Change is not inevitable
In the News
Mark Rosman

I am certain that Americans will never learn to get along. Although we face threats from beyond our borders that can destroy our society, we are too busy turning against each other to do anything about it.

That point was driven home to me by a couple of incidents over the past week.

According to Manalapan Police Chief Stuart Brown, an unknown person wrote the word "Jew" and drew a swastika on a student's poster depicting Albert Einstein that was hanging on a wall in the gymnasium at the Manalapan Eng-lishtown Middle School (MEMS). A school administrator called police to report the incident during school hours on March 29.

The students' posters were lining the MEMS gymnasium as part of the school curriculum.

Police have classified this destructive and hateful behavior as a bias incident and criminal mischief. Brown told me on April 11 there were no new developments to report. Detectives from his department are continuing to investigate.

It is unknown if the word "Jew" and the swastika, which were both written in blue ink, were placed on the poster by a child or an adult. It is unknown if the word "Jew" and the swastika referred to Einstein or to the student who created the poster. Brown said about 600 students had already been in and out of the gymnasium by the time the incident was reported.

A message left at the office of Manal-apan-Englishtown Regional School District Superintendent of Schools Maureen Lally seeking comment on the incident was not returned.

The incident targeting a Jew or Jews at MEMS occurred several days before Don Imus made racist comments on his radio broadcast and cable television simulcast about the black players on the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

His comments were ill-considered and hurtful to the young women who did nothing to prompt them, and he has suffered the consequences of making those remarks.

Other entertainers who describe black women in similar terms should heed the public message that was delivered to Imus, because their hate speech is no less egregious than Imus' lame attempt at humor was.

Writing about the MEMS incident brought back memories of how some people in Manalapan acted toward my family when we moved there in 1971. For whatever reason, we came across people who just didn't like Jews and didn't mind telling us that on a regular basis. Go figure. We came from Queens, N.Y., and I had never run across anyone who didn't like me because of my religion.

Did I dislike my new neighbors because they were Catholic, or Protes-tant, or who knows what else? No, and I couldn't have cared less what they were, but they sure as heck knew what I was and it seemed to bother them for reasons that were unknown to me. These were children saying hurtful things and I can only assume they were repeating what they heard in their homes.

It shows me how little has changed in nearly 40 years that someone is ignorant enough to write the word "Jew" and draw a swastika on a child's poster in a school. I can only imagine what that same person would have been thinking if another child's poster had depicted Jackie Robin-son or Louis Armstrong.

It makes me think our enemies are laughing at us: we who are so inconsiderate of each other, too concerned about who's a Jew and who's not, and we who are so hip producing songs and videos that demean black women. When our enemies hit us again they won't care - they will just be killing Americans of all races and religions.

We are foolish in this country for tearing each other down, but apparently we will never learn from the past.

Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the Tri-Town News and the News Tran-script, both Greater Media newspapers.