Pre Lives, Livestrong and the Person of Cultinality

Over the weekend I went to the Nike Store at the Jersey Shore Outlets to check out the sales. Work has been especially hectic the last few months so I haven't been running much and nothing jump starts me like new gear. Falling out of my running routine can bring me down fast. I have a history of weight issues and I'm old enough now that my metabolism is a ghost of its former self, so being sedentary at work and not running is a bad recipe. Most importantly though, my time running is my time for life, the universe and everything. It's my time for meditation and reflection. When I'm particularly stressed or weighed down, exhausting my body is the best way to free my mind; bringing myself to my physical limits lets my brain loose from the rat's maze of routine, deadlines and demands, and sets free the creativity and fantasy that I sadly just don't have the time to explore much anymore. So for me going to the Nike Store is like flipping through a travel guide.

I found a good pair of shorts at a great price and as I was weaving through the aisles when something caught my eye, even in the blurred periphery I knew, it was Pre! Steve Prefontaine! When Pre died in 1974, he held every American record between 800m and 10000m. Like James Dean, Pre is a true American icon that embodies all the cool, all the bravado and all the Romance of a figure so uniquely American and so prematurely tragic, who flares brilliantly and quickly leaving a looming almost super human shadow burned into the landscape like the Shadows of Hiroshima for any who dare to follow. Pre's legacy is not just what he accomplished in a short time; he embodies infinite questions, possibilities, potential, loss and all that could have been-never to be answered.

I'm always hopeful to come across a piece of Pre-mabelia, which doesn't happen much since Nike's "Pre Lives" branding campaign from a few years ago, and this shirt was a WINNER. Great photo of Pre breaking the tape in black and white on grey, but what was the yellow, a stain or mark? I moved past someone and a rack of jog pants and my jaw dropped, I couldn't believe it! Superimposed across Pre's singlet "Livestrong" and a yellow plastic bracelet on his wrist, the "stain" that caught my attention, and all things considered, "stain" is accurate.

Lance Armstrong’s name became familiar to me over the years as it did most Americans and countless others around the globe as the champion who beat cancer and whose super human determination was producing super human feats of endurance. Only someone with a heart of cold dead stone would not WANT to be awed by his story, and we as a culture made him a celebrity, read about his ups and downs, donated, bought his products, even the stupid plastic bracelets, because we believed, because we WANTED to believe in the myth he had fabricated. This is nothing new. Every Culture is laced with the power of mythology from the blunt utility of The Art of War, the shrewd manipulations of Machiavelli's Prince, even the lighthearted but biting criticisms of The Importance of Being Earnest and the fantasies of DC and Marvel comics. Our American mythology seemed to be populated by the gods of Sport: Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mohammed Ali, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Michael Jordan, on and on. Like the coliseum in Rome, spectacle and the performers of spectacle have come to dominate our culture. Some we tear down to make ourselves feel superior, most we elevate to demigods and obsess on their glory. What Lance did was so shrewd, so calculated and so deceitful as too make all that came before him seem benign. Lance created a far reaching and powerful system of deception meant to place him at the center, elevate him, transmogrify him like Jesus on Easter into something superhuman, and he did it all in the name, under the guise, of a selfless victim turned champion who just wanted to reach and help as many lives as possible. Even typing that makes me as bitter as I can stand. It is beyond disgusting. Bankrupt ego run riot. This is so far beyond the simplicity of an athlete trying to keep his edge or attain some meager trophy like the Major League dopers and steroid users. This is a man who single handedly manipulated the personal and professional lives of hundreds first hand, thousands by association, and all predicated on the lie that the rewards you reap are relative the your work and dedication to that goal, but everything he achieved was a lie that in perpetrating, robbed dozens of others from honestly achieving the "pinnacle" achievements of work, dedication and sacrifice he professed: the athletes, spouses, families, trainers, competitors, doctors, sponsors, the list goes on.

