DOE R
PROFILE
Marching For Myself
SYLVIATR
liVA\
City: Commerce . Twp.
Kudos: Teaching Food Safety
As a food safety and nutrition educator, Sylvia
Treitman took her experience to a June 26 talent
show presentation at a Fresh Air Society, Tamarack
Camps-sponsored Bubbie-Zaydie and Kinder Camp
retreat at the Butzel Conference Center in Ortonville.
Treitman, who works for the Michigan State
University Extension-Oakland County in Pontiac,
attended the camp with her husband, Hyman, enlist-
ing help from grandsons Max Kahn, 6, and Izaac
Kahn, 4, of Bufalo Grove, Ill.
What did you
teach the
campers about
food safety
and cleanli-
ness?
"Our family
taught the
audience the
importance of
washing your
hands before
Max Kahn, 6, and Izaac Kahn, 4,
cooking and
help their grandmother Sylvia
after eating,
Treitman with the presentation.
going to the
bathroom,
touching pets or anything dirty. We taught them
that germs can make you very sick and soap and
water are the tools you need to get rid of germs."
How did your grandchildren assist you?
"In a grumpy voice, Max expertly acted out the
part of the puppet, 'Mr. Bac,' a strange form of
green bacteria who teaches the importance of
hand-washing. Izaac scrubbed Mr. Bac with a
bucket of soap suds to make him disappear. They
explained how soap and water get rid of germs to
keep hands sparkling clean and keep kids from
getting sick. It was such a terrific teachable
moment for so many children."
.
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman, staff writer
MSU Extension-Oakland County offers fire informa-
tion in areas including food nutrition, horticulture,
water quality and parenting. For questions on food
safety, nutrition and preservation, call the Food Safety
Hotline at (248) 858-0904.
REPORT A DOER:.
Know a Doer — someone of any age doing interest-
ing, meaningful things in their life outside of their
job? Share suggestions with. Keri Guten Cohen, story
development editor, at (248) 351-5144 or e-mail:
kcohenethejewishnews.com
C
alifornia's secretary of
education, Richard
Riordan, recently paid a
visit to an elementary
school and had a conversation
with a 6-year-old girl named Isis.
The child said that she was
named for an Egyptian goddess.
Riordan responded that what Isis
GEORGE
really meant was "stupid dirty
CANTOR
girl."
Reality
It was an incredibly dumb thing
Check
to say, even if, as Riordan subse-
quently explained, he merely
meant to tease the child.
There was the predictable uproar and calls for
Riordan's resignation, if not dismember-
ment. There was also a planned protest
march by a black organization.
The march was canceled, however,
when it was learned that little Isis
was white.
You want to know what's
gone wrong with America?
There it is. This is
what the diversity
hucksters have
accomplished.
This organiza-
tion had its indig-
nation button on go; but as soon as it realized that
Isis was some other group's victim, it was back to
neutral.
If you were upset by what Riordan said to the
child, what difference does it make what color she
is? Doesn't a white child have the same sensitivity
- as a member of a minority?
We are being diced up into separate groups, neat-
ly compartmentalized for the sake of grievance.
And the practical effect of all that is to put griev-
ance on a hair trigger.
•
If we are told repeatedly that rights in America
adhere to groups and not individuals, what other
result is possible? I'll march for my rights in a flash.
You take care of your own problems.
The political process was once designed to broad-
en the definition of American. As former Detroiter
Michael Barone pointed out in his brilliant book
Our Country: The Shaping of America from_Roosevelt
to Reagan, the history of our national elections can
be seen as an ongoing debate over that definition.
But the diversity mavens insist that the argument
is irrelevant. All that really matters is how well each
identifiable group can protect and expand its rights
through their own claims on national guilt.
I remember an anecdote about George M.
Cohan, who was Irish, checking into a hotel
and initially being refused a room. The
manager suddenly recognized him and
began to apologize. "I'm so sorry, Mr.
Cohan," he said. "I thought you were
Jewish."
"The mistake was mine," said
Cohan, turning to leave. "I
thought you were an
American."
I think that attitude
has gone missing in
recent years; the
concept that
America is a
wonderful
enterprise and we are all in it together. Imperfect,
perhaps, but with the implicit promise that we will
try to do better.
If an Arab American's rights are violated because
of his ethnicity, that is nor good news for me as a
Jewish American. We understood that once in this
country.
John Donne probably said it best centuries ago.
"Never send to ask for whom the bell tolls; It tolls
for thee."
Someone heard the bell in California. But when
they heard it wasn't coming from their church, they
closed their ears. ❑
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejewishnews.com
Shabbat Candlelighting
"When I light my Shabbat candles, I remember my mother and grandmother. I recite the candle-
lighting prayer and softly invoke the quiet supplication taught to me by these two women, asking
for good health and success for my family."
—
Tamy Chelst, Ph.D., audiologist, Southfield
Candlelighting
Friday, July 16, 8:49 p.m.
Candlelighting
Friday, July 23; 8:43 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, July 17, 9:57 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, July 24, 9:50 p.m.
To submit a candlelighting message, call Miriam Amzalak of the Lubavitch Women's Organization at (248) 548-6771 or e-mail• miriamainzalakl@juno.com
7/16
2004
9