The People of New Jersey Have Been Warned

Domestic-violence registry a flawed plan
Daily Record - Nov. 30, 2013

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora announced on the radio that he was going to save the women of New Jersey from abusive “husbands and boyfriends” by introducing legislation that would create a registry for those found to have committed domestic violence.

Never mind his gender-biased language. Never mind studies sponsored by the state Department of Corrections, Rutgers and others that have shown sex offender registries have had no effect on sexual offense statistics. Repeat sexual offenses have actually increased slightly because of the climate of fear created by the Scarlet Letter-like list, which gives offenders nothing left to lose. Never mind that restraining orders are handed out in divorce cases like candy by the courts.

No one wants to think, much less talk about the climate of fear these lists would create. The honorable assemblyman scored some points for women. Ostensibly.

It turns out that he did introduce the legislation on Tuesday but made no announcement whatsoever about it. Not even on Wednesday.

In the media, this is called a holiday eve news dump.

Erik B. Anderson
HACKETTSTOWN

STAND UP w/ Pete Dominick - 12/27/2010

This is very exciting, but I felt completely rattle brained for over an hour after this phone call. Pete cut me off unexpectedly. I was startled, and a little disappointed. I understood right away, it's nothing personal; but instinctively it felt like a punch in the gut. Like my friend who works in Hollywood says, nobody is ever completely happy with their performance. Just gotta do it, and move on to the next thing.

I am so glad I was able to hear the replay, and record it on my new digital voice recorder. It was a pretty good call and Pete was a true gentleman, as always. He is a real breath of fresh air. Most of the political talk show hosts that in America for the past 20 years are just plain jerks.

Listen on my Myspace music player here:

Find more artists like King of Funny Faces (MUSIC) at Myspace Music

standupwithpetedominick.com
www.grasp.org
www.aspennj.org

Published Again - September 16, 2010

Express-Times Newspaper - Letters to the Editor- September 16, 2010

Cut through the pretext to uncover real message

A tyrant will always find a pretext for his (or her) tyranny.

A recent letter writer’s is that people find fault with the Taxed Enough Already party’s activities. The TEA critics’ very presence here “indicates that there are now Americans who prefer to become subjects rather than citizens” — so watch your back, people! She believes that people, such as me, audacious enough to criticize her party, are voluntarily making ourselves slaves to the federal government and this is all very “tragic.”

But Nancy Baumgartner is wrong. She does not think Tea Party critics are tragic. She thinks we are stupid: “It is not surprising that a significant number of vocal Tea Party critics know what the acronym even stands for,” she writes. That sentence is the real object of her letter.

What is unsurprising to me is that a militant Tea Party supporter does not know the definition of the word “tragic.” A real tragedy is a contradiction of principles.

ERIK B. ANDERSON
Independence Township

I know this is not my best letter. It has got a lot of abstract concepts in it, like "pretext" and "tragedy" and "contradiction" and "principles". But I am grateful for the opportunity to be heard. I made my point about Nancy Baumgarten's tragically twisted letter of September 6. I just wish the editor who chose the title of the Letters page online could understand that the one who is offbase is Nancy Baumgarten, the one who criticized the Tea Party critics, but I guess I fell into the same conundrum that the movie Inception (or the play Marat/Sade) did.

That's what living with Asperger's is like. you say something, and it makes sense. It objectively makes perfect sense. But expecting other people to understand what I have just said is a whole other thing.

It's like a game of telephone. Just look at my words, not the editors words. Think about it. You are free to think what you want. They will be the same words today, tomorrow and they will still be there, at the Warren County library 50 years from now, assuming another fire doesn't destroy those records too.

If I had to write it over again, I would say: Nancy Baumgartner wants to be Desdemona or Ophelia, but she doesn't understand that tragedy does not mean loss. The fact that tea parties are a bunch of losers who will never get anywhere is not tragic. The fact that Tea Party cricis like me will never go away. Tragedy means a contradiction of principles. She does not belong in one of Shakespeare's tragedies. She belongs in his comedies. Nancy Baumbartner is Katherine.

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey


* * *

"A tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny." is from:

The Wolf and the Lamb
by Aesop

Read the Express-Times Tomorrow! 9/16/10

I wrote a letter to the editor. A response to Nancy Baumgartner's September 9th letter below. I got confirmation that they are going to print it. Check the news stand or http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/.

Tea Party: Limit feds to constitutional powers
Its not surprising that a significant number of vocal TEA Party critics do not even know what the acronym, “TEA” stands for and what the purpose of the movement is. TEA stands for “Taxed Enough Already.” With the average small business already paying more than 40 percent in earnings to state and federal taxes and fees, this is obviously true.

Moreover, TEA participants are here to remind our now-hostile federal government that expanding its power past those enumerated in the U.S. Constitution will not go unchallenged. Our government is to govern, and it has veered into ruling.

Finding a problem with TEA activities indicates that there are now Americans who prefer to become subjects rather than citizens. Tragic.

NANCY BAUMGARTNER
Oxford

UPDATE: Here's my letter:

Fight, don't join, the terrorists

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

The tea partiers are consciously trying to induce a public nervous breakdown.

Whether they are sending death threats to a congressman's 5-year-old son in Florida, violently throwing money at a man with Parkinson's disease on an Ohio sidewalk or maliciously shouting the "N" word at African-American representatives at an event in Washington, D.C., the effect is utterly terrifying.

The mass hysteria that is today's Tea Party shows that the majority of us have forgotten we are supposed to be fighting terrorists, not becoming them. Do they really think the end justify the means?

When are we the people going to realize that we are not crazy after all? When will we stand up to all of this bullying? We are not safe in public. We are not safe in our homes. What will the future of our country be like if no one risks stepping out and fighting back?

