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-opinion.

H^ralH «. Lantern 7 September '83

Other Voices

Dream Law for Deadbeats

Let's say you are a seasoned MBA earning six figures.. And let's say that you own a Manhattan triplex, a cottage at the shore and a mean Italian sports car. So, let’s say that credit-card companies and other lenders of money figure you for a good credit risk. Accordingly, you fill your closets and shelves, floors and walls, with all the accoutrements of a six-figure MBAer. But, before you can sink mto decadent enjoyment, a little butterfly straddle in the options market leaves you, ah, bankrupt. "« . Now, before you phone your lawyer, let us get right to the heart of the matter. Under current law, you have a choice. You can file for personal bankruptcy under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 of Bankruptcy Act of CONSIDER Chapter 7: This provision exempts certain assets— like houses and cars — from the goings-on. It calls for the liquidation of remaining stuff and says you must use the proceedings to pay whomever — but it exempts you from making good on the gap between payment and borrowings.. i, You may ha ve been extended cred^ on the basis of your income and earnings potential, but tinder Chapter 7 it is all somehow beside the point. That is — yipee — you emerge free and clear after your on-the-spot shakedown Consider now Chapter 13: This provision lets you keep whatever you might have had to liquidate under Chapter 7 and makes you come to an agreement with your creditors on a payments stretch-out regime. Chapter 13 recognizes your bright future and wide income stream. You aren’t free and clear until you've paid back your debts. Well, you don't need an MBA to tell you to seize the first choice. H'H cost you less: much, much less. - And you are not alone in seizing this opportunity, either. Our Readers Write^ We’re Fighting For All of You To The Editor: \ The residents of Woodbine are having a difficult time understanding why the Cape May County MUA is so opposed to purchasing the seven properties which are located within 2,500 feet of the proposed landfill. The Pine lands Commission included the requirement that a landfill could not be built within 2,500 feet of a residence in its Comprehensive Management Plan, after extensive study and for very good reasons. The MUA, in order to “save money” (their words 1, pressured the Pinelands Commission into waiving the requirements because of “dire public need.” The residents contested the waiver and have spent , -thousands of dollars of their own money for an attorney to gather facts and present their case before an Administrative Lb w Judge. AS YOU KNOW, Judge Norman Smith has decided in the favor of the residents after many hours and days of testimony from both sides. Hopefully on Friday, Sept. 9, - the Pinelands Commission will recind and deny the waiver to the MUA, just as Judge Norman Smith has recommended. The Woodbine location was clearly not the best site among the top seven. Only local political considerations brought about that site selection. Contrary to the MUA statements, the cost of buying out the residents is nominal. Even appraisers selected by the MUA to study the problem came to that conclusion. The 2,500 foot rule makes sense to everyone in the Pinelands. We are fighting for all of your rights. If any of you readers can be of help to us, please contact us. We wifi continue this fight for as long as it takes. CHARLES L. PENNING

Woodbine

According to a recent GAO report, 42 percent of your colleagues 4n bankruptcy who opt for Chapter 7 share the same financial characteristics as those wljp qualify for — and are supposed to adhere to — the. more costly approach. * „ NONE of this has escaped the notice of the consumercredit industry, which, of course, comes* up short. It . figures that about a quarter of those filing under Chapter 7 .could afford to repay undo 1 Chapter 13; that comes to over a billion bucks a year. Thus, the industry has been lobbying for a change in the 1978 Bankruptcy Act, '. And it almost made it this spring. The Senate passed a bill to make it more difficult for some bankrupts to walk away from their debts; the bill also tightened Chapter 7 to make it a less attractive option. The House, however, ignored the action. Well, now that Congress is in recess, there's plenty of time to read over the GAO’s findings and put the legislative agenda in order. After all, it’s not just a matter of getting one’s due from debtors, but of keeping the cost and availability of credit reasohahle|br more responsible sorts (MBAs included). 4 - Congress, in a -sense, owes this one to consumers of credit: the ones who honor their debts.

'V

— Wall Street Journal Letters Welcome The Herald and Lantern welcome letters to the editor on matters of public interest. Originals, not copies, are requested. Writers should sign name, address and phone number. ‘

CARE MAV 11 a 4 X. ~ Y tmalo fublithH WXtn<^tfa> By P.O. Box «» TbrSeawaxe Corporation Capr May Court Hontr, N J. >S210 Joseph R. Zelnik Editor Bonnie Keina General Manager Gary L, Rudy , Advertising Director , John Dunwoody Special Promotions Director Darrell Kopp Publisher r S*owo»* Corp 1VB3 All rights All property righti lor tha anlira toMorrtt ol.thii pvbbcoiion iSoll b* th« proporty ot ih» Saowovs CtKp No port horaoi moy bo roprodutod without prior wrrtlon conunt : : DEADLINES News & Photos..... r. Thursday Advertising .Friday - 3 p.m. Classified Advertising...; ......... Friday -3 p.m. ] 465-5055 For News Or Advertisipg lnformaUon ] Nrilhrr porOripatinit advrrtitrr* nor thr puMIshm, of thr HKB ALD AMJ CANTKHN will br rnpoosiblr or Hablr lor mismlornnUim. ■nixprinh. lypograpblral rrrorx. rtr.. '*t aa> ivt-ur. Thr rdllor rrMrvn tbr ri^hl to rdU any trtirr or artirlrs tubimltrd lor publica--—LANTERN

p o Box oo Cape May Court House. SJ. flgziOj

Run Jessie, Runl Run Jessie, Run!”

