BIGOTRY: A smear on great community

Joan Harman’s Special to the Press, “Bigotry toward Jews” (4/3/2010, C3-1) saddened me. Those with any consideration for building a better community and a bright future for our children must be sensitive to how North Idaho can be characterized by the national press.

My grandfather was killed by the Nazis in World War II so my family knows anti-Semitism. A review of the proud heritage of the names Finman, Feinman, Fineman, and Feynman confirms where I stand on bigotry towards Jews.

When Harman sees North Idaho and reads “letters that your paper has published over a period of many years,” she notes “the history of Christianity has been one of bigotry.” When I see North Idaho, I see a beautiful region with good-hearted people.  I have had absolutely no personal experience with anti-Semitism in North Idaho, and I do not understand why Harman would be spending her time writing to a newspaper that my positive experience with good people in a beautiful region is not valid.

Harman writes, “That is the one problem of bigotry after all, just how hypocritical it can be.”  Can’t she understand that the only hypocritical bigotry that I see in North Idaho is her own? Hypocritical bigotry limits personal enjoyment of life and the ability to build a better world, so Harman is the main loser when she writes about “the Christian tradition of bigotry.” However, Harman should know that our community also loses when the national press picks up on her words.

PAUL FINMAN

Post Falls