With the wave of anti-Semitic threats at Jewish Community Centers around the country, I have to admit, I took pride in the thought that it could not happen in our usually very diverse and welcoming community. I was wrong.
Sometime during the night swastikas and other messages of hate were spray painted across a bridge in the South Mountain Reservations, a well traveled hiking area in town. It truly hurts my heart and I am disgusted to think that it happened here.
The graffiti has already been removed and the incident is being investigated but I cannot help wonder what is causing the uprise in hate that we are seeing.
Tagged: anti-semitic, graffiti, hate crime, hatred, Maya Angelou, south mountain reservations, vandalism
A Project for Kindness 
Even though I too like to keep an optimistic view of our closely connected towns I must admit the hate has always been there, its just recently been given license to flourish by those who are focusing on selfish interests. We are a country adrift of morals at the top of our governing bodies and it is going to take us all to stand up and fight for, quite literally, love and equality.
Parents: know that your sideways remark about a co-worker of color is being heard by your kids and they are learning racism from you; don’t tell me it doesn’t happen because it does. My very own daughter was a victim of this kind of racism right here in Maplewood. If you see your kids participating in skin head or white supremacist behaviors, it is not a phase! In this current political climate its being supported. A swastika on a notebook is hate. If you cross the street when you see a few men & women in Keffiyeh, turban or hijab it sets a tone even without a single comment. Instead answer questions…even ones that sting. We are all struggling to make up for past indiscretions but we can do it, we can acknowledge our bigotry and move on. There is no better time than now.
Thank you Julia. I am so sorry that one of your children has been a viciim. I think I wear blinders sometime – or maybe I just don’t want to think it could happen here.