To the Editor:

The parents who are currently challenging the Voorheesville School Board to punish one of its members for publicly pointing out that parents who voted for now President-elect Donald Trump have exercised a double standard, as they teach their children to not break the law and act ethically and morally, while they at the same time have voted for a convicted criminal, in fact, to be the next president of the United States [“Parents call for SRO to quell bullying, antisemitism and for penalty for post,” The Altamont Enterprise, Dec. 13, 2024].

I am disappointed by the overall response of the Voorheesville School Board. It is clear that they would like the issue to fade away! But it won’t and I'll tell you why.

Because for the next four years, my president of the United States cannot suppress the shameful behavior he has exhibited and I fear will continue to exhibit. How is the school and its educators/teachers dealing with the shameful and ethically inexcusable conduct, which has been caught on video so many times, by Donald Trump?

MAGA Republicans have clearly set aside political norms of etiquette and behavior to vote in a convicted criminal to be president, the highest office in the land, just to further their agenda.

As a lesson, I would suggest that Voorheesville School Board members take the time to read the letter Martin Luther King Jr. sent Protestant church leadership from the Birmingham jail in 1963 after he was arrested for non-violent and peaceful protesting over equal rights for the Black race.

As the clergy responded to Martin Luther King’s request for support by calling his activities “unwise and untimely,” I feel the school board is taking this same approach to characterizing our next president for the children, and parents of our school district. The school board wants its vocal member on the subject of our new president’s character to remain silent now and not rock the boat. This is also how clergy responded to King’s request for their help!

“It's not the right time, wait!” is what they summarily told him.

King went on to write that “the negro’s great stumbling block was not groups like the KKK, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice,” those who say, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direction.”

What I am pointing out here is that the school board cannot hide from the conclusions one member made public, about the parents who teach their children proper etiquette, ethical behavior, social norms, not to name call or bully, not to be antagonistic and to be law-abiding, etc., but in contrast, voted a man, Donald Trump, to the presidency.

Clearly honest people seeking truth and fact admit Donald Trump is a convicted criminal, a felon, and he has repeatedly exhibited behavior that historically has been unbecoming of our president. By electing him again president while under investigation for crimes he has also escaped justice. As a distinguished jurist once said, “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

The school system must teach current events going on in our world, and the students must form conclusions about what is happening, and whether the outcomes are positive or negative. Thus, if the information imparted to the children is objective, truthful, and factual, they will conclude their own opinions based on critical thinking and the evidence.

So must the members of the Voorheesville School Board, administrators, educators, and teachers. To the school board: Take a stronger stand in support of your members.when you know they are right.

Martin Luther King Jr. made the valid assertion, concluding that, if you believe your cause is just and truthful and so do your friends and colleagues but they refuse to publicly support you, because of possible community retribution, then they are like the three monkeys Mizaru, Kiazaru, and Iwazaru from the proverb “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!”

The answer, my friends, is clearly blowing in the wind!

Timothy J. Albright

Meadowdale