Readers Write: Best way to oppose hate, bigotry is to confront them

The Island Now

In my preoccupation with all that transpires in the course of a busy day, I confess I have been derelict in keeping up with our local press, and until now, had not read the letters and opinions that have been expressed over many of the past weeks.

The Passover season has allowed me to play a little catch-up, and I’ve been reading the newspapers that have accumulated.

I see that there has been a good deal of discussion and debate concerning what some think is publishable and what others think is not.

I have always been of the opinion that a newspaper is an open forum.

Mine is an unwavering faith in the concept that the strength of democracy is derived from the free expression of ideas.

Not something to be feared, freedom of speech is something to be cherished and protected, even when we find the expression of some views to be repugnant.

Roosevelt’s first inaugural address offered a great thought, believed to have originated in the journals of Thoreau.

It is a constant to which I refer in these tumultuous times: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

I think this is worth keeping in mind, especially when we find ourselves vulnerable to overreaction.

A bad idea, out in the open, has the chance to be topped by a better idea — but this can only happen when we know about it.
That is the task of the press: to inform us, to expose us to the thinking that is in our midst.

A healthy, open debate facilitates the process, and while we may shudder in fear when we hear certain remarks that smack of bigotry and hate, we must resolve to face them squarely and counter them with better ideas.

Those that are most odious are not going to go away just because we would exclude them from publication.

To know about them is better than not to know, and in knowing, we all have the opportunity not only to reject what we find unacceptable, but also to counter it with what we deem to be the truth.


Dr. Robert S. Widom, Rabbi

Temple Emanuel of Great Neck

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