OPINIONS AND THE OTHER THING

Sent this to LYNNHAPPENS after last nights meeting


LPS, Gordon College, and the severance of ties

Stanley Wotring <lynn.school.watch@gmail.com>	11:33 PM (11 hours ago)
to editor

Despite Lynn School Committee member' Gallo's resistance, the public will have the opportunity to present testimony on the wisdom of severing ties with Gordon College because of the fact they had signed on to a letter requesting a religious exemption to an executive order barring discrimination based on sexual orientation in hiring practices of any business with government contracts. Remind you at the time no act had been committed. There was only the asking of a question. Punishing them for this is a violation of the rights of Free Speech guaranteed to us by the First Amendment.

Not to mention the questions surrounding the Freedom of Religion. Of course, the threat of persecution only further emboldens the suffering party to maintain a rigidity in their belief system only insuring that the supposed wanted change only becomes less likely to occur.

Also imposing a punishment before an actual crime was committed violates the spirit at least of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution requiring DUE PROCESS. This act was made especially egregious when the fact that the exemption was later granted.

Makes on wonder if Attorney Gallo missed class on the day they covered the Constitution. While Attorney Gallo did not act alone in his effort to cause the Lynn Public School system to seer ties with Gordon College, his standing as an officer of the court makes the matter all the more troubling.

Hopefully when the required Public Hearing is held in June enough of the Lynn School Committee will see fit to reverse this travesty. This is not so much a religious persecution as a legal one. In the end, the sentence falls on the children of Lynn.

Stanley H. Wotring, Jr.