Common Sense Society Celebrates 'Thomas Paine’s Birthday'

The annual event took place this year at Fort Lee School No. 1 and also served to kickoff the group’s “$17.76” fundraising campaign.

The Fort Lee Common Sense Society sponsors an annual celebration of the birthday of American Revolutionary War patriot Thomas Paine, who was born on Jan. 29, 1737. This year, with Paine’s actual birthday falling on Sunday, the celebration took place Wednesday at Fort Lee School No. 1. The goal this year was to hold the celebration not far from where Paine was encamped with General George Washington’s Army in 1776 and started to pen “The American Crisis,” said Tom Meyers of the Fort Lee Common Sense Society and the Fort Lee Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs prior to the event. This year’s celebration also marked the official kickoff of the Common Sense Society’s “$17.76” fundraising campaign. Meyers talked to the third- through sixth-…

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11:32 pm on Sunday, February 5, 2012

We need to preserve the memories of our patriotic founders and their struggles   more ›

From the Archives

A Revolutionary Thanksgiving On the Hudson River

Thanksgiving weekend at the Historic Kearney House on the Hudson River

Sometimes in the bustle of life in Fort Lee we forget that we are a river town.  Though situated atop the cliffs of the Palisades, Fort Lee continues to the base of the cliffs to the shore of the Hudson River. There is much history along this shoreline. Last week we commemorated Washington’s Retreat from Fort Lee.  This retreat was prompted by British forces crissing the Hudson River and landed on the Jersey side very close to the Kearney House in Alpine in November 1776. As the leaves turn brown and thoughts turn to holiday gatherings and Thanksgiving meals with family and friends, my mind wanders to the shores of the Hudson River and to the paths that lead to the Kearney House. To get to the Kearney House you just travel to Exit 2 of the…

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Common Sense Society to Honor Mayor, Nears Fundraising Goal

Group needs to raise an additional $40,000 for a statue of Thomas Paine it plans to unveil in Monument Park in November 2012

The Fort Lee Common Sense Society and the Fort Lee VFW will honor Mayor Mark Sokolich with the first annual “Thomas Paine Winter Soldier Award” at a dinner fundraiser in November. The Common Sense Society also hopes to raise a good chunk of the remaining $40,000 it needs to complete funding for a statue of Thomas Paine the group commissioned to be permanently placed in 2012 at the site Paine and the rest of the American Army encamped with General George Washington in 1776—present day Monument Park in Fort Lee. “We’re honoring Paine specifically for his role in Fort Lee,” said Common Sense Society vice chair Tom Meyers. “[Paine began] to write The American Crisis right here in Fort Lee, and anyone who doubts that, read the first few …

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Tom Meyers

11:46 pm on Wednesday, October 5, 2011

This article is about our effort to raise funds and awareness of American patriot Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine lived as an American soldier and war correspondent near present day Monument Park here in Fort Lee in 1776. General Washington when asked what his most effective weapon was int the American Revolution and he answered the quill pen of Thomas Paine. Paine wrote of Fort Lee and his time here …   more ›

Bridge Views

Bridge Views: The Best Laid Traps are Planned

Failed sails and squirrel tales: hiding the body on the Palisades (allegedly).

Unfortunately, last Friday’s sunset sail down the Hudson on the A.J. Meerwald with the Fort Lee Common Sense Society was a washout. Literally. Driving through the unrelenting sheets of pouring rain up the Palisade Interstate Parkway there was a sneaking suspicion that the cruise might be called off due to rain, but on we drove. However, the breathtaking bolt of lightning and jolting clap of thunder that escorted me around the final descending curve of the Palisades was convincing enough to ensure that the scheduled sail would indeed be cancelled. Common Sense Society members, Tom Meyers and Lou Azzollini, stood in the rising tide of the parking lot that the Hudson was now draining into, the sails of the Meerwald bobbing and weaving like a …

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About Town

Weekend Sails on the Hudson

No coupons needed for these weekend sails.

What better way to spend a summer morning, afternoon or evening than sailing the Hudson River? If you feel that way then this is your lucky weekend because Friday, and throughout the entire weekend, you can take a sail on the Hudson and soak in the sun while soaking in the sights of Manhattan on one side and the pristine Palisades on the other. The Tenafly Nature Center, Association of Environmental Commissions and the Fort Lee Common Sense Society are co-sponsoring a series of cruises on the Hudson on New Jersey’s official tall ship, the A.J. Meerwald, all weekend long.   The Fort Lee Common Sense Society Music Cruise Friday at 5:30 p.m. is a fundraising sunset sail for the completion of a statue of Thomas Paine that has been commissioned…

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