Shame

Although I do not live there anymore, I am proud to say that I was born and raised in Sanford/Springvale. When I read this article, my heart sank. I've travelled around this country and all around this world and have come to expect to see this sort of thing in Europe or California, but not in my own hometown. Two Primary Critiques: 1) The only religious "authority" quoted was from the UCC, which is a famously far left-wing denomination. Last time I checked, Sanford/Springvale is still mostly Roman Catholic. Did this reporter from the Sanford News bother to ask a priest what he thought of all of this? I think you would have gotten a very different response. The quote from the UCC "minister" is completely distortive of the values of my hometown. 2) This was a vote of the kids. And kids are heavily influenced by the media. This sad event in my hometown should be a warning to parents there and everywhere to monitor carefully what kinds of messages their kids are receiving on television, from popular music and the Internet. The fact that the kids voted as they did is an indictment of the wider society, who has taught them, under the cloak of the term "tolerance" that every kind of behavior is acceptable, when it is not.

This is not a "sad event"; it is an enlightened act by teenagers obviously not so cowed by religious nuts as you were.