Swastikas And Anti-Semitic Slurs In N.Y. School District
Posted by Michelle Moquin on November 9th, 2013
Good morning!
Bob: Yes, I just discovered that too. Many readers who posted yesterday wrote their comments on previous blog posts as far back as November 4th.
Readers: Please pay attention to the “Blog Rules” in the lefthand column of my blog. I am specifically referring to Rule #3. We all want to read what you write so to make it easy please post your comment on the most recent blog post and refer to which blog write you are responding to. Thank you!
That being said, thankfully I noticed that quite a few of you posted on previous blog writes so that I can address them now.
Walter: I truly HOPE that what you are writing is a joke. If not, you are one sick man who needs to go back to your shrink or turn yourself in before you do someone else in. Danny, I HOPE you won’t even consider contacting this sick man for hire.
Tommy: Yeah, I hear you. I am sure you’re not the first who thinks Rand is gay. It’s sad if he feels he can’t come out but that is no reason to hate women. I cannot even imagine what it must be like to put on a face everyday that is not your own. But at some point you have to stop blaming society (as sick as some people are towards gay people) and live your life the way you desire. I can’t speak for gays but I would think many who have come out of the closet feel living their lives authentically is worth the consequences. I HOPE you’re living your life happily out of the closet. :)
Michael: I like the way you roll. Your parents raised you well. Happy to hear you will be the same with your children.
Barbara: I love your poem. Some of those words could’ve been said by me.
Hi Sus: My girlfriend did the same thing with her rape experience and when it came flooding back, because she saw a photo of the perpetrator years later, it was very painful experience. I HOPE that the flooding back memory was not traumatic and that the article didn’t cause you any pain. I realize that even though you may have put this horrible incident in the recesses of your mind, you may still live with the trauma and it can affect your daily life in some manner or form. I HOPE that bringing it to the present was a good thing. If anything because of your experience, you are well aware that women do need to come together and be there for each other, and are a fine example of a woman who is. Thank you. Sending LOVE to you too.
Ingrid: Thanks for reading! You certainly fall under the definition of “loyal reader.” I don’t want to miss your comments either so please post your comment on the most recent day and refer to the blog post that you are commenting on. Thank you!
Hey Social Butterfly: If you’re interested, you might want to go back to November 6th as there are quite a few reader addressing your comment on GMOs.
Rachel: Nicely stated. Unfortunately true.
Robert: I wish more fathers/parents felt the same as you. If they did, children would not be able to get away with such sick behavior, and no consequences. Perhaps children wouldn’t even have thoughts of these horrific actions if they were taught at an early age to respect all people regardless of sex or color. Thank you for being a responsible parent and opening up the conversation to your children.
Speaking of childrens’ sick behavior, this one is for you Howie. Here is a write showing how adults are not taking the abuse, bullying, and prejudice toward Jewish children seriously. There is so much that is wrong with how this is being handled by adults who have an attitude of indifference.
Pine Bush, N.Y., School District Faces Accusations of Anti-Semitism
The swastikas, the students recalled, seemed to be everywhere: on walls, desks, lockers, textbooks, computer screens, a playground slide — even on a student’s face.
A picture of President Obama, with a swastika drawn on his forehead, remained on the wall of an eighth-grade social studies classroom for about a month after a student informed her teacher, the student said.
For some Jewish students in the Pine Bush Central School District in New York State, attending public school has been nothing short of a nightmare. They tell of hearing anti-Semitic epithets and nicknames, and horrific jokes about the Holocaust.
They have reported being pelted with coins, told to retrieve money thrown into garbage receptacles, shoved and even beaten. They say that on school buses in this rural part of the state, located about 90 minutes north of New York City and once home to a local Ku Klux Klan chapter president, students have chanted “white power” and made Nazi salutes with their arms.
The proliferation and cumulative effect of the slurs, drawings and bullying led three Jewish families last year to sue the district and its administrators in federal court; they seek damages and an end to what they call pervasive anti-Semitism and indifference by school officials.
The district — centered in Pine Bush, west of Newburgh, and serving 5,600 children from Orange, Sullivan and Ulster Counties — is vigorously contesting the suit. But a review of sworn depositions of current and former school officials shows that some have acknowledged there had been a problem, although they denied it was widespread and said they had responded appropriately with discipline and other measures.
