Galloway Fair Trade Town - A Citizen's Editorial

Is this Galloway Township or Alameda County, California? How did these Hippy Dippy collectivists even manage to present their thinly veiled Marxist agenda before the Galloway Township City Council?

Why do we need Galloway Township to be officially designated a 'Fair Trade Town'? If local merchants want to carry products certified by the 'South Jersey Fair Trade Alliance', there is certainly nothing stopping them from doing so.

All of this organization, education, and 'steering'  towards a particular agenda certainly smacks of partisan activism to me, and in this particular case, Left-Wing activism, and something our Mayor and City Council should give a wide berth.

What exactly is a 'Fair Trade Steering Committee'?  Who will appoint these arbiters of social and economic justice, and what unelected influence will they have within our community and upon our merchants and Civil Servants?

From what I've read here on , the only tangible result of Galloway Township becoming an Official Fair Trade Town, is that the township would receive a certificate....oooooh.....and recognition.....aaaaaaah. At the end of the day, all of this amounts to little more than a lot of free publicity for a fringe group of Social-Progressives endeavoring to foist their pet project upon the people of Galloway Township.

Our elected officials have more important issues with which to busy themselves other than these radical egalitarian boondoggles: like our dwindling public safety resources. We need Police, not meaningless feel-good palliatives.

There is no need for the Galloway Township City Council or any other official government organ to involve itself with this nonsense. As earlier stated, if local merchants wish to carry merchandise approved by the SJFTA, they are most certainly free to do so under existing conditions.

As a consumer, I view this 'Fair Trade Town' chicanery as yet another attempt at leveling a tax on Western Consumers in order to generate more revenue for the so-called developing world and for the brokers who grow wealthy servicing the myriad of Western Charities and NGOS which cater to it. A guilt tax.

Most of this revenue enters the coffers of NGOs like Bill and Hillary's  'Clinton Global Initiative'.  I wonder how much exits these coffers in the direction of the Red Cross and The Salvation Army?

We have nothing to feel guilty about.

Each year, billions of our tax dollars are funnelled to the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania, and even parts of Europe in the form of military, economic, health and 'humanitarian' aid, most of which is stolen by the kleptocratic dictators which rule over most of the people there.

Americans are the most charitable and generous people in the world. Last year, Americans gave nearly 300 billion to various charities. Thanks to NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA, and tax breaks to corporations underwriting the wholesale transfer of our manufacturing base off-shore, it seems we've even donated our livelihoods.

We've already exported most of our manufacturing jobs to China, Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Mexico e.g., fueling an unprecedented economic boom in these countries even as our own once thriving economy, formerly the envy of the world, sinks to the level of a Haiti or Bangladesh.

Cutting our own throats, we blissfully send most of our disposable income overseas by shopping at Walmart, Target, and countless other Big Box retailers whose shelves are stocked almost entirely with foreign-made goods made with the upwardly mobile hands of a billions-strong foreign work-force.

What more do these bleeding hearts want from the good people of Galloway Township and the rest of America? Should we all start driving mule carts and living in Wigwams made of recycled cardboard as well as giving all our hard-earned dollars to the teaming masses of the eternally developing Third-World?

Here's a thought: How about supporting the 'Made In America' and 'Buy Local' Movements? I am always glad to pay a little extra for the superior quality of an American Made product rather than some poorly fabricated Chinese import, or for a Jersey Fresh Tomato which is considerably more desirable than the flavourless, almost synthetic fruits and vegetables imported from overseas.

I'll pass on sending more of my dollars to a Chinese or Indian worker - who probably drives a better car than I do - and spend them in one of the Shoppes of Smithville or Risley Plaza, where I know my dollars are appreciated and help to sustain our local economy.

Here's a radical thought: How about designating Galloway Township as a 'Made in America' or 'Buy Local' town? How about a little fairness to the 'American' worker and the 'American' family for change?

As I see it, this push to envelope Galloway Township in this 'Fair Trade Town' smoke-screen is nothing more than a species of the marketing ploy I see employed by the NGOs who partner with our local supermarkets, drugstores and Petco to guilt us into donating a dollar at the Point of Service terminal.

After all, there is no pressure like peer-pressure, and Americans do love to wrap themselves in a feel-good cause, even when the cause itself is wrapped in the thinnest veneer of legitimacy.

JH