Re: Residents want to keep dance, Letters to the editor, The Record, Sept. 11.
I was just reading the extensive letter by Lisa Graham outlining why the May Day dance is a tradition and why people that want to end it have ulterior motives. The second point seems to suggest that our high taxes could be lowered if we weren't distracted by this issue.
Lisa even suggests that teachers that don't fully endorse May Day should leave town.
Lisa's letter seems to miss the key point of the issue. The optics of "mature gentlemen" dancing with elementary school girls is creepy.
I'm not suggesting that these respectable men are creeps. It just looks bad. These "fatherly" men are strangers, and I don't expect that many of the girls today are orphans. If the girls' faces absolutely glow with happiness, I think it has more to do with the fact that it is their moment and they are the centre of attention, and less to do with the fact that they are dancing with a man 40 years older than them.
I would suggest that they dance with their Royal Knights instead.
Mark Talbot, New Westminster
