Troy Talk
Read Across America: The Magic of Reading and Children
The first week in March should be a happy time for parents and children because it’s Read Across America, a national celebration to promote reading to our children. We celebrate it March 1 to coincide with the birthday of the famous and beloved author Dr. Seuss. But one should consider it a privilege to participate for the entire month (and even longer).
The Tipping Point of the Foreclosure Crisis
A crisis can be defined as a critical point in history, a time when difficult and challenging decisions must be made. This is the point at which New Jersey’s ever growing foreclosure problem had reached – the critical juncture of a crisis.
The foreclosure crisis affects all of us in one way or another, directly and indirectly – whether we are the homeowner losing our home and years of hard-earned equity, or the neighbor who lives next door to an abandoned property or someone whose home value has decreased because of a foreclosure nearby - its consequences are far reaching. Foreclosures have uprooted families, caused boarded-up homes, and contributed to neighborhood blight throughout our state.
Lifting Working Families: Overtime Pay & Tax Credits
Economic fairness and equity for workers is an important concern if we are to close the income inequality gap in New Jersey and beyond. There are multiple ways in which this can be addressed. One such way relates to the need to update the salary thresholds for what qualifies as overtime pay, and the other relates to utilizing our tax code to assist workers who will face continued and increasingly complicated challenges for future job opportunities.
Why The “Heart” Matters
The month of February is a matter of the Heart. I’m not referring to Valentine’s Day, for the moment, which symbolizes a worthy sentiment to those we care about, but rather a matter of the heart. Literally. Do you have a healthy heart, and are you following habits that promote it?
Burlington County: The Cradle Of Emancipation
There is always something special when you have a celebratory month — Black History Month, as an example — and it has a direct connection to where you live, what you do, or someone that you knew. And to me, that special connection is Burlington County, which some have referred to as the cradle of emancipation. It earned this reputation, in part, because it offers more historical connections to Black History Month than any other New Jersey county, with 16 sites in nine municipalities, many that focus on the Underground Railroad that had such prominence in Burlington County before the Civil War.
I’d like to offer two local examples that are fascinating because of the contributions they made to African American history.
Sharing Your Heart With The Homeless
The signs of the homeless have become so common and prevalent that I worry we don’t see them. Whether it’s a disheveled person standing on the street corner with a sign or someone wearing tattered clothing pushing a shopping cart uphill with belongings they deem important, we no longer see the human tragedy. Sometimes, we just avert our gaze. Other times, they look like us, yet they are homeless.