In most cases, I truly believe that the response to bad speech is not restriction of speech, but more and better speech. But there are times when language becomes sufficiently dangerous and hateful that I think it really should be taken out of play. A comment to my post about New York City's ongoing debate over giving public schools two additional days off for the Muslim Eid holidays is right on the fence, so I am soliciting your advice. Here's the comment from someone identified as "ABK":
bottom line is this: in many schools with high muslim attendance, those particular schools should get a day off. it makes no sense to close all schools, especially in staten island and manhattan. the reason schools are closed for jewish holidays is because many TEACHERS are jewish and at one point many students were as well. this is a practical solution to an impractical problem, that being too many muslims in our city schools (most of them here ILLEGALLY btw).
To be clear, the italics were added by me. My first response in seeing that, mostly in light of the claim in italics, was to unpublish ABK's comment. "Too many Muslims in our city schools"? How about "too many" Jews? Blacks? Christians? Whites? Boys? Girls? I think you get the point. Aren't remarks like that the very essence of hate speech?
On the other hand, if Windows and Doors really is the kind of ongoing conversation between us that I hope it is, then why not post the stuff that bothers me (as long as it doesn't present or threaten an immediate threat to anyone) and invite wisdom from the rest of the readership? So have at it.
Without succumbing to the same kind of logic or language, please respond to ABK.
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Steve,
I assume that is you, identified above as "Your Name", who raised the issue of "Truth Teller"'s comment about your last name. It was indeed a gratuitous and inappropriate comment.
In general, let's see if we can all address each others ideas, not denigrate each other's presumed religious or ethnic identities. It would be boring if we all agreed, but it would be shameful if our disgreements become excuses for being mean-spirited.
Rabbi Brad, thanks for the response here. Yes, that was me! I did insert my name in the Your Name field, but due to an expired captcha, that information did not pass through. FYI, there are very big problems with the functionality of the captcha system, and I have written a note to tech support about that. More than once, it has caused me to lose my entire draft comment and I have had to start all over again.
What (imaginary) "truth-teller" postings are you rambling about? There are NONE in this blog entry.
In a previous entry, however, there was a "truth-teller" posting. I got the reference: Steve Goldberg is Mort Klein's hatchet man. Yes - that Mort Klein, ZOA president for life, who never met an Arab/Muslim he won't like to see dead.
Steve: stop complaining. The rest of us have mastered the art of the expiring captcha business- it is not rocket science!
Rabbi Brad: as to "mean spirited" comments- have you checked out David Klinghoffer's blog entries recently? He has at least once insulted you. Why ping on "truth-teller" and not Klinghoffer?
Throughout history Jews have been the victims of persecution that begins with stereotyping, so why are we letting ourselves engage in the same kind of rigid labeling? It's tempting to look for simplistic answers to complex problems, but in the long run, that always multiplies the problems. There is nothing that "progressive governments" always do, and nothing that "conservative governments" always do successfully.
As a forensic psychologist, I can certainly agree that our criminal justice practices have been misquided in many ways. But we have a higher percentage of our population behind bars than any other nation. We have prosecutors who are more concerned with a conviction rate than with justice, police who torture arrestees into false confessions, silly laws that can send someone to prison for life for a third shoplifting offense. But why bother thinking about that? Let's just bust more heads.
We won't solve crime problems by turning America into a neo Third Reich, and we won't combat militant Islam by spewing the same sort of venom that emanates from its leaders.
Alex --
You are certainly correct about David Klinghoffer insulting me on numerous ocassions, but I don't control his content. Actually you do, and so do all the other people who choose to read his stuff.
I "pinged" truth teller because I do have some control over the content of this conversation and because I do not want it to degenerate into the kind of mean spirited, triumphalist tone which dominates Kingdom of Priests.
BTW, you are correct about the reference by another commenter, who referred to Muslims as "cockroaches". That portion of his comment should come down.
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