Nina Stopa
Dear editor:
I am writing this in response to the letter entitled “Scandalous” in your paper last week.
While I am not here to dispute Mr. Johnson’s claims, as it is my belief that such ignorance and bigotry is inarguable, I am here to say shame on you for printing such hate speech and giving this man a platform from which he can spew his horrendous nonsense.
While I am well aware of the Freedom of Speech Act, you, as a public voice, that reaches out to a significant populous, have the ability and responsibility to censor publications which promote hate speech.
Might I remind you of what occurred a few years ago when you printed a letter, or multiple letters, in response to an article about gay marriage; your newspaper single-handedly encouraged a giant community gay-bashing that ensued for weeks.
While I can appreciate the desire as a business to want to engage readers and increase the number of newspapers sold due to controversy and dramatic community conversation, these are not the types of conversations we want to be engaged in.
In case you missed the memo, our society is attempting to move past homophobia, gender biases, misogyny, and stereotyping—themes that all were present in the letter you printed.
I hope in the future you will choose to engage readers in positive conversations—ones that perhaps give us a platform to publicly discuss matters of importance within our community; such as why decisions are being made by our town that clearly oppose the wishes of a majority of those who live in it.
Please don’t provide encouragement to other ignorant individuals who may see this as an avenue to take when they, too, want to promote their outdated and unappreciated opinions, which actually are just masked sentiments of hate towards already marginalized members of society.
Saddened
and disappointed,
Nina Stopa
