ZD: I never said what the Pashtun speaker should or shouldn’t get because it’s not an either or situation. We try to get services for our community and I’ll let the Pashtun speakers try to get whatever they can. If we have more voters, or clout or whatever, perhaps we can be more successful. This is America, and especially in NYC a lot of services are catered to different language speakers. As the famous mishna goes, if I’m not for myself, who will be for me?
You can call it selfish, but I doubt the Pashtun speaker will withhold asking for services in Pashtun because somewhere in Monsey a Yiddish speaker was denied Yiddish services. And believe me the Chinese have no problem either… And if the city or county refuses because it’s too costly, we can arrange for private schooling instead to meet our needs instead. And ask the county to pay for it – because it’s really a win-win situation if one looks at it with unbiased eyes.
Somehow the minorities in Rockland feel otherwise, not because they want similar services, but because they feel our services are coming out of their fair share. If the state will look at it fairly they will acknowledge that EVERYONE is being short-changed here and fix the formula as there’s simply not enough money to go around.. Problem is they went with the easier option of blaming the Chasidim/Orthodox.
I strongly suggest.you read the Tablet Mag article on this topic (The Blame Game).