To the Editor:
I have been a frequent commenter on this forum for a long time. Over the years I have chimed in on many of the issues that have come up. There are certainly people with differing opinions about everything. This comment section affords the opportunity to anyone who feels moved to express their opinion, and have a little bit of a say on the local issues.
There are always disagreements, and occasionally there are some harsh words.
But there has been nothing comparable to the debate about the horrible attack on Israel on Oct. 7, and the resulting war.
After my first comment about it, condemning the brutal, indefensible terrorist attack, I expressed concern for the inevitable collateral damage and deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians, and attempted to have a rational conversation about the root causes of such hatred.
I was immediately labeled a Jew-hating anti-Semite.
Any pushback from me was met with accusations that I was now trying to hide my hatred of Jews, and that I was quite simply now a Jew-hating liar.
After I received a lengthy hate mail on my personal email account accusing me of drug abuse, domestic abuse, misogyny, and racism, as well as other general attacks and nasty name-calling, I pushed back, and allowed my emotions and my reaction to take a personal turn, and personally attack the accuser.
I swallowed the bait: hook, line, and sinker.
The conversation turned ugly pretty quickly, and devolved into a screaming match about who hated whom more, with little actual discussion of the serious topic at hand.
My words have violated the spirit of this forum: to have a rational, civil discussion.
Certainly, I crossed that line.
For that, I apologize.
Not necessarily to the person who sent the hate mail to me, but to the community at large, and particularly to the editor, who had to read all that crap before deleting a significant portion of those inappropriate comments.
However you choose to celebrate this holiday season, I wish you a safe and happy holiday.
Peace,
Shalom,
Assalamu,
And of course,
Peace, Love, and Pasta,
Don Keller
Vineyard Haven
