At the last meeting of the School Committee, the mayor entered a motion to have a name stripped from a location inside the high school.
The motion was sent to a committee for study and or action or both.
The name of the man once honored being put up for removal comes before he has had his day in court.
Most of us who think reasonably would agree, removing a name because of allegations and charges before those allegations have been proven and the man found guilty, is a premature.
In this case, the mayor is acting as judge and jury. He is asking as well that the School Committee endorse his action.
For the mayor, especially, to enter this motion shows bad judgment.
More to the point, it shows his indifference to similar allegations made against him in the past as those made against the once honored name.
The mayor also shows his tendency toward vindictiveness by entering the motion for the removal of the name.
In his case, the name of the man he wants to remove helped him out as a young man, and as an aspiring politician. That name, and that man, was loyal to the mayor and showed great respect to his family as well.
When the mayor had his own difficulties with serious allegations made against him, that man whose name he wants removed never uttered a mean word about him or poured gasoline on the fire.
Life is very long. The mayor’s memory is very short. His action in this instance wanting to take down a man’s name before that man has been found guilty in court of the charges leveled against him, shows the mayor acting as judge and jury.
He can’t be allowed to do this. Yet he is allowed to do this and most likely the School Committee will follow his lead and concur with the mayor’s thinking long before justice has been done.
If the mayor acted as a judge and jury about himself, he wouldn’t be so quick to order the name being taken down in the high school.
If the tables were only slightly reversed, the mayor could be sitting in his home worried that all the signs with his name on them will be ordered taken down as a result of allegations lodged against him in the past.
The law must be left to take its course.
An honored name is an honored name until the courts act.
If the honored name is no longer an honored name – then the name comes down, no questions asked.
Without such a judgment first by the court, the name should remain where it is.
The mayor’s motion should be ruled out of order.