Voter respect

To the editor: In response to student Ryan Balton’s letter to the Courier (Sept. 21). The Courier’s statement that I made my first appearance at a school board meeting is inaccurate. The facts are: I was on the Delaware Valley Tax Study Commission in which some meetings preceded school board meetings, which I attended. In addition, I also attended a number of school board meetings with topics ranging from artificial turf to clean drinking water for our students as well as purchasing of additional land. However, the school board meeting that remains most vivid in my memory is when the room was packed with senior citizens to show opposition to the artificial turf and the purchase of land. The incumbent and then president Sue Casey called for an executive session 20 minutes after the meeting started, leaving the seniors hanging for well over an hour until they left. That was an obvious tactic which was used to discourage seniors from speaking out. This disrespect of Senior Citizens along with the fact that we received the turf but not clean water for our children were major motivating factors for me to become a candidate for the school board. Ryan, your limited experience in these matters, 18 years old, coupled with the fact that you have not paid the price (property taxes) and your obvious contempt for the very people who have paid taxes makes you less qualified to judge me and the voters that have made it quite clear they want a change. When you have served your country as I have in Vietnam, worked for the same company for 35 years, 12 years of which I was privileged to be elected by my fellow co-workers as their union steward, raised four children and witnessed the worst terror attack in this nations history on September 11, 2001 in NYC, then you would have the right to judge me. John F. Kupillas Milford (Editor’s note: The Courier’s Aug. 31 ‘Board okays purchase’ story inaccurately characterized Mr. Kupillas’ meeting attendance record. We apologize for this error.)