Letter from Mary Anne Whelan

Resolution Was Right Thing To Do

Perhaps it takes a village of less than 2,000 persons to generate a resolution so clear, historically and legally informed, and morally decent in purpose as the resolution published August 18 of our Board of Trustees. It should have been published by every governor of all the states of America.

And it calls to mind the Village of Chamon, in the southeast of France, which for hundreds of years has sheltered persons fleeing persecution. Led by their clergy, they saved literally thousands of Jews by hiding and sustaining them during the Nazi occupation of France.

I hope our clergy, and our community, will respond in the same spirit to oppose the seizure, detention, and deportation of those among us who have only sought to live peaceful and productive lives here. That was the America in which I—most of us—grew up.

Mary Anne Whelan
Cooperstown