 
In Defense of OrthoMom
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By Larry Gordon
Published on Sunday, February 18, 2007 -
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[This is a mid-week article available exclusively here on the official website of The Five Towns Jewish Times.]
I was at a school board meeting a couple of months ago where the main focus of the meeting was the matter of free speech. The meeting took place in the immediate aftermath of death threats that were received by four of the seven school board members. Board president, Dr. Asher Mansdorf instituted an admission policy to the meeting where people who wanted to attend had to sign in and show identification. Both board members Pam Greenbaum and Stanley Kopilow thought that the new policy would intimidate people from attending the meetings. That people with legitimate concerns want to voice those concerns about education in the district would be put off by the need to sign their real name and show ID is quite mystifying. The new policy should mostly keep out people who are afraid to be identified because they are not concerned about education in the district but rather intend to heckle, insult and denigrate some members of the school board. If the ID policy keeps them out---then it's already been effective.
The funny thing about this meeting was both Pam and Stan---who knew they were in the minority---were steadfast in their opposition to the requirement of identification being displayed before being allowed entrance into the building. Then it was learned that the HAFTR basketball team practiced in the gym in this building in Cedarhurst and that some members of the team might not have appropriate or required ID. Pam Greenbaum perked up, came to life and did a triple Lutz complete turnaround. She hemmed and hawed and said that maybe ID's were not a bad idea after all and it seemed that she only changed her position after she learned that the policy might backfire and keep the HAFTR team out of the building.
All night that night Pam and Stan were concerned about what they called "free speech being chilled." Now Pam and her court papers that were filed seeking to out OrthoMom is trying to put free speech into a deep freeze. It looks like situational ethics in all its glory, that is ethics depending on the situation. Pam's filings are indeed frivolous and will ultimately be determined to be a waste of the courts time. Now Pam has incurred the wrath of OrthoMom, a nice respectful 5 Towns Jewish mother. I'm sure you know well the contemporary adage----"If Momma Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy." Long live free speech, long live OrthoMom . God bless America. ♦
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