This town makes me sad

[anon-0421]

I cannot believe the things that I read going on in this town.

I am all for supporting black lives matter , gay lives matter, everyones lives matter.

The police in this town have been nothing but good to support us all.

Jay Taylor's kids wanted to make signs and people are giving him crap about it?? WTF!! I thought Cranbury was better then this.

One day we might get our old town back where people could have their own opinions and not just one sided. It just makes me sad. THese people who protest for love and peace are nothing but two faced assholes who if they do not get their way they are little cry babies. So annoying.

God forbid if you think different from them!!!

I will be looking forward to November when Trump wins just to see them cry...


CRANBURY POLICE MATTER AND THANK YOU FOR DOING WHAT YOU DO FOR US!!

[anon-03o7]

You have to remember that Liberals will march, protest and even riot for the right to free speech and free opinion, However, if your opinion differs from theirs, you are under attack.

All facist, communist and totalitarian regimes began with this same type of approach until opposing opinions were criminalized and outlawed.

This country is heading in that direction due to the insanity and contradictory methods of Liberalism.

[Sad-648s]

[anon-7666]

From his wife’s FB Page. Keep in mind the posters referenced are not done by adults. They are done by children and they say Thank you Cranbury Police not Police in general. What every kid writes when the police visit the class room.

When I looked at one poster the police were a green alien and robot. Pretty sure we don’t have aliens and robots on the police force. I don’t get why three little kids wanting to thank our Police and be positive is cause for attack. Should the parent say no and teach the kids the police are bad peopleNever those in our town? What message does that send? It seems pretty clear this family also wants reforms in policing.

Post

yesterday our kids made the posters below because they wanted to help the officers who help them and our town to feel better and know they are appreciated. Two 6 year olds and an 11 year old. I am proud of them!! We received feedback from people in our town that supporting our local police was horrible at this time and mean horrible things about us as parents and people.

This ignorance and desire to tear people down is why society is where we are today. Supporting local police you know who are caring does not mean we cannot be angry at the officers in other towns who commit crimes and murders.

You can support the good officers and still want the others accountable and in jail. These ideas are not mutually exclusive. In fact that is what we should all want.

I have been on fire calls where our Cranbury police are visibly shaken from watching a parent harmed in an accident and child scared for their parent, I have seen parents worried about their child, and I attended an awards ceremony for officers that risked their lives to push a burning car out of the drive thru at the bank saving a life and a building.

I have spoken with officers who are working on their child’s birthdays, Christmas and other holidays while I get time joy those days with my family. So when my kids ask what can we do to make someone feel better and suggest something I sure will support them doing it. So when our kids want to do something to help those who help them you can be sure I will encourage this behavior this is how we make society better.

I am not going to encourage a belief that all officers including those they see on the street and who stop to give them free ice cream cards for wearing a bike helmet are bad.

That type of generalization about people is why we are where we are today.

We should all be looking to help each other up not tear them down.

[anon-8r96]

Everything coming from the Jay household needs to be taken with skepticism. Jay, as has been pointed out during public meetings, behaves like a bully. Jay in his own writings criticized free speech when expressed as kneeling and is in support of right-wing ideology. Yet, he pretended to be a DINO for all these years. He should resign. Bring some truth back into town. Our leaders in town set the tone, and Jay has left his mark.

[anon-7666]

Uh, except you're wrong. He's always been advocate of free speech.

He did not oppose kneeling, in fact he supported it. Here is a quote:

We’ve become a country where politics are a sport and our political figures are rooted for like athletes. We ignore accountability to follow the path of “giveaways.” We ignore the informed experts and look to celebrities and athletes for their views of government to society to the economy. We ignore the staggering censorship on our college campuses. College campuses were once places where freedom of speech was primary and while you did not need to listen, you had to respect differing views. It was how we challenged thought, made progress and bettered society.

I do not believe we tell Nike, Colin Kaepernick, and Mayor Tamburro that they cannot express their views. I fully support that right because that is what our country was founded on; the ability to raise a voice and say what you believe.

[anon-4499]

[anon-q091]

[Supporting BLM-648s]

It is interesting you say that---what does it mean to support BLM? Saying "I support BLM" does likely not do very much, if you do not also do actions in your daily life that actively support Black people. If you say, "I support BLM but hate the riots" ask yourself what you can do to make sure that basic human rights are afforded to all people, regardless of their heritage and then do those things, daily, so that riots do not keep happening! Black people in America need people like us to speak out against injustice toward them.

