opinion

Give Thanks America Has Been Blessed /"""Foltejving is the text of President Reagan's Thanksgiv- \ ing Day proclamation : As we remember the faith and values that made America great, we should recall that our tradition of 9 Thanksgiving is older than our nation itself. Intjeed, the native American Thanksgiving antedated those of the new Americans. In the words of the eloquent Seneca traditions of the Iroquois. "Give it your thought, that with one mind we may now give thanks to Him our creator." From the first Pilgrim observance in 1621 to the nine years be/ore enduring the American Revolution when the Continental Congress declared days of fast and prayer and days of Thanksgiving, we have turned to almightyGod to express our gratitude for the bounty and good fortune we enjoy as individuals and as a nation. America truly has been blessed. Now Therefore, I Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in the spirit and tradition of the Iroquois, the Pilgrims, the Continental Congress and past Presidents, do hereby proclaim Thursday, Nov. 22, 1984, as a day of national Thanksgiving. I call upon every citizen of this great nation to gather together in homes and places of worship Jo celebrate, in the words of 1784, "with grateful hearts ..- the mercies and praises of their all bountiful Creator." IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have here unto set my hand this 19th day of October in the year of our Lord 1984 and of the independence of the United States of America, 209th. — Ronald Reagan The White House Older Richer Under Reagan Average family incomes hatffc risen only modestly since 1980, generally speaking. But there is a striking exception to that pattern: the elderly as a group have done very well over the past four years. In its book "The Reagan Record," the Urban Institute shows that the incomes of the elderly are up sharply all across the range from poor to rich. Most of it happened for reasons having little to do with the Reagan administration and its ideas. Legislation passed much earlier built a lot of momentum into the continuing rise of federal benefits for the elderly. Most conspicuously. Social Security benefits have risen 7 percent, after inflation, over the past four years. That's twice as fast as the rise in the average income of all families, after inflation and after taxes. But the Reagan policies also helped the elderly. The sharp drop in inflation helped them, while few of them were affected by the recession and the high unemployment that forced inflation down. THERE WAS A TIME, not very long ago, when elderly^ people constituted a very large proportion of the genuinely destitute in this country. That, happily, is no longer true, largely because of enlightened social legislation — chiefly Social Security. No one would want to see those programs diminished, or the economic condition of elderly people decline. But the acceleration of recent years raises a question about tuture policy. Standards of living among the elderly are now approaching those of the rest of the population. The case is i fading for further increases at rates faster than the rise in the working population's income. — Washington Post |f VMSSttV \ TmbM-d Evury Wrtwid,, By Tht S«iWW Conontfta _ * °- *>« *** H*nfOp4rt Huh, tij. Mil 0 ^

Joseph R. Zelnik Bonnie Reina Gary L. RudyJohn Dun woody Darrell Kopp

Editor General Manager Advertising Director Special Promotion^ Director Publisher

S«owov« Corp. 1984. All fights reserved. All property rights lor the entis* contents ol this publicotion sholl be the property of the ten'"'0"* ,Cr,>' N° POr1 moV reproduced without prior writDEADLINES News & Photos Thursday Advertising Friday — 3 P.M. Classified Advertising Friday — 3 P.M. 465-5055 For News or Advertising Information '>P"*tephir«l rm.r» . etc. in ui issue. The editor rrsrrtrs the riehl to edit SB) letter or srtiries submitted for publication / \ f»iw» Itiwmttkip ' , I LANTERN C

the SOVEREIGN STATE of AFFAIRS David Bovd

Our Readers Write Natives Count the Days

To the Editor: I would like to reply to Fred Uhlman's Nov. 7 letter stating his feelings on the conditions down here at- the shore after Labor day. He is a mere babe in arms when it comes to being a resident of the shore area. I agree fully with the biggest part of his letter — that is, questioning the need for closing restaurants, stores, and place of amusement on or soon after, Labor day. TTiere certainly are enough year-around residents to warrant these places of business staying open. Also, I agree there is a need for more entertainment in the winter months. I feel there are enough residents to justify that also. HOWEVER, I do not agree with his animosity toward, "natives" who count the days until Labor day. After he has wintered here for perhaps three years (maybe it won't take that long), will he write to the paper

and give his views at that time on having visitors here all year long? After waiting in line everywhere you go, whether to eat, shop, or to be entertained, taking an hour or more to get to Wild wood or Cape Ma^only to find there are no more parking places, being ffljEed off the road by those who are having a great time drinking and doping up, having to stay home on the weekends because there is just not enough room for everyone, I'm sure he will be one of these "natives" who count the days until it is all over. PLEASE LET US who live here all year enjoy one or two months of nice weather, shopping with no long lines, going into Wildwood or Cape May in 15 minutes, rather than an hour, and just being able to enjoy the peace and quiet of God's country. I say, and I know he will eventually, Vive Le Labor Day ! BETTY D. RICH Cape May Court House

