Dear Editor,
I wanted to take the opportunity to weigh-in on the
”
Day of Silence
”
issue from the perspective of a Gilroy newcomer. My
”
unconventional,
”
multicultural family and I recently moved to the Gilroy area
from Atlanta, Georgia mostly due to northern California’s
reputation for being an
”
accepting,
”
progressive community of people who are non-judgmental and care
more about a person’s character then their skin color, gender,
religion or sexual preferences.
Dear Editor,
I wanted to take the opportunity to weigh-in on the “Day of Silence” issue from the perspective of a Gilroy newcomer. My “unconventional,” multicultural family and I recently moved to the Gilroy area from Atlanta, Georgia mostly due to northern California’s reputation for being an “accepting,” progressive community of people who are non-judgmental and care more about a person’s character then their skin color, gender, religion or sexual preferences. Unfortunately however, we have had quite a different experience thus far!
We have been completely shocked and dumfounded at the hostile protests, threats and mean-spirited words being expressed. I am in total and complete agreement that we need to improve our schools and the test scores, but am left wondering if these same people would be so aggressively vocal about “test scores” if their children would be missing direct teaching for a field trip, an assembly, a film, or a day in the library?
It seems to me that, in these times, when the children ARE exposed daily, to riots across the world as a means of protest, that a lesson in “civil disobedience” and “peaceful protest” would be a valuable, real-life lesson in civics!! The lesson could cover Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. It could cover the Constitution of the United States and the period prior to the Revolutionary War. It could, even cover Nazi, Germany when, to the extreme, people were so vehemently discriminated against for being “different” that they were mass murdered and tortured.
In the meantime, this all serves as a valuable lesson to my husband, I, and my children as, we have learned that “reputations” are sometimes, merely urban legends and unfortunately, might have nothing, whatsoever to do with reality.
Sharon Stone, Gilroy
