Hey, there! Log in / Register
Jerk pushes over large menorah on Cambridge Common; bystanders put it back
By adamg on Sun, 12/02/2018 - 8:20pm
Walking past Cambridge Common today w @itsmejono, we saw the park menorah on the ground. 2 young women had witnessed a young man on a bike push it over with intent. We gathered some strangers to help us put it back up. Then the older, Jewish gentleman said a Hanukkah prayer. pic.twitter.com/dm5oX0aX0I
— lillian milagros (@lillian) December 2, 2018
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Terrible!
Terrible!
Thank you to those that stopped and helped to fix the Menorah.
Design could be more curvy!
Design could be more curvy! Looking for rounded design public menorahs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_menorah
Designers/Artists/Sculptors/Architects/Design Schools' students can create curvy public menorahs.
Yeah, that's clearly the
Yeah, that's clearly the issue here. It's not the antisemitism, the public vandalism, or the attempted destruction of property. It's the design of the menorah. If they had just designed a more curvy menorah, this would never have happened.
It's just...
...Saklad being Saklad.
Maybe we need a Guide to
Maybe we need a Guide to Problematical Menorah Usage.
The first thing I noticed ....
... was that the wrong lamps are lit. Should be the middle and rightmost (or leftmost, depending on how you're facing) ones for the first night. Maybe after it came down but before it was put back up, someone fiddled with the light bulbs?
probably
When it got pushed over, the bulbs got knocked about so the right ones went out, and a couple random ones got lit. I doubt they were the wrong ones initially.
It's basic fire safety, everyone
Flags should be constructed from fire resistant material.
Menorahs should be designed with a low center of gravity. If they topple over, that's a fire hazard.
Good designs.
Low center of gravity, good design. A good idea!
Time for curvy design, for rounded design of important Public Menorahs, for example in the spirit of Frank Gehry https://www.google.com/search?q=frank+gehry+sketches&tbm=isch
No longer the rehashed angular sculpted types reangled from angular swastika https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
Your bot was better when it
Your bot was better when it was only about public records :(
Hooray for bystanders who don't stand by
It should be obvious by now that it's easier to wreck than it is to make or mend. That's why, for every wrecker, we need a hundred makers and menders. Thanks to those who light a light and lend a hand.
One always has the choice...
... to walk past the toppled menorah and spend the rest of the day feeling bad about the people who knocked it over, or
to help right it and spend the rest of the day feeling good about yourself...
Diversity!
It was a little heartwarming to see the bystanders who picked it up were about as diverse as could be too. A small moment of the community coming together to right a wrong.
ugh.
It's not so good that my eyes saw
Cambridge - man on bike - pushed over menorah with intent
and my head quickly went to "false flag attack by exurban own-the-libs-fool". Probably should have gone to "young drunken idiot", but that's how it goes these days.
Sigh. Hopefully more winter time in the mountains helps.
Idiots are idiots
And that come in all shapes and sizes, by all sorts of means of transportation, in all communities.
It was a shit move by the guy, but a lot more people tried to make things better. The one asshole dampers things, but let's remember that there is more good than bad in the world.
One must bear in mind, however,
that the asshole(s) who put dampers on things don't have to be in the majority to present a problem.
Why is there religious stuff
Why is there religious stuff in a public park in the first place? Same with the Jesus stuff in the Boston Common.
I bet you'd be even more pissed
if you found out it was transported there by automobile.
Someone doesn't like public displays of religion
And someone doesn't drive. Any chance you were biking in Cambridge yesterday?
Perhaps you need to re-read the First Amendment
Then you might understand why there's nothing wrong with this.
Actually
You need to reread it. Free exercise of religion is for your own front lawn. Public property has a lot of rules that come with it, including bans on religious displays because of the establishment clause (not related to Santa).
Where I grew up, these things were absolutely restricted to private land, no exceptions. That's because there were a lot more denominations, not Catholic rule.
Lawns aren't mentioned in the First Amendment
But feel free to re-read it yourself.
The City doesn't own the menorah (or the creche.) A private group putting it up is as much an establishment as allowing white supremacists to have a rally on Boston Common is declaring that Boston is pro-white supremacy.
Like Roadman said, you need to read up on the law
First Amendment case law is pretty clear: Public "forums," such as, oh, a city common are an all or nothing thing: If a city allows one religious group the opportunity to express its beliefs on the Common, it has to give the same opportunity to other religions; conversely, a city has the right to bar all religious expressions on a city common. But it can't pick and choose: It's OK for Boston to allow a creche on Boston Common as long as they also allow a menorah; it's OK for the Florida legislature to allow a nativity scene, they have to allow a Festivus pole.
Why, there was a case on just this question right here in Boston a few months ago, involving City Hall Plaza and the flagpoles over it. I attached the judge's ruling to that story, should you want to dive in.
Bring on the drawing of the
Bring on the drawing of the Founding Fathers and Statue of Liberty worshipping a just-born Bill of Rights. And the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
Personally, I feel it secularizes holidays when the government gets involved. If you want to keep Christmas religious, keep it in the church and your house, and as your legislators to remove it from the list of Federal holidays.
Boston's Iwo Jima moment!
A still from the video at the point the menorah is going up with several people raising it would do the trick.