Ralph Bunche (1903-1971) reminds me of Paul Robeson because both were involved in the civil rights struggle for African-Americans long before the “Civil Rights Movement” actually began. Bunche wrote books about that subject and he became the first black to win a Nobel Peace Prize–he won the award in 1950 for his work in Palestine during the ’40’s. He grew up in Los Angeles, graduated UCLA summa cum laude, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard.
During WWII he worked for the OSS (the precursor of the CIA) and he also was instrumental in the formation of the United Nations. For over 20 years he was the chairman of Political Science at Howard University.
In 1963 he marched with Martin Luther King on the occasion of the “I Have a Dream” speech. He also was on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Ralph Bunche walked the walk and talked the talk, and society valued him greatly during his lifetime.
We remember Ralph Bunche today on Blogfinger for his role in racial justice, but also because he was a great man who performed good deeds all over the world; and I have my eye on his memory specifically for the work he did in mediating peace–an “armistice”– in 1949 between the new State of Israel and the Arab side—Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.
He said, “I have a bias in favor of both Arabs and Jews in the sense that I believe that both are good, honorable and essentially peace-loving peoples, and are therefore as capable of making peace as of waging war …” – Ralph Bunche, 1949
In Fort Myers, Florida, there is a lovely beach dedicated to the memory of Ralph Bunche. Ironically, it was the site years ago of a segregated beach for local black citizens.
JOHN BARRY “Coney Island” From the motion picture Across the Sea of Time
2020 addendum: There was a historic separate beach for African-Americans in Asbury Park (see Helen’s comment). This photo from 1908 refers to “Negroes” at that segregated beach. It is from the Internet: (“history in photos.blogspot.com.)
Paul Goldfinger photograph. Bunche Beach, Fla. 2019.
Is the Camp Meeting Association’s unique status in Ocean Grove so unusual that there is no other town exactly like it? We would be interested to find another for historical and comparison purposes.
After all, the OGCMA is a religious organization with its own goals within the larger universe of Neptune Township and Ocean Grove. They own 99% of the land in OG and they have political leverage in Neptune Township even though they no longer have official power. When they governed the town—1869 to 1980, everyone had to follow their rules.
They functioned like a gated community. They would interview prospective residents and explain that all who were accepted had to follow those rules, many of which were religious based, such as the constraints on many activities on Sundays.
But OG is no longer like a gated community. No one can make laws for Ocean Grove except the elected officials in Neptune. Of course the CMA can make rules for its own buildings (like no food in the Great Auditorium and no gay weddings in its chapel.) Some would say that the CMA can make rules for its public parks and for the beachfront (eg no admittance on Sunday morning.) The entire town is prevented from organizing certain events on Sunday, such as occur in Asbury Park (eg Pride Parade and their January Beer Festival.) Such limitations trace back to the CMA and they still persist in 2020.
We discovered one such place similar to the OGCMA within the city of Fort Myers, Florida, called Shell Point. This is a 700 acre community that provides homes and life styles for retirees. Everything within its boundaries is owned by the CMA—the Christian Missionary Alliance.
Unlike the OGCMA, the Alliance owns both the land and all the residences (homes, condos, apartments.) And, unlike with the OGCMA, everyone who lives in Shell Point has signed a contract to follow all the rules. So if they say “no alcohol” within their boundaries, then that is what happens, and rule breakers can be forced out, and the city stays out of it.
OGCMA insists on no alcohol in town by convincing Neptune to have an ordinance—an actual law, but only in the OG part of town. So the way that power is exerted, in this regard, is different for these two religious-based communities when compared to each other.
Like OG, Shell Point is bordered by water on 3 sides, and they have a large central auditorium where religious events are held. They also have parking problems. Governance is by a Board that has a mixture of religious and lay people. The residents do pay some property taxes, but the amount is small and shared with management. Everything is leased.
Unlike Ocean Grove, Shell Point does resemble a gated community but without gates. And it is different in many other ways as well.
Geographically, the OGCMA is woven into the fabric of life in the Grove, literally and figuratively, whereas Shell Point’s properties, physical and otherwise, are clearly demarcated by boundaries and this characteristic reduces the chances of clashes with the community at large, as sometimes occur in Ocean Grove.
Overall, we would be hard pressed to find any towns in New Jersey that are comparable to OG, especially the way we have the CMA which is part and yet not part of our town at the same time.
