To the editor:

“The needs common to all people – basic standards of nutrition, health, shelter, and education – must be met on a global scale. To accomplish these goals, the holders of the ecological world view believe that an international organization such as the United Nations should be given the authority to manage and distribute the world’s resources. This world view finds support from various forms of socialism.”

This is not an excerpt from a conspiratorial publication. It’s a quote from a textbook used in a mid-1990s Westport High School social studies class. Has this allusion to a one-world government – a New World Order – shattered the illusion of American sovereignty and independence? 

During that same time period concluding the 20th century, Westport’s grant-funded health and sex education program facilitated students with tolerance for “alternative lifestyles”.

Fast-forward 25 years – February 11, 2020 Westport Special Town Meeting, to be exact.

Farmers expressed apprehension that their 4th Amendment Rights were being trampled. Isn’t anyone concerned about our 1st Amendment Rights if we don’t “accept” the 32 genders posted on the Junior/Senior High School student bulletin board in the cafeteria that voters walked by en-route to the auditorium? Since “preferred student names and pronouns will be validated” by “Project Safe Space” run by a guidance counselor, what happens when parents or anyone who is trying to instill or maintain moral absolutes based on our 1st Amendment Rights disagrees with “any gender is valid”? 

One might think the confusion this inflicts is a form of psychological abuse. Is this what taxpayers authorized – “appropriate related programming (?) for grades 5 through 12” – when they voted for the $97 million debt exclusion two years ago and allowed a partnership between the unelected Westport School Building Committee and Massachusetts School Building Authority?

The past is prologue. A former Westport selectman, who was also a School Building Committee member said, “It’s the Golden Rule. The people who have the gold (referring to the $37.4 million MSBA grant) write the rules. The State in this case is giving you the money and this is exactly how they want it done.”

Marilyn Pease

Westport