Dear Members of the Barrington Community,

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you to express my dismay at how the events at Sherwood Park and my reaction to them in last week’s paper, came across to many, especially to my Jewish friends and neighbors.  Having seen the photo of a swastika so prominent on the front page above the fold and read the article and the editorial, I immediately saw how this would be upsetting to most. It was certainly not how I wanted to communicate to the rest of the town what had happened and what my thoughts were regarding the vandalism and graffiti. It certainly does not tell the whole story. I had reached out to the press to help make the community aware of what happened and to ask for your help in sharing any suspicious activity with the police, not to cause anger or pain to anyone.

Racial, antisemitic and hateful words have no place in our community. Barrington Little League is open to everyone as are the public parks in which we play. I want everyone in our community to feel safe and welcome to participate in our programs and to use the facilities this town has for all of us to enjoy.  

All too often, we try to address the symptoms of an issue rather than seeking to get at the root cause.  I feel very strongly that something such as hate speech is a heart issue — we need to love and to value everyone in our community the same way we want to, and should be, loved and valued. Until we can do that, we will continue to have those among us that spew hate.

I hope that you will stand with me in condemning this behavior and not allowing any members of our community to feel unsafe, unwelcome or undervalued. We can’t just say we’re a community, we need to live it out — common unity, among all who live here.

Aaron Aguiar

Barrington