Page 14 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • September 4, 2013 The python gags The PBS show, “Nature,” recently presented a factual account of how Burmese pythons, dumped in the Ever- glades by their former owners, had taken to eating cute animals, grew to enormous bulk due to lack of competi- tion, and then moved on to challenge the alligators as the swamp’s top predators. Many “Nature” shows are worth watching until you memorize the dialogue. The shows on birds of paradise and hummingbirds were two of one could actually watch while eating supper. Watching pythons eat stuff was beyond that other great PBS show, “Secrets of the Dead,” where only the titles are deliberately disgust- ing. We saw a metaphorical example of that when one of my much younger colleagues took the chop through a situa- tion that was not his fault. In his case, the python did not do as well as those in the Everglades, but that cannot be blamed on a young man who worked as hard as he did and was obviously learning his job quite well. I will not mention his name because I wish him well and do not want anything vaguely negative to turn up under his name that might interfere with future employment somewhere a little higher on the food chain. The metaphorical python, dropped off in the subur- ban forest that is northwest Bergen County, was the most recent attempt to seize control of the advertising market that revolves around Paramus, which is a Lenape Indian word that means “shopping center.” Supplemented by the Corridors of Doom that Route 17 and lower Route 4 have become, and whatever may be left of downtown Hacken- sack, where people used to ride their horses or oxcarts to shop when I was a little kid, there is enough advertising in Paramus support one media giant: one as in single, all alone, or autonomous. One. About three years ago, a corporate entity capitalized on the fact that most people obtain their national and state news from computers and other electronic sources, such as they are, and decided to launch a computer-accessible news source where people could not only read an account of what had happened at last night’s meeting but even comment about it under their actual or assumed names. Print journalism as we knew it seemed about to become an anachronism or a regional oddity limited to places where there was not enough advertising to support even a small newspaper. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963 was a whole lot worse, but losing your job when you do not want to retire and move to such places is edgy. Once before, something like this happened except that the technology was different. About 20 years ago, another outside money man decided to buy up most of the smaller newspapers in northwest Bergen County and the greater Paramus area, and make them into something that was corporate rather than personal and could be produced by one worn-down professional journalist and a gaggle of eager amateurs, and then strangle the Hackensack mega- paper. They literally aimed to hire a guy with a divorce and a drinking problem as the editor and kids with zero experience as the reporting staff. This was the python pitted against the alligator, which actually had some pro- fessional news people on staff. The cute animals moved through the python’s digestive tract while the adversaries stalked one another. We all know what happened. A couple of python sur- vivors got together and started the paper you are reading now. “The Outlaw Journalist” column appeared in the first issue and has appeared ever since. Despite the pho- tograph with all those cap-and-ball revolvers -- unloaded, I assure you -- the column was not based on visual ter- roristic threats. The premise was that while other papers had big-time sacred cows and secret enemies, and treated their hirelings like serfs, our paper treated employers like fellow Americans with full sets of human rights, did not play Celebrity Manhunt trying to compromise politi- cal figures who did not kowtow to us, and did not cover up wrong-doing because the culprits belong to the same country club or political party. We told the truth as northwest Bergen County people knew it. The schools are pretty good, but far from per- fect and way too expensive; some municipal agencies are over-staffed; and destroying historic houses and knocking down trees to cover land with artificial turf and asphalt contributes to regional flooding. Ridgewood actually has parking problems. A couple of the other schools are really not all that great, and some teachers should not have been employed. It worked! There were enough people out there who respected editorial integrity to give the paper an ample number of repeat readers. We kept growing. Meanwhile, back in the media Everglades, the alligator would appear to have gobbled down the python. One day we got the news that so-and-so editor had been fired and that so-and-so publisher got out of the country because he always liked England better and we were still in print -- and have been ever since. We like northwest Bergen County better than anyplace. Our readers are smart enough to spot a phony and our advertisers are smart enough to know that they should not pay vastly larger amounts to compete with Paramus and Hackensack. About the time the previous python slid down the sur- viving alligator’s gullet, this moved from being my night job to my day job. Another self-proclaimed genius bought the trade paper where I hung my editor’s visor and decided that he would make millions by firing people who knew their jobs and replacing them with eager young kids and part-time adults. One day we call came to work and found the computers unplugged, the swivel chairs on top of the desks, and the paper files spilled out all over the back alley where we parked when we could find space. Everybody who was not of the