Politics & Religion Do Not Mix -- Dracut Weekly Roundtable

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Subject: Politics & Religion Do Not Mix

Author:
Michael H.

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Date Posted: 06:07:02 08/24/03 Sun
In reply to: Karen 's message, "Ya Gotta Love Those �Christians�!" on 10:14:01 08/19/03 Tue

Mother always told me that politics and religion do not mix. I am not a religious person and that is because I made the CHOICE not to be. With that being said, I�m not going to start spitting out the Christians verses the politics mumbo jumbo. What I will aim my statements at is the public verses the private attitude, and the government verses the budget cuts.

Reading through the postings on this topic clearly identifies (as Pam put it) �People get into this lynch-mob mentality and forget the bigger picture.� What exactly is the bigger picture? The bigger picture isn�t the busing of private school children. The bigger picture is the economy and how it�s downturn has forced local and state government to make cuts in their fiscal budgets. Therefore forcing the taxpayers to make cuts in their budgets. Nobody takes to change well, and that is exactly what is driving certain attitudes regarding the busing situation.

The Dracut School Committee made the right choice when they were informed that they would have to make some cuts in certain areas. We as a town provided a �benefit� to the parents that made the CHOICE to send their children to private schools rather than the Dracut public schools. I call it a benefit because that is exactly what it is. It is a benefit that the town will have to cut to make sense out of the current budget. It is the Dracut School Committees job to oversee the public sector and not the private.

The most recent cries we hear are �we pay taxes just like everyone else�; �we are saving the town money�; �this is discrimination�. Then I must be really saving the town money because I don�t have children. In fact the non-child taxpayers of Dracut far exceed the population of the taxpayers that are currently sending an average of 120 children to privately run schools. Are they screaming discrimination? NO! So where do the parents stand with this group?

The $150 fee that the Dracut School Committee worked out is nothing but fair. The parents of privately schooled children should accept this. This is part of making the CHOICE to send their children to receive their education in a private school. If giving the best education as they seem is fit for their children is important, than showing up at the meeting and displaying a child like attitude towards School Committee members and other public speakers is not the right thing to do. Remember folks; it is the children that we need to set an example with.

If $150 is going to dent your budget, then you might want to consider a new one. Take off the gloves and take on the responsibility that you made the choice to have.

Michael H.

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