To the Editor:

Why is it with all the pain and devastation that has happened to so many people in the Potsdam community that the town/village appointment officials are not standing up for its citizens and putting an end to the extreme violation that St. Mary's Church has been allowed to get away with this last year?

Why are we not being protected against people from the church that are hurting so many people? Our families are buried in that cemetery and we should be left to mourn as we want in peace and safety from being bullied by a group of people that are trying to force us to do what they want.

They are taking out trees, flowers, lights and any personal item that represents the love and life of our lives ones as if we should forget the ever existed. This is so wrong and we have been fighting for a year for the right to grieve and honor our loved ones as we see fit. After all, they are our loved ones, yet people that don't even have family buried there and do not visit anyone get to destroy our loved ones graves!

These heartless people only go there for the reason to bury someone and then just leave, after all they have done their jobs. Then the families try to keep promises to always leave a purple flower, leave them a toy tractor from a grandchild, a mother leaves a little lamb or a husband leaves and angel to look after his wife of 65 years.

How sad. How cruel. How inhumane these so-called Christians are being. Not one of us begging for them to stop and leave our loved ones alone would ever consider doing this to another human being.

So why is a church that is suppose to stand for how God has asked us to treat one another allowed to do this? This is not being done because it's God's wishes, it's one man and a cemetery committee that decided that the cemetery needed to be cleaned up and any personal remembrance of our loved ones erased.

Catholic Church or not, they still live in a community and they should not be allowed to do whatever they want to do. This is bullying at its best!

Seriously, put down your pens and paper and go grab the shovels from cold-hearted hands and make them leave our loved ones alone!

Priscilla Stark

Potsdam