[Change is Here-084o]

This post is disconcerting for several reasons, first and foremost being your general close-minded attitude towards to issues that our society confronts today. You initially claim to support Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements, but contradict yourself multiple times, by voicing support for an openly racist/anti-LGBTQ+ President as well as promoting derogatory rhetoric towards social justice advocates, and left-leaning political participants. Furthermore, your anecdotal praising of the Cranbury Police Department is dismissive towards those in other communities who do not have the privilege of an exemplary police department. While we can appreciate the individuals who protect and serve our town, we cannot use our own privileged experience to excuse the systematic racism that the framework of policing in our country is built upon. Defunding the police, and allocating these funds towards other community building initiatives is the only way to begin to mend the deep wounds of discrimination perpetrated by our antiquated policing model.

From a political perspective, generalizing liberals as crybaby’s and unreasonable conversationalists is frustrating for many of us who wish to engage in productive discourse across party lines despite obvious barriers. This generalization only makes these conversations more difficult to foster, and near impossible to carry out in a civilized manner. Instead, you may try to look inward to challenge these biases and confront the negative effects they may have on your ability to be a productive member of political life. If you are looking for a book to help expand your perspective, I highly recommend “How Democracies Die” by two well-known political science professors. This book will help you to understand why relishing in the disappointment of political rivals is in fact harmful to the strength of our democracy, and how populist politicians such as Donald a Trump and Bernie Sanders leverage political issues to create fissures in civil society and undermine the norms government.

The town, and world, will not being going back to the normal you know and crave. We are changing for the better, and I hope you will choose to re-examine your stance on this change. If we respect each other and open ourselves up to difficult, but productive conversations, I believe that we can build a better nation for all of us. If you’d like to talk about these, or other issues further, please feel free to email me — pcooke1@swarthmore.edu

[anon-p6q0]

Who are you lecturing? It sounds like you picked a debate against a stereotype instead of a real person. It’s pretty easy to win an argument when you completely define your opponent.

It’s clear that you feel that people who disagree with you are wrong and don’t give much consideration to their alternative points of view, so I doubt anyone will take you up on your offer to torture themselves to another lecture. You may interpret this as being right or having an unassailable POV, but I suspect it’s just that people with alternative views simply find your self righteous condescending style to be intolerable. If you’re going to lecture other people on having an open mind, may I suggest starting with your own mind and leading by example.

[Paul Cooke Jr.-084o]

Dear anon-p6q0,
Thank you for your response. I am sorry that you interpreted my comment as “lecturing” and “a debate against a stereotype instead of a real person”. I’ll admit that it is difficult to avoid falling into stereotypes in a debate where one’s partner is anonymous. However, my response draws primarily upon content directly from the original post. Without knowing background on my “opponent” (although I prefer the less confrontational term “partner”), I would not think to “define” them, because I clearly do not have the adequate information to do so. It is for this reason that I left my email (pcooke1@swarthmore.edu), so that anyone interested in discussing their points of view with me would be able to do so in a more personal manner. I challenge your claim that I am not open to hearing from others with different points of view, and wish to reiterate my interest in productive, rational discourse on the polarizing issues of our day. I can assure you that I do not intend to lecture any conversational partner, but instead listen and respond in a non-judgmental manner.

In your last sentence, you ask me to lead by example and have an open mind myself, and I am glad you mentioned this. In times of change, it is important, but difficult to examine our biases and privilege. Through reflection, we may see that our behaviors either directly or indirectly play a role in the problems that the imminent change seeks to address. Therefore, I feel that it is important for me, as a young white man, to be open-minded and receptive to the concerns of non-white community members.

With Respect,

Paul Cooke Jr.
Cranbury ‘14, Princeton HS ‘18, Swarthmore College ‘22

[anon-r84o]

I’m not the original poster but nonetheless I appreciate you taking the high road with your response. IMO, at issue in this thread is the maddening intolerance of today’s “progressives”. As a liberal, I find myself challenged to embrace the intolerance on the Left which in many ways has grown to surpass the intolerance on the Right. It’s as though Progressivism has become its own fanatical religion and virtually all alternative views are cast as hate speech, racism and “phobic”. I’ve had enough of it. As us old school liberals would say... Live and let live.