I am 100% for free speech and I have no argument with his topic.
I do not think that as a club president it is appropriate to send such letters to his club members on club stationary.
We have many ethnic groups in our community that have all experienced racism, some more severe than others. I have not seen any of them send such letters to their members.
Everyone has a right to their options but certain topics are not appropriate for community clubs.
If you want to express your feelings find a more acceptable source.
We want to make you aware of the number of emails we received wishing to comment on this article.
There were MANY.
We at first printed the first comment, then made the decision to omit many of them because of the fear some expressed after they examined the letter contents and how they felt such rhetoric might affect their safety.
We respect that, and for that reason, they were not posted.
Others avoided the issue at hand and instead decided to write their views of racism.
For that reason, they too were not posted.
The article was solely intended to make a community informed of two letters composed by James Coleman, President of the African American Culture Club to make a community aware of that Club's personal usage of Club stationery to promote views that a community is entitled to be aware of, and whether or not such dialogue is acceptable under community standards set forth in the CCRs.
That matter will be decided by actions of the Community Lifestyle Committee in conjunction with what they recommend to the Board.
It was not intended for any one person to state if they supported Coleman's views or not.
We received approximately 50 requests to obtain the letters which, in each case, we provided, mentioning to each one who requested the letter, to feel free to send it to their neighbors for their perusal.
These letters were likely passed to many in our community.
Regardless of any Board conclusion, it is now more than evident that Mr. Coleman's views have now been publicly exposed.
As to how a Board will react to the violations, we shall see.
In our opinion we found them so incendiary and offensive, we did not publish them, but made them only available to those who made the request.
We now wish to close the issue until a Board decision is made.
From Ronald Shapiro...to...Anthem Opinions
ReplyDeleteI am 100% for free speech and I have no argument with his topic.
I do not think that as a club president it is appropriate to send such letters to his club members on club stationary.
We have many ethnic groups in our community that have all experienced racism, some more severe than others. I have not seen any of them send such letters to their members.
Everyone has a right to their options but certain topics are not appropriate for community clubs.
If you want to express your feelings find a more acceptable source.
A Special Note to Our Readers
ReplyDeleteWe want to make you aware of the number of emails we received wishing to comment on this article.
There were MANY.
We at first printed the first comment, then made the decision to omit many of them because of the fear some expressed after they examined the letter contents and how they felt such rhetoric might affect their safety.
We respect that, and for that reason, they were not posted.
Others avoided the issue at hand and instead decided to write their views of racism.
For that reason, they too were not posted.
The article was solely intended to make a community informed of two letters composed by James Coleman, President of the African American Culture Club to make a community aware of that Club's personal usage of Club stationery to promote views that a community is entitled to be aware of, and whether or not such dialogue is acceptable under community standards set forth in the CCRs.
That matter will be decided by actions of the Community Lifestyle Committee in conjunction with what they recommend to the Board.
It was not intended for any one person to state if they supported Coleman's views or not.
We received approximately 50 requests to obtain the letters which, in each case, we provided, mentioning to each one who requested the letter, to feel free to send it to their neighbors for their perusal.
These letters were likely passed to many in our community.
Regardless of any Board conclusion, it is now more than evident that Mr. Coleman's views have now been publicly exposed.
As to how a Board will react to the violations, we shall see.
In our opinion we found them so incendiary and offensive, we did not publish them, but made them only available to those who made the request.
We now wish to close the issue until a Board decision is made.
This morning we were shocked to receive our daily report of readership.
ReplyDeleteIn the past 24 hours since the "James Coleman: You Decide" article was published, Anthem Opinions broke all prior readership records having...
2,704 ...
individuals visit our site.
We now average in excess of 2,000 visits per day.