An Open Letter to the Montclair Times re: Congressman Pascrell's Support for his Violent Employee

The following is an open letter to the Montclair Times:

(FYI, the following was e-mailed to the Montclair Times at contactus@montclairtimes.com)

To the Editor:

The Montclair Times recently saw fit to provide some unsolicited advice to 8th congressional district candidate Roland Straten, in which your paper advised Mr. Straten to "move on," and added that " The Times suggests there may be more productive ways to spend his time than lobbying Montclair to use public space for political purposes."

Source: http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/101535588_Public__political.html

Since the Montclair Times is willing to provide unsolicited advice, perhaps it will be open-minded as I provide it some unsolicited advice.

First, your paper is to be commended for accurately reporting that "Ann Mega, [Congressman Bill] Pascrell’s field representative, physically pushed Roland Straten, Pascrell’s Republican challenger, out of the chambers" during Pascrell's August 9th Forum on Senior Issues in Montclair. The paper deserves praise for noting that "Mega put her hands on him and pushed him out of the room, an action witnessed by a Times reporter."

Second, I appreciate that you published a letter to the editor that I submitted to you regarding this Pascrell staffer's violent attack on me only 10-15 minutes after she physically attacked Mr. Straten:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/letters/101051084_Letter_to_the_editor__Staffer_attacks_two_people_at_meeting.html

Third, I was disappointed in your editoral regarding Mr. Straten and the events at Mr. Pascrell's Forum on Senior Issues. Pascrell's employee resorted to violence in an attempt to infringe upon the free-speech rights of Mr. Straten and myself. This is a serious issue, and I am surprised that it went completely unmentioned in your editorial regarding the events of that day and related issues.

The government is delegated the right to use force so that it can properly perform its most important function: the protection of all individuals' moral rights. Thus, it is especially pernicious when the entity that is supposed to be defending the rights of individuals becomes instead the violator of those rights.

It is bad enough that Pascrell's employee violently attacked two individuals who were peacefully attending a forum advertised as being open to the public, and on public property. It is even worse that to date, Pascrell continues to defend his violent employee's thuggish actions, rather than firing her, as she deserves.

The North New Jersey Tea Party Group (of which I am founder) will have additional words to say about this matter in the near future. And, we will continue to call for Pascrell to fire Ann Mega, and to apologize for supporting her violent attempts to squelch free-speech rights.

In the meantime, I suggest that you consider writing an editorial condemning the violence of Pascrell's employee, and Pascrell's shameful attempts to protect his thug employee through his spokesman's lame efforts to lie about what happened.

Should you require additional details about what happened, and some context as to Pascrell's ongoing contempt for the governed, I suggest that you click on all of the following links:

* "Calling on Congressman Pascrell to Immediately Fire Staffer Ann Mega for Physically Attacking Two Peaceful Constituents"

* "Eyewitness Describes Physical Attack by Congressman Pascrell's (D-NJ) Employee at Town Hall Meeting"

* "Congressman Pascrell Supports Staffer Who Shoved Senior Citizen"

* "Did Congressman Pascrell (D-NJ) Enlist a PR Flack to Spread Falsehoods About His Employee's Violent Behavior?"

* "Must-See Video: Democratic Congressman Arrogantly Insults Senior Citizen"

Thank you for your consideration.

Mark Kalinowski
(address and phone number provided in e-mail)
OK to Print/Publish

*** The North New Jersey Tea Party Group is the largest New Jersey-based tea party organization on Facebook in terms of members, with over 4,500 of them combined in our two group pages. ***

*** As always, feel free to pass on the above information! ***

Mark Kalinowski
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=172402990061
and
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111373848903476
E-Mail: nnjteaparty@gmail.com