Editor, The Spotlight
As active, engaged town residents, we support accurate, reliable, and constructive news sources like The Spotlight. Therefore, we are deeply concerned about a local Facebook page entitled “Bethlehem Resident News” that visually represents itself as a legitimate news source by appropriating our Town Seal along with a picture of Town Hall. This is actually a personal page controlled by one resident, a page that spreads misinformation that is hateful and sometimes racist.
It presents to residents and folks in the larger world a false and ugly picture of our home, the Town of Bethlehem. Question a statement on the page and you are promptly blocked. We saw in Charlottesville, Virginia the consequences of hateful speech and how it can turn into hateful actions. We do not want it to take seed in this community that we live in.
As proud Bethlehem residents and proud Americans, we support free speech, and we urge our fellow residents to read critically, learn the facts, and reject misinformation and hate-filled and provocative rhetoric. We strongly object to the misappropriation of our Town Seal. One consequence that all residents ought to care about is that it could easily deceive potential homebuyers into thinking this is an official town page, and give a tainted picture that drives away home buyers while it poisons the dialogue that we all need in a democracy. We urge all of our neighbors to stand together in support of a more informed, transparent and open-minded community dialogue in Bethlehem, the kind and civil town that we all call home.
Signed,
Amy Sennesh Vastola
Ken Vastola
Gianna Aiezza
Willow Baer
Melissa Carpinello
Victoria Clark
Ann F. Connolly
Laura Cooper
Judith Fetterley
Tracey Fountain
Roby George
Marta Gomez
Thomas J. Goodfellow
David Gordon
Gary Hallock
Nancy Hallock
Lee Kaplan
Amy Koren-Roth
Diane Marcil
Richard McGrath
Tondra McGrath
Linda Miller
Jane Mitchell
Tara O’Keeffe
Shari Piper
Pam Robbins
Dr. Susan Rosenberg
Linda Russell
Glenn Sandberg (Albany)
Michelle Sanders
Emily Saunders
The Shaw Family
Emily Sherman-Marynczak
Pamela Skripak
Alan Via
Gail Volk