Editor,

I sent the following to Nancy Conard:

Hello Nancy,

As one who saw the sign referenced in your news release of Aug. 26, 2014, I appreciate that you are correct to stand up for this citizen’s right to free speech.

However, to link it to Tea Party signs defacing President Barack Obama is reprehensible.

If you were looking for a comparable, an appropriate choice would have been the Pro-OLF signs that cavalierly support Growlers over the horrific impacts of their noise on Whidbey Island families and children.

That near-slur in your news release seems to me cleverly intended to besmirch and discredit the growing body of citizens highly concerned about the certain effects of jet noise on health and quality of life.

I suggest that you owe these citizens an apology for denigrating their difficult and admirable efforts to take on this arduous cause for thousands of us in the region detrimentally affected by jet noise.

They/we need your help, and I suggest that you may benefit from doing a bit more soul-searching about that, keeping in mind that Navy pandering is the problem, not the solution.

And also please consider that the message is morphing with new and certain understanding that the sound of freedom unchecked has become the sound of abuse.

Bob Wilbur

Coupeville