26 Apr Essay On Upcoming Town Election
Mattapoisett friends, Frances Kearns is a wonderful, intelligent, & caring person whose focus as a school committee member has always been our town’s children. I genuinely look forward to telling you more about her and why I plan to vote for her. Before that, though, I need you to know something that’s less pleasant. It’s uncomfortable to read or talk about but it needs to be said.
There’s a lot of talk about culture wars and how national politics have come to infect our local races even down to the level of school committee. I don’t disagree with the sentiment. I do, however, think that nationalizing is not an action being taken by those who choose to foster inclusivity and protection of the vulnerable. The fact is, inclusivity and protection of the vulnerable are noble regional and local values that we New Englanders and Bay Staters hold particularly dear despite opposition from outside political forces from states that won’t even allow the discussion of civil rights issues in school be they race or identity related.
That extra-regional debate has unfortunately taken a hold of our local towns and our own tritown area by way of an institution known (ironically) as Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI). Their beliefs are not moderate, not mainstream, and not representative of the majority population where we live. Here’s a sampling of direct quotes from their website:
- Americans have been misled by the false doctrine that there must be a total “separation of church and state.”
- “MFI recognizes the union of one man and one woman as marriage and steadfastly maintains that no other relationship is legitimately a marriage.”
- (MFI supports) the rights of students in public schools to pray, study the Bible, and distribute religious literature.
- “In keeping with the Judeo-Christian values that our society was founded upon, MFI believes that all sex outside of heterosexual marriage is detrimental to families and that includes homosexuality.”
- MFI strongly opposes any efforts by political activists to normalize homosexual behavior and all attempts to equate homosexuality with immutable characteristics such as skin color, or the “gay rights” movement with the civil rights movement.
The good news: I can say with certainty, Frances Feliz Kearns and Carly Lavin, our incumbent Mattapoisett school committee representatives do not hold those views and are not affiliated with MFI. The bad news, however, is that it is an absolute fact that some of the school committee members from other towns in our tritown system are proud to have been trained by MFI. It’s through them and that affiliation that the recent cultural battles in our school committee began.
Am I saying that the challengers in our Mattapoisett school committee race are also associated with MFI? No, I’m not. I can’t say that either of them are actually connected with MFI. But, I can say one is definitely an author whose work is dedicated to defending the Catholic Church against the sexual abuse scandal of the 90s and aughts. (Yes, that same scandal the law affirmed to be all too real and the church itself has apologized for tragically mishandling). And I can say the very first, largest, and boldest printed word on the political materials of the other candidate is “faith.”
So am I saying that all faith is a character liability? I’m a humanist and not religious myself… but I come from religious people whom I love very much, admire, and often intentionally emulate precisely because of their character. I am absolutely not calling all faith a character liability.
But leading with religion as a goal for public school policy is most definitely a governing liability. Like most of you, I don’t believe in allowing personal religious beliefs to be used as a foundation for policy in public schools. And absolutely, 100% yes, I do believe in the separation of church and state just as much as I believe in your right to freely practice a faith of choice (and my right not to). And I am saying adding more committee members that make religion 1st priority to a group that already unfortunately contains radical MFI associated members is dangerous.
But here find the actual thesis paragraph. I’m not trying to hide it. The incumbents, Frances Feliz-Kearns and Carly Lavin, are not in office to forward their faith or extra-regional agendas. They too may be people of faith, but that’s a personal issue, and I frankly don’t know either way which is just fine with me. I do know what matters, which is that they’re in school committee government expressly for our kids, and all the more so for those among them who are vulnerable. We need their counterbalance to the evangelical voice of unreason that comes from MFI affiliated local politicians and people who put their personal faith ahead of public education. Voting for Frances and Carly ensures we have advocates working for the right of all people in our community to have a school system that treats their children with dignity and allows for a diversity of expressions of belief and identity.
Author anonymous