ANTI-SEMITISM IN MY NEW JERSEY

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     I am a Jew.  Regular readers of The Controversy will likely remember that point, as I have noted it in some previous columns over the last four-plus years.  I am also from New Jersey.  And I am proud of both those facts.  

     I make mention today of my religious background and my home state because there are certain people - family and friends alike...Jews and Christians alike - who have argued with me when I insist there is still anti-Semitism in "The Garden State" and throughout our country.

     The Northern Highlands Daily Voice - a publication serving several communities in northern New Jersey - reported on Monday, March 6th, 2017 - that a red swastika was painted on a boarded-up building that - for decades - was part of Apple Ridge Country Club in Mahwah.

     I venture to bet...there are few people in the world who don't know the disgusting significance of a swastika.  It was the official emblem of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.  Therefore, a swastika will forever be a symbol of pain, hostility and horror...and a sad reminder of the Holocaust monsters.  Six-million innocent Jewish people - including men, women and children - were senselessly slaughtered and tragically murdered in concentration camps by the Nazi's bullets and gas chambers.

     The vandalism in Mahwah comes on the heels of a desecrated Jewish cemetery near St. Louis, Missouri over the weekend of February 18th and 19th.  And - according to CNN - there have been more than one-hundred anti-Semitic attacks and bomb threats on Jewish community centers and synagogues since mid-January 2017.  In other words...since Donald Trump was about to take the oath of office as President.

     Trump's actions - from the last two years - are pushing people in to a hateful direction.  When a candidate for President...demeans women...offends the disabled... insults Latinos and African-Americans...belittles a U.S. Navy veteran who was a Vietnam prisoner of war for five years by saying he was not a hero...disrespects a Gold Star mother and father...among other instances of horrendous behavior...and still is able to be elected President of the United States...there are particular individuals who seem to feel..."Why should I be nice?"  After all - some would think - "If the President is able to treat people as he has...I can do the same thing."

     The President of the United States is supposed to be a national role model.  Yet 62-million Americans...voted for a man...who on January 23rd, 2016...told the world..."My people are so smart.  I have the most loyal people.  I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue (in New York City) and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters."  And in the infamous Access Hollywood video from 2005...with Donald Trump and Billy Bush on the program's bus - a recording that was released by The Washington Post on October 7th, 2016 - Trump is clearly heard saying..."I moved on her actually.  I moved on her and I failed. I'll admit it.  And I did try and f--k her. She was married.  And I moved on her very heavily.  I moved on her like a bitch.  But I couldn't get there.  And she was married. She's now got the big, phony tits."  Later in that same video...and still on the Access Hollywood bus...Trump's language became even more vulgar when he and Bush noticed the woman they were about to meet outside the bus.  "I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful...I just start kissing them.  It's like a magnet.  Just kiss.  I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.  Grab 'em by the p--sy.  You can do anything."  How did anyone want to elect this man?

     Trump's conduct has sparked much of the hatred in our country today.  It has ignited people to believe they can get away with anything.  Sure. Why not?  "If Trump does...why not me?"

     As long as Donald Trump continues to lie and make up stories with his delusional mind...such as accusing former President Barack Obama of a felony...by claiming the 44th President bugged Trump Tower and wiretapped Trump's telephones during the Presidential campaign...people will do - in layman's terms - "bad stuff."

     Meanwhile...police in Mahwah are investigating the recent anti-Semitic crime... while area clergy and the township's mayor have reportedly denounced this despicable act that represents hate towards Jewish people.  After the swastika was discovered...a coat of paint apparently covered it up.

     Authorities say that the former Apple Ridge Country Club property has been vandalized with graffiti and offensive language numerous times since the land was sold and vacated in 2014...but never before by a swastika.

     Why must people hate?  For anyone to paint a swastika on a building is pure vicious hate.  For centuries - perhaps since the beginning of time - people have expressed hatred for one reason or another.  But there is one primary cause for someone to hate another person.  And that is...because the hater thinks the other individual...is different.

     Jews are different from Christians.  Christians are different from Muslims.  Every religion is different in certain ways.  But are we really so different?  Whether the eternal higher power that you worship and believe in...is called God...the Lord... Heavenly Father...HaShem...Adonai...Allah...or perhaps some other name or title... should it really matter?  I don't think so.  And, as for Agnostics and Atheists...who may or may not have a belief in a spiritual being at all...they have their rights as well...and their feelings should also be respected.

     The color of skin - white, black, brown, yellow or red - makes people appear differently.  Men are different from women...and little boys are different from little girls.  Gays and lesbians are different from straight people.  And bisexuals and transgenders are different too.  Democrats are different from Republicans. Independents are different from both.  And citizens from one country are different from those who live in another nation.  But again, I ask...are we really so different?

     We all smile when we are happy.  We all cry the same tears when we are hurt or sad.  And we all bleed red when we are injured.  

     Each of us was created with a kind heart.  Babies are not born evil.  So it's a shame...that with some people...the warmth inside at birth...can somehow...years later...become cold as ice.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions.  Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.

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