“There are anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred that we need to address,” John Boyle, Crispell Middle School’s principal, said in a deposition in April.
In 2011, when one parent complained about continued harassment of her daughter and another Jewish girl, Pine Bush’s superintendent from 2008 to 2013, Philip G. Steinberg, wrote in an email, “I have said I will meet with your daughters and I will, but your expectations for changing inbred prejudice may be a bit unrealistic.”
Mr. Steinberg, who, along with two other administrators named as defendants, is Jewish, described the lawsuit in recent interviews as a “money grab.” He contended that the plaintiffs had “embellished” some allegations.
Nonetheless, reports of anti-Semitism have persisted, with at least two recent complaints made to the Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County.
The New York Times has reviewed about 3,500 pages of deposition testimony by parents, children and school administrators, which were provided by the families’ lawyers on the condition that the identities of the children, some of whom are still enrolled, be protected. Limited redactions were also made to protect student privacy.
The children, in their depositions, accuse at least 35 students, who are identified by their initials, of carrying out anti-Semitic acts; other offenders are identified less specifically.
Whatever the number of students involved in such activity, its impact was felt by the Jewish children, said Ilann M. Maazel, a lawyer for the families. “There were multiple children who just did not feel safe going to school day after day,” he said.
A Hostile Environment
In 2008, T.E., then a fifth grader at Pine Bush Elementary School, told her mother that two boys had made drawings in school that she did not understand, adding, “I think it was something bad.”
The mother, Sherri E., 48, asked her daughter to draw what she had seen, and realized it was a swastika. The mother testified that during a subsequent meeting, the elementary school principal at the time, Steve Fisch, agreed to talk with the boys but added: “What’s the big deal? They didn’t aim it towards her.” Mr. Fisch, in his deposition, denies saying that.
Not long afterward, the mother said, one of the boys called T.E. “Jew” on the bus and made an offensive gesture toward her and her daughter.
Sherri E. withdrew her daughter from Crispell Middle School last year, and is now educating her at home.
Some of the affected students saw their grades suffer, and felt socially isolated and depressed, the depositions show. One said he contemplated suicide. The swastikas, drawn or carved onto school property, or even constructed by students out of pipe cleaners, caused much of the anxiety. Sometimes they were accompanied by messages like “Die Jew,” the children testified.
“I actually started to hate myself for being Jewish,” D.C., a Pine Bush High School graduate who now attends college, said in an interview. He recalled that around the time of the Jewish holidays, teachers would ask if there were Jewish students in the class. “I learned very, very quickly not to raise my hand,” he said.
D.C., now 18, testified that he was “overwhelmed” by the number of swastikas he saw. In eighth grade, he said, he reported one that was about a foot in diameter, which he found in a bathroom; it was removed, but it reappeared quickly. He testified that he stopped reporting swastikas because “nobody was doing anything about them.”
His sister, O.C., now 15, testified about a more direct message from a sixth grader who formed his hand into the shape of a gun and “said he was killing Jews.”
In seventh grade, O.C. said, she saw a girl holding her hands up to hide a swastika on her face. The girl explained that a student had restrained her while another drew the insignia; the school said it had disciplined the two students.
O.C. said she heard slurs like Christ killer, stupid Jew, dirty Jew, disgusting Jew. “Jew was kind of an insult,” she explained.
Her father, David C., an adjunct instructor at Orange County Community College, recalled telling his daughter’s teachers that she lacked focus because of the harassment and swastikas. He had even stumbled upon one, he testified, describing how he saw a “small swastika on one of the stalls” in a school bathroom.
The children testified about hearing crude jokes about the Holocaust and the killing of Jews. “How do you get a Jewish girl’s number? Lift up her sleeve,” went one. D.C. remembered a student telling him that his ancestors had died in the Holocaust. The student then blew on his flattened hand, and said, “You are just ashes.”
“Every day at the high school,” D.C. testified, “I would go in, and I would just have the worst day of my life.”
‘So Many’ Accused
Mr. Steinberg said in his deposition that his challenge as superintendent was that “so many” students were being accused of anti-Semitic behavior.