I WANT to believe in heroes, but I don't want to believe in lies. Of course all heroes have clay feet, but it’s about who they present themselves to be. It is the person's character that matters and their character that will endure. Pre was a loudmouth and a braggart to the point of being at times obnoxious, but he never claimed to be inherently superior, he always said that whatever happened in a race was simply a matter of how hard he prepared, how deep he dug and what he left on the track. He famously said, "Someone may beat me but they're going to have to bleed to do it." This is what is inspiring to people like me about Pre. He said he wasn't built like a great runner, he was too short, his torso too long. Hey! I'm too short! My legs are too short! I smoked for 16 years! I'm slow! But I know, when it comes down to it, and I commit myself, when all that matters is what's inside, I will bleed my guts out before I just give up or walk away from something.

Pre carried that in all his endeavors, the son of good German Protestant stock. He lobbied against the burning of Fall crops because of pollution, particularly air quality during track season. He lobbied to Congress about the deplorable treatment of amateur athletes, a fight his friends carried on in his name and eventually won, ironically freeing the way for Nike to create the Pro sponsor cult of personality that has brought it so much success. He traveled from high school meet to high school meet, an Olympic hero!, in his burned out MG with a trunk full of Nikes, meeting fans and cultivating the sport he loved. It wasn't known till sometime after his death that he was sponsoring prison running clubs for years, perhaps sharing the freedom of body, mind and soul he had found with those who had no other way to find their own. Pre had done all this and more without making a spectacle of himself, at least off the track. Pre, for all his bravado, is a testament of reverence for the spectacle of life that is all around us and that I think he was thankful to be a part of. I'm comfortable making this assumption because of how humbly and modestly he chose to pay it back, whether handing out free shoes to young runners or raising money to preserve his favorite running spot, a trail that was eventually purchased in his name and I thoroughly enjoyed jogging. Pre celebrated life and reflected it back to all those he touched because he innately knew what people like Lance Armstrong will never understand: the ability to influence is far greater and more important than the ability to take credit. 

The Tools We Use, The Service We Expect & The Return We Deserve On Our Investment

What's the big deal about a website, and why should it matter to you what email Boro workers use? Simply put, these are the two most important issues that can be addressed today to make our municipal operations more cost effective, more efficient, and increase the return on investment of our Boro residents. If we take the analogy of the Boro as a business, the municipal website if properly crafted and executed could be the single most powerful tool in service to the public. After all, the Boro's primary function and responsibility is to provide the service for our community that we can not provide for ourselves as individuals. These services like our own heartbeats or breathing are vital and ever-present but tend to go unnoticed, and like our internal functions that cause illness and damage when they don't function optimally, our internal Boro functions create their own chronic symptoms and dysfunction when they aren't properly attended. A multifaceted municipal website minimizes the wasted time and effort of residents who want information and services to be easy, as they should be. An integrated website allows Boro offices to communicate internally and with the public quickly and efficiently. Just as business enterprises have already proven, online information, services and conveniences once adopted are indispensable.
Equally if not more so, our Boro email, or in a broader/truer sense our Boro operations platform, is the foundation upon which modern operations are built. Anyone in business or other ventures that has tasted the power and potential of a system such as Google Apps understands that it is the difference between the telegraph and fiber optics, between the Bronze Age and 3-D printing. The tools readily available, the tools that can be created, the speed and simplicity with which to communicate, create, and devise instruments seems to me what it must have been like at the dawn of the printing press, radio, television, or the home PC.
For a combined cost that amounts to half of an average salary we can save multiple future salaries for workers doing things "the old fashioned way", and produce savings that will pay dividends by treating the system, not the symptom. If we are agreed as a community of the level of  services we expect from our municipal offices than we should also be agreed to demand that our money, our investment, yield the greatest possible effect and return.

What My Taste Buds Are Thankful For This Year!

I've been accused of using this blog to promote and propagandize the global domination of the Illuminati and their Union foot soldiers, so in the spirit of the holiday season I thought I'd back off a bit to promote something undeniably good and honorable, unless of course you're a pumpkin hater!

