This is in response to your article reporting on Mayor Bral’s speech at the inauguration of Legislator Mazi Melesa Pilip.
News flash: “God-given conservative values” should not be discussed in a public school classroom. Discuss them in religious school classes, where they belong. Furthermore, as I wrote previously in a letter to the editor of this newspaper, Mayor Bral has no business making speeches about what should be included in Great Neck’s public school curriculum unless he wants to step down as mayor and run for the Board of Education.
And while you reported selectively on some of his speech, you neglected to include his offensive transphobic comment that he “believes in chromosomes,” and you omitted his blatant insult to a teacher when you wrote that he “reflected on an exchange with an educator.” The exact words Mayor Bral used were “so-called educator,” which just exemplifies his contempt for the dedicated teachers in the GN Public Schools.
Please, if you’re going to quote him, quote him correctly so that everyone can read his outrageous comments. These insidious attempts to undermine our public schools in his speeches and public statements go hand in hand with his enthusiastic support for continued overdevelopment in the village without consideration for the impact on our schools and infrastructure.
This man is charged with running a village of 10,000 people and he can barely discharge his duties as required, yet he sticks his nose in Board of Education business as well as county, state and national politics, creating and furthering division and animosity among his constituents.
If Mayor Bral really wants the communities with diverse groups to stand together, he should start by checking himself – his Facebook page contained a Lunar New Year greeting on 2/1/2022 that is at best tone-deaf, and at worst microaggression against his Asian constituents. A quick Google search would have given him an appropriate greeting to share.
Instead, he choose to adopt a Jewish quote attributed to Moses in Deuteronomy, and wished his readers “May you be the head of the tiger and not the tail.”
He may have intended it to be humorous, but it just shows his ignorance and insensitivity to the diversity in his village. And to add insult to injury, he repeated this comment at the village board of trustees meeting that evening, elaborating with “That’s a greeting from the new year celebration in our culture.”
Indeed it may be, but this is another culture’s holiday, and respecting their traditions would be a good start towards standing together with diverse cultures.
May there be no bloodbath in the next elections, but may a new, worthy mayor be elected to govern the Village of Great Neck after so many years of disrepair and conflicts.
Nina Gordon
Great Neck
