Letter to the Editor: 'We, the People of Troy, Will be Heard'

This Letter to the Editor, which the author also sent to Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, is in response to Daniels' , which received widespread criticism Friday after it went viral on the social networking site.

Dear Mayor Daniels,

I've been trying to ignore your shortcomings in your few days in office, for instance, your refusal to in your oath and your lack of stress on the . As a Christian like you, I feel it is important to allow people a chance to prove themselves worthy before judging.

Yet tonight, as your bigotry has become well-known, I can no longer live in blindness. Perhaps my judgment upon you is something I have learned from the Mayor of the City of Troy, whom I should be able to respect and look upon as a role model.

I am 17 years old, so no, I am not part of your constituency, but I soon will be. In previous years, I've worked in and sat on city boards. No, I wasn't old enough to vote in this mayoral election, but I would have not voted for you. And no, that does not mean you can close this email. It does not mean you can just forward it to your people to deal with. It does not mean you can delete the hundreds of other letters filling your inbox at this moment. Because we, the people of Troy, will be heard. Read this through.

Each person is endowed to his or her beliefs. Yet no matter what you believe about homosexuality, or any issue in that matter, it is not right to use the words you did in your status. And from whom, might you ask, would a 17-year-old define what is right? From God. Jesus says in Luke 6:45, "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." And yes, I am trying to say that the "evil man" is you. Please understand that it is not right for any human person to say what you did. Words are powerful.

Unfortunately for you, the internet is a powerful, powerful place loaded with the tools of social networking, so a word of hate you have said will be remembered forever. I am sorry that I did not read through your statuses before the election and shared that with the city – because I know you would not have been elected. Change is coming, and it's not you.

Mayor Daniels, I fully expect a personal reply from you because you need to own up to this issue. As an elected official, you have been entrusted to honor the basic rights of Americans. As mayor of this city, you need to respect and serve every single citizen of Troy, even the gay and lesbian ones. If you find that too difficult, you must resign from this office.

I will be part of your recall.

With all due respect,

Alice Liang
Senior,