I am writing to express my support for the city’s mayor, Laurier T. Raymond Jr.

Mayor Raymond’s October letter to the Somali elders was not a request that they leave Lewiston, but rather a request that they slow down the influx to allow the city to assimilate their existing population and have some time to assess its impact on schools, housing and services.

This has been blown completely out of proportion over the past few months by a very vocal minority with a holier than thou attitude. Groups of people that seem to require a cause to champion in order to justify their own self worth. Every cause, worthy or not, has such a group at its core.

Now it seems, in the natural progression of this cause, the inevitable calls for Mayor Raymond’s resignation are being piped into the system.

Mayor Raymond chose not to attend the Many and One rally at Bates College. I didn’t attend either, nor it seems, did about 36,000 other Lewiston residents.

Does this mean we are racist or that we don’t care? I don’t think so.

I think that the majority of Lewiston’s residents are, like myself, very willing to allow any minority population of this city every opportunity to take root and succeed. In the same sense, I also think that, as citizens and taxpayers, we are entitled to an honest accounting of the impact, financial and otherwise, on our community that these ongoing changes have. Our city officials should not keep us in the dark, elected or otherwise.

In closing, I will submit that any citizen of Lewiston has the right to ask the mayor to step down. Conversely, we also have the right to ask him not to bend to these pressures, but to continue on with his elected office.

I urge Lewiston residents to exercise that right. Non-residents need not apply.

Gary Savard, Lewiston