To the Editor,
The Town meeting changed Board of Selectmen to Select Board to eliminate "men" by a marginal ending pinpoint 118 votes. Sue Thorne said that she and the other women who had served were never bothered by the term men in Selectmen.
The only reason supporting the change was by Nelly Boling, who shared that getting rid of "selectmen" would relieve much discomfit and hurt she had experienced from the term men, that we need to "evolve" and that "the new name would be more inclusive to people who do not identify as man or woman".
To "not identify as man or woman" is extremely misguided gender-bending. It often goes with white male bashing and hidden hatred. A toxic stew of lunacy and hatred. Compassion and understanding for such troubled individuals yes, but not a Select Board playpen position with influence to damage children's mental health. The idea that reality is how one views things, and now even that men can choose to be women and women men, denies objective reality and fundamental truths and wrecks rational thinking. Parents in Massachusetts are fighting back against school boards that have been secretly indoctrinating their children that they may be of another sex and giving them opposite sex names and even pushing puberty blockers and surgery, causing massive psychological damage and suicidal tendencies.
There is a current climate of fear that makes people justifiably afraid that if they speak out against such things they will be fired or cancelled. Or because they have been confused or shamed into thinking that lunatic and deep-seated (sic) hateful ideas will inevitably rule the roost so should be accepted as "evolved" thinking. So people actually self-censor, and what they dare say makes its way down deeper to what they dare think. Bullying and shaming harness lunacy and hatred to control people's words and actions to make 118 votes possible.
MBTS people must trust and assert their natural instinct for truth and courage.
Boys cannot choose to be girls or girls to be boys. 1 plus 2 does not equal 5. The name change issue should go to referendum. But the survival of our fundamental freedoms and democracy demands that we bring daylight to how bullying and shaming use lunacy and hatred to control people.
Donald Schwartz
Manchester