Letter: Don’t stymie religious freedom

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004 | 8:55 a.m.

Various sportscasters and sportswriters have lambasted Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers for not playing Saturday afternoon. These are the same sportscasters and sportswriters who never mentioned a word when Barry Bonds took the day off after his 700th home run. They also thought that it was OK for Pedro Martinez to miss his pitching spot and leave the U.S. for his home before the All-Star Game. After all, these two players needed a rest.

These men who are attacking Green for not playing one game on the holiest day of the Jewish year (Yom Kippur) have shown their true colors. These people are all part of the secular, faithless and materialistic population of this nation who don't believe that anyone has the right to practice their religion. The U.S. was founded on freedom of religion, which means nothing to these godless people. Their God is power, money and sports, and nothing else, obviously, matters to them.

Green should not have played on Friday night either. Yom Kippur began at sundown on Friday and didn't end until three stars were in the heavens on Saturday night. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement for Jews worldwide. This is the day we ask God to forgive us for the sins that we may have committed against God. This is the day we ask other people to forgive us for the sins we have committed against them. What more holy day can there be in any religion?

Green played Friday night and won the game for the Dodgers and this should have placated the rabble, but it did not. They still have to attack Green for being Jewish, believing in God, and for having religious faith. Sandy Koufax refused to pitch in a World Series game because it fell on Yom Kippur. He was looked upon as a hero for his actions during a time when many Americans felt strongly about supporting Israel and Jews in general after the Holocaust in Europe. Today the Holocaust is studied in schools, but not treated as a recent historic event.

I guess that all of these sportscasters and writers think that a holiday is a day to celebrate, eat and get drunk. Yom Kippur is not a holiday; it is a "holy" day. They all need a class in what a "holy" day is about and they need to change their attitudes.

BOB DUBIN