opinion

Our Readers Write Why Give Day Care to Unneedy?

To The Editor This is ir. response to Diane Wieland $ Sep: hysterical, defensive, emotion-filled attack eri.tied "Working Moms Not A Disease In my letter. "Which Mothers Need to Work :he mar. point was that the one wage earner family lives at an income level $.V000 less than the average two-wage earner family. I stated that the current tax laws offer financial incentives up to S6.000 per year to two-wage earner couples where the wife takes a paid job and gets someone else to look after her children, benefits which are denied to the traditional single wage earner couples who care for their own children. So why should we have to pay for a day care program that is utilized by persons without "said persons" showing need? Wieland then compared federally funded day care with all other federal subsidizing like FHA. reduced lunches, or free milk But what's fair is fair — all of those programs are based on "need." and who are we to deny the needy'' It's- the unneedy that my letter addressed concern about I WDI'LI) I.IKE to make it clear that I was not objecting to single parent family or needy recipients utilizing such a program But yeas. I am objecting to the family w here the

wit e has taken a paid job in order to increase family income and then discovers the cost to hire someone else to • care :or her children She then utilizes the program Yes. I vehemently object to that The burden then shifts onto the backs of childless couples. unmarried persons, and single earner couples who are already further down on the income scale And there are 14 million such traditional families today Those | 14 million wives will hardly take kindly to the notion that they be taxed in order to subsidize child-care for the 26 million wives whose earned average income is $5,260 dollars higher THESE ARE the statistics, not emotional frantic statements from a guilt-ridden mother. As for her personal attacks, perhaps she should try backing them up with statistics. Her only stats were that nine out of ten homes are tuned in to General Hospital. Pine, I respect statistics. However, it is certainly a bold judgment on her part to | infer that children are sitting viewing with mom < if indeed mom really is tuning in ) . Come on. kids just aren't thrilled by soaps. They are probably inside playing with their computers or outside interacting at their own pace with their peers in an ever so unorganized, unplanned, unstructured. and unsupervised way. I guess like child's play My letter was not about working moms but about who will take advantage of such a program. If you want to work go ahead but don't ask me to pay for it unless you are needy. Just as I would object to supporting reduced lunch if the unneedy took advantage of it Fraud is fraud no matter what form it appears under. AS FOR CHILDREN who are involved in day care or "learning centers", as she called them, having an edge 1 ED. NOTE : See other letters on next page. Hurricane Gloria comments on pages 14-15). over other children, surely she's not so naive to believe 1 that computer classes, gymnastics, and swimming make a more competitive adult unless that adult was once a child who possessed a good, secure, self-image. As for giving things to replace "mom," John Hinckley Jr certainly should have had that competitive edge, if indeed material objects are a good replacement as Wieland suggested "He who has the mind of the children has the mind of the nation " We must remember that while woman doesn't need a child — evey child does needs a mother As for her suggestion of a babysitting service. I look at mothering as much more than mere babysitting And I'm sure she wouldn't want me instilling my morals, values, philosophy, and view on life to her child After all. isn't that what mothering is really all about9'' To quote an old adage "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world What hand is rocking her cradle9 ANDREA MAHER Bayside Village

Candidates Must Run on Records To The Editor On Nov 8. 1983. the voters df Lower Township chose a new form of government The Municipal Public Question read: "Shall the Council-Manager form of government of the Optional Municipal Charter Law. provide for a division of the municipality into three words, with three coun cilmen tone to be elected from each ward) and two to be elected at large including the mayor at elections held in May. Ik- adopted by Lower Township?" I point this out I)ecau.se I want it known that "nonpartisan" was not mentioned on the ballot question The Clydesdale (candidate for councilman) camp will run on two basic themes I > The voters selecti-d by a 2-1 • Page 71 Please) I)<> Justice to 2 Jobs? To The Editor: I see where Jack Moran has filed to run for the Township Council in Iaiwcr Township I do not understand how this can be permitted. Moran already holds a full time county job as director of the Veteran's Bureau He receives his paycheck from our tax dollars Moran's position is supposed to be an important one How can he properly perform his duties as a full time county official and still devote enough time to his job as Councilman? If we elect Moran. we are either going to end up w ith an absentee Councilman or an absentee county official I do not see how anybody can do justice to both jobs Moran already receives one paycheck from taxpayer's dollars He should withdraw from the lamer Township race and not seek a second paycheck from the taxpayers A LEO JORDAN North Cape May

fHStoVlaifftitl — ?? CL mI, iwNj'aiv."1 Joseph R. Zelnik Editor Bonnie Reina General Manager Gary L. Rudy Advertising I krectur John Dunwoody Special Promotions Director • __OarreII Kopp Publisher !-rr; DEADLINES News & Photos Thursday Advertising Friday - 3 P.M. % Classified Advertising Friday — 3 P.M. t 465-5055 For News or Advertising Information Yearly Subscription $40.00 Six Month Subscription $20.00 Call 465-5055 CAPE MAY fU Heralii-Dtspatrti

