When growing up in the East, my family moved to a town where we were the only Jewish family. My mother had us wear the Star of David. When we left the house for school, someone would rip it off my brother and me, and beat us up. We finally got smart and took it off as we left our home.
Joining the Navy in the ’60s, I was first assigned to the hanger deck crew on an aircraft carrier. Most of the crew were uneducated and racist. I was called Heb, Kike, dirty Jew and other names you can’t publish.
Luckily, I had high scores on my aptitude tests and was transferred to the communications department. It is the elite of a Navy ship. The men there were educated, and race or religion was not an issue. I rose in rank and enjoyed my work as a radioman.
DEI is important. Not to teach it is a mistake. I am lucky, I can hide behind my whiteness, where a person of color cannot. If we don’t teach our children the dark history of America, we will repeat those dark years.
Banning books and spreading hate is not what America does! I don’t know any book that has killed a child, but I know of many children killed by assault weapons. Ban assault weapons not books! History not learned is history repeated.
Larry Berger
Cortez
