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February 2, 2009
To the Editor:
I
feel compelled to respond to the January 28th Newstalk column's
personal attack on me in connection to my comments at a School
Committee meeting about removing Good Friday as a public school
holiday. As an elected official, I expect to be criticized for my
positions on issues – that's fair game – but I do not appreciate being
labeled something that I am not.
The (anonymous) writers of
Newstalk called me a "Secular Progressive" and implied that I do not
believe in God. While I am a progressive, the secular part is untrue.
Really,
it is none of Newstalk's business and should not be a topic for public
discussion what my – or anyone else's — religious views and beliefs
about God are. Furthermore, it is fundamentally un-American to try to
discredit someone for their religious views – or lack of them. One of
the great things about our nation and a key principle of the founding
fathers is the separation of church and state.
However, since
Newstalk has labeled me as secular and implied that I do not believe in
God, I feel compelled to state publicly that nothing could be further
from the truth. Somerville is a small community and I do not want
people to think I am someone that I am not.
While I firmly
believe there is nothing wrong with being secular, I am an observant
Jew. My religious and cultural identity as a Jew is more important to
me than anything except my family. For 20 years, I have been a leader
in Congregation B'nai Brith, the synagogue at the top of Central Street
on Winter Hill. I teach 2nd and 3rd grade in the Sunday morning
children's school there and have done so for eight years. I served as a
member of the Congregation's Board of Directors for 10 years.
Newstalk
uses the phrase "Secular Progressive" to slam elected officials whose
views Newstalk does not agree with. Newstalk is trying to discredit
these leaders by calling them "Godless and faithless." What's important
in public life is not elected officials' religious beliefs, but what
they do and say. I urge the writers of Newstalk to stop their personal
attacks on elected officials. These attacks hurt all of us in
Somerville because they are nasty and unkind. They poison the political
atmosphere and turn people off to public life.
I will close
with one of my favorite phrases from the Bible: "You have been told
what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." [From the prophet Micah,
6:8]
Mark Niedergang
School Committee, Ward 5
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