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Monday's letters: Slurs hurt all children

 
Published Aug. 18, 2017

What Jewish kids learned from witnessing hatred | Column, Aug. 17

Slurs hurt all children

It was painful for me to read Nathan Englander's personal account of his childhood, experiencing ugly anti-Semitic epithets, and the sickening accounts of prejudice directed at Jewish children, by other children.

I could empathize just on a human compassionate level, but it's particularly anguishing because it resurrected similarly ugly episodes of my childhood, yet ironic because my family and I were cruelly ridiculed because we were ethnic German-Americans. Hearing the taunts of children chanting "hotsy totsy another Nazi" filled me with despair.

My ancestors arrived in America and fought for our independence, and now we were being vilified because of our heritage. One horrible day when I was only 11 years old, I ran home crying to my grandmother that an adult at school called me a "little Nazi b-----d." I asked my grandmother what Nazi meant. It was especially painful because I had just portrayed Thomas Jefferson in a school play. Later I had visions of Jews being carted off to concentration camps, after watching the movie The Pawnbroker. The vision of a little Jewish boy holding up his hands in surrender to Nazi soldiers haunts me to this day.

My Jewish neighbor in Long Island confessed that she did not celebrate Seder. I reminded her that millions of Jews perished in the Holocaust and would never celebrate Seder again. Today she celebrates Seder, and I light a menorah honoring their memory and heritage. Neo-Nazis can never take that away.

John Helleis, Spring Hill

Religious beliefs matter | Letter, Aug. 19

Religion and women

Lately I've been reading a lot about women trying to make it to the top of heap. In all these articles I've never read anything about religion's part in keeping women from the top.

Religion has kept women second-class citizens for centuries, and the pope recently affirmed that women won't become Catholic priests because all the apostles were men. Well, of course, they were all men, because men were in charge of almost everything. Many religions treat women as if we were still in the days of the Romans.

Joe Jones, New Port Richey

Compulsory service

Bring back the draft

If we ever needed the military draft or compulsory service, it is now. Many of the younger generation lack discipline and respect for others, and protest anything they dislike. Those without an education or a trade can find this in the military. Military service will help to unite our population. Compulsory service could include Peace Corps or civil domestic projects.

Charles Graham, Pinellas Park

Blame drivers, not bridges Letter, Aug. 20

Use your turn signals

My pet peeve since I moved to Florida 20 years ago: Is it against the law here to use turn signals? It's that lever under the steering wheel on the left side. Stop texting and putting on makeup, and you may find it.

August Holderried, Largo