Guest column, paper criticized
I was pleased March 16 to read in your “Wows and Scowls” column that you included yourselves in the “Scowl” category for “prematurely criticizing the Albert Gallatin School Board.” Admitting one’s error and accepting responsibility for one’s actions is a trait that is all-to-often missing these days. It pleased me from another aspect, also: I had planned to write this morning and suggest that you include yourself in the “Scow”l category for a different reason, not expecting to see it ever happen. I am referring to your guest commentary of March 13, where a person ripped into politicians, churches, volunteer groups, utility companies and a human services agency, and her argument, as well as I could understand it, led to no logical or useful conclusion.
I believe that your “Scowl” for this is deserved because you did not follow your stated policy for inclusion in this column. She was allowed to cast dispersions at people and organizations who work to provide services to the needy, and she did so without one bit of fact to substantiate her view. This plainly contradicts your online guidelines for guest commentaries, which allows for “an opinion on a subject in which (the writer is) well versed.” It seems obvious from her statements that the writer knows practically nothing about the operations, efforts or good works of the organizations she denounced.
A grain of truth (and even that is a stretch) in a mountain of sand does not qualify as “well versed.” That writer used gross generalizations, unsubstantiated by facts, to denigrate others. I have personal experience with two of the utility companies she mentions, with the St. Vincent dePaul Society, with some of the churches of different faiths, and with the Community Action agency, and I have found them all to be willing to help those who try to help themselves.
Each of those entities has guidelines and policies that have to be followed in order to best utilize their resources. Most of them have a great demand on very small resources. And whether or not the person seeking assistance agrees with the guidelines, they are necessary in order to treat all fairly and without prejudice while trying to satisfy that demand.
Well, how about it. Do you think you deserve another “Scowl”?
Paul Whipkey
Connellsville