The following is an excerpt from The Hartford Courant, dated June 18, 2001. The author is a reader of the paper... presented here without permission

 

Stonington Student Deserves Apology

Letter to Editor
The Hartford Courant
June 18, 2001

 

I say bravo to Tristan Kading for having the conviction to speak his conscience on what he believes is morally correct [Page 1, June 3, "Forced Apology Sparks Debate"].

I realize that the assembly about McDonald's Corp. may not have been a forum for personal opinion, but the McDonald's representative asked Tristan to tell her about himself and he most certainly did.

I am very disturbed that Stonington High School Principal Stephen Murphy would allow time to be taken away from the school's academic schedule to force students to attend an assembly intended to boost McDonald's labor pool.

As a mother who is raising two sons to be free thinkers, I would be very proud of a young man like Tristan, who has the intelligence and ethical foresight to be concerned with issues such as Nike's worker exploitation, the divisiveness of neo-Nazism and the problem of the world's rainforest destruction.

I see Tristan as a high-minded person who will most likely be a contributing member of a society where most people follow the trail of corporate consumerism like a herd of sheep without a thought to the whole global picture.

Tristan and every student who applauded his comments are the ones who deserve the apology.

Lynn M. Bednarczyk
South Windsor