The recent commissioners' meeting in Hermitage concerning development of low-income housing in part of the city sparked a lot of controversy. But there is one key point we all need to remember:

The bigoted or elitist comments about low-income people made at the meeting don’t reflect the attitude of the entire community.

While letters to the editor from Hermitage have come pouring in apologizing for the disturbing words of a few residents, no apology is really necessary. Most of us know better than to paint an entire community with a broad brush just because that’s the way a few citizens describe low-income people.

In case you missed the recent story, here are a couple of samples from the meeting:

Jim Gibson, linking drugs to low-income people: ’Assuming this thing goes through, the drug problem is going to go up and crime will follow.’

Debora Madura: ’I’m not in agreement with having low-income people in Hermitage ’ anywhere in Hermitage.’

While Gibson’s comments could be excused as simply too broad because there have been some low-income places where drug problems arose, Ms. Madura’s point was very clear. And very upsetting.

To assert that drug problems follow all low-income developments is preposterous. There are plenty of low-income people who don’t use drugs. That’s like saying that everyone who loses his job and struggles to survive or every senior citizen who is living on a small amount of Social Security uses illegal drugs. There are low-income people living in Hermitage already who are good, low-abiding citizens.

In reality, there are also people who are well-off financially that use drugs illegally. It’s just that they go to ’fashion drugs’ rather than drugs like crack cocaine. And you can be sure that Hermitage schools are just as likely to have drug problems as any other school ’ maybe even moreso when some kids have more money.

When Ms. Madura said she didn’t want low-income people anywhere in Hermitage, that’s as elitist as it gets. And unfortunately, it gives Hermitage the image of having an overall snooty attitude. We saw that from some comments made when Shenango Valley consolidation was being considered.

There are a lot of low-income people already living in that city and many more go there to shop. Maybe Ms. Madura feels that low-income people shouldn’t eat, either.

It’s surprising that no one recommended sterilization so low-income people couldn’t have kids? Or maybe building reservations for them to live on, like where we once herded Native Americans. One disturbing carry-over from the meeting is that not one of the commissioners stood up and rebuked the elitist comments at the time. How could a reasonable person who is supposed to be a community leader not speak out?

Luckily, city solicitor Thomas Kuster added some sanity to the proceedings when he pointed out that commissioners can only consider whether the housing development meets zoning ordinances. If it does, then they can’t deny it.

Amazing, isn’t it? That may come as a shock to some bigots to learn that low-income people actually have rights.