S/o of children playing on train tracks

Notsobusy

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 9:57 am

amother wrote:

Personally, I would have found out where these people daven and I would have spoken to the rabbi(s) of their shul(s). That would have been the first thing. If that doesn't work, there are other steps to take. However, I am sure it would work, as I am familiar with the shuls and the rabbis in that neighborhood.

Who's stopping you? Go do it now. There can't be that many shuls in the neighborhood, even if you don't know where everyone davens, speak to the rabbis in the main shuls.

amother

Fuchsia

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 10:32 am

amother wrote:

That's a fine approach, provided that you can identify every kid who has ever played on the tracks.

I would guess that the Rabbi will speak to the fathers and not the mothers. Mr. X comes home from shul and his wife gets all defensive and says that of course she never lets the kids out of sight, it must be somebody else's kids. Or something like that.

This is such a dangerous situation that it's not the time to be delicate.

I disagree. Community problems should be addressed by community leaders. That's what they are there for. They can hold a women's gathering if your concern is valid. This did not have to become a world discussion.

amother

Slategray

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 10:58 am

amother wrote:

But the community leaders were either unaware of the problem or unwilling to deal with it until now.
Unfortunately, lots of problems don't get the attention they deserve until they get more attention than they deserve.
We are lucky that this came up before a tragedy. Maybe it will encourage more safety awareness, to the point that stories like this don't make the news because they aren't happening any more.

Jeanette

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 11:13 am

Are people seriously more worried about preserving the reputation of the community than the lives of children? It doesn't seem to stop anyone when the problem is tznius or Internet use. We're not wringing our hands about the terrible Loshon hara involved. Why is this different?

amother

Fuchsia

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 11:13 am

amother wrote:

I wonder if someone made them aware of the issue before publishing the letter.

amother

Fuchsia

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 11:18 am

Jeanette wrote:

It's not about what's more important. It's about how the issue is handled.

Notsobusy

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 11:22 am

amother wrote:

They would have to be blind and living under a rock to not know about this.

Why would you say this? It's not like the train passes multiple times a day and this is what's going on. From the original article on the Lakewood Scoop, it sounds like it's a once a week occurrence. If you don't pass there during that one time a week, you won't know about it. Even if you live around there, you don't necessarily pass there at that time.

Jeanette

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 11:31 am

amother wrote:

It's not about what's more important. It's about how the issue is handled.

So why not the other way around? Make a big public stink about chbild safety, and address tznius or Internet use problems quietly and discreetly. I'm sure you realize that when a community chooses to agitate about one problem over the other, that sends a pretty loud message about priorities.

amother

Fuchsia

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 11:41 am

Jeanette wrote:

You bring up an important point. But, two wrongs don't make a right. Just because there are other issues, it doesn't make it that a specific issue raised is not a valid concern.

sky

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 11:56 am

glutenless wrote:

Correct. I think it is once a week it makes a round trip through Lakewood. The second time everyone is sleeping (I think) I only hear at the 8:00 time.

I live in Lakewood and I think it is important to publicize it. We live within bike riding distance of the tracks. My boys are still way to young to ride there themselves but one day they will be. It never would have crossed my mind to discuss with them the dangers of riding their bikes on tracks.
When I get stuck in traffic over tracks I discuss with them how we never stop a car on the tracks. And when I see people walking on the tracks (very common, mainly Non-Jewish adults were I live) I discuss with them how dangerous that is.
But I never would have thought to discuss the train in terms of their bikes. Now I know.

leah233

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 12:43 pm

The letter was also printed in the Yated.

While normally I vehemently oppose bashing communities publicly, in this case I don't see any issue.

It wasn't presented as a general failing of the Lakewood community nor did it use the issue as pretext to bash all sorts of of other irrelevant Lakewood issues (real or imagined)

Finally the letter wasn't written as some sort of self righteous bashing that it is so prevalent on blogs. It was clearly written sincerely as an internal warning about one specific issue.It had to name the community for clarity.

Chayalle

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 1:31 pm

amother wrote:

They would have to be blind and living under a rock to not know about this.

I live in Lakewood, though nowhere near the tracks....I knew nothing about this until I opened this post. I then went and looked for the article in TLS. Now I know about it.

It's a good thing I'm not a community leader.

amother

Jade

Thu, Jun 11 2015, 3:28 pm

My parents live directly across from the tracks and I was unaware of the issue until now. The train only passes through twice a week and once early in the morning. I never watched the train so I never witnessed this behavior. The houses right where the kids are getting close to the tracks are relatively new. So, yes, it is very possible for people to be unaware of this behavior. I think that this letter will do the job. It is bringing awareness to an issue that was never addressed before.
About the crossing. It is only 2 weeks old. I can't believe that people are actually trying to get around it. The only dl"z is that in the past it was only lights (no bars) and it was broken so that it if you got to the crossing, you could wait a good 5 minutes or even more with no train. So drivers were stopping, looking both ways, and crossing. So maybe these drivers were unaware of the changes and driving on autopilot. I do think that the shuls in the area should address this topic in shul this week. The shuls in this area have strong Rabbis that their congregations listen to and I think it will be highly effective.