I want to believe that we have entered a new age, one in which we have made progress, where we respect diversity and humanity.
But everyday offers us reminders that the world we live in remains mired in hate and stupidity.
Consider these stories — one from The Star-Ledger, the other from our sister paper, The Windsor-Heights Herald.
From the Ledger:
A routine fire drill at Hightstown High School in Mercer County turned terrifying for one student.
As students gathered outside on school grounds one morning last week, someone came up behind a 16-year-old junior, a member of the Sikh faith, and allegedly set the boy’s turban on fire.
His hair was singed in several places, but he was otherwise unhurt, according to his uncle, Harjot Pannu.
“He felt like a bee stung him, and he patted on it,” said Pannu. “Next thing he knew, a teacher came over and told him he was on fire.”
An 18-year-old Hightstown senior, Garrett Green, was arrested hours later and charged with arson and criminal mischief, said Ben Miller, an investigator with the Hightstown Police Department.
From the Herald:
For a second week in a row, area police reported anti-Semitic and anti-American vandalism.
At 5:17 a.m. Thursday, East Windsor police discovered “anti-Semitic and anti-American statements” painted on concrete barriers on Route 133 in the area of Wycoffs Mill Road.
Police Chief William Spain declined to elaborate on what was written, except to say there were no symbols or specific threats.
The investigation indicates the criminal mischief was committed during the early morning hours. Township police were being assisted by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice and the Mercer County prosecutor’s office, which Chief Spain said is standard procedure with apparent hate crimes.
Just last week, township police reported similar graffiti on a Route 133 barrier near Route 571 had been found April 27. Meanwhile, Hightstown police reported this week that a building was vandalized with anti-Jewish and anti-black graffiti that was left between 3 p.m. April 18 and 4 p.m. April 25.
Police Chief James Eufemia declined to reveal the location of the building, saying that could jeopardize the investigation, but he did say the vandalism included swastikas.
”The graffiti was large enough to read at a distance. However, at this time I am not disclosing exactly what was written,” he said. “There were two swastikas located on a section of asphalt, and another located on the building.”
What’s going on here?
It would be easy to dismiss these incidents as pranks, and I don’t want to blow them out of proportion. But calling them pranks makes too little of what happened.
As Thurman Hart says on Blue Jersey:
If it is “just a prank”, then it is a dangerous one. As a friend of mine said when we discussed it: “In the first place, you don’t play with fire. In the second place, you don’t play with setting another person on fire. In the third place, you don’t mess with people’s religious paraphenalia.”
This kind of thing just can’t be tolerated.
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Hank Kalet 