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A great many people profit off of misery in Camden

by Phil Cohen

With all the noise in the Courier-Post about how "the people".... and I am 90,000% sure it is a SMALL minority of people who actually live, WORK, and PAY TAXES in Camden, are upset and oppose the redevelopment that hopefully will take place, I thought I would tell the truth about who the winners will be if redevelopment, and especially the redevelopment in Cramer Hill, Bergen Lanning, and South Camden is stopped.

Fist and foremost, let's get out the dirty little secret that the so-called "million dollar drug economy" in Camden doesn't hold a candle to the "million dollar social services" economy which the real leaches and parasites depend on. Fix Camden and a lot of so-called activists would lose their meal tickets.... and let's get real, a meal ticket is what it has become.

In the old 8th Ward (the neighborhood centered around Broadway and Ferry Avenues), in North Camden, and in the court system in Camden, the same groups and individuals have been in place since the 1970s, running their programs, performing before the media, soliciting money, and so on. The only "empowering" ever done by these groups and individuals is to give people in the neighborhood the sense that they are helpless victims of a grand conspiracy, and that the "activists" are their saviors. It's very much like the movie Undercover Brother. Needless to say, in the 30-plus years this con game has been going on, things have not improved a whole lot in either neighborhood..... but OF COURSE that's not the fault of the activists, it's ALWAYS someone else's fault. There is always a cry for "social justice", which can usually be translated to more money.

A great many people profit off of misery in Camden, but mark my words, they are NOT who you think they are, for the most part. The blame in recent years has is given to George Norcross, Randy Primas, and Wayne Bryant. Assuming that was so, where is the proof? With the exception of Wayne Bryant, show me a conflict of interest or ANYTHING that would hold up in court. Show me the proof.... better yet, SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!

On the other hand, one can easily find out exactly how much taxpayer money has been given over the years to among others, Camden Regional Legal Services, Heart of Camden, North Camden Land Trust, and the once-great Camden Rescue Mission. One could easily find out how much real property is held... the track record is there. One could pretty easily figure out the effect on law-abiding, tax-paying, and child-rearing families that the activities of these parties have when they "empower" the addicted, the criminal, and the vagrant to remain where they are, doing what they do, neighbors be damned. Once law-breaking was encouraged in the name of civil disobedience. Today drug-dealers and pan-handlers own our streets. Many people who could leave the city did so. Of all this, who has profited? If Camden is redeveloped, who REALLY stands to lose? 

The answer to the question of who stands to lose if Camden is redeveloped is those who have made a career out of "urban misery". If things are so bad in Camden, why are these people fighting tooth and nail, using lies, half-truths, and innuendo, to preserve the status quo? If things are SO BAD..... why are these groups and individuals determined to keep things as they are? If those "on the ground and in the trenches revolutionaries" haven't solved the problem in all this time, maybe it is because the "solutions" they have simply don't hold water?

Teach a man to fish, he can feed himself. Teach a man to beg.... teach a man or a child for that matter, to be dependent.... teach that all of ones problems are the fault of someone else..... and you have crippled someone. Those who have encouraged laziness and provided excuses have injured children and adults as much or more as if they had molested them. 

Camden is a very sick patient in 2005. The patient is on the operating table, and let's get real, there is only one shot at saving the patient. The city is bleeding, not blood or money, but human capital.... intelligence, integrity, and ambition.... and unless the drastic surgery that is needed is performed..... unless the CANCER that has taken over much of the patient is cut out completely, the patient.... our Camden.... will never recover.