I think it is about time to respond to Paul Girouard’s letter about “Sign owners should move out” (Letters, Nov. 10). My mother-in-law, at the wonderful age of 73, is a person who has always let people put up signs displaying different things on her property. She has not shown bias or prejudice to anyone requesting to put up signs on her property. This year a lot of people requested to put up many different signs on her property, due to elections, and she granted the requests to everyone, not asking what was being displayed. She, as well as the rest of the family, believes in freedom of speech, even if we don’t agree 100 percent with the viewpoints. A group of people put up a sign that said, “Iraq: 75,000 women and children dead, hard work.” Now the wording of this isn’t necessarily the best way to say things, but it does not blame our military any more than it blames Saddam Hussein. It states the fact of war that innocent people die. A lot of innocent people die in a war, and most of them have nothing to do with the war; just the results.

Now, Mr. Girouard, my entire side of the family has been in one branch of the military or the other. I myself am retired Navy. My son-in-law is in Afghanistan at this very moment. My wife’s grandfathers, on both sides, were stationed at Fort Casey. Both of my brothers-in-law were in the U.S. Navy. My nephew was in the Army, and I have personal friends in Iraq at this very moment. We all understand what freedom means, and we all understand what war means to people.

You, on the other hand, have no idea of what either means. You looked at a sign and made a judgment call that all the people that owned this property were anti-American and should “get out,” and you would escort them out. Mr. Girouard, you are quite welcome to come and try to attack a 73-year-old woman and attempt to throw her out of this country, but don’t think you’ll get her without going through me and several other people first.

You, sir, are why people write the type of signs that were displayed on my mother-in-law’s property. Because of your way of taking partial facts and going into the attack mode is what kills innocent women and children. You, sir, are the one that should leave the country and quit dishonoring the very freedom that our active duty men and women are laying their lives on the line for in Iraq, Afghanistan and multiple other countries throughout the world.

James L. Meek, Senior Chief/USN Retired

Coupeville