“The issue is not three students doing it all the time; the question is if you have 30 students doing it,” he said. “How do you undo the years of inbred prejudice?”
At the edge of town, a big red barn is painted with a patriotic yellow ribbon. Across the street, a yard decorated with military equipment has a bomb painted with the words, “God Bless Our Troops.” Billboards advertise 4-H clubs; stores sell tractors, snow blowers and soft-serve ice cream.
Most people interviewed — from a bagel shop owner to McDonald’s clerks, adults and teenagers alike — said they had not heard of the swastikas. But some said they were aware of bullying or hate-fueled teasing, including a middle-school student who said she knew a boy who had drawn swastikas on the back of their school.
“It’s just hate,” she said outside after school last month. “And just being kids.”
At that point, a pickup truck pulled up nearby, and a man emerged. The man, John Barker, 42, a mechanic, cautioned that “everybody watches out for everybody.” When asked about the presence of Jewish families, he blurted out, “We don’t want them in our town.”
“They can’t drive, for number one — and they already have Sullivan County. Who really wants them here? They don’t belong here.”
Bullies on the Bus
The bus was a particularly difficult place for Jewish students. On April 19, 2010, T.E., then in sixth grade, told her mother that students on her bus had made Nazi salutes and discussed how to celebrate the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday, which was the next day.
Sherri E., who knew the date was also the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, said she reported the episode to school officials, telling them her daughter would stay home the next morning.
No violence followed, but the harassment continued, T.E. said in an interview. “I finally said, ‘I’m not going back to school,’ ” she said. She withdrew in early 2012.
D.R. was in sixth grade when a school-sponsored ski trip turned ugly. A boy on the bus ride home asked if he was Jewish, and when D.R. answered yes, a group of students began taunting him with slurs, he testified. One boy then repeatedly punched him in the stomach “until I was ready to throw up,” D.R. said in his account.
His father, Jerrold R., 52, an aircraft leasing executive, testified that his son cried uncontrollably that night. “That was the worst experience he had ever been through,” he said.
Pine Bush said it had disciplined the student who led the episode, requiring him to write an apology note and contacting his mother.
D.R., now 16 and a junior, testified that early this year, he saw four or five Pine Bush students goose-stepping and high-fiving with Nazi salutes in the hallway.
The school district has sharply disputed claims that swastikas were “everywhere” in the high school, and said it responded diligently to reports of anti-Semitic behavior. Laura Wong-Pan, a lawyer for the district, said Pine Bush had taken many steps to address “the plaintiffs’ complaints and deal with bullying in general,” like disciplining students in a manner that was “reasonably calculated to prevent a recurrence.”
Ms. Wong-Pan said that in some cases, that “included counseling, detentions, suspensions, letters to parents and meetings.”
She said the district had also held antibullying assemblies and classroom discussions; brought Holocaust survivors and experts to address students on issues like bullying, anti-Semitism and tolerance; and provided staff training on such topics.
Trouble Seeking Help
The families say their conversations with school officials led nowhere. They were told that their complaints were isolated, and were not informed that other families had raised similar issues.
T.E. testified that when she was in seventh grade, she and O.C. were reporting anti-Semitic graffiti and other behavior to a Crispell administrator, who discouraged them at one point. “We would write it down and bring it to him, usually at the end of the week,” she said. “He told us we were now just looking for trouble and that we were causing our own problems.”
Jerrold R. said that he once asked an assistant principal why his older son, A.R., then in middle school, was disciplined for defending himself against a student who had grabbed him after taunting him about the Holocaust.
The school official replied, “ ‘We have a zero-tolerance policy on fighting,’ ” the father recalled.
“And I said, ‘How about a zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitism?’ ”
In a court filing, the families cited eight cases of slurs or coin-throwing in which one child received two hours of detention, one was counseled, and six received no discipline.
“I was lied to, to my face, repeatedly, by the schools,” Jerrold R. recalled in an interview. The assurances, he said, “kept us from doing something that would have protected our kids, taking a more aggressive stance.”
Two parents testified about meeting with Mr. Steinberg in spring 2011. “We told him about the swastikas,” David C. said. “We told him about the name-calling. We told him about the insidious Holocaust jokes. We showed him the pictures of four or five or six of the swastikas that the girls had taken. We told him about being singled out and being bullied for being Jewish.”
