To the Editor,

A little over two years ago my family relocated from Southern California to the East Coast. As we searched for a place to live in this area my husband and I both agreed that Newtown was the place for us to raise our family. We moved right before the it was time to vote for local government and so we did everything we could to make sure that we were registered to vote and learned as much as we could about our local representatives. We were only here for a month, so we simply had to go off what we were able to learn from reading and looking at voting records. We did not have an opportunity to get to know anyone personally or see what their true characters were like. The beauty of living in a smaller community is that I have had the opportunity to interact with many of our local representatives when they are not in the spotlight but are simply living their daily lives. You can learn a lot about an individual by quietly observing how they interact with others.

A few months ago, I attempted to write a letter to the editor about an encounter I had with one of our representatives. This was an encounter that left a bad taste in my mouth and made me wonder what he was really like if he was willing to throw his name and title around to get his way. When I submitted the letter, I was informed that the Bee did not publish letters that spoke poorly of one candidate to promote another candidate. The letter wasn’t published. Instead, I had to hope that the glowing letter of endorsement that I wrote about the other candidate would be enough to help sway anyone who was still undecided. I was frustrated, because I passionately believe that character counts more than lip service, but I understood. After all, we are Newtown. We choose love. We believe in being kind.

The editorial section of the newspaper the past few weeks worries me. It worries me that the Bee would so quickly change their stance on what is acceptable to print. It makes me think that perhaps the Bee has their own agenda and their own endorsements. The guidelines clearly state that letters of endorsement can only be 300 words and yet the letter written last week that trashed Harriman-Stites was well beyond that limit.

So, what is it, Bee? Do you believe that we need to choose love and kindness? Or do you simply want to endorse your candidate without actually stating that you do?

Carrie Grummons

5 Black Walnut Drive, Newtown October 21, 2020

Editor’s Note: The letter received from Ms Grummons was a personal attack on the representative describing an incident that she said took place months prior to her decision to make it public during the election season, and was potentially a libelous situation for the writer. This possible news item was not reported at the time of the incident.

Letters are opinions of the authors, not those of The Newtown Bee. Opinion letters are limited to 500 words. Candidate endorsements are limited to 300 words. Letters that are solely against a candidate do not reflect an endorsement. Readers should know the breadth of personalities that are in our town, and some letters make this more clear than others.