I want to thank everyone who has supported Stand up for Asbury. When I first began the lawsuit and hired Mr. Gasiorowski to begin the appeal, I felt like I was alone. Thanks to a core group of supporters and friends Stand Up for Asbury was formed and I truly found a since of community. While I have always remained silent during the course of this litigation, I just want to take the opportunity to thanks everyone. For those who support the mission I respect you feelings. However, the tactics that many of its ardent supporters utilized was anything but Christian or humanitarian. The mission and its allies tried to pervert this issues by using race bating and homophobia, all the while standing behind the Cloth as a justification for their prejudices. The law firm, Connelly Foley, which represented the mission, stood by and allowed its' client and their supporters to continue to engage in this inflamatory rhetoric, shame on you Connelly Foley. I hope that those who tried to use race and homosexuality as a devisive tool, will examine their motives and ask a simple question, Is this how Jesus Christ would want me to behave? Shame on you all who engaged in the devisive behavior, in the end we all we stand before our creator and have to anwer for our actions. My consience is clear, is yours? It is my fervent hope that we can move forward as one community, committed to making Asbury Park a better city for us all. Peace, Frank Farrell Asbury Park ----- Original Message ----- From: rogerpoulard To: AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 11:52 PM Subject: [AsburyPark] On Homeless, Homosexuals, and the divide in Asbury Park
I don't post here very often. It's kind of a big pit of catfighting to be honest, and frankly I'm pretty much a voyeur when it comes to drama. But I get pretty incensed when the Jersey Shore Rescue Mission issue comes up. Not because I support the Jersey Shore Resuce Mission, because in this case, I don't. And not because I support "Stand Up For Asbury" because I don't either. I get angry because both sides are sort of right. When this issue first started around the time I first moved in here, all the SUFA information on the website, was hypothetical, misleading and offensively wrong. The first information I found about SUFA is that it felt an awful lot like "Gay People against the Homeless." To see that makes me sad. A lot of the people are fighting for SUFA because they feel that homeless people are people too and deserve to get the services to make their lives as comfortable and safe as possible. It's basic charity and any city should be proud to offer those benefits to the weakest among us. But at the same time, there's an attitude of sticking it to the gay people who are seen as taking over the community. A lot of that, I've seen right here. I moved to Asbury Park because it felt like there was a movement to create a city that stands apart from the rest of the suburban shore that wasn't stuck in a suburban mindset and that had several diverse communities coming together to make something special happen. Like most things here, it's more of a veneer than anything else. There's a huge tension between a lot of the people that have been in Asbury Park for generations and the newer community, in particular the gay community. The truth is that the community that has something against gay folk in Asbury Park has to come to terms with it. This may not be something you are, or want to be - but it's here and the gay community is pumping a lot of money and support into a community that desperately needs it. When it comes down to it, the gay community's heart is in mostly the right place. I also think that the gay community has to realize that life isn't all an episode of Dynasty. There are lots of people who need help that aren't in our community. They are disadvantaged, they are often discriminated against and face a lot of similar barriers that openly gay people face from a lot of the same people. They are deserving of our respect and our help. They are deserving of being a part of our greater community, and working together does more for us than just trying to squeeze them out. In this case, we have a homeless population that needs our help. We owe it to them and to ourselves to help them. No, we aren't doing enough. Jersey Shore Rescue Mission isn't the answer - but when the answer comes along - we damn sure have an obligation to support it. Because it's the right thing to do for Asbury Park - property values be damned. Roger
