Letter to the Editor: East Ramapo Protest Transcends Community Divisions

To the Editor:

An oft repeated but painfully misguided trope applied to the conflict plaguing the East Ramapo Central School District is that it is one of a racial, ethnic and religious divide. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The victims of this board’s and its predecessors’ actions include all children.

All students in this district are being denied the education and the educational environment that our Constitution and State constitution afford them.

We see this in our public schools, where our children are not receiving a fair and decent education.

We see this in our private schools, where this board’s complete lack of accountability and reckless management has created an environment of systematic failure of code enforcement. As a result, dozens of private schools in the district have delinquent fire safety reports. Widespread noncompliance creates unsafe environments for students – and could lead to disaster.

On Monday, there was a terrible fire on Union Road in the Hillcrest area. Just imagine if this occurred in a school, in a trailer full of students. Without the proper safety protocols in effect – without proper oversight of how these schools operate – there would undoubtedly be a dramatic loss of life.

When you see through the polemics, you see this issue of the board’s reckless malfeasance equally effects all students in this district.

When justice escapes us, the only ones truly benefiting from it are those perpetrating it. No children or families are to blame for what is happening here. We are all caught in this inferno of injustice.

When we tear down the walls of misconception, we can see that the perpetrators of this district’s demise have used their own communities as human shields, hiding behind the guise of religious identity. They’ve drawn lines between all communities here to reinforce their “Us vs. Them” mentality that not only paints them in an innocent light but moreover - astonishingly – characterizes themselves as the victims!

As we witnessed at our last protest on Sunday, a young man came out of board member Jacob J. Lefkowitz’s neighbor’s homes. He didn’t identify himself, but he came bearing a truly generous gift: iced cold water on a hot and humid summer night.

There is no divide separating all of us. There is no high mountain we must climb or some wide river we must cross. We are all in this together – suffering together.

To put out the flames of the perception of a divided community, all it takes is a half-liter of spring water.

Eric Grossfeld

Get Up, Stand Up: East Ramapo Co-founder

PHOTO: Protest Aug. 16/Nancy and Len Tsou