Bergen Fires off a Letter to Scutari
Brian Bergen has enlisted the memory of JFK in his war against kimchi, a traditional Korean dish on the verge of being canonized – so to speak – by the state Legislature.
The pairing of kimchi and a president assassinated almost 60 years ago may seem peculiar.
But it’s not.
The state Assembly last week adopted a bill to designate Nov. 22 as Kimchi Day in New Jersey. In hyping the idea, the Assembly Agriculture and Food Security Committee said kimchi has a “rich history dating back thousands of years.” The committee described the dish as consisting of salted and fermented vegetables and said it is often eaten by Koreans at every meal.
Not only that, it’s good for you. The committee put it this way:
“Kimchi has been widely acknowledged as a probiotic food with well-established positive health benefits, serving as an excellent source of beta-carotene, calcium, potassium, dietary fiber and vitamins A, B, C and K, which can potentially lower rates of heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.”
Notwithstanding this description of some type of miracle food, Bergen voted “no” on the resolution. He was the only one to do so, although a handful of lawmakers didn’t vote. The dish, so to speak, now goes to the Senate.
This seems like one of those symbolic bills legislators are prone to pass without giving it much thought. After all, what’s the harm in designating an official day – even though we have many of them?
That made Bergen’s lone opposition look a bit silly, even obnoxious.
The day after last Thursday’s vote, however, Bergen raised an interesting point.
Nov. 22 is really not just any other day. It is one that those of a certain age – or rather, old people – will never forget.
It is the day back in 1963 on which John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. It was early afternoon on a Friday and ushered in a truly memorable weekend. There was grief followed by disbelief when Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the president’s accused assassin, on Sunday. JFK’s funeral was held on Monday, which was designated a national day of mourning. Schools and most everything else official were closed.
Bergen last Friday dashed off a letter to Nick Scutari, the Senate President, asking him not to post the bill for a vote.
The GOP assemblyman from Morris County said that if the bill passes, come this Nov. 22 – the 60th anniversary of the president’s death – “New Jersey would be officially celebrating a food dish instead of honoring a national hero.”
Instead of choosing kimchi over JFK, Bergen suggests that a tribute to New Jersey Koreans take place on Jan. 13, which is the day back in 1903 when the first Koreans immigrated to the United States. He wants that day designated as Korean American Day.
Bergen doesn’t expect Scutari to honor his request, but the assemblyman certainly has a valid argument.
Many people these days do not know as much history as they should. The guess is that far too many lawmakers may not have even known the significance of Nov. 22 when voting for Kimchi Day.
But they should have.
And Bergen’s suggestion should be taken seriously.
This objection from Bergen who held a gun rights rally at a shooting range on the 10 anniversary of the slaughter of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Point is really obnoxious.
Incredible that our elected leaders, both Democrat and Republican, have little else to do but but waste time on this.
I am certain there are more pressing matters to address.
So Bergen held a gun rights rally in New Jersey on the 10th Anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut (not Sandy Point as the writer claims) . One has nothing to do with the other.
Left-wing anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment gun control nuts still don’t get it. There are over 20,000 gun control laws in the U.S.,with over 250 in CT alone. It didn’t stop the Sandy Hook school shooter. All the left-wing anti-gun nuts want to do is have all guns confiscated and lead us down the path that became Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and Red China. Those 3 countries had “reasonable and common sense” gun control built into their laws. It ended up in total confiscation. Those 3 countries alone wound up murdering over 150 MILLION of their own innocent people, as well as murdering MILLIONS of others under Nazism and Communism–both the same Socialist political regimes.