LOCAL NEWS

Scituate no-hate program may be dropped

By JENNIFER MANN
The Patriot Ledger

SCITUATE – A Scituate selectman has called for the town to withdraw
>From the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate program because of
the group’s position on the Armenian genocide.

If a majority of the selectmen agree, Scituate will become the latest
local community to pull out of the No Place program to rebuke the ADL,
which has not explicitly denounced as genocide the killing of 1.5
million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. That killing began during World
War I.

Last week, Newton became the fourth Massachusetts community to sever
ties with the league.

Scituate Selectman John Danehey raised the issue during the
selectmen’s meeting Tuesday night. Because it was not an agenda item,
selectmen limited the discussion and decided to vote on the matter in
two weeks.

Danehey, whose children are part-Armenian and whose wife’s Armenian
grandmother survived the genocide, said sending a message was
important.

Scituate joined the No Place for Hate program within the last two
years. The program asks local communities to take steps against hate
crimes and bias.

”I’m not saying we should not have a No Place for Hate program, but I
think we should continue it in our own way,” Danehey said.

Armenian leaders have called on communities to separate themselves
>From the ADL until the organization recognizes the mass killings.

Under mounting public pressure in recent weeks, the league’s national
director, Abraham Foxman, called the massacre ”tantamount to
genocide.” The group stopped short of endorsing a congressional
resolution calling it genocide.

Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger

Transmitted Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Source: 6/news/news02.txt