Words of hate must be
heard and answered

Last week, hate hit very close to home. Fliers promoting anti-minority and anti-Israel sentiments were distributed on cars parked at the park-and-ride lot at Wyckoff Road and Route 9 north in Howell.

The fliers were purportedly left by representatives of the National Alliance — described by watchdog organizations as the most important neo-Nazi group in America.

The virulent statements contained in four fliers take aim at America’s support for Israel and at American Jews. Among the most hate-filled text is the following: "The nefarious Anti-Defama-tion League of the B’nai B’rith has targeted America. They feel that our nation has too many barriers to Jewish interests. That’s code for ‘America is too white.’

"So the Jews at the ADL have decided to ‘break down barriers’ by flooding America with blacks, Asians and Mexicans. They call it ‘leading the way for all ethnicities.’ Let’s deport these arrogant Jews. Let’s ship ’em all to Israel!"

If that’s not enough to make good people of all races and religions sit up and take notice, then nothing will.

We don’t take issue with the constitutionally protected right of the National Alliance to place its material in the community.

The community, however, must not ignore the fact that hate-filled people are among us and seeking to turn one group of people against another.

The New Jersey contact person for the National Alliance described the West Virginia-based organization as a "civil rights group for white people whose mandate is preserving white society."

That’s quite a difference of opinion from Chip Berlet, an analyst with the Boston-based Polit-ical Research Associates. Accord-ing to Berlet, who co-authored a book on right-wing populism in America, the National Alliance should be taken seriously.

"It is small, but aggressive and growing," he said.

Berlet said the leader of the National Alliance, William Pierce, runs a record company which markets "hate music." That, said Berlet, is how the National Alliance is increasing its membership — by grabbing teen-agers through the music.

Berlet said people who find the fliers may initially just want to throw them away. That, he said, is a mistake. Berlet said parents should take the literature home and talk about it with their children.

That is one way to meet the issue head on.

At the West Virginia telephone number provided on the fliers, a man who identified himself as Billy Roper answered the telephone. When asked who is eligible to live in the America the National Alliance envisions, Roper said only white persons of wholly European descent, non-Jewish ancestry who are neither drug nor alcohol abusers are welcome.

When asked if the flier’s enjoinder to "...deport these arrogant Jews. Let’s ship ’em all to Israel" could be seriously considered as a viable option under any conditions which could one day be expected to pass, Roper said, "Before the Berlin Wall fell, no one believed that was going to happen either."

Those are chilling words upon which a light must be shone and which must be taken seriously.