Sherri E. testified that Mr. Steinberg once told her how his own son had experienced anti-Semitism, leading him to move his family and send him to a different school. “My response to him was, ‘Well, in a better economy that might be nice, but I can’t sell my house and move from here right now,’ ” she said. “Something needs to be taken care of at the school level.”
History of Racism
Mr. Steinberg, 65, who retired as superintendent in the summer, worked as a teacher, principal and superintendent in New York City’s schools before taking the Pine Bush position in 2008.
He said in his deposition that when he was being considered for the post, members of the Pine Bush school board cautioned him about the community’s history of anti-Semitism and Klan activity, and that it “was not a Jewish area.” He said his hiring was an example of how far the district had come.
In the 1970s, Pine Bush was the home of the grand dragon of a Klan chapter that became embroiled in a legal dispute with the state attorney general’s office, which had demanded that it reveal its membership list. The group, Independent Northern Klans Inc., which was represented by the American and New York Civil Liberties Unions, successfully rebuffed the effort. The Klan leader’s wife had been a member of Pine Bush’s school board.
The Anti-Defamation League, which said then that the chapter had about 200 “activists” in the region, says today there has been little evidence of organized Klan activity in the state in recent years.
Mr. Steinberg, in interviews, said he asked the parents who had sued why they chose Pine Bush. “I said to them, ‘If being Jewish is so important to you, why would you move into a community that does not have a synagogue?’ ”
“ ‘If you want your kids to hang out with more Jewish children or have more tolerance,’ ” he added, “ ‘why would you pick a community like Pine Bush?’ ”
He had experienced anti-Semitism as a child and as a parent, he said, elaborating on how he moved his own family within Nassau County after his young son was told by a classmate that she would not eat lunch with him because he was Jewish. “A 7-year-old doesn’t learn that except from her parents,” Mr. Steinberg remembered thinking.
“We don’t teach them hate in school, but yet we have to undo the hate and the intolerance,” he said.
Mr. Steinberg said he and his staff followed up on all complaints about anti-Semitic behavior, but substantiated fewer than a dozen examples of swastikas and other offensive graffiti. He said that through the assemblies, staff training and visits from Holocaust experts, he had sought to “try and change behaviors one student at a time.”
A Continuing Fight
In a September court hearing in White Plains, the district’s lawyer, Ms. Wong-Pan, told Judge Kenneth M. Karas that Pine Bush officials did not condone anti-Semitism. She accused the plaintiffs of distorting the facts.
“I mean, the way they describe it, it sounds like it’s the Third Reich in those schools,” she said.
At the local McDonald’s recently, a worker sweeping the floor, Corey Kyles, 25, said that his brother, Tyler, used to draw swastikas outside the town’s Boys and Girls Club, and also carve them into the high school’s wrestling mats.
“God only knows why he did it,” Mr. Kyles said of Tyler, who died in a car accident in 2009. “He probably was just stupid.”
The experiences of other Pine Bush alumni have varied. Sherri Kravitz-Donnell, the board president of Congregation Beth Hillel in nearby Walden and a longtime high school English teacher in Pine Bush until she retired in 2008, said she did not witness anti-Semitic behavior, nor did she hear about it from her son or daughter, who attended the schools.
But after they graduated, she said, her children, now in their 20s, said that they had experienced anti-Semitic teasing and slurs but had kept it from her, not wanting her to intervene.
Since 2011, at least two complaints about such behavior in Pine Bush’s Circleville Middle School have been received by the Jewish Federation in Orange County, said Susan Notar, a federation volunteer.
The first was from a parent about a boy on the school bus who said he had dressed up as a Hasidic Jew for Halloween because he “thought it was funny,” and whose brother had wanted to dress up as Hitler.
Ms. Notar said she emailed Circleville’s principal, Lisa Hankinson, who replied that she was “deeply troubled” and invited Ms. Notar to speak to the faculty. Ms. Notar said she offered the teachers resources to fight anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of intolerance.
The federation received another complaint last spring. Ms. Notar said that she again emailed Ms. Hankinson, and at her invitation returned two weeks ago to speak to an assembly of students.