Two weekends before Halloween my family was visiting my aunt's outside Doylestown, PA, and went pumpkin picking at one of the local farms that also had a market and bakery. Now I have more of a sweet tooth than I'd care to admit, especially pumpkin pie, and they didn't have just pumpkin pie, they had a table full of pumpkin pastries. Of course I had to try them all; pie, tart, crumb cake, fudge, but the winner, the most irresistible was the pumpkin brownie! Somewhere between bread and pie, it was a sweet, moist, dense, cream cheese slathered 5"x5" block of pure bliss. I had to eat five of them on top of the other desserts just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. A lot of high praise and sweet talk scored me the recipe and last night was the first attempt at recreating the Pieta of pumpkin based confectionary. Usually when I cook or bake I make it up as I go which makes repeating successful experiments nearly impossible much to the chagrin of my wife. Once I made a pretty amazing Balsamic Chicken, her very favorite, with lemon, diced tomato, and drizzled egg that I've never been able to reproduce. For these brownie's I stayed as true as possible:

Cream 1/2# butter and 2 cups of dark brown sugar

Blend in 2 eggs, 2 cups solid pak pumpkin, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tbs baking powder, 1/2 tbs cinnamon ( anytime cinnamon is called for I quadruple it ), 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cloves, 2 cups of flour, 1/2 tbs orange extract, dash of vanilla ( my addition since every recipe should have a dash of something! )

Spread into a greased and floured brownie pan and cook at 325 until you can poke it with a toothpick and it comes out clean.

For the cinnamon cream cheese frosting mix 1/2 cup of butter and 12 oz of cream cheese, 2 cups confectioner's sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon ( or 4! ), 1 tsp vanilla

Then I heat the frosting up slowly until it's liquid enough to drizzle and enjoy, but if you're like me have a trusted friend or relative hide the brownies you don't plan to eat!

Pat Gottschalk, Former Republican Municipal Chair, Endorses Leitner & Welch

 
Dear Point Pleasant Residents,
 
You may remember me as the former Republican Municipal Chairperson for 12 years, charter member of the Point Pleasant Republican Club, and County Committeewoman.  I have been committed to the Republican cause locally and nationally.  Yet this year I find that the best choice for Point Pleasant is to endorse Democrats Christopher Leitner and Brian Welch.
 
I am proud to be a Republican but some things are more important than party politics. My decision to endorse Councilman Leitner and his running mate Brian Welch is an easy decision because it is the right thing to do.
 
I know there are many Republicans in Point Pleasant that crossed party lines to support Mayor Bill Schroeder because he was the best candidate, regardless of party affiliation. This year is no different. You need to vote for the people who are most qualified and will do the best job for ALL residents, regardless of party affiliation. You need to vote for people who will respect the residents of Point Pleasant and the employees who work for Point Pleasant while being fiscally responsible and making sure everyone can afford to live here. You need to vote for Chris Leitner and Brian Welch.
 
I have worked on many political campaigns at the National, State, County and Local levels and have served as a campaign manager for 26 successful campaigns, without a loss, in Point Pleasant.  I am saddened to see the negative tone of this year's Republican campaign, and their embrace of Sue Rogers’ discredited and damaging policies.
 
You need strong leadership that can build bridges - not burn bridges.
 
You need Chris Leitner and Brian Welch to bring Point Pleasant back to a community people love and are proud to call home.
 
Sincerely,
 
Pat Gottschalk
 

My Endorsement of Chris Leitner & Brian Welch

Point Pleasant needs Chris Leitner and Brian Welch. We

need Chris and Brian to help put an end to decades of

control by a small circle whose only interest is influence

and status. Self-servers and rubberstampers have left our

boro’s finances in tatters and services in jeopardy.

Despite all claims to the contrary, past administrations

left us in deficit, with unstable tax, water, and sewer rates,

with less police on the street, with a reliance on furloughs

and reduced services, and worst of all, left us feeling

unsure and uncertain instead of feeling the closeness and

security we all love about our community.