Erik B. Anderson

Independence Township

Cheers & Jeers - Daily Record - June 12, 2010

JEER: To a litter problem in downtown Hackettstown. Some residents say that after every town event, the most recent being a Memorial Day Parade, debris stays on the streets for days.

Read the other Cheers & Jeers

I didn't actually say after every town event, just after the Memorial Day and St. Patrick's Day parade.

Discuss this on HackettstownLife.com.

Listen to WNTI on Tomorrow Night

Cable Man Dan asked me to help him answer phones in the studio for WNTI public radio's fundraising drive.

Listen to WNTI- FM- Public Radio from Centenary College - Where Great Music Lives!

Cable Man Dan's show is the Reggae and World Rhythm Show.

91.9 FM in the Northwest New Jersey Area - or stream it online!

I hope to tell a story or two about my experiences in Ghana and Jamaica.

Give us a call - 908-852-4545!

Old crime drawing interest in the New Year - Warren Reporter - 1/1/10

I found this in the Tillie Smith file at the Hackettstown Historical Society the other day:

click here for a better view of the article

It is the same article that was in the Warren Reporter blog on NJ.com December 6, 2010. I did the interview the day before Thanksgiving. I am glad to see that several typoes in the piece that went out on the front page (under the fold) of the weekly county paper had been corrected.

Not a bad way to start off the New Year!

Warm Regards,

Erik B. Anderson

Independence Township, New Jersey

Established 1782

More about Free James Titus:

http://freejamestitus.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/freejamestitus

http://www.myspace.com/freejamestitus

"Free James Titus" in the Warren Reporter

An image of James Titus,
who was convicted of the
1866 (sic) murder of Tillie Smith
in Hackettstown.

Independence Township man leads charge to have Hackettstown man convicted of Tillie Smith murder pardoned -- nearly 150 years later
By Warren Reporter
December 06, 2009, 4:04PM


Story Written By Todd Petty

Regardless of whether you believe in ghosts, Hackettstown residents have been aware of the presence of Tillie Smith for well over a century. Murdered in 1866 (sic), Tillie’s name still elicits an impassioned reaction from local residents – it is a part of their dialogue, a part of their folklore, and a part of their history.

However, pieces of the story may still remain unwritten — there remains a specter of doubt regarding the involvement of James Titus, the man who was found guilty and sentenced to prison for seventeen years for Tillie’s murder.

One resident in particular from Independence Township, Erik Anderson, is determined to close the case once and for all. Anderson is working to have Titus pardoned for a crime that he does not believe that Titus ever committed.

“If you look at the case and if you read the trial documents, it’s really obvious that there is a ton of reasonable doubt,” Anderson said.

More at NJ.com.

More at FreeJamesTitus.BlogSpot.Com.

More on  Twitter, Myspace and Facebook, too.

THE FREE JAMES TITUS MOVEMENT HAS BEGUN

PRESS RELEASE

From The Desk of: Erik B. Anderson                                                Contact: Erik - 908-979-3493

THE FREE JAMES TITUS MOVEMENT HAS BEGUN

November 7, 2009 - Erik B. Anderson, a resident of Independence Township (NJ), today asked Governor Jon Corzine to pardon James Titus, the man found guilty of the 1886 rape and murder of Tillie Smith in Hackettstown. In the book In Defence of Her Honor: The Tillie Smith Murder Case by Denis Sullivan, it is written:

A careful reading of the trial transcript supports the argument that Titus' guilt was never established beyond reasonable doubt. The state never proved that rape had been committed at the time and place alleged, let alone that Titus had committed it. (Chapter Eight; Page 124)
In his letter to the Governor,

Mr. Anderson wrote:

James Titus was a small, frail, young man. His father committed suicide when he was only fifteen. He was prone to what we would call panic attacks today….He was terrified. They were going to hang him! He was able to stay alive by signing a confession, but in exchange he had to serve nineteen years doing hard labor at the New Jersey State Prison. The Reverend who said a prayer at the “last public rite that will ever be offered to poor Tillie Smith” at the Union Cemetery, after it was all over, said: “We regret, O God, to-day that there has been so much leniency shown the murderer in this case (NY Times, Nov. 24, 1887).”

Reverends are supposed to be compassionate! That one wasn’t. Please be compassionate, President Governor Corzine!

The Free James Titus Movement is something that has been building up inside Mr. Anderson for a long time. “It’s just bizarre that whenever I hear anyone talk about Tillie Smith, they get real quiet and tell uncomfortable jokes. This is a rape and murder we’re talking about, not a Halloween legend. I’m tired of living in so-called Weird New Jersey,” he says. Expect an online presence: a petition, a blog, a MySpace page, a Facebook group and more. “A Pardon is something that should happen. It is plain as day that there was reasonable doubt. The fact it occurred over 120 years ago makes it even more imperative that a Pardon happen as soon as possible. The real killer is still out there. Why would anyone want to stop this?”

Every American Citizen Has A Moral Obligation To Circulate Petitions, Write Letters, And Do What They Can To Free James Titus.


http://freejamestitus.blogspot.com/        *       http://myspace.com/freejamestitushttp://twitter.com/freejamestitus

*********************

Erik B. Anderson is a performing artist, a scholar and a concerned citizen. In 1996, he worked as an intern at the Chester County Historical Society Museum and Library when he was a Sociology major at West Chester University (PA). He won a debate with William F. Buckley, Jr. that same year. His other achievements include: visiting slave castles in Ghana in 1995; managing a Campaign Office in Hackettstown for Congressional Candidate Anne Wolfe in 2004; and, helping True Crime author Ann Rule (The Stranger Beside Me: The True Inside Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy) in 2002.

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