LETTERS: Seniors becoming what they most fear

Rhetoric of fear is wrong.

To the editor:
   
During the course of last week’s meeting on the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, local seniors came forward to say the reason so many of them were present to protest the club was based on fear.
   Fear that the mass genocide that Adolph Hitler had accomplished during his dictatorship of Germany might happen again in some fashion with the youth of a democratic nation in our small suburb of Monroe. While I applaud all those with the courage and conviction to come forward and express their opinions and concerns, what disturbed me were the threats, both obvious and implied, that filled the air in connection with these speakers.
   From one of the first speakers; a member of Hadassah (The Women’s Zionist Organization of America) stating that their membership was as high as 1,000 strong in Monroe, to the retirement community resident echoing the previous statements of another from the board’s initial Dec. 11 meeting at which the club was approved, "if the board goes ahead with the approval of this club it will impact the voting on all future school board referendums."
   This implies many things, but most importantly it appears to be a clear message to our community that they intend to jeopardize this year’s anticipated school bond referendum and our children’s educational future.
   They intend to take their fear of the Fellowship of the Christian Athletes and use that fear in the same way that Hitler did when he distorted the fears his Christian countrymen had for the Jews in Germany. They want to begin an educational genocide in the township of Monroe. To vote against the educational future, safety and well-being of 4,500 students because of their fear of a small minority of students who hold a different belief and wish to express that belief freely. Have they not just become what at first they most feared?
   I hope that everyone in Monroe will come to realize that the members of the Board of Education who voted 6-3 in favor of this club did so on the basis of good legal council with the best interest of our town and our public schools in mind. The decision was based on clear guidelines outlined in the "Religious Expression in Public Schools" set forth by the secretary of the United States Department of Education in response to the Supreme Courts rulings on these matters.
   This religion-based club, and all other religious or nonreligious clubs, are protected under Equal Access Act — equally.

Tracey Spennato


Monroe