The following letter to the editor was submitted by Andover residents Pascale and Franck Cabaret-Salameh. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Andover News. You can learn more about our policy on opinion and commentary on our Mission and Policies page.
We wish to relay this letter of support to the candidacy of Kevin Coffey to the Select Committee of the Town of Andover. Please see our text below:
We do not know Kevin Coffey personally. But the few times that we were in his presence at MBTA Zoning meetings and other related events, he always came across as an attentive, thoughtful, articulate “voice” for our town. In meetings that were often charged with emotions, differences of opinions, and a range of personalities, Kevin Coffey was ALWAYS “the adult in the room”: always respectful of his co-panelists, but also always sensitive to Andover residents’ concerns. He always spoke to our intelligence, with clarity, balance, and epistemic modesty.
We haven’t an idea of Kevin Coffey’s professional or personal backgrounds, but he always struck us as a natural “public intellectual”; someone able to listen to all sides, condense and revisit ideas gleaned from past meetings and a variety of sources, and articulate complex questions into something intelligible in the public sphere. Our Town’s Select Board needs someone with this level of discernment, coherence, humility, and fluency. That is why we wish to lend our most enthusiastic support to Kevin Coffey’s candidacy.
Pascale and Franck Cabaret-Salameh
Andover
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