An odd letter for Oceanside business

Danielle Lemieux’s family has been operating Cedarhurst Paper for more than 60 years, and they have had a store in Oceanside for 35. Being in business for so long, they are accustomed to receiving letters from customers with all sorts of complaints and comments. They are so used to it, in fact, that Lemieux, who manages the Oceanside store, had thought she had seen it all.

Then, on July 23, she received a letter from a Long Beach attorney that simply took her breath away.

“We get sued, trip-and-fall kind of stuff, so I’m used to getting letters from lawyers,” Lemieux said. “So I open this one up, and I think, Oh, jeez, here we go again. Who slipped and fell?”

But the letter was not that kind of complaint. It was from Long Beach attorney Francis X. McQuade, and he was complaining about images he saw in the window of Cedarhurst Paper while he was driving by on Long Beach Road.

“And his complaint was that he passed our windows and he saw we have images of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, ‘Martin King’ is how he referred to him, and Barack Obama,” said Lemieux. “So he said Martin King was not an elected official and should not have any association with past presidents of our country, and Barack Obama is, yes, the president, but not someone he shares his political beliefs with.”

The letter went on to say that including the images of King and Obama with the images of Washington and Lincoln demonstrated questionable judgment on behalf of the management. Furthermore, McQuade wrote that he would boycott the store until the images were removed, and would encourage his friends, family and acquaintances to do the same.

“Three generations of my family business and we’ve never [had a complaint like this], said Lemieux. “In fact, I called my aunt right away, and I said, ‘Here’s one.’ And she said, ‘Well that’s a new one for you.’ We always thought we heard it all.”

Lemieux said she felt intimidated by the letter because McQuade used his legal stationery, and so it appeared to her to be an official notice. So she called the New York State Bar Association to file a complaint. A representative of the association said that they could not comment on any current or pending complaints.

For his part, McQuade defended his position, insisting that his complaint was not based on race, but on values. “I don’t think a sitting president should be offered an historical perch less than a year into his administration -- or even George Bush in year seven,” he said. “As far as Martin Luther King Day, I also believe that the only U.S. citizen to be given a national holiday should not be Martin Luther King. However, that being the case, I’ll do with the holiday as I wish. Which, generally speaking, I march with the MLK Center here in Long Beach to show solidarity with the community.”

McQuade also said that he objected to the image of Obama because of Obama’s policies, which he does not support. “I value the legacy of Washington and Lincoln more than Martin Luther King and Barack Obama,” he said. “And secondly, it’s a value issue insofar as I detest and fear the policies of Barack Obama.”

McQuade added that he does not believe that King, who was a private citizen, should be regarded in the same way as past presidents. “Martin Luther King was not a president. It is a value statement,” he said. “If I were to put a crucifix next to Mr. Met, saying these were two symbols that I revere, that’s a question of degree, not type. Were I to do that, or anyone to do it, I would question their judgment based on what my value system is.”

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