Ms. Notar said Ms. Hankinson had responded appropriately. “I teach about the Holocaust,” Ms. Notar said. “I know what can happen when people look the other way.”
******
Readers: I don’t care how deeply ingrained these prejudices are, they are wrong and something has to be done. It is no excuse to do nothing simply because you find it challenging and “unrealistic” to undo inbred prejudice. Doing nothing does not make it go away – it only sends the message that it is OK, and perpetuates the sick behavior. And I despise when someone says, “Kids are just being kids.” There is no excuse for anti-semtism or any form of racism. Kids are taught this from their parents. The change begins at home.
Got to run. Your turn. Blog me.
peace & love…
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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November 9th, 2013 at 8:33 pm
Michelle,
I was not shocked to see your Post today. It needs to be addressed. Since the state of Israel was created, we Jews have a saying: “NEVER AGAIN“ — We mean it. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
ANTI-SEMITISM IN 2013: PINE BUSCH — A SUBBERB OF NEW YORK JUST 90 MILES AWAY.
It is 10:37 PM and I just began reading your shocking Anti-Semitism Post for today happening in a town just 90 miles from New York City — the supposed “Ethnic Melting Pot” which helped make this country great because of the waves of immigrants from all over the world at different times, bringing their labor and knowledge with them.
With their foreign cultures came their foreign knowledge such as the Physics of Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, often called the ‘father of the atomic bomb,
Robert Oppenheimer and the tens of thousands who brought diversity to this nation and contributed to the greatness of this country helped make it the Superpower it became after World War II.
I will read this article and do some research and comment tomorrow morning.
It saddens me because these people are just repeating what they heard at home growing up. They have no real hatred in them for anyone. They are just Adolescents and their angry Parents acting out because they feel inferior to their OTW neighbors.
The neighbors were not given money from anyone … They worked hard for it so they can afford to live in the suburbs
Here is a quote from an inbred anti-everyone who was interviewed: “Who really wants them here? They don’t belong here.”
No Jew must ask anyone for permission to live anywhere they please in this country and who gave you and your family the approval to live in your little twisted town?
More to come tomorrow at a time that Iran has targeted the U.S.A. for a Nuclear bomb attack and you good Americans still hate Jews? You all need Psychological Therapy.
HOWIE
November 10th, 2013 at 9:52 am
Feeling sad? Blame it on the weather
Newport Natural Health Reader,
For many physicians, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is an ailment that flies under the radar, so it’s easy to see how it can be overlooked or mistaken for something else. The symptoms, which occur in women far more often than men, include:
• Feelings of sadness
• Loss of initiative or motivation
• Low energy or fatigue
• Increased appetite
• Weight gain
• Brain fog
• Headaches
• Carbohydrate cravings
• Lack of interest in favorite activities
• Excessive sleep without feeling rested
• Outbursts of anger or irritation not typical of the individual
All of these symptoms can be mistaken for ordinary depression. But antidepressants, the usual remedy for that condition, seldom work on SAD because it’s really a different beast altogether. SAD symptoms appear to be triggered by seasonal events — fewer daylight hours and overcast skies — that interfere with the body’s circadian rhythms and production of neurotransmitters, chemicals that allow cells to communicate throughout the body.
When there’s less daylight and fewer opportunities for sun exposure, levels of serotonin, your body’s own “feel good” chemical, plummet. Your body’s attempt to increase serotonin leads to carbohydrate craving. As I wrote recently, carbohydrates are important ingredients in serotonin production. But in cases of SAD, eating more carbs does not fix the problem. Instead, it leads to weight gain, sleepiness or fatigue, and even more carb cravings. Fortunately, there are ways to turn SAD around and enjoy the winter season.
How to Stop Being SAD
If you recognize SAD symptoms as something occurring in your own life, please read on. Many doctors write antidepressant prescriptions for SAD patients without considering other treatment options. And that’s really a shame because antidepressants fail to help a significant number of SAD sufferers, and the side effects of the drugs themselves can be very serious.
To make matters worse, quitting antidepressants is tricky and often requires a doctor’s supervision to avoid health complications. And, as is true of so many medications, antidepressants don’t address the real cause of SAD.
