AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 08 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCowardly act is not free speech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the second time, someone spray-painted a swastika where everyone could see it in our neighborhood. The first was on a speed bump; the latest one was on a stop sign.
This comes at the same time as the neighborhood is at odds with The Epstein School over the school’s desire to expand its campus. The police are investigating, and between the Mountaire Springs Neighborhood Association and the City of Sandy Springs there is a $5,000 reward for the arrest of the person who did this.
Right now the conventional wisdom is that this is the work of someone in their teens that doesn’t understand the severity of their actions. Part of me really hopes it is a kid, for two reasons.
One, teenagers are prone to do stupid things due to their lack of maturity, which is not an excuse. It bothers me that any child was parented in a manner that would result in this kind of behavior. But kids that make mistakes have the opportunity to learn from them.
The other reason I hope it’s a kid is that anyone ignorant enough to spray-paint an obscene symbol like that during this time is also stupid enough to brag about it. And I’m guessing they are also not the kind of person that a legion of other kids wouldn’t mind turning in - especially for $5,000. That’s a nice payoff for doing the right thing.
However, if the person who did this is an adult and you think you are speaking for many of us, think again. Those of us opposed to the Epstein expansion would be opposed if it were a Protestant school, a Catholic school, or a 18-wheel truck driving school. Our opposition has nothing to do with what is being taught - it’s about the size of the campus.
And if you do have a problem with what is being taught at Epstein kindly have the courage to say so publicly. Painting a swastika on a stop sign is not an exercise in free speech - it’s the act of a coward.
We use the word “neighbor” too often without thinking. While it does refer to those who live near our home, it is also a term of familiarity and affection. So if the person wielding the spray paint is an adult you may live in the neighborhood, but you are not our neighbor.
But I think I can speak for most of us when I say the following - and I’ll use small words.
Please go.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Jim Osterman
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Comments
By mmw
September 8, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this
Jim, Thank you for capturing my sentiments. Your remarks are right on target. I appreciate your frankness in approaching an appalling twist in the efforts of neighborhoods trying to maintain their sanctity by opposing an terrible school expansion plan.
I chime in with your message to the perpetrator - You are not my neighbor - Please go!
By glopath
September 9, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this
I feel Jim said it correctly for all of us in Mountair Springs - we love kids and don’t object to any school being in our neighborhood. Our gripe is with the clear-cutting of trees on Bridgewood Valley and making a beautiful neighborhood ugly beyond belief.
By opposed to the plan
September 9, 2008 8:23 PM | Link to this
Jim your comments are that of many neighbors in the surrounding neighborhoods. Thank you for speaking out about this so honestly. This has never been about the school, just about the appalling plan they have to destroy our community.
By Regan
September 10, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this
The NAZI symbol as it is now know is an ancient African symbol found a great deal of pottery. The African symbol stood for Love and Harmoney. It is a shame that the NAZI’s tilted the symbol and changed it meaning and representation.
By A
September 10, 2008 4:00 PM | Link to this
Jim:
As an Epstein parent, I appreciate the sentiment behind your posting. While I certainly don’t speak for the entire Epstein community, I for one don’t believe that the neighborhood’s opposition to our plan has anything to do with the fact that Epstein is a Jewish school instead of any other type of private school.
Having said that Jim, you are minimizing what was done by linking it to theoretically what is being ‘taught’ at the school as the ‘cause’ or that this is some absurd exercise in free speech. It was clearly a directed act of hatred at who populates the school and the fact that we exist. Try explaining that to a 7 year old like I had to do — that someone who has never met them and who knows nothing about them, hates them just because they are Jewish and wishes they were gone. You can’t explain that away by what they are being taught in school or due to opposition to expansion plans — it’s about opposition to who we are and the preference that we disappear. That is what the swastika means to jews. That is what has crept into your neighborhood. And I feel very badly for your many jewish neighbors who now too have to suffer with the suspicion that at least one among them would prefer they disappear as well.
To mmw, glopath, and opposed: while I respect your and your neighbors’ right to oppose the plan and advocate for your neighborhood and I appreciate you sharing the gist of Jim’s sentiments, I will suggest to all of you that the tactics and language employed by your supporters are part of the problem. Using deliberate fear mongering to organize dissent and saying things like the plan will “destroy our community” are more than just political tactics and over-dramatizations of what the plan actually entails — those actions create a hostile environment that intentionally brands Epstein as evil. It just is not surprising that what follows from that branding is that some individual allowed their prejudice to come to the surface and express itself.
Only the person who painted the swastikas is responsible for that action, but those who intentionally created the climate of fear and hatred that made the anti-Jewish expression seem acceptable bear some responsibility as well. To be clear, I don’t believe anyone intended a swastika to be the result of the opposition efforts. What I do believe however is that there is a minority of neighbors determined to ‘defeat’ Epstein at all costs and don’t quite care about how that happens. I remain hopeful, however, that the vast majority of the neighborhood residents share all of your sentiments that anti-Jewish expression is unacceptable, and not a cost they are willing to bear to defeat the plan. Taking down the yard signs was a positive step. Ratcheting down the rest of the rhetoric including the public comments on this blog would be helpful as well.
By Jim Osterman
September 10, 2008 5:25 PM | Link to this
A:
Thank you for making time to express yourself so thoroughly. Like you I wish this process could go without the rhetoric but that doesn’t happen in the real world. I my 30 years I have covered all manner of zoning disputes and I have yet to see one where the exchanges didn’t get heated.
I am not Jewish but I am a father. I know what it is like to try and explain the unexplainable to a young child — a swastika painted on a street sign, a cross burning in the front yard of a African-American church or an American flag desecrated. As a parent those kinds of things make your heart hurt — that all our children live in a world where that kind of insantiy exists.
By A
September 11, 2008 12:07 PM | Link to this
Jim:
Thanks. I am glad you get it and I hear you regarding reality. My point on the heated nature of the neighborhood’s response is that now that we’ve all seen what can happen (twice), it is past the time for your neighbors to tone it down more than a little. Many seem to have done that already. I thank them. Yet some, including all of the previous posters here, can’t seem to stop the inflammatory statements — “destroy our community” “ugly beyond belief” etc. Those aren’t just statements of opinion, they are either deliberate mischaracterizations or ignorance. And if they are making those statements here in support of what you wrote, I can only imagine what is being said in other forums. If they choose to continue to make such statements in light of what’s already happened (twice), then they are at least partially responsible for the fallout.
I’ve been involved on the neighborhood side in these types of zoning/land use disputes in the past as well. It is not that hard to channel one’s passion to protect their home and way of life in a positive manner — like many of your neighbors have done by doing things like speaking/writing eloquently about the impact to their lives while acknowledging that Epstein is a fine insitution. It is.