No need for a religious based turnkey theocracy in Wilton.

Recently, Keith Denning, 42 District State Representative with exceptional service to his constituents and voting record was unfairly characterized as antisemitic by the Wilton Democratic Town Committee and told to stand down from being reelected to the State House and to resign on the spot. Why did this happen? Over a decade ago, Mr. Denning was a anesthesiologist volunteer clinician effecting compassionate pediatric work for children in Palestine. In 2022, he was elected as a State Representative with full backing of the Wilton DTC. Then came the horrific massacre of Jewish civilians on October 7, 2023 of which we were all shocked by and Mr. Denning went to a number of vigils in support of the people who were massacred. But this was not enough with a singular religious organization. In early January, a local Wilton based media reporter sent the following request to Mr. Denning, " I wanted to chat with you about the concerns expressed by some of the Jewish clergy in town about some of your Facebook posts/comments".

In late December 2023, a local Jewish Clergy member researched old Facebook posts from Mr. Denning years back that were emotionally charged as a result of his pediatric observations in Palestine. This biased information was handed over to Wilton's local digital media daily as well as the Wilton Democratic Town Committee. All senior leaders and decision makers of the connected Synagogue-Media-DTC were all of the same religious community. Can you imagine a Catholic priest calling out Biden Democrats for pro choice? A sincere religious leader would not take sides here and would seek congregational prayer and hope for all those who are suffering in this terrible tragedy. This however was a turnkey theocratic setup. We can imagine something like this happening in Iran an Islamic theocracy but not in Wilton.

I do hope that State Representative Keith Denning will reconsider and run on the independent ticket and that Wilton's local religious based turnkey theocracy will stop this biased nonsense and go back to serving people of Wilton. Do not smear compassionate politicians.

Thank you
Kevin Hickey

Wilton, CT.