same ethnic group as the publisher was fired on the same day. My wife inconveniently lost her job the same week, and my daughter got admitted to Princeton about the time this all transpired. Back at the last real family-owned paper in Bergen County, I got some expanded hours and a bigger salary, and took up tutoring to cover the shortfall between two jobs and one. We survived with much prayer and thrift. Meanwhile, the trade paper that had survived for 50 years under the old management that had offered a minor pen- sion plan, tanked after 18 months under the cost-cutter. Abusive management may amuse people with inferiority complexes, but it never really works. Both kids finished college with a little help from Mom and Pop and their own part-time jobs, and both have chil- dren and own homes of their own. Right now, my two infant grandsons are having a contest to see who is the most precocious, while my one granddaughter holds the title for most precious. In the midst of preparing for my most recent new grandson’s arrival, we got the word that the latest python had been done in, this time not by the alligator, which may also be in bad shape, but by the economy. According to one reliable news source, the corporation was taking in about one-quarter of what it was paying out, so they did the usual U.S. corporate thing and cut the number of pro- ductive workers as opposed to the tactics of our overseas corporate competitors. In my career here, I have had some heated arguments with coworkers, but I have never been stabbed in the back. Show me a job you can say that about anywhere and I will show you a job that has great survivor potential, because the better workers will be reluctant to jump ship, and they will not be fired for irresponsible reasons. It is sad that people who were in no way responsible for bad corporate planning had to take the chop for it. How- ever, I would be a bit of a fake if I shed any crocodile (or alligator) tears about losing competition. Everybody claims to love competition. Everybody actually hates it unless they have a few loose screws rattling around upstairs. The people who really benefit from competition are the read- ers, because if newspapers make too many mistakes, show too obvious a personal or political bias, or charge exces- sive rates for ads that reach the wrong market, the readers and the advertisers still have a choice. We are that choice. Nobody is sad when a python dies, and alligators will never replace Bambi or Thumper as nursery favorites. I wish my younger colleagues well at a job somewhere else. Journalism is that kind of business. The python and the alligator should have known better than to tangle with us. I hear you can make shoes out of those things, and my fashion consultant tells me I need a couple of pairs. The Mahwah Board of Health, in conjunction with the Health Awareness Regional Program of Hackensack UMC, will offer a Diabetes Self-Management Program on Mon- days beginning Sept. 16. This six-week program will be held from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the Mahwah Public Library at 100 Ridge Road. Those with Type 2 diabetes and their caretakers are invited. The program will include tips on coping with fatigue, pain, hyper/hypoglycemia, stress, and emotional issues, and healthy behavioral strategies to incorporate into daily life. A course textbook and light refreshments will be available. To register, log on to www.mahwahlibrary.org or call the reference librarian at (201) 529-READ. Diabetes management course set Zoning enforcement (continued from page 5) Justin Santagata, an attorney for Chai Lifeline, argued that allowing this client to continue to use the property while it is being litigated in the Appellate Division does no harm to Mahwah, but stopping the use would cause great harm to the people his client allows to use the property. He con- tended that the township showed no interest in enforcing the ordinance for several months after Carver’s ruling, so the continued use of the property must not be harmful to the township. Andrew Fede, Mahwah’s township attorney, argued that the municipality took no action to enforce its zoning ordinance since Carver’s decision in March because it was assumed that the illegal activity on the property would stop. He said the township received a letter of complaint from a neighbor at the end of May, and he contacted Chai Lifeline asking them to stop using the property in violation of the zoning ordinance, but they would not stop. “We want it to stop and it needs to stop,” Fede said. “It’s harmful to the neighbors.” Fede said if the activity is stayed by the court and con- tinues after that time, the township would issue citations to Chai Lifeline and bring them into municipal court. William Smith, the attorney for several neighbors of the Chai Lifeline property, told Carver his clients have been objecting to this use for more than four years and there have been three decisions rendered that found Chai Life- line’s current use is a violation of the township’s zoning ordinance. As a result, he said it is appropriate to enforce that zoning ordinance. Carver agreed, saying, “In March I ordered that the zoning ordinance didn’t permit this use and I don’t find any compelling reason (to change that) because there is no irreparable harm to stop the use for the short respite of family members. The property can still be used within the confines of the zoning rule and they are free to use it that way,” Carver said. “That’s my ruling unless and until I am overruled by the Appellate Division.” Following the court hearing, Santagata said he intends to now seek a stay of the enforcement of the zoning ordinance from the Appellate Division. Meanwhile, Fede advised that he expects that the township will proceed to take the appro- priate steps to enforce the zoning ordinance.