07 Aug Speak Your Vues

REGULAR POLITICS

Dear Editor:

Rebuttals and responses to political opponents used to be an accepted part of democracy, now it is just plain “racist”. If you watched last weeks Democratic “Debate”, you would have seen the candidates call out Trump’s racist policies. Whether it is criminal justice racism or environmental racism, Trump has done both. First of all, it is amazing to see the Left come out with new kinds of racism everyday. If you call out an African American Democrat, you are automatically a racist! However, if you attack a Republican African American like HUD Secretary, Ben Carson, it is fine, it is part of our democracy. This double sided logic has gone way too far! When President Trump attacked Representative Cummings a week ago, Trump was labeled a racist for calling out his disgusting crime infested and rat-infested district. Cummings district has a higher murder rate than Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. According to the Left, Cummings should also be labeled a racist because a video resurfaced last week showing Cummings saying the same things as Trump around 10 years ago. So once again Trump is still a racist, despite the fact that he is the one president in decades to start changing our criminal justice system, which Democrats have always said, is bad for African Americans. President Trump granted in his tax bill in 2017, 9000 Opportunity Zones which help in housing issues in poor communities. Democrats are always screaming the inequality of African Americans in everything including housing. Isn’t funny that President Trump was the one to actually do something about this?! Senator Gillibrand also tried to explain a concept called “White Privilege” to America last week. She said that it is more likely that an African American kid wearing a hoody gets “frisked” than a white wearing a hoody. There is absolutely no statistical evidence about this claim, but it doesn’t matter America, because you are all racists!!! Gillibrand even said that she was a privileged White, while simultaneously campaigning for President. The lunacy is just getting more ridiculous than the next. Democrats are always saying that democracy is at stake because of Trump, well frankly it is the Democrats that are the cause of the threat to our democracy. When Democrats say one day that no one is above the law, referring to Trump, than the next day advocating for benefits for illegal immigrants or undocumented immigrants as they call them. What type of person would takes these things in consideration?! Well obviously the millions of left- wingers who advocate for decriminalizing marijuana, and crossing the border illegally. We must all make sure to vote for President Trump in 2020 because he is the only one running who

stands for rationality!!

Sincerely,

Donny Simcha Guttman

Editor’s Note: The media is just going to stick to what they do best which is to spread bad information.

PARK WHERE PERMITTED

Dear Editor:

I’ve been coming up to the Catskills with my Bubbie and Zaddie since I was very little. As I grow older, I have come to realize that there is a problem with the way we Jews are abiding parking laws. Specifically, able bodied people parking in the handicapped spots. Now, as a child I was perfectly healthy and enjoyed walking from one end of the parking lot to the other as much as the next person. At 19 years old, I was diagnosed with a life changing, progressive disease that makes it hard for me to leave my home. A simple trip to Walmart has suddenly become a schlep. It makes it so much harder when I spot a van full of religious men and women without parking permits, parking in the handicap spot. I have tried to be nice about it. I have tried to explain that they are not allowed to park there as not only is it a Chilul Hashem, but illegal. The responses are usually violent and vulgar. I get told that I’m the one committing the Chilul Hashem for telling them. I’ve been yelled at, nearly hit with their car, and verbally threatened by Jewish men and women. Why do you pray to Hashem every day and thank him for your healthy body, then take advantage of the accessible parking for those who are not as fortunate? Hashem did not grant me the perfect body. My knees and ankles dislocate from my body, which is a safety issue. When someone parks in a handicap spot that is not disabled, they are putting me and so many other disabled people at risk for unnecessary emergencies. Please, if you are not handicapped and do not have a disabled permit, do not park in the handicap spot. Those spots are essential not only for me, but for the dozens of other people living with a disability. 

Sincerely, A Crippled Jew 

Editor’s Note: You are very right. I would suggest to all those who park in handicapped spots to learn the last Mishna in Peah which says that if one acts like a disabled person, that person will not die before he becomes really disabled. 

