Letter to the Editor: Bob Schneider

Letter to the editor,

Being Jewish and interested in social justice, I supported the Black Lives Matter organization when it was established. My enthusiasm waned for that organization during the 2015 riots because of the hate, violence and anti-Semitism posted on social networking sites, although I remain committed to racial equality. I also discovered that the roots of the organization are Marxist, and their 2016 platform included a bigoted slur against Israel – that it commits genocide against Palestinians.

The hate, violence and anti-Semitism has resurfaced in 2020, this time more intense and in more cities. In case you are not aware, in the last two weeks protestors have burned and vandalized many churches and their statutes in 12 states ; crime has increased dramatically; protestors in New York City attacked police with baseball bats; the convicted terrorist Susan Rosenberg was revealed as being on the board and in charge of fundraising for the BLM Global Network’s fundraising nonprofit, Thousand Currents; Bari Weiss, The New York Times opinion writer and author of “How to Fight Anti-Semitism” resigned, claiming censorship, bullying and illiberalism in her work place; and Nick Cannon, the host of Fox’s “The Masked Singer” advanced anti-Semitism conspiracy theories on his ViacomCBS podcast. And where is the outrage over recent anti-Semitic tweets and posts by sports celebrities and Hollywood?

Weeks before, feelings of sadness overcame me after watching on TV the cutting off of the head of a Christopher Columbus statute and the chopping to bits of a Confederate general’s statute. I would have felt differently if there would have been a debate on the subject and a vote on the removal of these statutes.
It was even sadder to view the vandalization of statutes of Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses Grant, abolitionists Hans Christian Heg and Matthias Baldwin, the unknown Black soldier and police officers who died in the line of duty. State Senator Tim Carpenter, D-Wisc., a longtime supporter of the far left was attacked by BLM supporters at the state capitol in Madison. What insanity! Criminal behavior does not advance the cause of racial equality.

The attacks on property and persons reminded me of other excessive violent cultural revolutions: Robespierre’s France, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s USSR, Mao’s China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia. History reveals in every case of violent revolutions and revolutionaries, they eat up their supporters.

U.S. history contains good and bad events, but it is our history. Despite our nation’s warts, almost everyone in the world wants to move here. In America we learn from our mistakes, then we move on. The barrier to stopping the violence is that local elected officials care more about appeasing the mob and winning elections than about the violence and the victims of violence.

Ask yourself:
*Do you want only one political party in control?
*Do you want others to deny you freedom of speech; to determine what books you can read; what movies and TV you can see; what music you can hear and what plays you can attend?
*Do you want to lose the freedom of religion?
*Do you want others to control your career choice?
*Do you want you and your family to feel unsafe?

If your answer is no to these questions, then speak up to your local/state/federal elected officials and to rabbis and to Jewish leaders and to whomever and say yes, I am for racial equality, yet we must stop the violence and the erosion of our freedoms.

At the same time you do that, keep in mind to do mitzvahs of human kindness such as working towards racial equality and educating, enlightening and teaching others not to hate.

Shalom,
Bob Schneider, Cincinnati, Ohio