Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

Rabbi says offensive art should be censored

To the Editor:
A job well done to the Rockville Centre Board of Education, and more specifically to Superintendent Dr. William Johnson and Shelagh McGinn, the principal of South Side Middle School.
As the issue relating to the Holocaust art work came up, they were wonderful and respectful enough to hold an open forum to apologize (“SSMS student art stirs debate,” June 30-July 6), to learn and to announce reforms in the public schools’ attitude toward these issues.
Allowing a public forum and standing up and taking the blame, along with a commitment to change, certainly speaks volumes regarding their integrity, sensitivity and professionalism. I am very appreciative.

The editorial in the Herald that same week, however, certainly illustrated the exact opposite attitude of Johnson and McGinn (“Students learn the power of art to provoke”).
There are certain things in this world that no good comes from, be it art, Nazi medical experiments or slavery. Certain things are just plain offensive.
If I were to display art using the “N” word, or using a derogatory sign or word offensive to gays, would that be OK in the name of freedom of speech? Certain things simply are just too evil to gain anything positive from. Sometimes, to sensitive people, censorship can be common sense.

Rabbi Howard Diamond
Rockville Centre

Censorship protects no one

To the Editor:

The Jewish Council of Rockville Centre is wrong. 
Nowhere in their letter last week (“Taking down art protected students”) do they even attempt to explain how artwork condemning the Nazis encourages anti-Semitic behavior or relates to graffiti or the drawing of numbers on students’ arms.
Apparently, if they are correct, the artwork and the editorial it engendered have brought to light some troubling practices already taking place at the school.
Louis Brandeis was right. “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the process of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

Richard Stein
Riverdale

The basketball hoops have to go

To the Editor:

Re Chris Schmidt’s letter “Safety isn’t concern of basketball hoop dissenters” in last week’s Herald:
First of all, my neighbor installed a very nice unit in his driveway, and I have no problem with it. I don’t care if kids play — that’s what they’re suppose to do. And the noise of kids doesn’t bother me, unless they’re playing at midnight. What I don’t like is the fact that we pay a small fortune to live in this village, and these hoops on the street make our village look awful. And yes, they are dangerous.
And Chris Schmidt is totally incorrect, because the village will be sued if it has been notified that it isn’t enforcing a code and a kid gets hit by a car.
Years ago I called the village and asked if I could have a basketball hoop facing the street, and was emphatically told no. In those days there were almost none of these eyesores around. I was informed that it was a code violation, and that if I did it, the hoop would be removed. I installed one in the driveway and, interestingly enough, my son went on to play varsity basketball for South Side High School. He became a very good player, had fun and was safe!
How about if we do this: Let’s tell all the kids in town to come over to Chris Schmidt’s house, and he can put a few hoops in front of his house and see how they enhance his neighborhood. Put a few in front of his neighbor’s house across the street and they can play full court. It would be a nice thing to do. He could make sure all the kids are getting enough exercise.
I await the village government doing something about this, and I will show up at a village board of trustees meeting and find out why it isn’t doing the job it was elected to do.
I stand by my comments: The basketball hoops are awful, and they should be removed by the homeowner or, if the homeowner isn’t willing to do it, picked up by the village and either donated or discarded. Start with the ones that are cemented in the ground.
I’m not trying to ruin kids’ fun. I actually still play a lot of basketball myself. I think it’s the best game ever invented. I just want to live in a village that isn’t cluttered with visual pollution. Am I asking too much? Enough is enough!
Parents, take your kids to one of the schools or other places in the village to play, or install a hoop on your property like I had to do.

Burton Diamond
Rockville Centre