Stop the madness: Santa should come to town
To the editor: We are a Jewish family who moved to Warwick 14 years ago because we fell in love with this town and community spirit. As the only Jewish family in our neighborhood, we proudly lit our menorah in our front window. When our neighbors went caroling, they rang our bell and sang “We wish you a happy Hanukkah.” We hosted the neighborhood après-caroling party. We have gone to the community tree-lighting and have shared Moshe Schwartzberg’s menorah-lighting with our non-Jewish friends. Like many other small towns, change has come to Warwick in a slow but steady pace. Only shortly before we moved here, one school holiday for Rosh Hashana was added following the efforts of an active and vocal citizen’s group. We commend the Sanfordville PTA for quickly acting to appease the delicate sensibilities of one drone of political correctness. Her negative responses to their efforts make her less than genuine. The Kings PTA has sponsored the same event for more years than we have lived here and we choose not to participate. We have explained it to our kids and they understand. It is no big deal. The bigger deal is the ludicrous ripple effect of this stupidity: With our continual fight against spiraling school taxes, how much of our money was wasted consulting lawyers to “study the issue and advise” the district? The Middle School student council was told they can no longer sell candy canes as a fundraiser. A group of students were told they cannot say the words Christmas or Hanukkah on school property. Shall we now smash the poinsettias the high school Honor Society candidates have sold? What’s next on your agenda? Park Ave.’s Halloween Happening (a pagan event, of course)? How about birthday cupcakes? The Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays. We are appalled at the paragraph regarding the “law of our land.” We are not arguing the change of a textbook to exclude science and include G-d. Her statement that discrimination is detestable is in itself detestable. There is no discrimination here. And the PTA was open and willing to make adjustments for her. What a shame that with all that is going on in today’s world she has chosen to divide a community over Santa Claus. I suspect it will, however, have the opposite effect by bringing people of all faiths together to wonder about the type of person who would expend this much energy and would go so far as to hire an attorney (from Albany) to threaten our school district. This is the type of person who takes offense at being wished a “Merry Christmas.” One’s job as a parent is to instill core values and beliefs in our children in the hopes that they will grow to be proud of their heritage and confident adults who do not feel “threatened” or “slighted” by an innocuous “Breakfast with Santa.” Denise and Matt Markowitz Warwick