DEAR EDITOR:

Back in December 2006, I appeared before the Cobb Board of Education as the spokesman for American Legion Post 304 with a petition for redress of grievances pertaining to the board's non-compliance with U.S. Flag etiquette at Cobb schools when school was in session. I was informed by the chairman of that board that I had 2.5 minutes to say whatever to say before the microphone would be turned off. So, I gave each member of the board a printed copy of my petition in which I requested a written statement from each of them regarding their attitudes toward flying the American Flag outside Cobb schools. I did not receive a single reply.

During a later conversation with another administration official, the CEO of the district arrogantly interrupted to ask what I planned to do about the district's non-compliance. I told him I planned to make him famous. I have not forgotten that conversation or my promise.

One week later, John Abraham, a newly elected member of the school board, called me at my home, at 10:30 p.m. to apologize for the way I and the Legion Post had been treated at the board meeting. He vowed then that he would never allow such treatment of anyone again once he was installed as a member of the board. He asked me for my help to improve the educational standards of Cobb County. I tried my best to do that until his attitude began to change.

Fast forward to the school board meeting on Veteran's Day 2009, when Abraham, now chairman of the school board, exhibited the supreme arrogance of ordering a respected mother in Cobb schools to be forcefully removed from the podium for having the audacity to be "disrespectful." Has his royal highness never learned that "respect" has nothing to do with title, position or the letters behind your name, but is something that must be earned? Since he assumed the chairmanship of the school board he has ignored his promises, betrayed his trustworthiness, ignored the laws governing meetings of public bodies and failed to communicate with those who elected him to his lofty position. What a way to go about gaining the respect of those he rules.

We have been on a long four-year journey with John Abraham and we have wound up at a level of trust and respect that is lower than the level from which we started. Unfortunately, while the chairman and his cohorts remain obsessed with ruling the unruly peasants, the children of Cobb must pay the bill - for the rest of their lives.

James E. Stoll
Kennesaw