Mayor Schroeder, Chris Leitner and Jack McHugh have

brought fresh eyes to our finances for the first time in

over a decade, putting an end to a long history of wasteful

practices. They have put our professionals to the task of

creating a long-term debt management plan. They are

preparing for the first complete water/sewer audit in

recent memory. They are coordinating a multi-agency

Complete Streets Program that will provide safe bicycle

and pedestrian routes to schools, transportation and businesses

throughout the entire town.

And they have done all this with thoughtful and

methodical consideration. Plans like theirs to reduce

garbage fees for all boro residents have been discussed in

public for months, not presented last minute and rubberstamped

like so many half-baked plans of the past. Bill,

Jack, and Chris have welcomed our residents back to borough

hall, no longer a members-only club for the most

connected.

This progress hasn’t been easy. Bob, Mitch, and Toni

have tried to stall most of these actions only to try and

later claim them as their own. Why would they try to

block the opportunity of a shared service with Brick that

ex-council president Rogers falsely claims is the fruit of

her labor? It’s just as bizarre as Bob claiming responsibility

for the unaccounted reserves discovered by our new

auditor, or claiming to have confirmation from our new

chief financial officer that the boro had a surplus. A claim

repeated by their council candidate that prompted Ms.

Swisher to immediately respond to mayor and council,

saying, “My guess by now is that most of you have read

the Sept. 30 edition of the Ocean Star. Well, that was certainly

a surprise for me especially since I was quoted so

often on a topic I don’t remember speaking about,” and

that she “never mentioned the word surplus.” This time of

transition needs councilmembers working for our neighbors

instead of working to sabotage each other.

Thankfully many recognize that Point Pleasant’s time to

celebrate itself has come. Most of us know that the bare

minimum will no longer do, and that the status quo is no

longer enough. Point Pleasant deserves to reach its full

potential. Brian Welch and I look forward to working with

the mayor, Chris Leitner and any other willing participants

to see this happen. Together we are changing the

attitude of “How much do I have to do?” into “How much

can I do?” Join me in voting Nov. 8th for Chris Leitner and

Brian Welch and a better Point Pleasant.

CHRISTOPHER GOSS

Councilman, Point Pleasant

Kilkare Parkway, Point Pleasant

Obstruction Junction, What's Your Function?

