Resident appreciates light being shed on incident at school
"I see people of all races rejoice when their team is winning and discuss what changes they would make when the team loses. For just a moment, nobody is judging people based on race, creed or color."

I wanted to respond to Managing Editor Mark Rosman's column, "Change Is Not Inevitable," which was published in the Tri-Town News on April 19, 2007.

I was not aware of the incident at Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School (MEMS) where a student or adult wrote "Jew" and drew a swastika on a student's poster of Albert Einstein. I do not understand why the superintendent of schools, Maureen Lally, did not return the newspaper's telephone call, but maybe dealing with issues is not a strong point. The parents should have been notified.

I should have been aware of the issue because my daughter attends MEMS. If it were not for Mr. Rosman's column about this situation I would not have been informed.

Unlike the Rutgers incident, when Don Imus made inappropriate comments, you are not going to see Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson calling for any kind of justice because the comment was about a Jew. As an Imus fan myself, what he said was horrible, but as Imus said, he said a bad thing, but he is a good man. I believe he was truly sorry. His dedication to autistic children, children with cancer with his own Imus ranch, and getting higher wages for war veterans says a lot about him.

When Jesse Jackson called New York City "Hymie Town" in 1984, people were outraged but we didn't ban Jackson from coming to New York. This was a derogatory slur against the Jews, but the Jews were just supposed to forgive him, weren't we?

The Jews have had to forgive a lot over the past, oh, thousands of years.

As [I am] the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, when New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin recently stated that he was hated as much as Hitler, Hitler first, then him, nothing was done about it. The Giants' officials didn't comment on it and he got a pass from everyone it seems. He didn't apologize to anyone.

People made excuses for Coughlin, saying the strain of his job forced him to put his name and the most horrible human in the same sentence. Coughlin makes millions of dollars for coaching a pro football team in New York. If he can't take the heat from the press he should either stop coaching or go somewhere else.

My father is the Holocaust survivor. The story he told me could easily be made into a movie. How at barely 16 years old he survived a brutal hammer attack by the Nazis, how he escaped from a concentration camp and how he survived in a sewer.

At the end of World War II he was reduced from a family of 12 to a family of six. He survived with three brothers and two sisters, while his mother, father and the rest of his siblings were murdered in concentration camps. All murdered because some madman decided that the Jews were responsible for all the troubles in the world.

My father and his family came to this country full of hope. My father didn't hate certain kinds of people even though he had every right to do so. He didn't hurt anyone because of their race. He didn't get revenge for what happened to his family and claim as people do these days that it was because he had a hard life and should not be accountable for his actions.

My father brought his children up to respect all people and judge them based on people's values instead of the color of their skin or religion. Because we are sports fans, he used to tell me about Hank Greenberg and how much racial abuse he took from opposing players and fans. Did you know that when Hank Greenberg was on the Pirates in 1947 he was one of the first opposing players to welcome Jackie Robinson to the major leagues? Nobody talks about this. Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg have a lot in common.

Have we progressed since 1947? As a diehard Mets, Jets and Rangers fan I see all kinds of people rooting for the same teams. You see all types of people on your team. I see people of all races rejoice when their team is winning and discuss what changes they would make when the team loses. For just a moment, nobody is judging people based on race, creed or color.

With the rate of school massacres and tragedies, I find it disturbing that more was not done about this anti-Semitic slur at MEMS. And how ironic that this past week, April 15, was Holocaust Remembrance Day. A time in history that will never be forgotten, at least by most of us. Because Jews can get hurt as easily as anybody else. Because hate is a powerful tool.

Just ask my father.

Linda Indig

Manalapan