Thursday, March 19, 2015

Letter: Education Is Key To Rehabilitating Amato Legacy

The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:

Dear Editor,

Now retired SPCA Police Chief Buddy Amato exercised extremely poor judgment by sharing some offensive jokes at work, that have resulted in a lawsuit and his resignation.

Sue DesMarais did the right thing by standing up to racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic jokes in the workplace. Such conduct is not acceptable and can be hurtful to many.

But I also believe Buddy Amato deserves the opportunity to become more educated on diversity issues and be rehabilitated, so his legacy can be remembered for all the good things he did.

His past volunteer work with the NAACP and other good deeds show that while he made mistakes and should be held accountable for his actions, he's not a lost cause.

I hope that the NAACP and Garden State Equality offer him counseling and give him the chance to do advocacy work on behalf of racial and religious minorities, as well as LGBT people, in order to demonstrate his character and redeem himself.

Eric Hafner
Toms River

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