To the editor:

The cover page of today's newspaper is profoundly insensitive and offensive. You mailed a picture of a swastika to all of your subscribers. It’s the first thing seen, without even opening the paper.

Because of your prior coverage of hateful vandalism in town, I'm making the intentional choice to give you the benefit of the doubt, that your goal was to highlight the hateful aspects of this act, as more than just some “knuckleheads” making a poor choice to get a rise out of people. But as a person who has walked through the death camps in Poland and smelled the ashes of thousands of my people, it is literally painful to look at your newspaper today. 

You’re probably aware that Barrington is home to a Holocaust survivor. Can you imagine enduring what she endured... only to open your mailbox decades later, and find that your local newspaper mailed you a large picture of the Nazi's hateful symbol. Hopefully she isn't a subscriber.

After reading the article online earlier today, I reached out to the Little League, to invite the president to discuss the pain and power of that symbol, the accompanying language in the vandalism, and how his comments around it can impact people. Perhaps a larger conversation is also needed, because sensationalizing this is a second offense that compounds the first, and giving kids (assuming it was kids) something to do with their time during the day isn’t going to wash away the hate behind this.

This is not okay. It cannot be ignored. And the fact that it keeps happening without a larger discussion makes Barrington less safe for the many types of people who the Nazis killed... Including several groups for whom the town flies flags; without ever really talking about.

Take care,

Jacob Brier

Barrington