At a person-to-person level, an important difference is that there is considerable overlap of the OGCMA with the secular and diverse residents of Ocean Grove. And that is where conflicts may occur, as we saw in 2007 during the gay civil ceremony angry exchanges and the fight over Kirk Cameron’s appearance in the Great Auditorium. And now we have the Parking Wars.
In Shell Point, the residents are all on the same page and rarely overlap in important ways with those who live outside their invisible borders.
And unlike with many gated communities and unlike Shell Point, our CMA isn’t able to exert its powers of persuasion within a geographically demarcated zone, as it did pre-1980, and the demographics in OG are now quite diverse. We are sometimes stepping on each others’ toes, priorities and life styles.
So Shell Point does resemble Ocean Grove’s CMA in some ways, and that is interesting, but there are many differences.
We are still looking for another community where a religious presence like the CMA coexists in a comfortable way with others in town. We have found no nearly identical community to compare with.
So we are on our own in OG, trying to find solutions to certain issues, and sometimes that seems insurmountable as with parking. And that is why parking is about more than parking.
* “Forever Friends” is a 1500 pound stainless steel structure by Douglas Hayes (b. 1968) and donated by a Shell Point benefactor. The birds have a 10 foot wing span. The lagoon features manatees which visit regularly. Shell Point is open to the public and has various races and religions among its residents.
Blogfinger cows. BF photo. Eat more grass, pass more gas.
a. From the OGHOA— next meeting:
Saturday, January 25 10:00 am
The Community Room on Pilgrim Pathway
Guest Speakers – Matt Nolan, owner of Park West Property Appraisals, and Thea Bowers, real estate broker w/ ReMax, will discuss home prices in Ocean Grove, what factors — including parking — affect sale prices, whether to appeal a property assessment, and the appeal process itself.
Editor’s note; If you are concerned about your home’s price assessment, do something to improve the outlook for home owners in this town: life styles, congestion, one party rule, secession, oppressive taxes, CMA indifference, street closings, tourist glut and other abominations.
Begin by getting an effective Home Owners Association. They are having speakers about property assessments, but what are they actually doing about it? Blogfinger awards them our excess cow gas prize for 2019.
b. OGHOA web site: Currently the President’s report says, “For the Ocean Grove Home Owners Association, 2016 was a successful and consequential year.” After that it has been inconsequential.
c. Dog show
Dog beautification. Cape Coral, Fla. What the hey?
d. Quote of the day: “Don’t get your bowels in an uproar” My mother said that to quiet down noisy protestations. As a physician I did find out about mind-body connections, so my Mom knew something about that. She also believed in wheat germ, but that’s another story.
Did you ever have a lettuce, tomato and onion sandwich? You need a good bread, and a slice of provolone cheese would be great. There are many variations: tuna, roast beef, egg plant parm, turkey off the bone, and sardines. (The latter might be a bit much. You need to be the kind of person who likes herring, smoked salmon and anchovies.)
Do you think that a correlation might be made between taste in foods and taste in music?
ARTHUR SCHUTT and Irving Berlin’s classic song “I Love a Piano.”
“So you can keep your fiddle and your bow
Give me a P-I-A-N-O, oh, oh
I love to stop right beside an upright
Or a high toned baby grand…”
This song debuted at at Christmas concert, and on stage were 6 pianos. The song was featured in a show called, “Stop, Look, and Listen.”
We have heard from a number of citizens in the Grove that their home assessments have gone up substantially, beyond what would reasonably be expected. They fear that the result will be an increase in property taxes above the State mandated cap of 2%.
Some believe that substantial tax increases could occur in Ocean Grove if taxes elsewhere in Neptune were lowered yielding extra funds for schools and maintenance of the cap overall in the city (at the expense of OG.)
In Trenton, the legislature has been wanting to allow increases above the caps, but the Governor is looking for other answers. Where are Assemblymen Houghtaling and Downey on this issue? Is there any level of government where our elected officials will communicate with OG citizens?
Some OG residents have engaged an attorney to fight what they see are unfair and illegal tax increases.
If the OG Home Groaners had any sense of doing their job, they would have somebody on their board who is knowledgeable and who is aggressively looking into property taxes on behalf of the homeowners and then communicating with the citizens. But their priorities are elsewhere.
