The Press
August 8, 2003

Ellis case
Letter to the Editor
by Max Podstolski, (Cashmere, August 6)

Sir--Yes, Peter Ellis was and still is unconventional (August 6). The knives were out for him because he dared to flaunt his difference, in a society which values being a team- player above everything else.

Ellis provides us with a cautionary tale: stand out too far from the common herd and you will become a target for abuse, a scapegoat.

If you haven't done anything wrong, you will be punished anyway, for the mud that sticks after being thrown.

And who throws it?

Those good, solid, dependable team-players who know that siding with the majority is what counts, irrespective of the truth. Those swayed by behind-the-scenes gossip and hearsay, most of whom remain safely anonymous themselves.

The small-town lynch-mob mentality that Craig Goodman writes of has not gone away. It is as prevalent as ever in our so-called free society, even in the very last places you'd expect to find it.