Instead of symptom-masking drugs, I recommend the following three steps:
1. Eat an anti-SAD diet. Proper balance of key nutrients is important for everyone, but that’s especially true for SAD sufferers. Balancing carb intake with the right proportions of protein and fats is a must if you really want to free yourself from this condition. I recommend getting 50 to 60 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates, 20 to 35 percent from healthy fats, and 10 to 15 percent from protein. I also suggest avoiding sugar. Sweets seem to make the condition worse for most of my patients.
2. Exercise regularly. Exercise is one of the most effective remedies for ordinary depression, and it works well for SAD, too. As I’ve said many times, you don’t need to become a professional athlete to reap the rewards of exercise. Simply set aside 20 to 30 minutes each day to walk, dance, or engage in some other activity you enjoy. If the weather’s bad, you can always walk in place indoors. In fact, you can combine your daily workout with a bright-light box (see below for details) for even bigger improvements.
3. Use natural remedies. Based on results among my own patients, a handful of nutrients exist that can help turn SAD around. They include vitamin D, essential fatty acids (EFAs) rich in omega-3s, melatonin, 5-HTP, and GABA.
• Vitamin D
Low levels of vitamin D are very common. Our bodies need direct sunlight to make vitamin D3, which means exposing bare skin without sunblock. Unfortunately, even if you live in a climate where this is possible during winter, most folks choose to avoid sun exposure, and even those who do spend time in the sun may not be able to produce vitamin D3 as effectively, since that ability decreases with age. As a result, seniors are especially susceptible to vitamin D3 deficiency.
The remedy here is simple: take vitamin D3 supplements. One recent study found that individuals diagnosed with SAD who took vitamin D3 improved during the one-month trial, while those who did not take vitamin D3 did not feel better at the end of the study. Start with 1,000 IU daily. You can also have a simple blood test to determine the appropriate dosage. This is a somewhat controversial area, but I recommend levels between 30 and 74 ng/mL.
• Essential fatty acids (EFAs)
Also known as good fats, EFAs are one supplement I recommend to everyone, but particularly patients with emotional difficulties, including SAD. Fish is a good source of EFAs, but since heavy metals and other toxins pollute most fish, I recommend Calamarine, a toxin-free supplement rich in omega-3s. And because vitamin D and essential fatty acids are so important to heart and brain health, I’ve combined them in my Omega D3 formula to maximize their benefits.
• Melatonin
A naturally occurring hormone, melatonin is another supplement I recommend to SAD sufferers. Normally, melatonin is released in response to the daily cycle of light and dark, with production peaking between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Unfortunately, as we age, melatonin production decreases. If you’re tossing, turning, and doing just about everything except sleeping in the wee hours of the night, a melatonin deficiency could be the problem. Since a melatonin shortage also plays a role in SAD, supplements can solve both problems.
I encourage male patients to take 3 mg about 30 minutes before bedtime, while females should take 2 mg. Melatonin has few, if any, side effects. In addition, low levels of melatonin are linked to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, various types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and a long list of other disorders, so this is one nutrient you don’t want to ignore.
• 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan)
SAD sufferers may want to consider adding the supplement 5-HTP to their daily regimen. This amino acid helps increase levels of serotonin, the brain neurotransmitter linked to feelings of well being. I suggest taking 100 to 400 mg daily.
• GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
Similarly, the neurotransmitter GABA helps us relax, focus, and deal with stress. I recommend 200 to 750 mg doses daily.
Finally, check out bright-light boxes and broad-spectrum light bulbs. Studies show that some individuals with SAD respond well to the light boxes, which mimic the sunlight we would obtain outdoors, without risking exposure to harmful UV rays.
Instructions with most of these units recommend 30 or so minutes of use each day, so you can combine your light-box time with exercise and take care of two birds with one stone! Another option is to use a lamp with broad-spectrum light bulbs. Some of my patients use them at their desks or while reading to get an extra boost of light during winter.
As you can see, there are plenty of options for treating seasonal blues, so please don’t suffer through another winter. With a few well-chosen supplements, a little exercise, and a well-balanced diet, you should be back to normal in just a few weeks — with plenty of time left to enjoy the holiday season!
Thrive in Health & Wellness,
Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D.
