A northern New Jersey board of education member accused of Facebook posts urging Muslims to “stay in your desserts” is refusing to step down despite a growing list of educators and lawmakers calling for her resignation. Gladys Gryskiewicz remained listed as a trustee of the Elmwood Park Board of Education on its website on Wednesday despite an uproar over reports of a series of messages on her personal Facebook account. Posts earlier this year urged Muslims to “stay in your desserts [sic] and follow your religion in your own countries,” as well as “Go back to your own country; America needs to get rid of people like you,” according to a statement from the New Jersey chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. Gryskiewicz’s lawyer, Evan Goldman, was quoted in The Record of Bergen County newspaper as confirming that his client wrote the online comments and saying she would not resign…. “Obviously she knows she wrote it,” Goldman told the Record. “She wishes she could take it back.”
I believe it was Barry Goldwater who once famously said, “Extremism in the defense of ignorance and bigotry is no crime.” Or maybe it was Bob Dylan. Or Woody Guthrie; I never could keep all that book learnin’ straight.
Yessiree; straight from the “Better to be thought a fool and a bigot than to open your mouth and remove any lingering doubt” Department comes the story of one Gladys Gryskiewicz (there’s NO WAY that could be her real name…amiright??). It seems the esteemed Ms. G has somehow managed to get herself elected as a trustee of the Elmwood Park Board of Edumication while having no idea what edumication even is.
I can’t begin to divine her motives or make sense of her irrational, hateful diatribe directed at Muslims. I do have a pro tip for her, though: If you feel moved to disperse your hatred of all things Muslim (or of other people not like you) to the four corners of the globe Facebook, you might want to give some thought to running your words through spell check.
You can thank me later.
