_opinion_

Our Readers Write From Heaven To Nightmare To The Editor: Five years ago. I thought I found a little piece of heaven here in Middle Township. My seven children were grown: my husband and I retired to our dream home. This has now become a nightmare complete with smeilavision. About the time we settled in to form new roots, the M.U.A. decided to build a trash transfer station on Shunpike Road. We along with many area residents protested in vain. Ted O'Neil of the M.U.A. did promise us the sun. moon, and an occasional star brighten our lives. The sun (our wells would be test), the moom (periodically) to assure our water quality. The occasional star (a monthly meeting ) with area residents to air complaints, make suggestions. etc. AFTER A YEAR in operation, O'Neill arranged an open house on Saturday afternoon. June 8. between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. I had to juggle my calendar around, and would you believe O'Neil was a no show. Our wells have never been tasted and we haven't had any meetings because they would waste O'Neil's time. To add insult to injury, they drink bottled water at the transfer station. IF THIS ISN'T enough to convince you my dream home is a nightmare, a commercial bakery, without proper zoning and permits, is operating less than 200 feet from my home. The smell of burning oven cleaner, pizza crust, and Italian bread wakes me every night 1:30 a.m. 3:30 a.m., all different hours. The sea gulls like the bread as much as the trash from the transfer station. The one good thing is, I have become allergic to bread, and may now have grounds for a lawsuit. Our elected officials have not cited this bakery operation at Oyster Road. I have made many complaints but am told to wait until a variance hearing is held. It seems they are reluctant to enforce their own ordinances. MY TAX assessment went from $47,000 to $76,000 while all around me they downgrade zoning. If I fight them in court. I must pay my legal fees and my taxes pay the solicitor fees. I thank God for your paper and. of course, for freedom of the press. I wonder how much longer we have this freedom BERNICE C. PHILLIPS Court House Well-Run Activity To the Editor: I wish to express my appreciation to Charles Leusner. the Recreation Department, and all the people of Middle Township who were involved in the Independence Day celebration at the Goshen SporLs Complex this past Saturday. As a parent I was impressed with the way that they included the entire family in their activities. As a newly appointed member of the Dennis Township Recreation Commission. I was glad to be in attendance because of the opportunity to learn how well such activities can be run. Unfortunately I don't have the names of the leaders involved in the preparation of the Middle Township celebration. but each should be heartily applauded for their outstanding efforts. RICHARD THOMPSON South Seaville

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Lawyers Seeking Cash Law Loophole When was the last time you bought a new car with cash? Not a check or a money order, but bills — tens, twenties, hundreds. How about that trip to Paris? Did you walk into the travel agency and plunk down a stack of C notes? Most of us can't do that, but some people prefer it. Usually, there is a reason: they have obtained the money illegally (often in the drug trade) and they don't want the government to find out about it, or they have earned the money but they prefer not to pay taxes and don't want the government to find out about it. Naturally, the government wants to find out about it. LAST YEAR. Congress passed a law requiring businesses to report to the IRS any cash transaction involving more than $10,000. The legislators cited IRS data indicating that $249 billion in legally earned income was . not being reported, resulting in lost tax revenues of $55 billion. Unreported illegal income costs the Treasury another $9 billion a year. Monitoring large cash transactions were designed to stem some of these losses. But one group — lawyers — has already asked Congress for an exemption from the law. The theory is that the requirement threatens the confidential relationship between attorneys and clients because the government might use _ the report of a large cash fee as evidence in a tax-evasion case or a criminal prosecution. Cynics might also conclude that compliance would highlight the lawyer's own taxable income as well. I.AWYERS MAY NOT be required to reveal the substance of matters communicated to them by a client in professional confidence. But the privilege is not without exception, and its scope is always being tested in the courts. Many courts have held that, as a general rule, neither the identity of a client nor information about the legal fees paid by a client should be considered confidential information. There is no indication that Congress intended to exclude lawyers from the cash-reporting requirement It is a reasonable law. and it should stand. Let the lawyers, as they are well able to do. take their case for an exemption to court — The Washington Post

