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To the Editor,
There’s a reason people move to Sudbury. It’s not just the historical charm, the brilliant fall colors, or the proximity to America’s greatest city. It’s also our schools and the amazing teachers and educators that propel our kids forward in life. We are also a community that, by and large, values a thoughtful, inclusive, and transparent process.
This year, my endorsement for the Annual Town Election on March 30 is simple: Vote for every candidate listed on the ballot.
I am endorsing:
- Julie Durgin and Ellen Lederer-DeFrancesco for Sudbury School Committee;
- Ravi Simon and Jason McLure for the L-S School Committee;
- Charles Russo for Select Board;
- Liam J. Vesely for Board of Assessors;
- Susan Ruth Sama for Board of Health;
- Ryan James Poteat for Park & Recreation Commission; and
- Julie Zelermyer Perlman for Planning Board.
Why the “blanket” endorsement? Because these neighbors had the courage AND conviction to step into the sunlight. They filed their papers, gathered their signatures, and stood up to be fully vetted by the town. They are doing the work the right way, in accordance with the democratic norms Sudbury respects.
However, we need to be clear-eyed: just because a race looks uncontested on paper doesn’t mean it is. We are seeing a coordinated “stealth” effort from a small group of “parents’ rights” activists (a group whose ideological agenda has been repeatedly and handily rejected by Sudbury voters in recent times). Having failed to win through the front door of the nomination process, they are now attempting an “end run” via a write-in campaign, banking on the hope that a “super low” turnout will let them slip into a seat unnoticed.
History has a very clear and sobering way of showing us what happens when “good people stay home.” We have seen the “proof points” of what happens when voters assume an outcome is a foregone conclusion:
- Wisconsin, 2016: In a state where Democratic turnout hit a 20-year low, a victory just 0.77% of the total statewide vote opened the door for a candidate whose greatest hits would take months to catalog, but among them are his three conservative Supreme Court appointments, resulting in the eventual dismantling of Roe v. Wade and decades of established precedent.
- Florida, 2000: A mere 537 votes in one state changed the trajectory of the 21st century. While voters sat out or focused elsewhere, a massive policy shift toward deregulation, tax cuts, and foreign policy incompetence was born out of a margin smaller than the student body at Curtis.
Sudbury is not Florida or Wisconsin, but the math is the same… and we have all lived through the painful aftermath of an unmotivated voter population.
The “parents’ rights” movement, both locally and nationally, is a dying cause that relies on apathy to survive. Their brand of political activism doesn’t belong in our classrooms, and their destructive ideas are not shared by the vast majority of us. While they claim to seek “rights,” their true agenda (echoed by national groups like the Heritage Foundation) is focused on book bans, rewriting history, and excluding vulnerable students. Rather than simply opting their own children out of materials they dislike, they seek to exclude entire perspectives from the community. This is a highly organized, political front focused on eroding, and eventually eliminating, public schools as we know them.
But a “silent majority” is exactly that – silent – unless we show up.
If you like our schools and our town government the way they are, focused on excellence rather than “culture war” grievances, then this is a contested election after all.
Grab your mail-in ballot or head to the Fairbank Community Center on March 30. Let’s make sure the only “write-ins” this year are on our grocery lists, not our school board.
Thanks for your time and consideration of this post!
Andrew Bartolini
Sudbury Resident (and parent of 5 students)