To the editor:
I was puzzled and saddened by the letter by Peter Allen in the April 7 edition, “In support of Gail Cromwell.”
Firstly, Gail won this last election by only 30 votes, hardly “overwhelmingly” as he asserted.
Secondly, no one has questioned her competency in speaking at Town Meetings, or faulted her behavior at the post office.
Thirdly, he seems to be irked with the Temple town elected employees who have been the brunt of so much of Gail’s anger and disrespect that they no longer want to work in that environment.
Had he been at the selectmen’s meeting March 29 he would have witnessed Gail’s anger and derision and been as distressed by it as I was.
Anyone who attended that meeting and left able to believe that those women had been exaggerating the negative behavior they have received from Gail must have had their eyes, ears and mind closed. Had he been there, he also would have seen one of the audience members testify to being an eyewitness to at least one of Ms. Cromwell’s verbal attacks on one of the town employees.
I was also surprised and distressed that night at the outrageous behavior of a former selectman and his wife, who repeatedly interrupted the meeting and other speakers by standing up and yelling when they wanted to speak and had not been recognized. I do not remember anyone else there raising their voice in anger.
Mr. Allen’s sarcasm about these women who want to leave their jobs due to verbal abuse from Gale over the last three years and continuing makes my heart ache. Neither they nor anyone else deserves derisive and disrespectful treatment from Mr. Allen, Gail Cromwell, or anyone else.
It may well be that Mr. Allen is right that “the town of Temple has innumerable interested folk who would gladly apply for their jobs,” but I cannot imagine we will easily be able to find people who are as capable and personable as the ones that I have come to know through paying my taxes and registering my cars over many years.
Allison Randall
Temple