Letter from MARY ANNE WHELAN
Put Up Your Own Sign,
But Leave Others’ Alone
To the Editor:
The grassy, rather triangular-shaped space at the junction of Route 80 and the Pierstown Road has always been used as a place for various signs – the TANNER HILL HERB FARM. GRANGE BARBEQUE! BOOK SALE! And, in political seasons, postings for various candidates.
On Sunday, June 30, a sign in patriotic colors promoting the election of ANY FUNCTIONAL ADULT IN 2020 was up; on Wednesday, July 3, between 12:30 and 4:15 pm, someone got rid of it.
I hadn’t put it there, but was glad to see it. It was both amusing, which most political signage is not, and message-bearing.
Over the years there have been signs for political candidates that I liked, and others that I didn’t, placed there. But as far as I know they were always left alone until removed by their owners. That is, or was, a tribute to the expression of free thought in a civilized and democratic society.
Our Editor Jim Kevlin publishes letters ranging from the sane and opinionated to the virtually insane but also opinionated, because he sees it as the right thing to do. Just destroying an expression of opinion which you don’t like is thuggish and profoundly saddening.
It violates values that as Americans I believe we hold dear. Go put up your own sign if you want, but leave the others alone.
MARY ANNE WHELAN
Cooperstown