King, Why Not Jefferson, Jackson, Salk, ~ Roosevelt, Madison, Truman, Einstein...? (ED. NOTE: The Herald and Lantern on Aug. 17 ), reprinted a Wall Street. Journal editorial on a national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Following letters appeared in the Journal in response.) Your editorial “How About A King Work Day?” reduces the issue of a national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the false issue of an extra day’s leisure and lost productivity. And it misrepresents the proposal for a national holiday as simple recognition of the achievements of the civil rights movement. It represents a lot more than that. A Martin Luther King, Jr. day would go beyond honoring the man to be a permanent, institutionalized reminder that racial equality is — and must be — a national goal. IT WOULD BE a tribute to toe moral energies of blacks and whites who joined together tp free America from the shame of a segregated society. It would be a powerful symbolic statement that America’s heroes are not limited to white males. It would be a day of tribute to all Am ere ia ns whose forefathers confronted slavery, peonage and oppression; and thus, would be an inspiration to those still excluded from the mainstream. By honoring Dr. King, America would symbolize the pluralistic nature of our society and the diversity of our leadership. To reduce thfc issue of a King Day to quibbles about another day of leisure and idleness does more than miss the point — it offers a gratuitous insult to those of us who . still believe in Dr. King’s J)ream and to the millions whose aspirations he embodiedT" * Vernon E. Jordan Jr. Washington . - IN YOUR EDITORIAL you write that “we can think of hardly anyone more deserving of the honor a commemorated birthday than Martin Luther King.”. If you can’t think of anyone more deserving, I can: Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Andrew Jhckson, Dr. Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Adams and several hundred more. r Thomas P. Corwin Brig. General, USAF (Ret.) Hilton Head Island, S.C. OUR REPRESENTATIVES in Washington should propose that everyone who wants to honor the memory of Dr. King should work that day for nothing, and the money be contributed to a national fund to be used for the education of needy students. This small sacrifice on the part of millions of people^ would truly honor toe memory of a great man. / Henry Moths Newtown, Pa. / ' ■ A - ■ . ■■ * Do you have an opinion on this subject? Write a letter to the editor. Herald and Lantern, P.O. Box 430, Cape May f Court House, N.J. 08210.

Nothing's Easy.

Bill’s in Texas When I Want Him

Many individuals and most professions have favorite comments or sayings. All dentists, for example, promise, “This won’t hurt” Bartenders ask, “Another?” And surgeons say, “Whoops!” . Lifeguards must reflect “I wonder how. old SHE is?” a hundred times a day. U Nurses are always saying, “You don’t look so good.” That’s because they think they’re doctors. Sanitation men emptying a garbage pail and shoe salespersons removing a customer’s shoe are apt to share the same phrase: “Phew!” a GASOLINE STATION attendants always say “Fill ’er up?” (They used to say, “Glean your windshield?” but that became extinct a few years ago.) School teachers say “shut up!” around the house a lot because they’re not permitted to say it at work. . And if you work at Marind National Bank, you’d sure better say, “Thank You.” * The election of Ronald Reagan as president brought back a saying that was popular 50 years ago: “Brother, can you spare a dime?” Only now it’s a buck. MY FAVORITE presidential saying wasn’t said BY a president but ABOUT him. When Grover Cleveland was hunting for president in 1892, his opponents would chant, “Ma, ma, where’s my pa? Going to the White House, ha, ha, ha.” The point was that Cleveland, who won anyway, had fathered a child out of wedlock. He was a Democrat, of course. ^ When I was in high school, I and my cohorts went around saying, “Huzza, huzza huzza." I don’t remember what it meant, if anything, but I know it had no relation to “Hubba, hubba, hubba.” I’m not THAT old. Later in life my favorite saying was, “What the hell...”! think that had something to do with the stoicism that ( comes with Yugoslav ancestry. That devil-may-care attitude seems more difficult nowadays. ^ CERTAIN occupations have other vocal idiosyncrasies.

Call a lawyer, for example, and he may sound preoccupied. That’s because he charges by the minute and is in-' tently watching the second hand on his desk clock. < Politicians usually lower their voices as if what they're about to say is top secret. It seldom is. Many in the news business can frequently be heart! to snarl, “Nothing’s easy.” That has become endemic to this trade because so many seemingly simple story assignments turn out to be damned near impossible, frequently because the source is unavailable. ■ cA simple Fourth of July festivities schedule, for example, can require eight phone calls, only to learn that the chairman left it in the pocket of the sportcoat he sent to the cleaners. •. A WEEK AGO Monday I was trying to locate a local politician with an unlisted phone number. I finally called a courthouse official I thought likely to have it. His wife answered. v * “Is Bill there?” I asked “No,” she said. H $ “Expect him soon?” I asked ♦‘Friday,” she said. “Friday?” I said. “He’s in Texas,” she said, as though that would make it all clear. Now many Cape May Coundans do you know who are in Texas right now? Only toe one I wanted. A GOOD EXAMPLE of “nothing’s easy" comes every January'when newspapers do a story on the first baby of the new year. Sounds easy, huh? Just write about the telephone lineman and his crocheting wife and how happy they are to become parents. But it invariably turns out to be an unwed mother. I’ve even noticed that most people who talk to me use the same, automatic saying: “Don’t pul this in your column.” t l seldom honor the request, of course.