Asm. Scharfenberger Criticizes Talks of Changing “Freeholder” Title

Middletown, N.J. – Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (Monmouth – R) criticizes recent remarks by New Jersey’s Governor as he targets the title of “Freeholder” in a feigned attempt to steer attention away from the immeasurable issues facing the State, its residents and economy:

“We’re in the middle of a pandemic with the state budget facing a $10 billion hole, unemployment in disarray, the DMV with long lines and fist fights at its locations, and businesses going under every day,” says Scharfenberger. “But now Governor Murphy has decided to focus his energy on changing the name freeholder? This is absurd!”

An archeologist by trade, Assemblyman Scharfenberger has spoken out before, almost immediately after taking office, against removal of historical aspects of our culture by those oblivious of history to make a contrived appeasement for political brownie points:

“For hundreds of years we have had county freeholders to the complaint of no one – men and women of all races, ethnicities, and creeds have proudly served their counties as elected freeholders,” Scharfenberger stated. “Now we’re going to spend wasted hours and countless financial resources changing the name of an elected office simply because it came from an era years ago and has no bearing on what it means today?”

Scharfenberger is quick to point out that other titles have their own issues and histories that may not be so agreeable once examined closely:

“Using this logic, we should also change the terms governor, senator, and mayor because those titles existed hundreds of years ago and have their historical problems associated with them,” says Scharfenberger. “This bizarre attempt to sanitize our language is a dangerous, slippery slope that would open the floodgates to changing everything that came before us. In short, let’s focus our attention on real problems – not media sound bites and headlines for the nightly news.”

Scharfenberger believes that society would be better suited by learning from our past as a means of demonstrating just how far we have come as a nation, state, and people as well as the need to focus on real issues:

“Rather than celebrating the great strides we’ve made as a society, and learning from history, these clumsy attempts at censoring the past are an insult to the beleaguered taxpayers who want real substantive action to improve their lives, not meaningless, symbolic gestures during these most trying of times,” Scharfenberger concluded.

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