A SHAMEFUL TESTIMONY
Date: 12/6/01 11:40:32 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: paladini@warwick.net (Jessica Paladini)

Dear Everyone,

I would like to ask each of you to please consider sending a message to Senator Robert Littell telling him what we think of his SHAMEFUL statement in today's Record regarding the action taken yesterday by the State Review Board of the Historic Preservation Office yesterday. He said:

"You find a handful of arrowheads, you don't know if someone put them there or if they've been there a long time," Littell said. "I'll certainly try and talk to the commissioner and see what he has to say. This whole thing is getting out of hand."

We are talking about a site where more than 16,000 artifacts—some of them very rare such as glass trade beads, the earliest pottery known to man, stone tools, effigy stones, much more—have been found. Ten experts on the State Review Board, some of the most esteemed archaeologists and historians in the state, found this site to be worthy of listing on the state and national registers, and this shameful man wants to push his way into the DEP commissioner's office and intervene?

And he arrogantly announces that is what he'll do?

This shameful man calls it a "handful of arrowheads"? He is a disgrace to his constituency, he has passed bad legislation for too long. He is threatening to intervene with the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection to block the listing of the Black Creek Site on the State and National Register of Historic Places. He holds a very powerful position because he is the chairman of the Budget Oversight Committee. All he has to do is threaten to withhold funds to state agencies, and he seems to intimidate them into action.

Please, can we inundate his mailbox with letters of disgust? Let him know how shameful we think he is! His e-mail address is:

senlittell@njleg.org

Thank you.

Jessi Paladini

___________________________________________________________________

In a message dated 12/6/01 4:24:09 PM Eastern Standard Time, Ned@heite.org writes: Black Creek

Not everyone was happy with the decision to preserve Black Creek site. The local state senator, not noted for erudite pronouncements, tried to put down the findings. The whole sad story of this public official's incredible insensitivity can be seen at this website:

It's a pretty sad commentary on our democratic system that such people are allowed to represent honest citizens. In plainer language: Where do we find these creeps?

—

Edward Heite
Heite Consulting
Archaeologists and Historians
Camden, Delaware