As if the media doesn't already have a slanted-enough view of African-American/Jewish relations...
A judge has deemed a 38 year-old African-American man from Lakewood, New Jersey named Lee Tucker (pictured left) competent to stand trial on attempted murder charges after allegedly using a baseball bat to severely beat Rabbi Mordechai Moskowitz in October, 2007.
The then 53 year old Rabbi, a third grade teacher, was walking to synagogue to pray.
The attack has unsettled many in the Jewish e-media communities, including the Yeshiva World.com Website where I go to try and get a pulse on the orthodox community here in New York.
I blog about a lot of strange and sometimes senseless violent hate attacks here. But I must admit, this one just leaves me confused and saddened. Wondering, why?
One of the reasons I began this blog was to try and find some kind of creative outlet to explore the obstacles to racial and cultural tolerance that have so often confounded me during the course of my life.
Growing up as an African-American in a predominantly white suburban enclave was, in some ways, culturally isolating. But it also taught me respect of and appreciation for people of many races and backgrounds.
On the street I lived on were families from Bangladesh, Australia and there were white families who were devout Catholics or Protestants and some who were quietly non-denominational. Our next door neighbors were Jewish and our families were close.
My mother baked bread for them on Jewish holidays, when they went on vacation they gave me their house key to water their plants. Lee Tucker's actions make absolutely no sense to me.
It feels similar to how I felt trying to wrap my brain around the violence of the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn, New York in 1991, partly because of the Dinkins Administration allowing the conflict to rage for three days, but also because it was such a stark contrast to the way I'd grown up.
Perhaps I was just a sheltered suburban child. Or maybe, there were thousands of people in the Crown Heights community on all sides of the issue who were similarly sheltered inside hatred and fear and ignorance. It's a matter of perspective.
But then there are the Lee Tuckers. What can you make of beating anyone with a bat, let alone a religious leader and teacher? Was Tucker trying to get his wallet, or just pissed off? Was he insane? Look at his photo above, he looks scared, but not crazy to me.
If Tucker is guilty I'm not sure it can be passed off simply as schizophrenia or insanity as the defense lawyers have tried to suggest.
Perhaps there are times when we have to just close our eyes and try really hard to remained focused on a vision of a world where unity, tolerance and respect are the norm rather than mindless brutality and violence fueled by hate.
Guys like Lee Tucker are branded by the hate and resentment, perhaps it's better if his lawyers just stop trying to cop insanity pleas for him so he can go to jail and think about the fact that he attacked a 53 year-old Rabbi and 3rd grade teacher with a bat when he was on the way to pray.
Lee Tucker is most definitely NOT Baracking, but he's not a reflection of evolved perspective. He's content to be sheltered by hate.
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