Protesting the cutting down of trees is one thing. Involving innocent (underage) children without parental permission or knowledge, calling someone a liar and telling children to call someone a liar is a totally different issue. It is wrong and harmful.
Les Golden has gone too far in my opinion. I respect his right to voice his feelings about trees. I do not respect him for involving children, without their knowledge of the true issues and without some of their parents knowing about it. On Thursday, Les Golden approached children going home from school and got them involved with his issue of not cutting down the mulberry trees in the park with the promise of being on television. He told them to tell their principal that she was a liar; he asked for their names and telephone numbers; he wouldn’t let them say what they thought in their own words, he provided them with his words and then got Channel 2 to film them. He never told them who he was and what he was doing.
What else could Les Golden have told them? In this day and age, or any day and age, what he did is inexcusable.
Les?fight for your messy mulberry trees, but leave the children out of it.
Cam Niederman
Oak Park