The Golden Edge Thank God for Being Alive

By DOROTHEA F. COOPER A friend (who has a few years to go before she reaches there) recently said to me, "I can't wait till I get to be a senior citizen. They have it all!" I can't quite agree with her. True, there are many advantages to reaching that "Golden Edge," but to most older persons it is no bed of roses entirely. A small percentage of us have ailments, sickness, worries, fears, inability to get around, loneliness, etc., etc. And the biggest ETC is lack of funds. YET AS TLOOK ABOUT me during the off-season months, the numbers of older men and women who take advantage of the modestly-priced package tours at the seashore, enjoying the beauties of the Spring and Fall here without the noise and confusion and crowds, are amazing. Even those in wheel chairs or with walkers are eager and on the go. An they, of course, can afford it. But to those of us who are not able, for many reasons, to

enjoy such extras, there are other things besides telefanny in the world, even for those who are house bodies. FIRST OF ALL, we have the privilege of thanking God every morning for being alive another day, regardless of possible pain or disability* to breathe good air (comparatively). It is A-straflge-tfung, that no matter how we exist, we all want t6 Lrvg. How we do it is something else. In fuau*riMues< I shall explore such topics as "Doctors," "Advertising," "One, Touch of Garlic," "You've Got. to Expect It.'^Let Him Loose in the Kitchen," "They're Not Yours, 'VTake an Onion," "Believe Me, You Can Draw ! " \y Meanwhile, we are ALIVE! (ED. NOTE: Dorothea (Mrs. Albert) Cooper is a Philadelphia native who moved to North Wildwood in 1967. She was published by some "little magazines" a few years ago and will write "The Golden Edge." a column aimed at her fellow senior citizens, "when the spirit moves me "

-Nothing Rinky-Dink Here 'Here's the Herald, Honey'

By JOE ZELNIK I'm afraid I may have hurt our reputation by revealing that the Herald-Lantern has neither a Quality Control Department, a manager of Consumer Response, nor a director of Player Development. Lest readers think this is a rinky-dipk operation, we do have several new positions under consideration. One is for "ambiance director." That's a job I learned about while reading an article about Michael Jackson and the Victory concert tour. The Jacksons have an ambiance director who provides ice sculpture, furnsias, potted palms and other homey tonches in the group's backstage dressing rooms. WE'LL PROBABLY start with a part-time job mainly to haunt yard sales for castoff office furniture. We've had no luck with ice sculptures (they melt), although there are pains for a snowman in front of the place next month. As for potted plants, we usually go along with whatever our executives swipe off table centerpieces at chamber of commerce dinners and the like. (Did anybody but me notice that the only sound heard more often than the pop of champagne corks at the New Jersey Pops Orchestra concert in Wildwood last month was the repeated please to leave the African violets on the tables? ) Our second new job, also up in the air, was suggested by a report that New Yorker Magazine has named a "managing editor, fiction," and a "managing editor, fact." I'VE BEEN HOLDING down the job of managing editor, fiction, with no trouble. But it's difficult to justify adding a managing editor, fact, because facts are so hard to come by in this county. Actually, for our Middle Township coverage, we may hire a person just to try to separate fact from fiction. Another way to divide the editorial responsibilities would be with a good news editor and a bad news editor.. The difficulty with that is that we would need an editor to first decide what is good and what is bad and that would give us more editors than reporters, an unwieldy table of organization.

We probably also will be adding a security director because our present open door policy is an absolute failure. People keep coming in off the street with little scrawled notes about casino trips and sermon topics and bridge scores. We'll station two people, one in the parking lot and one just inside the door, with metal detectors (there's that Michael Jackson influence again) specially programmed to reject penciled notes on unlined paper. WE'RE ALSO considering emulating Newsweek Magazine's "one issue, one advertiser" technique in which Apple Computers ran 40 pages of ads in that 114-page election special. For example, this week we have a number of articles about a search for space for county and college offices. Why couldn't a realtor sponsor the entire issue? Not all of my ideas have worked, of course. The special section with low-cost ads to be read after midnight flopped because people kept sneaking peeks before midnight. Another idea I had was to print the paper on reverse invisible ink. Seventy-two hours after it was printed, the type would disappear and the now-blank papers would be turned in and used over. That would have cut our paper costs and reduced the loads going to the MUA landfill. We had to bag that one because many people were clipping articles and saving ads and getting upset when the print disappeared THE BIGGEST Herald-Lantern improvement we can all look forward to in coining weeks will be our use of 'talking displays" (trademark: "Cam-Talker") alongside each stack of Heralds and Lanterns. The "Cam-Talker's" sensory equipment automatically picks up the presence of a customer within a preset distance and triggers an electronic vocal message (for example, "Hey, here's this week's Herald, honey!") We'll use a sexy male voice;- like Julio Iglesias, where female shoppers predominate, and a seductive female voice like Mae West, where mostly men congregate. The "Cam-Talker" also can be programmed to spray almost any scent to entice the customer: perfume, pop corn, Lifebuoy soap. Let me know what you'd like to smell as you pick up your paper.