Lexington C.A.R.E.S.Our community has been wounded. The recent false allegation that a first-grade child was beaten by several children because of his parents' activism has had grievous impacts on many people in our town. Amid the rancor and distrust this has created, it has left many of us wondering what we can do to regain our balance as a community. What can we do to move forward?
First, we need to understand the effects of this allegation on our community and on the individuals affected. An anti-gay group publicized the now-discredited story to news organizations and right wing media outlets across the country. One of these outlets published the e-mail address and home phone number of the superintendent of the Lexington Public Schools. This has lead to many out-of-state hate e-mails and phone calls to his home, in what looks like an attempt to punish him for doing his job. This is unacceptable and deeply regrettable. We hope that all Lexington residents will find a way to express their support for our superintendent as he does his job admirably under very difficult circumstances.
In addition, all of Lexington suffers when false and sensational stories about our children make their way through the Internet and news media. We suffer as a community when our school and town officials are harassed. But another group of people has been especially hurt by this story: the parents at Estabrook, where the alleged events supposedly took place. Many parents feel sad, disappointed, and even betrayed. In addition to blaming the right-wing organization that put out the "press release," some feel that parents who brought the lawsuit against the schools have used their own child and other first-graders to further their agenda. They worry that that this kind of false allegation and misuse of children could happen again.
We do not know what will happen in the future. However, we do know that as a community we will feel better again when we feel good about who we are and how we are treating others. For each of us, this means not simply reacting out of our fears, but to find our grounding again in our best and most generous passions and to act with as much trust, and then some, as we can find within ourselves.
This means all of the children need to be allowed to be children and to play with each other. They do not deserve to suffer in isolation because of who their parents are or what they do. And our efforts to keep this uppermost in our minds will be rewarded in our children's, and our community's, greater happiness.
We also urge each of us to go further. Those of us who feel alienated from our community, as well as those who feel betrayed or angered by recent events, would benefit from reaching out, even in small ways, to those who seem to be adversaries as we treat all our children with the care and gentleness they deserve. We know that our children will do best if we adults can try to stay connected to each other even when the conversations are hard and there is conflict. We can keep talking to each other. We can trust enough to let the children be children and play with each other. Perhaps the children who are able to make up after a fight will be the ones who teach us how to heal.
Soens and Hoffman are co-chairmen of Lexington CARES.