November 10th, 2013 at 10:26 am
Howie, what you said is even more disgusting because it’s the white parents that are teaching their children to be bigots. Then the bastards try to say it is long time prejudice that is responsible.
Each new generation would start without prejudice if the old generation didn’t continue their disgusting racism.
November 10th, 2013 at 10:29 am
Howie, I work in the school system here. You don’t have to do much research. I can tell you that the parents here like what is going on. We are being told to just let the kids be kids. They white parents are supporting their little bigots.
November 10th, 2013 at 10:35 am
The people here have long been known to be racists. They take pride in it. I am a black parent who has seen so much blatant acts of racism that I am planning to move. I have been taking my child to a school different school.
November 10th, 2013 at 10:39 am
There is pressure on many of the whites to take a side. If you don’t support the racists, you are branded a sell out to your race. I teach my children to respect all races. But the atmosphere here is so openly racist that it will be difficult to change.
November 10th, 2013 at 10:49 am
If the prosecutors don’t start to hold the parents responsible, this will never stop. It is no question that many of the parents are behind the boldness of their children.
November 10th, 2013 at 10:52 am
Howie, you fucking jew dogs are always trying to be white. You are mud people. You are not white. I don’t care how many times you jew dogs hide your true racial lineage and marry into our race, you are still mud people.
When the ovens open again you will be the first put in because you jews keep sneaking into our race. If you don’t like the treatment, get the fuck out.
November 10th, 2013 at 11:01 am
The whites here are so full of denials and lies. The news media is portraying the acts as a mixture of fear and ignorance, but it is simple racial hatred. The whites are trying to carve out a little private white niche and they don’t care what they have to do to get it.
Jews, blacks, hispanic, etc. know what to expect if they attempt to gain a foothold here. Everybody is on the team. The parents, school officials, cops, judges, etc. all are behind a consorted effort to limit the encroachment of OTWs in this neighborhood.
November 10th, 2013 at 11:09 am
Bob, it is not always possible to make the connection with the post. Like this one I prefer to make my response to the situation in Pine Bush. Those fifth graders are repeating what they hear at home.
Howie, I teach my children differently, but sadly most of the parents here are vitriolic racists. They have no feelings for human beings that are not white. Any white person who disagrees with them meets with bitter criticism.
November 10th, 2013 at 11:12 am
Zucchini Cakes
4 to 6 servings
Here’s one of my favorite recipes for getting more vegetables into my own family’s daily diet. These zucchini cakes are delicious as side dishes, or they can stand in for burgers if you’re having a meatless meal. Simply top them with tomato or onion slices and add a whole-wheat bun. Either way, they’re enjoyable and nutritious.
Ingredients
2½ cups zucchini, organic if possible
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup bread crumbs
1/3 cup sweet onion, minced
1 teaspoon salt (substituting lite salt cuts the sodium content in half)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon parsley, minced
Directions:
1. Wash and pat dry zucchini. Grate into a large colander, and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt (or lite salt). Allow excess moisture to drain for about 30 minutes. You may have to pat the zucchini with a wooden spoon to help release liquid.
2. In a large bowl, combine zucchini, eggs, and butter.
3. Stir in bread crumbs, minced onion, and seasonings. Mix well.
4. Shape zucchini mixture into 4 to 6 separate small balls; then press each ball with the bottom of a glass or cup to flatten into a cake.
5. Dredge each cake in flour.
6. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Fry cakes in oil until golden brown on both sides (about 4 to 5 minutes per side). Drain cakes on paper towels, and sprinkle with minced parsley.
7. Enjoy with a green salad and rice pilaf or my homemade sweet potato fries.
November 10th, 2013 at 12:40 pm
Michelle, I had a very difficult time coming out of the closet, but I am so happy that I did. Yes, I still have days I wish I could just be like everyone else, but that is because some people can be so mean.
November 10th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Drawing swastikas is not “just being kids”–it’s a hate crime. If this type of behavior is appearing among the young, it reflects ignorant adults at home and in school.
November 10th, 2013 at 12:45 pm
Howie, the school district is responsible for the actions of their students and faculty. They need to see that the students that acted in that despicable manner are punished.
Their parents should be called in and asked what the are doing to end this type of behavior by their children.