LETTERS
Board of Ed Hears All Sides Italian Home Misrepresents "Religion of Humanism" Questioned Stand Strong Against Tide of Humanist Media One Mother’s Reaction to Ritalin School Choice Over Central Control Censorship by the AP? Woman Concerned That Children Are At Risk More On APA Apology Board of Ed Hears All Sides For a newspaper which claims to admire reporter Scott Giordano for putting "no twists on the story," your January article "Chairman on LaFontaine’s Side?" resembles one large twist, a veritable pretzel of outright lies and convenient omission of information crucial to presenting a balanced article. You write that "[LaFontaine and his friends] were given the opportunity at the end of December to present their views on the issues affecting gay students to the entire Board [of Education]. But these were only the views of David LaFontaine and his friends. Are there no other views to be heard?" That’s funny, I seem to remember Parents Coalition representative Scott Whiteman harping on the Boston Globe’s dismissal of statistics correlating higher suicide rates to gay students. And stammering some noncommittal reply when confronted with data from the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Study, correlating higher incidences of bulimia, absenteeism, and carrying weapons to school among the subset of gay students. I also seem to remember Evelyn Rielly, the executive director of the Christian Coalition of Massachusetts, dismissing all gay-straight alliances as (and I quote) "magnets for pedophiles." Another convenient omission: in her testimony she neglected to mention that not a single case of molestation has been documented in connection with BAGLY or any other GSA, a fact tucked away in the literature she distributed to the board. The fact that her rhetoric is purely hypothetical makes it all the more offensive. So how dare you imply to your readers that only David LaFontaine and friends addressed the Board in December? How dare you inquire "are there no other voices to be heard?" Would you prefer to ignore the voices of Rielly and Whiteman because their arguments were irrational and easily refuted? Or is portraying the conservative movement as marginalized victims simply more important than reporting the facts? –Marcel LaFlamme
Editor’s Comment: Mr. LaFlamme is correct. We did miss the news stories which reported that Reilly attended and spoke at the meeting. We can’t find any stories that mentioned Whiteman. Good for the Board for allowing them to speak and good for them for attending. Maybe we can have a dialogue in Massachusetts after all. I have just read your December article about alleged abuse of clients at the Walker Home and School in Needham and the Italian Home for Children in Jamaica Plain. I am writing to tell you that your article represents the basest form of irresponsible, biased reportage (I will not dignify it with the name of journalism) I have ever seen. As is too often the case in the ideologically informed press, your article is full of accusation and innuendo, with no proof or evidence of the conclusions you are asking your readers to reach. It is clear from this whole series of articles on the Department of Social Services that your agenda is not to report facts, but to dismantle, disable, or at least discredit a state agency. Without commenting on DSS in particular, I would say that dismantling, disabling, and discrediting government agencies is generally a good thing, but noble ends cannot be achieved by ignoble means. When I studied journalism, one of the first things I learned was that a responsible journalist, when he can’t verify the facts, doesn’t publish the story – especially if it is inflammatory, as yours was. But clearly you have no interest in truth or accuracy. Your reporting is a disgrace to all conservatives and to conservatism itself. – Alan H. Cousin
Editor’s Comment: For some reason, Mr. Cousin fails to inform us that he works at the Italian Home for Children (as its Information Systems Director) where Tara Gavigan was incarcerated, and, according to her, was severely abused. "Religion of Humanism" Questioned I just received a copy of Massachusetts News for the first time. I never read your publication before. I question "Religion of Humanism". What a dichotomy and play for power to control when people are in a confused state. According to the dictionary:
Our forefathers cannot be topped – they still have the proper perspective almost 300 years later: separation of religion and state. Voucher systems are not the answer. Neighborhood schools are still the best preparation if politicians allow. Unfortunately the public still is too lazy to vote and elect people to office who are humanist. Religion should return to very private issue with individuals. Religious leaders should respect and restrain from publicity. Why do you need a minister on your staff? Seems to me you need to define the perspectives of your newspaper. – Dorothea S. Piranian
Editor’s Comment: Our lead editorial should help to explain our position in this matter. The "separation of church and state" was the idea of only one man, Thomas Jefferson, and was expressed in a letter. Jefferson was at odds with most of his countrymen on this issue, as he acknowledged. Stand Strong Against Tide of Humanist Media Just a quick note to tell you how much I appreciate your efforts. The courage to take the healthy point of view on a variety of social concerns is admirable. While we may differ at minor points, it is refreshing to me to find an editor and a newspaper that has not bought into the humanist agenda and is willing to stand strong, often against the tide of the larger media. In general, I still believe the public wants decency and goodness not only personally, but also for their communities and their governments. Keep "hanging in there." I have urged others to subscribe to the Massachusetts News and will continue to do so. – Pastor Jed N. Snyder