Knr /»9 bdv, o ronkjie bcv. 1 low® v©u so ' ' Lone Dissenter To The Editor; A fast quiz for the taxpayers of Ixiwer Township: Which of the three candidates running for Council-at-Large during a previous reign on Township Committee raised their salaries 100% against the will of the people'' If you answered Jack Moran and Tom Clydesdale, you are correct. Whose voice was the lone dissenter against this exhorbitant salary increase? Of course the answer is Peggie Bieberbach WHO WANTED to return the salary increase to the township treasury'' Peggie Bieberbach. naturally. Why didn't she? Peggie needed a resolution by the members of Township <ED NOTE: Since this newspaper publishes no political letters in the issue prior to the Nov. 5 election, next Thursday. Oct. 17. is the final deadline for letters that will appear Oct 23) Committee to make the refund legal Jack Moran and Tom Clydesdale proved their irresponsibility by not complying Who works for the people and with the people'' Peggie Bieberbach Who's the best candidate to represent us in council? Peggie Bieberbach Who's the best candidate to represent us in council? Peggie Bieberbach MARY HILLER Villas

—Olaf Lives— 1 Bad Enough to Be Good?

By JOE ZELNIK A news photographer from out -of county called me hours after Hurricane Gloria to ask if we had any photo opportunities" "I think it's pretty good. I said 'Do you mean it's not bad'' he asked 'No. I said "1 mean it is bad so it should be good for photos ." This was not an Abbott-Costello routine, but an example that some "bad" news is "good" news for the media This is not because journalists are evil people who love I tragedy It's because harmonv is boring and conflict is ■ exciting. IN FACT, CONFLICT is usually first on the list of at- 1 tributes of "news" listed by any "Introduction to Jour- i nalism" textbook Others include disaster (and progress). 1 prominence (names make news), timeliness, proximity! I and novelty-oddity (two-headed calves). Airplanes landing without incident are not news Airplanes that crash are. This newspaper happens to contain 99 percent good i news for the majority of its readers But deciding whether I an item is good or bad news may depend on who you are ' If you are a politician caught in a lie. for example the story is bad news for you. but good for everybody else who I now sees what kind of a person you are. THE OTHER DAY. for example. President Reagan < removed Margaret Hecker from her job as secretary of Health and Human Services — the largest department in « government with 145.000 employes and a $330-billion 1 budget — and made her ambassador to Ireland He attacked the news media for reporting she was fore r ed out. Shucks, he said, he gave her a $16,000 pay cut * because she was doing "such a good job" at Human I Services. c Good-had, positive-negative alt depend on one s point of view. f One day an angry woman phoned to ask why we listed no obituaries in our paper that week, something one would F

have thought was good news I explained it was because no one died "That's a poor excuse." she snorted ACCEPT THE FACT that there are negative people out there I got a note the other day telling me where the county's largest American flags fly. Was the writer a happy, patriotic American'' No. a complainer pointing out that they fly over auto dealers selling Japanese cars. Some people seem to have a natural inclination to expect the worst. I was at the county Chamber of Commerce dinner the other night, for example, and the waitresses serving plates of prime rib FRANK FOSTER, president of the county park commission. waived away the waitress. Immediately the rumor started that the park's buffalo. Olaf, had died, and the prime rib was really buffalo steak About 10 people already laid down their knives when the waitress returned and it turned out Foster simply wanted his meat more well done At the same dinner, in the Golden Eagle on Beach Drive Cape May. someone rushed up to Chamber Executive Bob Patterson and siad. "You'd better move car. " "My God!" said Patterson, "you mean the ocean's breaching the sea wall again?" Shucks, it was just a dutiful policeman giving everybody $10 meter violation tickets There was one lady there so pessimistic she was looking all over the dining room for the Hurricane Gloria water line. And the dinner was on the 5th floor. SOMETIMES what some thinlt is negative is simply realistic. I know a kindergarten teacher, for example who has assigned jobs to her pupils lead the Pledge of Allegiance, take the absentee list to the office mark the day on the calendar. But she has more pupils than work, and so some of the pupils are jobless This may make them feel left out. but what better preparation for adulthood in Cape May County?