of national and local environmental groups, which also boosts the House bijl. The group is named, not surprisingly, the Barrier Islands Coalition. New Jersey spoasors of the House bill, by the way, include Reps. Millicent Fenwick, Matthew Rinaldo, JamAs Minish, Edwin Forsythe and James Courier. The Coalition has launched a campaign to get residents of coastal states especially, and the rest of the country in general, to let their elected representatives in Washington know that they support this overdue legislation. THEY NOTE the deletions from the Watt action on flood insurance which I mentioned. But I still cannot help but rejoice that, despite the generally unenvironmental cliiriate in Washington nowadays, so many were included. In New Jersey, the insurance ban was effected for an important barrier beach in Stone Harbor, but two other segments of beaches on the east and west shores of Cape May were deleted. As I said, it’s a shame because there is so little left of New Jersey to save. This matter is especially timely at this time of the year, when there’s always a chance for a hurricane to hit our coast “just right” to wreak havoc and suffering. Did you realize that the low barometric pressure at the eye of a hurricane can permit the level of the ocean to rise 15 or 20 feet above normal? And that the hurricane waves frequently^re 40 feet high? Stand on any New Jersey beach and contemplate just how far inland the destruction would reach if the water were 60 feet deeper. Contemplate the frailty of the barrier islands along our coast and the pitifully vulnerable structures which rise practically everywhere. Then you will really be equipped to understand the tragedy which awaits. It’s not a question of whether or not it will happen, but merely of when! David Moore is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.