To The Editor:

Having attended the Lehighton 9/12 Project's meeting on March 27, I was appalled by your coverage of the meeting. It was clear to me that a reporter never attended the meeting, and worse, the paper failed to cover a very important piece of legislation, HB 1507. Accurate coverage of the meeting last Thursday provided a great opportunity for the paper to help educate the public on an important local issue. The speakers from Americans For Prosperity were well informed and thorough in their handling of the topic.Instead, many misrepresentations and false statements were printed starting with the photo. The reporter could have looked at the nine-page bill and quoted its contents, thereby providing some useful information. Had this been done the public would have known that the bill simply states that taxpayer money can't be used to collect the union dues of government employees. So, the question that should be asked (and wasn't) is why are the unions so upset about it? Why would they say that such a bill would, "silence workers" or "weaken" and "eliminate unions"? Pretty strong words. Maybe they are concerned that once a person actually has to write the check for their dues they will begin to expect something for their hard earned money, or they may not like the way the union is spending their hard earned money, you know, supporting certain candidates, and then want to stop contributing. With an automatic payroll deduction, it's pretty easy to ignore. The unions like it that way. Now, what would weaken the unions? Less cash flow (and less greased palms along the way). They want to keep the money coming in!I say it's time to separate this church from the state.We need to stop putting taxpayer money in the pockets of the unions. Let the unions collect their own money.Respectfully,Patricia SeyfordPalmerton