MOURNING THE CHURBAN 

Dear Editor: I was taken aback to recently see advertising for a concert at a frum camp featuring major frum singers on Sunday July 28, during the three week period, a.k.a. bein hametzarim, between Shiva Asar B’Tamuz and Tisha B’Av, when we mourn the Churban. I shared my surprise with friends. One suggested to me that it was perhaps a capella, which some view differently/more leniently than music with instruments. However, after the concert, I saw clips online with instrumental accompaniment, so that clearly was not the case. Anyway, I happened to later hear a radio interview with an employee of the camp who justified the concert by saying that music was a big part of the therapy of their camp for special children. I understand that, and I can see an argument that if it is allowed for the children, staff that works with them could be allowed to attend along with their charges, as part of their job. However, this concert was advertised for the public at large, like a regular concert during the rest of the year. It was like business as usual, who heard of the three weeks? We have this short period of time when we mourn the Churban. Do we really need to have full-fledged concerts then too? At least if there is one for children that may need it, can’t there at least be some respectful nod to the time of the year and our tradition by some type of a heker, doing things a bit differently, e.g. just a capella, or limiting it to just to the camp regulars? For those who absolutely need music, there are plenty of recordings as well. But business as usual? That I don’t get. Chazal teach us that whoever is misabeil on Yerushalayim sees its simcha. In the zechus of properly observing the three weeks period, may we be zoche to see binechomas tzion bikarov. 

Sincerely, Observant Jew 

Editor’s Note: It is sad how low our generation has fallen that we can’t keep the halachos of the three weeks as short as it is! Sad! 

WORLD PEACE INITIATIVE 

Dear Editor: If by coincidence, all governments around the world adopted a 3-day weekend (i.e. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), with no direct or indirect adverse consequences to the world (including but not limited to public health, macro and micro-economics, and politics), and this change indirectly caused a significantly greater proportion of the world’s Jewish population to observe Shabbat, unintentionally, would we see greater world peace as a result? Or, do all Jews need to love one another for us to see a positive global effect? And/or, does every Jew need to observe Shabbat and all of the mitzvot for us to see world peace? 

Yossi K 

Editor’s Note: I don’t think the government should do this, but rather we should be mekarev our bretheren. 

KIDDUSH HASHEM REVISITED

Dear Editor: “KIDDUSH HASHEM” does not mean looking good by the goyim. 

Yanky L Editor’s Note: That is true, but it definitely is a Chillul Hashem if it causes a goy to look down on Jews. 

MERCURY LEVELS 

Dear Editor: Do you keep tabs on your fish intake to protect yourself from over-consuming mercury? 

Editor’s Note: No! 

PIDYON HABEN MINHAG 

Dear Editor: Why are sachets filled with garlic cloves and sugar given out at a pidyon haben? I saw some children walking around holding sachets like these that were given out before the ceremony. 

Jack J 

Editor’s Note: It is a widely held custom. 

SHOOTINGS 

Dear Editor: There seems to be a mass shooting every week. What are we Jews supposed to do about it? 

Zeesy H 

Editor’s Note: Daven, do mitzvos and learn Torah. It will protect you. 

CAR SEAT RULE 

Dear Editor: As of Nov. 1, New York State law will require most children younger than 2 to be seated in rear-facing car seats. Similar safety laws are in place in several other states, including California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. (Children in New York who exceed height and weight requirements of a car seat will be allowed to use a forward-facing seat.) The rationale is that a rear-facing seat provides better support for a child’s head and neck. Further, studies show that children were 75 percent more likely to sustain an injury in a crash while in a front-facing car seat. However, I believe that rear-facing seats do have risks. They leave children hidden from caretakers up front, even with the use of a rear-view mirror. This can result in a caretaker not seeing a child’s distress, or forgetting that a child is even in the car. How many children are left asleep in hot cars while a forgetful but loving parent runs an errand, only to return and find the child dead? Some automakers are already offering sensors as standard equipment to tell drivers that someone is in a back seat, even though industry lobbyists have resisted making this mandatory. However, children’s lives are at stake, and I believe this equipment should be required in all cars. 

Chaim D 

Editor’s Note: To protect all children in the back seat, a law should be passed that requires an alert to show up on the dashboard when the engine is shut off. 

OUTRAGE 

Dear Editor: Though I certainly don’t condone President Donald Trump’s remarks regarding the “squad,” I found it strange that the local rabbis quoted by Johanna Ginsberg appear far more upset about the president’s tweets than they are about Ilhan Omar’s blatant anti-Semitism. The rabbis described the president’s comments as “revolting” and “racist,” but don’t seem nearly as worked up about Omar’s comparison of the State of Israel to Nazi Germany, or her statement that “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” Like everyone else, rabbis have political leanings, and we are all likely to be selective in our outrage. Let’s just agree to be honest about it. 

Rabbi E K 

Editor’s Note: You are being nice and calling them Rabbis. They are Rabbis, like the transgender community considering themselves a different gender makes no sense. We are living in a world of S’dom.