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Gold9472
11-12-2006, 12:25 PM
Better choices for Jersey Hall of Fame

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2OTEmZmdi ZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcwMTY0NjkmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZU VFeXk5

Wednesday, November 8, 2006
By LAWRENCE AARON
RECORD COLUMNIST

LOOKING OVER THE list of New Jersey Hall of Famers was like walking through history -- a short history peopled by folks I already know about or read about in recent news reports.

Curators are leaning heavily toward 20th century glitz and glamour with a list laden with star performers, athletes, literary giants and political figures.

Walt Whitman, Woodrow Wilson, Philip Roth and Allen Ginsberg are great choices. But the Hall of Fame has the opportunity to be a teaching tool about the state's many unsung heroes like Oliver Cromwell. Born in Burlington County in 1752, he and other black farmers joined George Washington's army. Cromwell crossed the Delaware with Washington and fought alongside him to beat back British-led troops at the battle of Trenton.

While the hall is still in the planning stages, curators should avoid the easy road. If organizers really need stars to attract interest and donors, they should be very selective when choosing the best of New Jersey.

Piscopo?
Joe Piscopo made Jersey guys look like idiots, with his "Saturday Night Live" antics and catch-phrase "I'm from New Joisey." Maybe he's got a serious and engaging side, but I can't get past that goofy caricature. He needs image redemption before he can be a spokesman for this project. Even at his goofiest, Jerry Lewis, a Newark native proposed for the Hall of Fame, never made his New Jersey origins part of his shtick.

James Gandolfini is one of the first people proposed for enshrinement in the New Jersey Hall of Fame, even though Tony Soprano projects an image that some Italian-Americans in New Jersey and elsewhere find destructive. Tony and Joe, you gotta love 'em. But do they really add to state pride?

Tony Soprano -- and other fictional characters in "The Sopranos" -- invent New Jersey mob history that passes for reality season after season. Gandolfini is truly a son of New Jersey, raised in Park Ridge and educated at Rutgers. He's being immortalized not for his acting career but for being the face of the state's mob industry.

Such are the vagaries of the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Former Gov. Richard J. Codey signed the bill authorizing the official state Hall of Fame commission in September 2005. Commissioners divided the prominent Garden Staters into five categories -- sports, arts and entertainment, history, enterprise and general.

Jersey Joe
The contributions of African-Americans shouldn't be limited to professional athletes like Derek Jeter and Shaquille O'Neal. The Hall needs to recognize Hackensack's Frederic Morrow, an adviser to president Eisenhower; Jersey Joe Walcott, who was not only a heavyweight champion but also Camden County sheriff and chairman of the state athletic commission; and Trenton-born David Dinkins, New York's first African-American mayor.

Hall of Fame organizers have renewed their big push for recognition and money, by promoting Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen and Albert Einstein as New Jersey's best, along with actresses Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Eva Marie Saint and Kelly Ripa. With all due respect to Ripa, who's doing a fine job balancing career and family, what makes her deserving of such prominence?

My first choices would be the "Jersey Girls." Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Lorie Van Auken, and Mindy Kleinberg, widows of four men who perished in the collapse of the World Trade Center. They earned their nickname because they energetically and relentlessly sought the truth about the terrorist attacks.

The four women helped the nation by forcing the Bush administration to stop blocking attempts to get answers. The dogged determination of these widows and other families led to creation of the Sept. 11 Commission that shed more light on how government contributed to the disaster.

The Hall of Fame is in danger of becoming a monument to escapism, when it could be a vehicle to change our reputation as the capital of political corruption, chemical pollution and mob activity. We shouldn't waste the opportunity.

Lawrence Aaron is a Record columnist. Contact him at aaron@northjersey.com.