Speak the truth, Thompson!

17.JUN.11

Editor: It was drawn to my attention lately that Mr. Jerrol Thompson made a claim about me in a recent piece published in your paper and I was led to investigate it because I knew off the bat, from what I was hearing, that what Thompson had said was nothing but a BLATANT LIE!{{more}}

In your Tuesday, May 31, 2011, edition of the Midweek Searchlight, Jerrol Thompson published a piece “Lynch and NDP deliberately misleading people”. In it, he accused Mr. Lynch, host of the program New Times aired weekly on Nice Radio, of speaking untruths regarding the laptops. He spoke about the issue of the laptops’ origin and accused Lynch of misquoting an Internet article. What angered me is the blatant lie he spoke when he said “He succeeded in fooling Linton, Burton and Anesia, who repeated the falsehoods in Dickson”. Now, Editor, the New Democratic Party (NDP) held a Town Hall meeting in Dickson a few Saturday nights ago and I was one of the speakers there, along with Linton Lewis, Burton Williams and others. In my presentation, I made no reference whatsoever to the laptop issue, none!. During the question and answer session, based on comments and questions raised by persons in attendance, I ONLY spoke about the laptop initiative in the following ways :

1. I related the fact that the agreement forms published in the newspaper ONLY requires the signature of students 18 years and over and that contrary to this I had seen a photo of a primary school student (under 18) signing the agreement form after her parent/guardian. I, therefore, highlighted that this seemed questionable and should not be.

2. In response to one parent’s concern about taking the laptop, in light of the fact that she was wary of committing to the fee in the case of damage, I pointed out to her that according to the same agreement, the child can use the laptop while at school if the parent does not sign for it.

NEVER ONCE DID I SPEAK OF PORTUGAL, VENEZUELA OR ANY OTHER SOURCE OF THE LAPTOPS, as Thompson inferred in his article. NEVER ONCE DID I EVEN MENTION OR POINT TO THE INTERNET ARTICLE WHICH THOMPSON CLAIMED LYNCH REFERRED TO IN THE NEW TIMES PROGRAM, and I could not understand how he could so BLATANTLY LIE to say that I had repeated what he claims to be Lynch’s “falsehoods” in Dickson. I mean, where does Thompson really get off making conscious blatant lying claims against me??? Has he nothing better to do with the time he has in this life God lends him every day? If he heard me in Dickson on that Saturday night he would know that he has lied, or did he just repeat what someone else told him? I demand an apology from the Midweek Searchlight for publishing this lie against me and I dare you, Editor, and Thompson to produce any evidence that I spoke any of what he claimed I “repeated” in my presentation in Dickson.

The blatant lying that seems to have become characteristic of politics in this Country needs to stop. At the root is usually an effort to destroy the reputation of people, and I resent this wicked attack on my good name that Thompson has made. If God were to deal with his lying tongue the way biblical examples of the past have shown, he would be sorry. Yet in God’s mercy he has a chance to turn away from this behavior, and for God’s sake speak the truth!

Anesia Baptiste