LETTERS
Many feel Hiller's event was poorly covered
In regards to the July 19 article by Catherine O'Donnell:
The article was titled "Hiller's Market gets support from shoppers" and the first paragraph stated that members of local Jewish congregations and their supporters answered pickets on a Sunday. However, the article itself had very little to do with either the caption or the first and second paragraphs. It was, instead, coverage of the anti-Israel stance of the pickets. Three paragraphs were devoted to the views of one Larry Hochman, another paragraph to vitriolic comments by Blaine Coleman, another paragraph to comments by Harry Clark and two full paragraphs are devoted to the activities of the anti-Israel group.
Approximately 350 shoppers came to Hiller's Market that day. Where are their voices? Only one person is quoted in defense of Israel and in a weird last paragraph, the comment is offered, "Some people, however, simply wanted to buy groceries." Yes, there may have been a handful of those, but there were hundreds who came to demonstrate their support for the only democracy in the Middle East. Why nothing from them? Jim Hiller spoke eloquently of his support of Israel and of his giving some profits to institutions such as schools and hospitals. However, this was supposedly not an article about Hiller's Market, admirable as Jim Hiller's stance is, but about the shoppers there. Why not comments by the organizers of the event? Why not interviews with some of the over 300 people who interrupted a family day to stand in long lines, shopping at Hiller's?
There are many of us who feel this was very poor coverage of the event. One might almost say "non-coverage."
Sara Mendel, Ann Arbor