PYP: Vitriol weakens editorial

Last spring during the heated Recall, I attended a lecture at the Coeur d’Alene library by a constitutional lawyer for which Mike Patrick was the emcee. That week Mr. Patrick wrote an editorial echoing and extolling the sentiments of the presentation. I don’t recall all the details but he advocated listening to all sides, not rushing to judgment, toning down the rhetoric and essentially the need for civility in dealing with difficult issues.

Yet the Sunday editorial regarding the PYP predicament reflected no such sentiments but instead invoked imagery that was outrageously accusatory and hostile with statements like credibility on trial, death row, the executioner’s mask has come off, exposure of “real motives” and assembling of a lynch mob. These are not the words of an individual seeking a reasoned resolution to a problem but are words to stir anger and mistrust with the apparent intention of undermining Mr. Hamilton’s leadership on the Coeur d’Alene School Board. Mr. Hamilton may have a personal objection to PYP (to which he is entitled) but your accusation that he would use his position or influence to eliminate the program is pure innuendo and unfounded. As in any leadership position, as the editor of a newspaper, one can hold contrary views to various positions on issues but does not use that position to achieve their own ends.

You offered some valid suggestions as to how the PYP evaluation should proceed, but you should have limited your editorial to those rational suggestions without all the vitriol. Then you would have some credibility and your agenda would have remained hidden.

You’re right Mr. Patrick, this is no time for pitchforks and paranoia.

EILEEN MANN

Coeur d’Alene