Sure as Town Meeting comes to pass every year, Marilyn Hackett gets another virtual slap in the face from her righteous neighbors in Franklin. After ten years, this time will likely be the last, since Ms. Hackett has finally resolved to sue the municipality to have them remove a Christian invocation from the agenda of the next Town Meeting...and she will most likely win.
As anyone who read my post on the issue this time last year may recall, she hasn't come to this decision easily or quickly.
Alleging a violation of Vermont's Constitution and the state's Public Accommodations Act, the Vermont branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed suit against the Town of Franklin and moderator Tim Magnant for repeatedly opening Franklin's town meeting with a Christian prayer.
Maintaining that the Town's persistent disregard for Ms. Hackett's beliefs is in violation of the Public Accommodations Act, attorneys are seeking an end to the annual prayers, recovery of damages and associated legal fees.
Each year Ms. Hackett requests that the invocation be dropped from the agenda in deference to her personal beliefs. She doesn't proselytize and asks only that her right to fully participate in Town Meeting without the imposition of publicly led prayer be respected. Each year, the Town Moderator defies both Ms. Hackett and the letter of the law by opening the meeting with a Christian prayer led by Rev. Jason McConnell. The current Town Moderator is Tim Magnant.
A previous Moderator, Hugh Gates, addressed her complaint by "inviting" anyone objecting to the prayer to leave the room. This was an invitation that Ms. Hackett found considerably less than accommodating. Once, the assembly even took a vote, by a show of hands, on whether or not to allow the prayer; but, as Ms. Hackett rightly observed, you can't vote away another person's rights under the law.
Ms. Hackett offered a compromise to the Town Selectboard last year before the Meeting. The assembly could open with a moment of silence or a non-sectarian invocation suggested by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns. When asked, selectman Scott Choiniere told the Messenger that a moment of silence would indeed be observed; however, when the meeting was actually held, Rev. McConnell once again opened it with a Christian prayer. Choiniere said McConnell had refused to use the non-sectarian invocation provided by the VLCT. What issue he might have had with the alternative "moment of silence" was never addressed.
In the wake of the lawsuit announcement, Ms. Hackett says the repercussive abuse has already begun with a hate call on Wednesday. Last year after her explanatory letter appeared in the Messenger, Ms. Hackett was the target of several nasty letters, including one from Richford selectman Dan Newton.
Newton called her "a twisted radical bimbo," an "unpatriotic extremist" and said she should be "given a one-way ticket to a Third World country," Hackett recalled.
Nice. These remarks were apparently repeated by students at Richford High School where she was employed at the time.
Over the years, Ms. Hackett must have observed some good in her neighbors, because she is nothing if not persistent. One could certainly understand if she simply chose to pack her bags and leave the small-minds of Franklin far behind.
