To the editor:

Last month, Bill Sepic of the Chamber of Commerce was hit with a cake during a public hearing on the South Lawrence Trafficway. Last week, a flier was posted on city streets by the “Culinary Class War Brigade” (J-W, Oct. 5) saying that Sepic had been “targeted” because he favors building the trafficway on the Baker wetlands and because he’s anti-living wage.

On behalf of the Living Wage Alliance, we clearly and firmly dissociate ourselves from this attack and this flier. We respect the right of anyone to disagree with our position, and we deplore personal attacks or threats against any individual.

What we seek is mass public support FOR a living wage, not animosity against people who disagree with us. We think it’s only fair for big companies that get big tax breaks to pay their employees a living wage, which we define as enough to keep a family of three 30 percent above the poverty line. And we believe that we’re well on the way to achieving this objective. So far, more than 5,000 people have signed our petition, and we intend to get many more such signatures.

With continuing public support, we’ll show that the living wage campaign represents majority opinion in Lawrence. The goal is to pass a living wage ordinance on behalf of local taxpayers and low-wage workers. And that requires respect for people’s opinions, not threats or attacks.

Jennifer McAdam, Tyler French,

David Smith,

Lawrence