Every time I think it couldn’t get more ridiculous, it does. Today’s Ocean Star Letters To The Editor only lead me to the conclusion that the GOP councilmembers and their supporters rely on the fact that most residents are too busy to pay close attention to the regular business of council. The soft pitch letter praising Toni DePaola and her good judgement was obviously written by someone who has never been to a council meeting. I have watched in awe for 10 months as Toni has delivered the same committee report time and time again. Funny thing is her reports don’t pertain to her committee. I believe that our TNR and Community Watch programs are both admirable contributions to our community, but Toni’s responsibility to the residents of Point Pleasant is to keep the Construction and Code Enforcement Departments operating efficiently. Now there was a very slap-shod and rushed for election season effort to merge the Boro and Beach Construction Departments last year, but when things fell apart, instead of getting back on the horse and doing the work of the people, she took her ball and went home. Toni’s only interaction for all of 2011 with her department head was during an Administration Committee meeting. I have to wonder if in his letter Mitch is telling Toni to “get off [her] duff” and fix this failing department. It is after all her responsibility and has been for the last two years although by her record you would never know it. Mitch’s letter is perhaps most disappointing. Here the youngest councilperson our town has elected could have spent the last 2 years proving that our youngest residents deserve a seat at the table. His refusal to accept any line of reasoning other than what he has already accepted as true, whether it is or not, is the definition of “pre-operational egocentrism”. A mature sense of reasoning is open to empathy, persuation, and multiple points of view or perspective. As unmoving and irrational as Bob, Mitch, Toni, and their supporters have tried to make the rest of us out to be on this garbage issue, we all accepted pretty readily that in-house collection was not as promising as a shared service. And again I say a shared service that they try and take credit for yet vote against. Did I yell at Mitch? Yes. Did I use a colorful word? Yes I did. I’m not proud to say I did. I wish I had been able to keep my cool, but I was as angry as every resident in this town should be at the long year of obstruction and game playing Bob, Mitch, and Toni have put us all through. It’s making me lose my faith that the best interests of residents will ultimately prevail. Everyday the office workers, PW crews, and employees of the Boro, so often vilified as leeches by the other side, get up, go to work and make sure that all of our needs are met, that our services continue to be there, that the bills get paid, that the streets are protected, and that our children learn and play, and all the while party politics seep through every seam into every nook and cranny threatening to undermine the security we all deserve. These games are the exact opposite of the work Toni, Mitch, and Bob were charged to do when they took the oath. They are not conservative and they do not serve the residents outside the GOP Club. It is neither conservative nor is it responsible to say no to everything. It is responsible to work and it is conservative to do so with the greatest good at heart. To be conservative means to be a conservationist, to protect and preserve that which is held dear. Someone protecting the common welfare, someone that claims to be conservative, would not jeopardize the interests of the town by putting on an election season performance. However, it can be expected and predicted to come from those with an established history of similar behavior. I should not be surprised by councilmembers that spend more time on their press releases than they do with their committee assignments. If Mitch wants to challenge someone to get to work, maybe he should challenge himself. I can’t tell you how often he meets with his department head, but I do know that the Rec. Center entry door has not been replaced even though the funding was approved 18 months ago. And I know that in a time when capital improvements that can no longer be denied loom over our budget year after year, he would be wise to spend his time working on a plan for the Rec Center that our Boro Engineer and others have confirmed has deteriorated beyond repair. I hear a lot about hard work but I have yet to see it. If Bob Sabosik’s brother-in-law, Marty Murdoch, is waiting for something to happen then he just hasn’t been paying attention. While Bob, Mitch, Toni, and their supporters have been working hard plotting to regain the majority, Bill, Chris, Jack, and I have been working hard to reverse decades of damage. While they’ve done nothing, we’ve done quite a lot: - Fixed the decades long book keeping disaster - Brought on a new CFO and Auditor to construct a responsible debt management plan - Fixed the $350,000 deficit created by Rogers’ campaign promises - Cut spending $400,000 - Came up with a plan to save the Boro $1.6M on garbage collection, which the Bob,      Mitch, & Toni are now sabatoging as they also try and take credit - Created a Complete Streets Committee, and established a Complete Streets Ordinance       (first in the county to do so) to make our town safer and greener - at no cost to the     taxpayers - Set up negotiations to have an actually functioning shared-services agreement on the    Courts - Held a multi-town summit on shared services - Reformed and reinvigorated the Rec Commission into the Rec & Cultural Arts    Commission to bring new attention, new attractions, and new business to Point Pleasant - Begun investigations into several ex-employees and questionable financial activities    that occurred during the prior administration - Obtained grants for energy efficient upgrades (no cost to the residents) that will save the    Boro thousands of dollars a year - Begun a move to Google Apps For Government which will make the Boro more efficient and reduce IT costs If they had been working this hard for you instead of themselves, imagine how much better off Point Pleasant would be!

There's More Lies Than Flies On This Garbage!

I guess it's poetic justice that the search for less expensive garbage collection would yield so much trash. Our former council president and her followers are now coming out to take credit for a plan they simply had nothing to do with, that they chose not to participate in. To suggest that this idea was essentially photocopied with the names whited out is textbook revisionism and manipulation. If this was true, then why have Bob, Mitch, and Toni been doing their damnedest to prevent consideration of any method of collection other than private? Let's review and clear away some of the fertilizer.

After the 2010 election Mayor Schroeder began meeting with the department heads to take stock of the Boro offices and get a sense of priority for the coming year. It had been too long since the people that actually do the work, day in and day out, had been asked instead of told what needed to be fixed. Would you follow the advice of a mechanic or someone that's never even looked under a hood?

