With all due respect, I don’t think the recent letter charging the left with promoting a “cancel culture” should go unanswered [“On speech, expression and tolerance,” Gazette, May 17]. The letter writer refers to two local episodes — the Easthampton school superintendent search and the Amherst middle school counselors — neither of which is a true example of some leftish intolerance.
Both have very specific grounds for the decisions, whether you agree with them or not. The Easthampton School Committee members felt job candidate Vito Perrone had made non-negotiable demands for a salary and vacation and sick days. As to the Amherst case: If you were a Catholic student/parent, would you stand for a Protestant adviser making disparaging remarks about Catholics?
More to the point, the letter writer claims there are “countless” instances of the “cancel culture” in our communities without naming any. He does the same with our nation, charging the left with shutting down vast numbers of cases of free speech, without citing any evidence.
Yet why does he not mention that it is the red states, dominated by Republicans, where legislatures and local communities are passing laws banning certain words, concepts, issues and books? I, too, deplore the instances where, say, lefty college students shut down a speaker from the right. But please do not blame only the left with the “cancel culture.”
John Bowman
Northampton