Media Spotlight

I find it disturbing that news about the corruption in New Jersey is not making headlines in our newspapers. On September 06, 2007, 11 city officials were arrested for their involvement in a corruption investigation. It is offensive enough that Katrina lacked the attention it deserved, but even now as the corrupt officials there are arrested for taking bribes it is not newsworthy enough for our papers. Among the arrested were:

• Alfred E. Steele, state assemblyman and Passaic County Under sheriff
• Samuel "Sammy" Rivera, Passaic mayor
• Mims Hackett Jr., Orange mayor and state assemblyman
• Jonathan Soto, former Passaic city councilman
• Marcellus Jackson, Passaic city councilman
• Keith O. Reid, chief of staff to Newark City Council president
• Jayson G. Adams, former Pleasantville School Board member
• Maurice "Pete" Callaway, Pleasantville City Council member
• James T. McCormick, former Pleasantville School Board member
• James A. Pressley, Pleasantville School Board president
• Rafael Velez, Pleasantville School Board member
• Louis Mister, Pleasantville resident

All of these people hold positions that have authority in towns and neighborhoods that trust them, and all of them have betrayed that trust and deserve to be made examples of to any other officials that may be thinking about taking bribes or using their position in any way to their own advantage or financial gain.

If our reporters or media do not want to take on our own president who does this whole country wrong when he himself acts like he is above the law, or Vice President, Dick Cheney, as he gains enormously on the contracts in Iraq then the very least they could do is take on the government officials that accept bribes in this country. This needs to be a message to others who may think about taking advantage of the positions they have been graced with that they will not get away with it. I cannot believe how much damage this administration is causing on every level of government. Everything they touch is corrupted or corruptible and it is about time somebody starts to bring justice to those people who are willing to accept the bribes and sell out this country to line their own pockets.

To the New Jersey Attorney, Chris Christy, who has been doing a great job tackling the corruption, Bravo! He vowed to take on the problem and it finally looks like someone is doing the job they were hired to do. This definitely could not be an easy one, but necessary and warranted. There are still those of us who want to see our country get the upper hand on taxpayer spending and stop overpaying contractors. It has gone on far too long, and without people like Christy it would have extended its way from Washington to the streets and City of New Jersey.