The Brunswick Area Havaruah wasn’t asking for much when they asked that certain Jewish holy days be noted on the Brunswick school calendar.

In fact, in a letter asking for inclusion, they were offering to help by providing the school district with guidance as to how Jewish Holidays function. Example: “…Jewish holidays begin the evening before. Thus, if homework is assigned on the Eve of Rosh Hashanah, and children will be in synagogue on the Eve of Rosh Hashanah and on the following day, they will not have their homework to hand in after the holiday is over. Understanding deadlines for homework and testing over Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippuer and Passover is especially important.”

It’s an absolutely reasonable request, but some board members, in their intial, badly bungled response invoked that old bugaboo, the “slippery slope” argument.

“I don’t know how jazzed I am about having outside groups put their information on our school calendar,” board member Brenda Clough said. “I’m just looking down the road, that if we have another group ask us to post some of their things on our school calendar, where that might lead.”

“Can I mention some other religions that you’re not talking about? Because Muslims, some of the other, unusual, or not the mainstream religions, I guess, have holy days for long periods of time, we’d stop having school pretty soon,” said fellow member Janet Connors, driving the discussion further into the realm of a train wreck. “I’m distressed by this.”

(Overlooked have been some of the responses by board members such as Rich Ellis and Teresa Gils. Board member Sarah Singer, perhaps, put it best: “I don’t think we’re going to be besieged by other communities of faith, and if we are, we should be as respectful as we can to the religions in our school.”)

In his response to the outcry over those “regrettable” comments, Chairman William Thompson concluded by writing: “ … I hope that we can all treat each other with respect and give one another the benefit of the doubt, especially when hearing about statements second or third-hand; seeking to clarify and understand statements that might come across as offensive, before assuming the worst in people and ascribing them with bad intentions when they are looking for the right words and unfortunately, coming up short.”

We agree.

While Clough and Connors remarks were inelegantly put, they ought not to be demonized.

“When I made my comment during our School Board meeting, I was referring to groups in the community distinguishing them from the groups within our schools,” Clough said in an email to a Times Record reporter this week. “Brunswick is home to people who affiliate with an amazing number of diverse groups, both faith-based and non-faith based. The Brunswick Jewish Community members are a part of what makes Brunswick. I look forward to our continued discussion on this issue as the School Board prepares to vote on this request at a later meeting.”

In other words, it would be easy to say, “the issue is behind us. Moving on.” But the conversation about religion, with religious groups, in the Midcoast should continue. It’s how we educate ourselves the culture of our neighbors, our friends (no matter how “unusual” one’s religion may seem to you.)

At the same time, however, the board must also focus on other matters, chiefly, what to do with the ailing Brunswick Junior High and Coffin school buildings.

After all, what good is it to have a conversation about multiculturalism in schools, when the walls of those very schools are falling down around you?