Caught the rerun

Regrettably, I was out of town this past week and missed the Tuesday night drama show “Cooper City at Its Finest”. The local critics said it was a pip. I asked around and did find someone who had taped it and agreed to sit thru it again and give me a running narrative. We didn’t do the workshop or the 20 minutes of vital business conducted. The citizens concern portion however was quite a show.

First, let me make this observation. There appeared to be more anger and vitriolic comments by the concerned citizens then existed in all of the blogs that appeared during the pre-election period. It does appear that much of the focus was on anti-Semitic remarks, hate mongering, and other negatives comments. The problem with sitting as a viewer was that no statements were made about when and what was said. I asked my host who suggested that much of what was said in the negative anger towards Sims was about the same from others as if each had been given taking points and permission to embellish them as they saw fit.



Out of the many religious leaders in our community who had been asked to attend a “religious leaders meeting” only two chose to appear. (please see previous posting.) Rabbi Pinny was quite informative if not right on in his comments regarding the “Holocaust” and its impact on Jews and many non Jews through out the world when acts are in some way related to that horrific episode. What seemed to fall short is that the ‘swastika’ and damage to an automobile has nothing to with Sims and the supposed hate filled blog. It is also of some concern that Rabbinical law espoused by the Rabbi while again informative hardly has any relevance to the issues of the concerns.

It appears that the linkage from the blog, Sims and the actual hate crime, swastika and auto damage, are all part of the same crime. Were that true then Sims would probably have been in jail or out on bond. And an arrest report would have been in evidence.

The most meaningful comments were made by Janet Gill. All those who viewed this tape felt a sincere compassion for her and her poignant statement and its impact.


On the other hand those who had a different opinion did not
question or attempt to defend Sims but rather simply said that there appears to be a rush to judgment and as such felt that this is not the America way and was not very good way to handle it.

Much to the credit of several calmer people the commentary directed itself to, “are all the facts in” and “let the legal system deal with any crimes if committed“.

Let this be made quite clear, all persons who spoke had the
right to voice their opinions. One would have hoped that the opinions would have been based on real facts not rumors, local legend, gossip or in this case the group speak that many seemed to have pounced on without any real knowledge.

I was struck by one person, an older gentleman, who spoke at the end of the evening who essentially pointed out that manufacturing facts, if done maliciously or by lack of concern for the facts, which creates an aurora of anti-Semitism can be a terrible crime in and of itself as it diminishes the values we all place on expunging the hatred of these types of acts, as we have all seen done by others who use anti-Semitism, racism and homosexuality to further a political agenda.

These comments do represent a view point but by no means should one construe that they are correct or the final opinion. This is such a delicate issue on both sides of the argument that I encourage all to comment.