In a town our size with a budget as small as ours, there aren't many areas where you can create large savings, but it was suggested to Bill that garbage and recycling collection was a big slice of the pie and needed to be examined. Estimates were made that suggested in-house collection could save a quarter of a million dollars or more, but it would take a long-term effort to get reliable numbers, and we felt every means of collection should be considered. AT NO TIME WAS IN-HOUSE THE ONLY METHOD CONSIDERED!! Look back over news articles and blog posts, at no time did anyone suggest we do anything less then look at every option. The repeated insistence to the contrary is Political Manipulation 101, hoping the casual reader or observer will accept misinformation without investigation. As the saying goes, repeat a lie long enough and some will believe it.

Drawing up bid specs for so many variations of service and the timelines required for advertising and receiving them has been 10 months in the making, and has been the effort of many people in multiple departments. The first whiff of compost came during the budget. In order to cast out all these lines, we are required to have a "deposit" for bonding. This money needed to be set aside for each variation of service. Once the issue was decided the remaining monies would be carried forward into the next year's budget as surplus, which would help reduce the 2012 budget, essentially repaying the taxpayers.  Bob, Mitch, and Toni stood against this deposit for any item associated with in-house collection including the purchase of "robo-cans". Now if they really had already done the homework, really had had extensive talks with Brick, and really were in favor of shared services not just now but at budget time and all the way back to last year, then why in the world would they block the cans needed to carry out that agreement? Why? Because either they don't understand the process, or the assertion is a lie. The only reason given, without any evidence and without a single, solitary mention of a prior shared service plan with Brick, was that they were convinced in-house was a waste of effort and would cost more in the long run. The way their argument was presented was to intentionally mislead the public into thinking this allocation was a commitment to in-house collection. This was nothing less than grandstanding and capitalizing on anti-union sentiments by people that had no ideas of their own to offer. If I had a golden ticket in my pocket I would have been jumping up and down telling the world! Why would the folks that pledge to "put the taxpayers first" withhold a means of considerable savings?

The strategy after the budget was more of the same. Every time one of us would say we were looking at every option, they'd get three people to say the opposite. Look over the blogs from the summer. Even my children aren't that good at hearing one thing and understanding another!

Countless estimates and examples of other municipalities were passed around and shared, but by the end of the summer I still wasn't convinced which method would be cheapest. I was however certain it would involve "Robo-cans". Rear compactors are obviously going the way of the dodo. There are negatives. I particularly don't like that prohibited materials could be thrown out without getting caught, but hopefully in this day and age most folks are responsible with their waste. Philosophically I worry that every time we replace a person with a machine, we further undermine a diminishing middle class. This crisis is certainly the snake that eats itself.

Without taking too much of a detour let's consider the effects of shrinking budgets and lost manpower; less police on patrol, reduced hours and access to services, reduced parks clean up & maintenance, etc. The number of people and hours it takes to orchestrate what we've done with just this one issue is monumental, but now do it in the least conducive climate. Despite the hard work and diligence there is a clock that's running out. There are procedures, protocol, and timelines for every action involved, and it's very important we avoid a lapse in service.

You wouldn't know that if you only heard what Bob, Mitch, and Toni are saying. They've called the non-committal preparation of documents now, to save time later, "premature". I wonder how many of us while driving our trash to the county dump in January would do so thanking them for not rushing into something they say was their idea to begin with? A plan so "premature" that Ms. Rogers was compelled to come out of retirement and congratulate Mayor Schroeder for adopting her plan!

I received a mild threat on the Patch from councilman Sabosik's brother-in-law for suggesting that the Republicans on council have tried to block any plan they can't take credit for. I just don't know how else to explain trying so hard to block something they now say was their idea? I hope the voters of Point Pleasant will remember November 8th that if the Republicans are telling the truth, then they purposefully withheld this tax dollar saving plan the same way they withheld every other plan they pledged would bring you relief! I felt there was a strong message last November to end these kinds of games, but it seems some are going to need you to shout a little louder this time.