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BANGOR – Photos and a newspaper article about Stephen King once again were on display Thursday in the Maine Troop Greeters’ room in the Bangor International Airport terminal.
The nine-member greeters leadership committee met at noon Thursday and voted unanimously to replace the article, two 8-by-10-inch photos of King’s Bangor houses and smaller snapshots of the residences, which were removed by a small group of greeters Wednesday in reaction to King’s statements made at the Library of Congress last month.
I’m “really sorry this was blown out of proportion,” said Tom Kohl, the leadership committee’s chairman. “His comments were made in reference to literacy of youth, [an issue] that we agree with.”
Some greeters removed the items Wednesday after statements King made during a writers symposium for high school students on April 4. King told the youths, “The fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that.”
Conservative commentator and blogger Noel Sheppard criticized King’s comments and aligned them with former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s statements that if a quality education is not obtained then “you get stuck in Iraq.”
King posted a retort to Sheppard on his Web site on Monday, emphasizing his support for troops but describing the war in Iraq as a “waste of national resources … and that includes the youth and blood of the 4,000 American troops who have lost their lives there and for the tens of thousands who have been wounded.”
Kohl acknowledged that King’s remarks were probably a “poor choice of words,” but said the prominent Bangor horror writer is a significant member of the community and that he was supporting the worthy cause of literacy.
“I’m personally not very comfortable with his remarks and some of our members were personally offended by it, but it doesn’t allow us to chastise his freedom of speech,” Kohl said.
Wayne Desjardins, one of the greeters involved in removing the items, said Thursday evening he was surprised by the committee’s decision.
“I talked with some that were on the committee the night before and they were in favor of doing something like that [the removal],” Desjardins said. “I guess now they changed their minds when they met. They decided [to return the items] since he was a prominent member within the community.”
Desjardins emphasized that he felt King should issue an apology.
“I’m not going to apologize for promoting that kids get better education in high school, so they have more options,” King said in an interview with the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday. “Those that don’t agree with what I’m saying, I’m not going to change their minds.”
King’s personal assistant, Julie Eugley, indicated Wednesday that King had donated about 100 books a month to the Troop Greeters, who pass them out to military members passing through BIA.
When asked whether the Troop Greeters would continue to pass out King books to troops, Kohl answered that the greeters would continue to participate, as long as King would.
“I’m not going to say that what some of our people did was wrong,” Kohl said, “but I clearly disagreed, and there was a unanimous vote to reinstate all the material.”
trobbins@bangordailynews.net
990-8074
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