I learned long ago that blog posts are more attractive if there is a photo attached to engage your readers. Tonight, I do have a photo to go with this blog, but I have chosen not to include it. I have made this choice, because posting a photo of a graffitied swastika is just not something I believe in. Let me explain…
Tonight, I turned into a parking lot I drive through several times a week. It is the parking lot where my local grocery store resides and where my kids and I frequent a Subway restaurant for a once-a-week regular dinner after boy/girl scouts. As soon as we turned in, I could see the spray painted Nazi symbol staring straight at me as if it were taunting me in the same color red of the blood of all the Jews who perished under Nazi rule. It was ugly and shocking, and I did the only thing I could think of. I took a picture of it, because I knew I could not feel like a responsible Jew and just drive away pretending that it would just go away on its own.
I walked into the grocery store, which is the major tenant of this shopping center and immediately sought out the manager on duty. I showed her the photo on my phone, and I am sorry to report that I absolutely hated her response. “I’m sorry. That dumpster is not ours. There’s nothing we can do about it.” I wanted to shout, “Yes, lady! There absolutely is something you can do about it! You can get on your phone and call your property management company and let them know. You have their contact info. I don’t.”
I walked away feeling so disappointed, and so I went into another store in the shopping strip to talk to the employee on the night shift. He was sympathetic and promised he’d speak to his manager. He was a nice man, but it was obvious, there would be nothing done about that swastika tonight. I wrote the phone number down of the dumpster company, and I just feel sick knowing that swastika is in plain sight for all to see for the moment.
So, blog readers, that is why I am not including that photo with this blog post. Nobody should see it, and therefore, I chose not to spread its hate through social media. No way.
My song of the day (or night) is “Easy To Be Hard,” by Three Dog Night, because all I can think of right now is the question that they ask in their song – “How can people be so heartless?”