Lookin' and Listenin' A Sailing Trip To Tragedy By DOROTHY D. FREAS Indian canoes traveled the Delaware River and any waterways in Cape May that led these small boats to food to a new territory. Sails came into the Indians' lives when they first saw white "wings" on the explorers' ships early in the 17th century. With an 1811 invention in Cape May County, of the "center board", a retractable keel, the sailing vessels became more manageable and also safer during storms. SHIPBUILDING became a big, profit-making enterprise. centered in Dennisville on the Dennis Creek, and in Goshen and Tuckahoe on the river. During the 1800's, over 300 ships were built in these shipyards, some of them going all over the world, bringing* back tea, spices, china, silks and many early imported luxuries. Some ships sailed northward along the coast of New Jersey, loaded with clams. They entered the Hudson River and sold their cargo. Strange to say. many stone posts in local South Jersey cemeteries were the ballast that these smaller boats carried back to our county. RECORDS OF shipping at Dennis Creek Landing tell of as many as 16 ships leaving on a high tide, often Philadelphia bound, with cargo of shingles, grain and hay. They returned with an assortment of items of city manufacture. These were days of prosperity and employment in the area. Hundreds of men cut cedars and pine trees, the sawmills were all busy and shipyards built one ship after another. The industry flourished and all types of vessels sailed the seas. Some would participate in foreign trade, some involved in wars and piracy, and some in simple trips across a river. THERE ARE MANY stories about the ships that illustrate the way of life in these early years. "Going shopping" might require a few days, and this trip was planned by a father and daughter. Hannah, excited to be going to Philadelphia to purchase her trousseau, boarded the ship in our neighboring county of Cumberland, with her father. Isaac Wheaton, who was going to the city to buy a large stone which would be the door-step of the new Cohansey Baptist Church. When all the purchases were made and delivered to the ship. Isaac Wheaton and Hannah went aboard for the return trip to New Jersey. As they sailed toward home, a sudden squall came up and capsized the ship. Both Hannah and her father drowned; also the son of the captain and one other passenger. The shop was later returned to its sailing position. Cargo had been lost, but the carefully chosen stone was found still securely tied in place. If you ride to Cohansey. your foot will be on that stone as you step toward the door of the 1802 Baptist Church, and you'll remember the sad tale of the shopping trip, taken aboard an early ship, from South Jersey up the river to Philadelphia.

— B-T Wastes Ceilings How I Almost Owned Middle

By JOE ZELNIK Let me begin by saying that my Middle Township Rescue Squad trip to the Burdette Tomlin emergency room July 6 was not the result of Gerry Thornton's attack on me and this newspaper 24 hours earlier. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me One minute I was tapping my foot to the Kentucky Dave Band at the Middle Township Goshen Sports Complex, awaiting the fireworks. The next minute the fireworks showed up — in my lower right side. I crawled to my car where it was quickly apparent that 1. I could not drive, and 2. Even if I could, we could never get out of the jammed parking lot. SINCE I HAD had a township boiled hotdog an hour earlier. I assumed ptomaine, made myself as comfortable as possible, and tried to decide which lawyer to get to sue. For what I was going through. I figured I would be awarded at least half the township. I decided to take the northern portion, rename it. perhaps something Slovenian, and install my new brother- , in-law as mayor while I skimmed the profits from behind the scenes. That should cover my "pain, discomfort, suf- | fering and embarrassment." My wife could sue for the southern half of the township • — the portion with the bulk of shopping opportunities — j for being deprived of my "consortium and service." UNFORTUNATELY, my planning was interrupted by an increase in pain from awlful to excruciating. I diagnosed a possible kidney stone, decided death was imminent, and quit fantasizing about installing a casino in the township building. Two thoughts helped me survive. I was determined that the voice of Chuck Leusner announcing the winners of the Optimist Club raffle would not be the final sound I would hear on earth. And I was damned if I'd let the Atlantic City Press write a headline: "Editor Extinguished During Fireworks." So my wife got the rescue squad which expertly whipped me off to the B-T emergency room where attention was prompt, professional, and short of sheets and blankets.

Apparently the ER had exceeded its daily allotment because of the 4th of July weekend rush A FLAT-ON-MY-BACK trip to x-ray revealed that the hospital's corridor ceilings are wasted space where this newspaper could place promotional advertising Our management is even now negotiating this possibility. As I improved, I got paper and pencil from my wife and began taking notes I recommend this to all hospital patients It guarantees frequent medical attention from doctors and nurses who think you are collecting evidence for a malpractice suit. (The more affluent can simply whisper into a mini tape-recorder. > An efficient doctor verified my diagnosis of a probable kidney stone which, he said, would probably plop out when it felt like it. and I was permitted to go home with some painkillers. It was implied, however, that I'd be back, writhing in pain. •nil's CHEERED. I went home to gather some clothes and two cans of hairspray for the expected return to the hospital In the meantime, my wife looked up kidney stones in her medical encyclopedia. She read to herself and then commented. "Oh my God! " She declined to explain, which further cheered" me. At least she hasn't sent me a bill — yet. Knowing readers like happy endings, but keeping in mind that this is a family newspaper. I can report without elaboration that my body was minus a kidney stone, without pain, within 24 hours. Why. then, some have asked, do I seem to be in a blue funk? THAT HAS NOTHING to do with my kidney(s). Since three now live where one existed, I've been getting ready for a yard sale Saturday - East Pacific at Valley Road in Court House. 9 a.m. to ?. Thus I've sadly been preparing to part with all those nifty items I wrote about in a Maycolumn headlined. "An Opportunity for 39-Longs." Here is a chance for those who have always wanted to own a Joe Zelnik wide belt, a Joe Zelnik wide tie a Joe Zelnik wide-la peled sportcoat. or even a Joe Zeinik Tshirt. It makes me sad, but I'm letting 'em all go. If it gets back from the lab in time, I'll even sell my kidney stone.