A recent newspaper opinion needs response ... an op-ed if you will.
O say can you see
Like Cyclopes journalists have lost the ability to see things in perspective.
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Oh, those awful people in Hamilton “who keep squeezing the seminary for more money, at some level unseemly."
"The law is on the seminary’s side. Period."
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Oh, those poor seminary staff who have had no raises for four years, and those poor students who are training for the ministry.
But, wait, there is much more to see.
There are more than 500 families in Hamilton with annual incomes less than $50,000. They are being squeezed, at an unseemly level, to pay for the students coming from families at the seminary.
The seminary must answer to a higher law. Exclamation!
There are a great many senior citizens in Hamilton who depend on social security payments … that went up a whopping 1.7% this year.
So, let’s see just what the seminary can do to reduce the huge burden it is placing on their fellow Hamilton residents.
Are there other ways to educate the children coming from the seminary besides sending them to the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School system?
Should the seminary be paying taxes for the apartments it rents on its campus?
Are there services the seminary can provide to Hamilton to reduce the town’s expenses?
Should the seminary increase its annual gift based on cost of living increases?
Are there facilities at the seminary that might be used by Hamilton residents?
The Cyclopes sees only that the Hamilton selectmen are focusing resentment on a few dozen schoolchildren. The Cyclopes is blind to the hundreds of Hamilton residents who are hurting financially and see no chance of it getting any better.
But, perhaps there is hope for the Cyclopes to have its vision improved.
Get out among the people. Listen to the people. See what burdens they must endure. Go back to the days when reporters, with two good eyes, covered what was happening in the local towns, and not just relying on the telephone and email.
Because until the Cyclopes can see both sides of any story, poorly written articles and opinions will continue and only serve to make things worse.
