Rush To Judgment

To the Editor:

How alarming to read of David Shugarts’s “rush to judgment” at the meeting with the Board of Selectmen on July 29 in the Senior Center! [“Selectmen Hear About USDA Deer Culling Program,” The Bee, 7/31/09.] Perhaps he has conducted exhaustive research on every angle of the issue of deer populations — I don’t know. Nevertheless, to suggest that the town might bypass the brief of a panel that has not yet even been officially seated, and to indicate that the findings of such a panel are a foregone conclusion, sounds, at best, impetuous and at worst, prejudiced and bullying.

I would not want such an attitude to be adopted by a member of a jury hearing a case against me, ignoring due process for the sake of a quick verdict! The reasoning that “dozens and dozens” of towns have already reached the same conclusion as the proposal Mr Shugarts is advocating for Newtown sounds like “if everybody’s doing it, it must be right.”

Thank you, Paul Mangiafico, for insisting that the panel will be charged with dealing with the situation objectively — determining first if there is a problem here in Newtown, and then, if so, how to deal with it. We can only hope that Mr Shugarts will not adopt his steamrollering tactics as the acting chair of the committee.

Yours sincerely,

Nancy Maxwell

8 Middleton Road, Newtown                                         August 4, 2009