Editor:
I have to say that I was shocked by the article about the Oley Valley School Board severing that district’s contract with the American Red Cross (“Emergency shelter contract with Red Cross dropped,” Reading Eagle, March 3).
Our church in Reading is an emergency site for the Red Cross, and we have never even considered changing that relationship. The bigoted, fearmongering, nonsensical rhetoric used by some who voted to end the contract is reminiscent of McCarthyism from the 1950s.
Are those who voted this way really so callous that they would refuse care for someone based on nationality or immigration status? And the idea that, somehow, blood-borne diseases would permeate the school buildings from those being cared for in an emergency is delusional at best and hateful at worst.
Having lived in that community, I am surprised by this behavior. It is un-American and immoral to treat people this way.
The Rev. Steve Ohnsman
Pastor, Calvary UCC, Reading
Source: Berkshire mont