One Mother’s Reaction to Ritalin Regarding the article about boys on Ritalin in your November issue, while I certainly agree with the premise that Ritalin is overprescribed for the convenience of teachers, your article made some disturbing points. First, sure, you’re right that Ritalin can be easily misused and subsequently do more harm than good. Sounds like any drug. Are we going to ban antibiotics too, or tout them as a harmful substance? There are plenty of careful and informed parents whose choice to put their child on Ritalin is the right one. Come now, are we parents really expected to swallow Dr. Briggins’ idea that "fatherless children" are the ones having more problems with ADHD? Explore any website devoted to discussions of ADHD children and you’ll find an equal number of married and single-parent families struggling with this issue. There are plenty of statistics debunking the conservative myth that more successful children come from two-parent families headed by fathers. What are the single mothers supposed to do, suspend rational treatment of the problem so they can search for a man to take care of everything? Stay in a bad marriage? It’s frightening that an expert in the medical community would actually promote such a subjective and emotional viewpoint, and that you would print it as fact. Finally, your information about Eric Harris (the Columbine student) being on Luvox is misleading. Luvox doesn’t even fall into the same chemical family as Ritalin and other stimulants. More importantly, the videotapes left behind indicates that he had gone off the Luvox for some time before the shooting. So again, you seem more focused on adding to the hype than to the facts. I can’t help being suspicious now of your other statistics and your motives. This article seems better suited to promote some conservative agenda or scare campaign than to help us help our ADD kids. – Name Withheld
School Choice Over Central Control Concerning your editorial, "Massachusetts Leads The Way in Dumbing Down School Standards" (Jan. 2000), I’m confused as to what your position on Ed Reform is. You seem to want a higher failure level on passing grade for the MCA’s Tests. This position is a big government defense since the MCAS tests have resulted in additional billions of dollars for public education (primarily teachers in liberal unions) and a state takeover of local schools. I’m shocked that a conservative paper would even imply their support. At the end of your article you say, "We should do all we can to help these parents get their kids out of public schools." Where’s the word voucher? Why didn’t you state the obvious that vouchers are the fairest way to let financially-challenged parents out of this failed system? What’s the problem? – Larry Overland
Editors Comment: We welcome Mr. Overland’s letter and we encourage him to write an opinion article about this for the next issue. On Sept. 26, Jesse Dirkhising, 13, died in Arkansas after two homosexual men had drugged, bound, gagged and strapped him face-down on a mattress so he could be repeatedly raped and sodomized with various objects. He choked on his shorts, which had been stuffed in his mouth and sealed, with duct tape. The story of this brutal murder was front-page news in the largest paper in Arkansas. It raised important social issues regarding the abuse of young boys by homosexual men and their use of sadistic torture for sexual satisfaction. The story has been given little coverage by media outside of Arkansas. The AP didn’t put the story on its national wire until over a month after the boy’s death. At a time when our public schools are being pressured to teach that homosexuality is normal, it appears that our media are under pressure to downplay the evidence that it has a very abnormal dark side. – Jack E. Molesworth
Woman Concerned That Children Are At Risk I found an article on the Internet published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Brian Baldwin (brianbaldwin@hotmail.com) claiming that nationwide, the number of teachers who have lost licenses because of sex offenses has risen 80% since l994! Given that Massachusetts has embraced the public school sex pistols with such abandonment, is our state seeing an increase in sexually abused children? What about the homosexual sex clubs? Can you find any actual cases where these activist adults are channeling public school kids into adult sex traps? Can you send a reporter in under cover to find out what these people actually are doing with children in the name of sexual freedom? How do they talk to the children and what advice do they give to kids? Is it respectful and healthy or setting them on a path of risk? Do you think that "Exodus" would know how to help you infiltrate these teen/adult sex club organizations? It is not good enough (although it ought to be) to just suspect that these sexually obsessed adults are harming Massachusetts public school kids. You need proof that public school sex pistols are harming kids! I am certain that the proof is there if only we can get a child advocate on the inside. – Jo Marie Fullerton
I will be grateful if you can give me the source for your assertion (p. 13, December issue) that the APA "admitted this summer it had made a mistake" in publishing its (July ‘98?) article on pedophilia. Also, can you tell me the basis for the further assertion that the APA "was willing to file a Friend-of-court brief against the study" in a recent court case? I’m astonished a publication professedly devoted to reasoned argument would suggest that Congressional action condemning the APA article says anything about the validity of the research. In general, I find your tone so shrill as to alienate those who are anxious to see an alternative to the Globe, of whom I am one. I’d had great hopes but am now sorry I subscribed. –E.L. Pattullo
Editor’s Comment: This is basically the same question that was asked by a reader in our last issue. We reported the following to that reader. 1) The CEO of the APA, Dr. Raymond Fowler, sent a letter to Congressman Tom DeLay on June 9 in which he said that his organization should have evaluated the article "based on its potential for misinforming the public policy process" but it "failed to do so." He also promised to create legal briefs attacking any use of the article which would help pedophiles in the courts. A report about this can be found in our July edition at page 9. 2) On October 20, 1999, Kevin Steward, an elementary
school gym teacher in Maricopa County, Arizona,, was convicted of sexual
molestation of seven boys. His attorney cited the APA article at sentencing.
After being informed about this, the APA filed a brief in opposition
to the use of the study as it had promised to do in June.
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