To the Editor:

This is my answer to Robert Porter.

Thank you for letting us all know about this. It looks like a well-organized, important event. 

Unfortunately, due to the short notice and timing, I will be unable to attend. That day, I have a morning appointment, and an afternoon town board meeting followed by a zoning board of appeals meeting that evening.

I have no control over how you choose to interpret my inability to attend.

However, if you actually knew me, the number of hours I have given to community service and devoted to educating myself on public issues throughout my life, as well as the family members I have who are veterans, you would be aware that your statement that my not attending is a “refusal to be a [sic] informed and caring public official on the Berne Town Board” is an insulting misrepresentation of my character.

That said, I forgive you for the insult, and bear no ill will. I would suggest, however, that you take the quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which you have added to the end of your email to heart. He is absolutely right — you cannot turn an enemy into a friend without love, and, it would seem from the tenor of your words you view at least some of the recipients of this email as enemies. I’m not seeing the love.

I will end with an adage from Giovanni Torriano’s “A Common Place of Italian proverbs and Proverbial Phrases.” published in 1666, made popular in America by one of my favorite founding fathers.  There is a reason it has stood the test of so many centuries”

“Tart Words make no Friends: spoonful of honey will catch more flies than Gallon of vinegar”

— Benjamin Franklin, “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” 1744

Dawn Jordan

Berne

Editor’s note: Dawn Jordan is a Democratic councilwoman on the Berne Town Board.