Old New Jersey vs. New New Jersey

by: thecontrarian

Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 01:33:00 PM EDT

Yesterday in Edison, about a dozen people protested the flying of the Indian flag in front of the Township municipal building in place of the POW/MIA flag to celebrate India's Independence Day.  Raising foreign flags in front of town hall has been standard practice in Edison for quite some time, although no protesters turned out for St. Patrick's Day or Columbus Day flag raisings.

The advertised purpose of the protest was to object to the moving of the POW/MIA flag for a few minutes, but one attendee let her feelings slip out to the Star-Ledger:

"It's no longer Edison, it's little India," said Rosemary Wilson, a 30-year Edison resident, whose father and brother served in the military.

Flipping a few pages ahead in this morning's Star-Ledger the business section featured a list of the state's fastest-growing tech companies.  While I can't find the printed list online, a quick glance at the numbers revealed that a sizeable number of companies - if not an outright majority - were founded and/or headed by New Jerseyans of South Asian descent.