By Mary MacElveen
Normally, I would write Newsday a letter to the editor to
express my outrage, but Newsday has not chosen to publish any letter coming
from me for over a year for reasons unknown. So, I will do so through
this column. My outrage is directed at a
As reported by Newsday Northport
reels from Hitler yearbook quotes, two high school seniors selected quotes
to accompany their high school year book pictures were censored.
Please remember that saying, “Those that fail to
learn from history are doomed to repeat it” Yes, we need to hear this
hate in order to learn from it to hopefully see that it never happens
again. But, human kind is not very smart when it comes to learning from
history, but more on that later.
Let us take a look at the quotes that were censored by
this high school after distraught parents called in to complain. Christopher Koulermos, 18 chose “Strength
lies not in defense but attack," and Philip Compton also 18 chose “The
great masses of people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a
small one." Now if you did not know that both of these quotes came from
Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” you would think nothing of them
because there is nothing offensive about them. The first quote can easily
be taught at our military academies across the
I wonder
if this high school would censor a quote selected by a student that came from
Ann Coulter. Would they? Let me pick a good one here to compare the
hatred of Coulter to Hitler “The thing I like about Bush is I think he
hates liberals." as quoted in the Washington
Post, Aug. 1, 2000. Here is another offensive and hateful quote: “The
FBI allowed thousands of Americans [in the WTC] to be slaughtered on the altar
of political correctness. What more do liberals want?" This
Whistle-Blower They Like, June 13, 2002.
With
Coulter’s new book out which is at the top of the NY Times best seller
list called “Godless” The Church of Liberalism” in which she
attacked the 9/11 widows, she consistently spreads hate just like Hitler did.
The two are one in the same. In Coulter’s mind, liberals are akin
to Hitler’s Jews.
As
reported by Newsday, both students did not return phone calls made to them.
Gee, I wonder why? They were publicly humiliated. While the school’s
superintendent, William
Brosnan stated that he did not find the quotes themselves to be offensive but "It's
the attribution to Hitler that's offensive,"
To
Superintendent William Brosnan, if we can hear the words of Ann Coulter, why
not Hitler? Coulter does offend me.
As
reported in this article “Rabbi Ian Silverman of the East Northport
Jewish Center said it is impossible to separate the words from the man.”
Some things can't be taken out of context. They remain in context forever,"
I would like to say to Rabbi Ian Silverman: How do you think liberals feel
today when hateful women like Ann Coulter goes on TV spewing her hatred of
liberals? We do feel the same way. Could liberals be rounded up in
camps someday should the Ann Coulters of the world turn the world totally
against us? We have not learned from history when women like Coulter are
paid handsomely for spreading her hate.
I would
like to remind this high school that our duty as citizens is to insure that
everyone has the right to free speech, no matter how hateful it is. This
high school system owes these young men an apology.
