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February 11, 2000/5 Adar 1 5760, Vol. 52, No.23
Cooley to Jews, blacks: 'Quit your complaining'
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
An Arizona legislator says Jews and blacks need to quit complaining about things that offend them so they won't alienate other groups.
Rep. Dean Cooley, R-East Mesa, at a luncheon for legislators Tuesday, Feb. 8, at the State Capitol hosted by the Anti-Defamation League, told Jewish News, "The blacks go out and make a brouhaha about all these different things and what they're doing is alienating the people over here that they want to accept them."
"I think the Jews, when they go out and complain about a particular something, they're alienating (other groups)," he said.
Cooley was commenting about remarks made by Tamar Galatzan, the ADL's western states associate counsel, during a speech to the lawmakers about issues - separation of church and state, hate crimes, civil rights and hate on the Internet - the ADL is concerned about.
Galatzan mentioned church-state separation cases, including one some four years ago in California that involved a school play about the birth of Christ. In response to a complaint by a Jewish parent whose child was given a role requiring a bow to the baby Jesus, school district officials canceled the production.
Cooley, commenting when the floor was open to discussion after Galatzan's remarks, said he believes the play should not have been stopped and that no offense should have been taken. He said that he had recently worn a kippah (skullcap) at a Jewish funeral without feeling offended.
Marc Lieberman, chairman of the ADL's regional board, disagreed with Cooley. "When there is a reason to complain we will be there to complain," Lieberman said. "If we were to keep quiet for fear of alienating someone else, I think that would lead to serious consequences not only to our community but for other minorities as well."
Lieberman said Cooley missed the point of Galatzan's remarks. "He was comparing the play, which was sponsored by the government, to a private funeral," Lieberman said. "To me, they are apples and oranges. The government was not putting on a private funeral that he was attending. The government was not forcing him to wear a yarmulke (skullcap). The government, in the play situation, was forcing all the kids, whether they believed in Jesus or not, or believed that Jesus was the messiah, to bow their heads. To me, that's a cogent difference."
After the luncheon, Cooley amplified on his remarks to Jewish News and suggested that, in keeping religion out of school, "we're trying to be too sterile."
"The only time you're going to learn respect for each other is if you're involved with each other," Cooley said. "That means it may be that you'll have to go to a production of the birth of Christ, but then, on the opposite side, why not have a production about the other groups that are in school? You only learn respect if you're all accepting each other for who they are and what they are."
Cooley said he doesn't support mandatory school prayer but does believe a prayer at a graduation ceremony is appropriate and that groups that want to meet at school for activities such as prayer circles should be permitted.
"That brings values," he said. "That brings the qualities we want in a person."
Cooley said he'd prefer seeing local control over such issues rather than "a national policy on what people can or cannot do when it comes to expressing themselves."
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